Tuesday, February 28, 2023

MAJOR ESCALATION: Drone Attacks Strike Deep Inside Russia, Targeting Nation’s Oil Industry

LEO HOHMANN – MAJOR ESCALATION: Drone Attacks Strike Deep Inside Russia, Targeting Nation’s Oil Industry


Today’s reports mark stunning escalation of the proxy war between Russia & NATO, which now seems firmly on the path of World War III and potential thermonuclear war. We cannot over emphasize: PREPARE

If the below report from Zero Hedge says anything, it’s that we have now entered a new and very concerning phase of this nasty war playing out in a very nasty part of the world. In my opinion, the purpose of this war, from the West’s and NATO’s perspective, is to facilitate a regime change in Russia and get a more “green” friendly puppet leader installed in the Kremlin. Putin is not ready to give up his dominant position in the global fossil fuels market, and therefore he must be removed. The green economy touted by Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, George Soros, Prince Charles, Tony Blair, Justin Trudeau, the Obama-Biden regime and the rest of the U.N./WEF globalists cannot be completely realized as long as you have a major country like Russia out there selling cheap oil and natural gas to Europe, China and India.


Zero Hedge reports that Russia came under attack by multiple drones on Tuesday, with one of those drones reportedly causing a fire at an oil depot in the southern part of the country, and another hitting outside Moscow.

The attack on the oil facility happened in Tuapse, which lies about 150 miles southeast of the Crimean peninsula, with Reuters citing local media to report, “Emergency services put out a fire at an oil depot in southern Russia overnight after a drone was spotted flying overhead, the RIA news agency said on Tuesday.”


The city of Tuapse is about 500 kilometers from the nearest Ukrainian-held territory, which exhibits significant reach assuming the attack was launched by the Ukrainians.

The fires which started at the facility at about 2:30 a.m. were extinguished after they spread to an area of some 200 square meters. “The oil tanks were not affected. There was no spill of oil products. No injuries,” a local official, Sergei Boyko, described.

Another drone crashed in the Moscow region on the same day, with Governor Andrei Vorobyov saying it was likely an operation to target civilian infrastructure.

Vorobyov said on his Telegram channel, as translated by the Moscow Times:

“This happened near the village of Gubastovo, the target was probably a civilian infrastructure facility, it was not damaged. There are no casualties or destruction on the ground.”


He added that, “The FSB and other competent authorities are dealing with the situation, nothing threatens the safety of residents.” The Moscow Times notes that unverified reports said the drone was a Ukrainian UJ-22 Airborne manufactured by Ukrjet.

The Russian defense ministry in a statement made mention of a third drone attack in southern Russia, close in time to the attack on the oil facility which it says was intercepted.

According to an AP report, “three drones also targeted Russia’s Belgorod region on Monday night, with one flying through an apartment window in its namesake capital, local authorities reported. Regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said the drones caused minor damage to buildings and cars.”





Russian President Signs Law SUSPENDING "START" Nuclear Treaty

Russian President Signs Law SUSPENDING "START" Nuclear Treaty



This morning in Moscow, Russia, President Vladimir Putin signed a new law SUSPENDING the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). This means Russia can now deploy nuclear weapons anywhere, without reporting them to the USA, including re-deploying nukes into Cuba (Cuban Missile Crisis).


Today, with the Russia-Ukraine situation ongoing, relations between the US and Russia are almost non-existent.

It began in the year 2014 when The US and European Union (EU) financed and facilitated the forcible, violent overthrow of Ukraine's government back in the year 2014, then installed a puppet government, intent on joining NATO and placing US missiles on Ukrainian soil.  Those missiles would have had a five minute (or so) flight time to Moscow.

Russia objected over and over.  The objections fell on deaf ears. 

In February, 2024, Russia entered Ukraine to de-militarize and De-NAZIfy that country.

Relations between Russia, NATO and the collective West became all but destroyed.

The signing of this new law, by Russian President Putin, demonstrates how severely relations now stand.

By signing this law, Russia is now able to deploy its nuclear warheads wherever it wants, without reporting the locations to the US.   That means they can put missiles back into Cuba if they want.

A small hint as to what its actually taking place, was seen today: Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev is a Russian politician, security officer and intelligence officer who has served as the secretary of the Security Council of Russia since 2008. He previously served as the director of the Federal Security Service from 1999 to 2008.

