re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Russia can choke wells to lower production per well. Shutting in presents problems with need to rework the well if it's down for say a month or so.

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Maybe we should send them the old Popular Mechanics article about how to dispose of used engine oil. They could dig a big hole, fill it with rocks and get rid of the excess crude.

True, Obama did so much harm to our military it would take a decade of sheer determination to undo what he did. And no one is going to do that unless we are in WWIII.

GOP - a husband of one of my nieces was the youngest colonel in the Army at one time. He was 100% full-blown Army. :Extremely intelligent. Much to his dismay they assigned him to teach the soldiers how to relate to Muslims. In one of his classes they had a visitor come sit in and listen. He was teaching straight from a gov issued book and didn't deviate. The Muslim visitor later complained about something he said. The army subsequently (don't know the word for it, but its when you won't ever get promoted again). He fought it and was on Fox News. He ended up leaving the military and now has a extremely good job out of the service. We all felt (well knew) it was part of obamas plan.

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I was in active service during the Bush and Obama years and what that piece of shite frick did to our military when he and Biden got into office was nothing short of shameful. I would love to be able to take a giant shite on his grave one day. Don’t give a frick what color the man’s skin was, he might as well have had scales because he was a snake. He was below a snake even. Below a fricking cockroach. He knew what he was doing actively weakening our military and ge was happy to do it.

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We are still suffering from it today. Lasting effects. Obama effects. He politicized the whole government. We are now stuck with the likes of Loyd Austin. These types of pos have weakened our country.

Well they are grateful for your supporting their war.

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Sky News: around 2,000 Nepalese have been recruited by Russia to fight in the war against Ukraine

Sky News managed to speak to a 35-year-old Nepali man named Ganesh, who spent 4,5 months fighting in Donetsk before being able to return home.

He told reporters that the Nepali soldiers were treated "like cannon fodder" and that when they were sent to Ukraine, they did not have enough food and were beaten by Russian soldiers.

??: protest at the Russian embassy in Kathmandu against the recruitment of Nepalese for the war, February 6, 2024

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Russian volunteers showed footage of the battle in Kozinka, #Belgorod region. The footage shows a Russian Volunteer Corps fighter destroying a Russian tank at close range.

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#France has joined #Warsaw's demands to extend restrictions on imports of agricultural products from #Ukraine, Politico quoted sources as saying

French President Macron and Polish Prime Minister Tusk reached an agreement on the issue during a recent meeting in Berlin.

This jeopardizes negotiations on extending Ukraine's ability to trade freely with the EU and could deprive the country of 1.2 billion euros in revenue

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It is very loud in #Belgorod from the very morning today. Earlier, a missile threat was declared in the city.

Residents publish footage of the aftermath of the attack in the village of Razumnoye near #Belgorod - burning cars, a fire in a private house, broken windows.

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Pro Russian account

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Ukrainian forces continue to launch Vampire MLRS strikes on populated areas in the Belgorod Region. To the south-east of Belgorod, the village of Razumnoye came under fire.

Private and apartment buildings, school and kindergarten buildings, and over a dozen cars were damaged. There were fires after some arrivals.

Three civilians were wounded, one of them a fourteen-year-old girl whose hand was torn off. All the injured are receiving all the necessary medical care.

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German defense minister announces new military aid package for Ukraine

"There is progress in the munitions direction. On the one hand thanks to the Czech initiative, but we will also be able to announce another package here today. So, things are progressing sometimes in small steps, sometimes in big steps, but the main thing is the constant supply of ammunition," Boris Pistorius said before the Ramstein meeting.

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Russian #Navy Admiral Alexander Moiseev was presented as the acting Commander of the Navy at a ceremony in Kronstadt on the occasion of the Day of the Submariner, RIA Novosti reports

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On Wednesday, Polish farmers are planning hundreds of demonstrations and blockades throughout Poland, — RMF24.

Demonstrations with agricultural machinery and blockades are planned in about 400 places throughout the country, including ten important roads on the approach to Warsaw.

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Estonia announced the expulsion of a Russian diplomat

The country's Foreign Ministry called on #Moscow to "stop hybrid operations" against #Estonia's security.

The Estonian Foreign Ministry has declared an employee of the Russian embassy in #Tallinn persona non grata, the Estonian Foreign Ministry has handed a corresponding note to the Russian ambassador in the country, ERR reports.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it would take "retaliatory steps."

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ruSSians: we were repelled all Ukrainian assaults, the enemy had huge losses.

Meanwhile the Bilhorod: We will evacuate thousands of the residents of the region.

Everything is going according to the plan.

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moldova announced the expulsion of the Russian diplomat because of the organization of elections on the territory of unrecognized Transnistria

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The 19th Mechanized Brigade will be staffed to wartime size. The ninth day of the combat readiness inspection of the Belarusian Armed Forces.

• Units of the 1st Separate Mechanized Battalion and the 4th Separate Tank Battalion of the 19th Mechanized Brigade are still stationed in Ashmiany district. The personnel have set up security checkpoints and started to perform combat training tasks.

• As part of the combat readiness inspection, the draft of conscripts from the reserve for additional staffing of the 19th Mechanized Brigade (military unit 71327) was completed. Conscripts were drafted by military commissariats of Vitsiebsk and Minsk regions.

According to the Ministry of Defense of Belarus, about 5000 conscripts were drafted from the reserve. This number is enough to ensure the expansion of the mechanized brigade to the wartime staff number. As we assumed earlier, during the combat readiness inspection, the expansion of the 19th Brigade to the wartime size will be carried out. Conducting these activities is probably one of the key objectives of the inspection.

It’s not specified whether all of the 5000 drafted reservists were assigned to the 19th Mechanized Brigade. Currently, a number of units of the Belarusian Armed Forces are also conducting training sessions with reservists.

Combat training is being conducted with reservists by instructors of the Belarusian