Today Platonovich arrived in Caracas, where he will hold Russian-Venezuelan consultations on "security issues."

If Russia places nuclear missiles in Venezuela, they would be able to reach parts of the United States within about ten minutes.


It's Coming: Russia And China Now Fully United - 'The West Won't Know What Hit Them'

The stage is set for Hybrid World War III



President Putin’s address – rather, a civilizational speech – last week was a game-changer when it comes to the demarcation of the civilizational red lines we are all now facing. It acted like a powerful drill perforating the less than short, actually zero term memory of the Collective West. No wonder it exercised a somewhat sobering effect contrasting the non-stop Russophobia binge of the NATOstan space.

Alexey Dobrinin, Director of the Foreign Policy Planning Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Russia, has correctly described Putin’s address as “a methodological basis for understanding, describing and constructing multipolarity.”

For years some of us have been showing how the emerging multipolar world is defined – but goes way beyond – high speed interconnectivity, physical and geoeconomic. Now, as we reach the next stage, it’s as if Putin and Xi Jinping, each in their own way, are conceptualizing the two key civilizational vectors of multipolarity. That’s the deeper meaning of the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership, invisible to the naked eye.

Metaphorically, it also speaks volumes that Russia’s pivot to the East, towards the rising sun, now irreversible, was the only logical path to follow as, to quote Dylan, darkness dawns at the break of noon across the West.

As it stands, with the wobblin’, ragin’ Hegemon lost in its own pre-fabricated daze, the real runners of the show feeding burning flesh to irredeemably mediocre political “elites”, China may have a little more latitude than Russia, as the Middle Kingdom is not – yet – under the same existential pressure Russia has been put under.

Whatever happens next geopolitically, Russia is at heart a – giant – obstacle on the warmongering path of the Hegemon: the ultimate target is top “threat” China.


Putin’s ability to size up our extremely delicate geopolitical moment – via a dose of highly concentrated, undiluted realism – is something to behold. 

And then Foreign Minister Lavrov provided the sweet cherry on top, calling the hapless US ambassador for a hardcore dress down: oh yeah, this is war, hybrid and otherwise, and your NATO mercenaries as well as your junk hardware are legitimate targets.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council, now more than ever relishing his “unplugged” status, made it all very clear: “Russia risks being torn apart if it stops a special military operation (SMO) before victory is achieved.”

And the message is even more acute because it represents the – public – cue to the Chinese leadership at the Zhongnahhai to understand: whatever happens next, this is the Kremlin’s unmovable official position.

All these vectors are evolving as ramifications of the bombing of the Nord Streams, the only military attack – cum industrial terrorism – ever perpetrated against the EU, leave the Collective West paralyzed, dazed and confused.

Perfectly in tandem with Putin’s address, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs chose the geopolitical/existential moment to finally take the gloves off, with a flourish: enter the

US Hegemony and its Perils essay cum report, which became an instant massive hit across Chinese media, examined with relish all across East Asia.

This blistering enumeration of all the Hegemon’s lethal follies, for decades, constitutes a point of no return for trademark Chinese diplomacy, so far characterized by passivity, ambivalence, actual restraint and extreme politeness. So such turnaround is yet another proud “achievement” of the outright Sinophobia and mendacious hostility exhibited by American neocons and neoliberal-cons.

Scholar Quan Le notes that this document may be regarded as the traditional form – but now filled with contemporary wording – the Chinese Sovereigns used in their millenary past before going to war.

It is in fact an axio-epistemo-political proclamation justifying a serious war, which in the Chinese universe means a war ordained by a Higher Power capable of restoring Justice & Harmony in a troubled Universe.

After the proclamation the warriors are equipped to strike mercilessly at the entity judged to be troubling the Harmony of the Universe: in our case, the psycho Straussian neo-cons and neoliberal-cons commanded as rabid dogs by the real American elites.


Of course in the Chinese universe there’s no place for “God” – much less a Christian version; “God” for the Chinese means the Beauty-Goodness-Truth trinity, Timeless Heavenly Universal Principles. The closest concept for a non-Chinese to understand is Dao: the Way. So the Way to the Beauty-Goodness-Truth trinity represents symbolically Beauty-Goodness-Truth.

So what Beijing did – and the Collective West is completely clueless about it – was to issue an axio-epistemo-political proclamation explaining the legitimacy of their quest to restore Timeless Heavenly Universal Principles. They will be fulfilling the Mandate of Heaven – nothing less. The West won’t know what it hit them until it’s too late.

It was predictable that sooner or later the heirs of Chinese civilization would have had enough – and formally identify, mirroring Putin’s analysis, the upstart Hegemon as the premier source of chaos, inequality and war across the planet. Empire of Chaos, Lies and Plunder, in a nutshell.

So here we are. You want Hybrid War? We will return the favor.

Now we have two nuclear-powered, tech savvy peer competitors united by a comprehensive strategic partnership.

As I finished my long walk paying due respect by the Kremlin to the heroes of 1941-1945, the feeling was inescapable that as much as Russia is a master of riddles and China is a master of paradox, their strategists are now working full time on how to return all strands of Hybrid War against the Hegemon. One thing is certain: unlike boastful Americans, they won’t outline any breakthroughs until they are already in effect.


Ukraine Recognizes Need To Withdraw From Bakhmut

Zelensky Hints At Withdrawing From Russian-Encircled Bakhmut: 'Out Of Options'

TYLER DURDEN


It was only in late January that Ukraine's military General Staff emphasized that any potential forces withdrawal from the strategic city of Bakhmut in the east was "out of the question" as the situation was said to be under control. 

But a month later, the narrative has dramatically shifted amid reports that the Russians are shelling Ukrainian positions around the clock, and as complaints from Ukrainian front lines oersist of not enough ammo supplies to keep pace with the Russians. President Zelensky in fresh remarks on the situation has admitted that besieged Bakhut is running out of options.


Within the past days he also said for the first time that he won't seek to hold the city "at any cost" - strongly suggesting Ukraine has suffered a staggering loss in manpower.

He said Tuesday

"The situation is getting more and more difficult"...

"The enemy is gradually destroying everything which can be used to protect our positions," Zelenskiy said in his address, stopping short of announcing a pullout.

There have been emerging repots of gun battles deep within the city itself, which is a new development, also as Russian forces have it nearly fully encircled, as the NY Times also confirms

The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, on Tuesday described the situation around the city as "extremely tense" in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

And Reuters too for the first time presented a headline Tuesday which put the situation for the Ukrainian side in stark terms: "Russians tighten noose on Ukraine's Bakhmut," the news service reported.


On Monday Zelensky had described that "The enemy is constantly destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions for fortification and defense. Our soldiers defending the area around Bakhmut are true heroes." Some soldiers cited in local reports are vowing to fight till the end, as military reports get more and more desperate.


Meanwhile the Biden administration is still resisting demands to give Kiev F-16 fighter jets..."for now" that is. John Kirby had described in a Monday interview that "At no time have the Russians ever achieved air superiority over Ukraine" - though by many military observer accounts, this is a highly dubious statement

Russian forces are fast closing in on months-long efforts to have the sizeable city completely surrounded and cut off...



Hezbollah-Backed Terrorists Have Formed 'Dozens Of Cells' On Syrian Border

Hezbollah-backed terrorists form ‘dozens of cells’ on Syrian border



Hezbollah has established dozens of terrorist cells in southern Syria, just over the Israeli border, composed of local recruits, a Galilee-based defense research group says.

They could soon begin to use drones in operations against Israel, added the Alma Research and Education Center.

The assessment followed the Israel Defense Forces’ Feb. 20 announcement that on Jan. 27, soldiers apprehended two suspects who crossed the Alpha Line from Syria into Israel. The Alpha Line is near the Israeli-Syrian border barrier on the Golan Heights.

One of the suspects, a Syrian named Ei’th Abdollah, “is involved in terrorist activity and intelligence gathering operations in the area of the border in order to promote future terrorist activities,” and is a member of the “Golan File”—the Hezbollah-backed network of terror cells in the area—the IDF said.

“Ei’th was under IDF surveillance in the area of the border and was apprehended during operational activity east of the border fence in an enclave located under Israeli sovereignty, along with another suspect. During the questioning, Ei’th provided information regarding additional terrorist operatives that promote terrorist activities in the area of the border,” the army added.

Maj. (res.) Tal Beeri, head of research at the Alma Center, described the Golan File as a “military terrorist infrastructure that was built by Hezbollah, with Iranian-Syrian cooperation, in order to create a new front of terrorism against Israel from the Syrian border.


“It is made up of dozens of cells, with each cell made up of local squads of Syrians. These are Sunni and Druze operatives located all along the Israeli border with Syria on the Golan Heights, from the village of Hader in the [Syrian-held portion of the] northern Golan to the triangle of borders of Israel, Jordan and Syria,” Beeri assessed.

The terrorist cells operate in areas where their members live apparently ordinary civilian lives but are in fact part of a Hezbollah stratagem to create a new front against Israel.

“There are some cells that operate independently, and others that act as part of a cluster under the instructions of a more senior handler. The handler himself is sometimes a local. In either case, presiding over this ‘food chain’ is a Lebanese Hezbollah operative who instructs the squads, activating them,” said Beeri.

The Golan File network’s objective is to generate terrorism against Israel, and this is preceded by the gathering of intelligence. The intention is to plant bombs, fire rockets, conduct sniper fire, launch anti-tank fire, and plot cross-border raids, he added.

Golan File cells have been active for some time, according to Beeri. “This is a pretty veteran infrastructure, which Hezbollah began consolidating nine years ago on the Golan Heights. In effect, it developed into dozens of cells that are active today,” he stated.


The network sometimes acts with local Syrian military support. “It uses Syrian military lookouts, positions, equipment, and we hear media reports of [alleged Israeli] airstrikes on Syrian positions along the border, followed by leaflets warning Syrian commanders about cooperation with Hezbollah. Usually this is about the Syrian military allowing the cells to arrive at Syrian positions,” said Beeri.

“They could also be planning infiltrations into Israel to conduct attacks, like kidnappings of Israeli soldiers and using them to try and free security prisoners,” he warned.

“Israel in my view has to continue the policy of hunting these operatives, who form a clear and present danger,” Beeri stated.

The area where the IDF arrested the suspected terror operative in late January is a known trouble spot.

In most cases, the local terror operatives are motivated by money, not ideology, said Beeri.

“They don’t identify with Hezbollah’s goals but they show up because Hezbollah pays well and they have to survive,” he said. “They get relatively good money. They mostly have a military background—some are members of militias that cooperated with the Syrian military, some are former Syrian military personnel, and some were rebels who fought against the Assad regime. Despite the contradiction, the former rebels work with Hezbollah and understand they have to survive, change their affiliation and go with those who pay.”

Such operatives are proficient in operating anti-tank missiles, mortars, sniper rifles and bombs.

“They fit in well with the local population because they are locals. In the end, they’re proxies that are very comfortable for Hezbollah to use and they sometimes double-up as Iranian proxies, too,” said Beeri.



Wastewater from train derailment set to be disposed of at 2 Ohio sites, including 1 less that 20 miles from East Palestine

Here’s where they’re dumping all that solid waste from East Palestine

Wastewater from train derailment set to be disposed of at 2 Ohio sites, including 1 less that 20 miles from East Palestine

The contaminated water is set to be disposed [of] at Heritage Thermal in East Liverpool as well as Waste Management’s Vickery location in Sandusky County.Shipment of contaminated waste from the site of a fiery train derailment earlier this month in eastern Ohio near the Pennsylvania state line will resume Monday to two approved sites in Ohio, according to federal environmental authorities.

The announcement came a day after the Environmental Protection Agency ordered Norfolk Southern to “pause” shipments from the site of the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine to allow additional oversight measures about where waste was shipped. Some liquid and solid waste had already been taken to sites in Michigan and Texas.

EPA-certified facilities able to accept some of the waste had been identified, which meant shipments could restart Monday, Region 5 administrator Debra Shore, of the Environmental Protection Agency, said Sunday.

Some of the liquid waste will be sent to Waste Management’s Vickery Deepwell Hazardous Waste for disposal in an underground injection well, Shore said. Norfolk Southern will also begin shipping solid waste to an incinerator at Heritage Thermal Services in East Liverpool, less than 20 miles south of East Palestine. Additional solid waste disposal locations were being sought, she said.

The Ohio governor’s office said Saturday night that five of the 20 truckloads (approximately 280 tons) of hazardous solid waste had been returned to East Palestine after 15 truckloads were disposed of at a Michigan hazardous waste treatment and disposal facility. Shore said material shipped out to sites in other states, but later returned to East Palestine, would now be shipped to the two Ohio sites.

All of the rail cars except for the 11 cars held by the National Transportation Safety Board have been removed from the site, which will allow excavation of additional contaminated soil and installation of monitoring wells to check for groundwater contamination, said Anne Vogel, director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

However, Monday’s resumption is now raising new concerns from environmental activists and Ohio politicians alike. River Valley Organizing, an East Liverpool-based nonprofit that “has spent years advocating for stricter regulations at Heritage Thermal,” blasted the decision to burn the toxic waste in the city.

“After poisoning one town in the region, Northfolk [sic] Southern and the EPA are now about to do the same to another community just down the road,” River Valley Organizing Executive Director Amanda Kiger said in a statement. “This is completely unsafe and unacceptable, and will only widen this crisis. The EPA and Norfolk Southern must stop further contaminating our community.”

In addition, state Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery) wrote he was “very disappointed not to have received advanced notice” of the transport of wastewater to his community. He also expressed worry about the Lake Erie water basin, which WM’s Vickery disposal facility sits within.

“My task is to ensure that we do not simply relocate a problem from one side of Ohio to another, but that we actually resolve the problem,” Click remarked. “The citizens of Sandusky County deserve to have forthright and immediate answers to their questions and concerns.”

More...

Journalist Makes Scary Discovery After Following Creek from East Palestine to Ohio River

Journalist Makes Scary Discovery After Following Creek from East Palestine to Ohio River



A reporter discovered three deer that were deceased along the bank of a creek that runs south from East Palestine, Ohio, and into the Ohio River on Monday.

Ben Bergquam with Real America’s Voice News announced the chilling discovery through a mobile phone video that was shared on Twitter.

It has been more than three weeks after a Norfolk Southern Southern train derailed in the community and spilled toxic chemicals throughout the area. Since the beginning of the ongoing ecological disaster, images of dead fish have been shared online.

Similar cases of affected wildlife have also been documented, as it is estimated 43,000 animals are dead.

In something Begquam could not explain, he found three deer lifeless within yards of Little Beaver Creek and within yards of each other.

As he noted, the animals showed no signs of any physical trauma and had more or less been left alone by other wildlife.


“More concerning footage today from our East Palestine investigation. Dead deer on the banks of Little Beaver Creek at the point where it meets the Ohio River. I followed the creek from East Palestine, to where it merges with the Ohio River to see how far the rainbow chemicals… https://t.co/UpeZoSzYMj pic.twitter.com/rpoZLczYWQ

The video appears to have been taken roughly 15 miles downstream from East Palestine, and just north of where Little Beaver Creek feeds into the Ohio River in Midland, Pennsylvania.

Russia: The U.S. Is Preparing False Flag Chemical Attacks In Ukraine

US preparing false flag chemical attacks in Ukraine – Moscow
RT


The US is preparing to stage false flag chemical attacks in Ukraine to pin the blame on Moscow for the use of banned toxic agents, the chief of Russia’s Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defense troops, Igor Kirillov, has said.

The Americans believe that the international community wouldn’t be able to organize an effective investigation of such “provocations”due to the fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, which would allow Washington to escape responsibility, Kirillov said during a briefing on Tuesday.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has obtained information that a train with a cargo of chemical substances in one of its cars had apparently arrived in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Kramatorsk in Donbass on February 10, the commander said.

The 16 metal boxes with special markings that suggest they contained BZ (3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate) incapacitating agent as well as CS (chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile) and CR (dibenzoxazepine) harassing 'riot-control' agents, were accompanied by the “citizens of foreign nations,” he also alleged.

According to Kirillov, the chemicals were unloaded at a local metallurgical plant under the supervision of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and put on US-supplied armored vehicles that later moved out towards a contact as part of a convoy.

Russia also established that eleven cars with specially marked shrapnel ammunition were unloaded in Kramatorsk on February 19, the commander said. The shells of this type had been previously upgraded in the US to be able to deliver harassing chemical substances, he added.

NATO has also planned a large delivery of means of chemical protection to Ukraine, including hundreds of antidotes for various toxic substances, Kirillov is also alleging.

“The facts of simultaneous delivery of toxic chemicals and means of protection against them indicate an attempt to carry out large-scale provocations using the BZ military-grade psychoactive chemical agent during the conflict,” he said.

Despite announcing the depletion of all of its stocks of BZ back in 1990, the US has preserved samples of the toxic agent, which causes acute psychosis, disorientation, hallucinations and memory impairment. Washington maintains the capability to produce the substance in significant quantities, the commander claimed.

If a provocation using chemical weapons is carried out in Donbass, “the true culprits will be identified and held accountable," Kirillov warned.

Russian forces in the area have all the means to promptly detect the use of toxic agents and to contain such incidents, he assured Tuesday's briefing, adding that they can identify not just the  substance being deployed but also the country where it was produced.

Chemical warfare is forbidden under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1997, to which the US, Ukraine and Russia are all signatories. The document bans their militaries from even using riot-control agents or tear gas, despite them being allowed in law enforcement.

Pope’s renewed agreement with Communist China a ‘betrayal’ of the underground Church: freedom fighter

Pope’s renewed agreement with Communist China a ‘betrayal’ of the underground Church: freedom fighter



A Catholic human rights activist from China has said the secretive Vatican-China agreement, as well as Pope Francis’ silence and snubbing of Cardinal Joseph Zen, are nothing short of “betrayal” of the underground Church there.

On today’s episode of The John-Henry Westen Show, I interviewed JP Freedom, who hails from China but currently lives in the United States, where he can speak out about atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against Catholics and other religious and ethnic groups.


Freedom, an alias used to protect his real identity, recently wrote in an article for National Catholic Register that his main mission is promoting “dialogue and solidarity between Catholics, Protestants and nonbelievers in China to defend life and human dignity.”

He told me that shortly before Cardinal Zen’s arrest last May, he passed a message from Cardinal Zen to persecuted Protestant pastor Wang Yi, which Freedom called an act of “unprecedented solidarity” between Chinese Catholics and Protestants. But then when the Vatican goes out and renews its deal with China in October, which allows the Communist Party apparatus to appoint bishops, Freedom said it “destroys the moral authority of our Catholic Church.”

“But this deal [is] laughable. It just destroys the image, destroys the moral authority of our Catholic Church before the Chinese Protestants, before the Chinese dissidents,” he said. “And now [the] image is hypocrisy, is betrayal for all our sacrifice since the CCP took over. Betrayal of the underground loyalty, the decades of persecution, disappearances, torture, imprisonment.”

LifeSiteNews reported last November, shortly after the Vatican renewed its deal with Communist China, about a member of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) who expressed his “tremendous disappointment” with the development.

An April 2022 report by the USCIRF found that religious freedom has continued to worsen under general secretary Xi Jinping, with the persecution of Catholics, Protestants, Uyghur Muslims, and Tibetan Buddhists growing even stronger since 2021.

“Despite the Vatican-China agreement on bishops appointments, authorities continue to harass and detain underground Catholic priests who refuse to join the state-controlled Catholic association, such as Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu of Xixiang, Hebei Province,” the report reads.





Beijing Accuses Washington of Jeopardizing Peace in Taiwan Strait After US Spy Plane's Flyover

Beijing Accuses Washington of Jeopardizing Peace in Taiwan Strait After US Spy Plane's Flyover
Sputnik News


Tensions between China and Taiwan escalated last year following an array of trips to the island by US and European officials. China, which sees the island as its breakaway province, criticized the visits as a show of support for Taiwanese separatism.

Beijing has accused Washington of jeopardizing peace in the Taiwan Strait after a US reconnaissance military plane flew above the sensitive waterway, in a mission that the White House claimed was conducted in accordance with international law.

Shi Yi, a spokesman for China’s Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), said in a statement that "the US side's actions deliberately interfered with and disrupted the regional situation and endangered peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. We firmly oppose this."

He added that the "Theatre forces remain on high alert at all times and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity."

The US 7th Fleet in turn pledged that the country’s military would continue to "fly, sail, and operate anywhere international law allows, including within the Taiwan Strait."


The developments come amid ongoing tensions between Beijing and Washington over Taiwan, which is seen by the Chinese government as a breakaway province.
CIA Director William Burns told a US media outlet on Monday that he thinks Washington needs "to take very seriously" Chinese President Xi Jinping’s "ambitions with regard to ultimately controlling Taiwan." According to Burns, "That doesn't, however, in our view, mean that a military conflict [over Taiwan] is inevitable."

The China-Taiwan tensions are also exacerbated by the US repeatedly sending warships and surveillance planes to the Taiwan Strait, with Beijing slamming such missions as provocations and portraying Washington as "a security risk creator in the region."


Although the US does not maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Washington has a representative office in Taipei, and remains the island's biggest supplier of military hardware.
Beijing considers the island an integral part of the PRC, sticking to a policy of peaceful reunification under a "One China – Two Systems" model.




Mass Drone Attack Unleashes Chaos, Air Raid Sirens Inside Russia

Mass Drone Attack Unleashes Chaos, Air Raid Sirens Inside Russia

 TYLER DURDEN


Russia has come under attack by multiple drones on Tuesday, with one of those drones reportedly causing a fire at an oil depot in the southern part of the country, and another hitting outside Moscow.

The attack on the oil facility happened in Tuapse, which lies about 150 miles southeast of the Crimean peninsula, with Reuters citing local media to report, "Emergency services put out a fire at an oil depot in southern Russia overnight after a drone was spotted flying overhead, the RIA news agency said on Tuesday." Crucially, Tuapse is about 500 kilometers from the nearest Ukrainian-held territory, which exhibits significant reach assuming the UAV was launched by the Ukrainians.


The fires which started at the facility at about 2:30am were extinguished after they spread to an area of some 200 square meters. "The oil tanks were not affected. There was no spill of oil products. No injuries," a local official, Sergei Boyko, described.

Another drone crashed in the Moscow region on the same day, with Governor Andrei Vorobyov saying it was likely an operation to target civilian infrastructure.

"This happened near the village of Gubastovo, the target was probably a civilian infrastructure facility, it was not damaged. There are no casualties or destruction on the ground," Vorobyov said on his Telegram channel, as translated by the Moscow Times.

"The FSB and other competent authorities are dealing with the situation, nothing threatens the safety of residents," he added. The Moscow Times notes that unverified reports said the drone was a Ukrainian UJ-22 Airborne manufactured by Ukrjet.


The Russian defense ministry in a statement made mention of another drone attack in southern Russia, close in time to the attack on the oil facility which it says was intercepted:

The attacks — in the Krasnodar and Adygea regions — had been "suppressed" and failed to inflict any damage, it said.

But it followed reports by Russian state news agencies of a fire at an oil depot in Krasnodar, around 240km south-east of the Crimean peninsula, after a drone was spotted flying overhead.

The Russian defense ministry stated that "The Kyiv regime attempted to use unmanned aerial vehicles to attack civilian infrastructure in the Krasnodar region and the Adygea Republic." It claimed further,  "The UAVs were neutralized by electronic warfare units."


There may have additionally been a drone incident in the border area of the Belgorod region. The Daily Beast described it as a night of chaos for Russians:

The strikes were part of what local media described as a "mass drone attack"that appears to have intensified in the last 24 hours.

On Monday morning, residents of an apartment building in the Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine, were forced to evacuate in the middle of the night after one of four drones crashed into the building, according to Baza. Another drone landed on the roof of a supermarket and exploded, scorching the premises.


And possibly another attempted attack in St. Petersburg: 

Hours later, St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport came to a standstill as authorities shut down the surrounding airspace, reportedly in response to an "unidentified flying object" spotted in the area.


Amid all the local reports coming out of Russia, there were in total possibly half-a-dozen to a dozen or more inbound drones which had been sent against various Russian cities overnight into Tuesday.

This comes after a past year which witnessed a number of sporadic drone and alleged sabotage attacks on sensitive Russian facilities, including military bases, as Ukraine and its backers grow more emboldened. 

One December investigative report written by a US special forces veteran said the CIA was behind many of the covert sabotage operations happening with increasing frequency on Russian soil. President Putin has recently said he sees the conflict in Ukraine and West-backed proxy war there as a fight for the survival of the Russian people, alluding to it as an 'existential threat' in fresh comments.

The timing of these fresh, brazen attacks on Russian appears significant, given that just within the last few days there's been some actual international momentum toward getting serious about an eventual brokered peace - this after China unveiled its 12-point plan for negotiated ceasefire on Friday. Will efforts at peace be sabotaged before a process can ever hope to get off the ground? If Russian soil keeps getting attacked, it's very unlikely the two sides will even come close to seriously contemplating negotiations.


15-Minute Cities And Loss Of Freedom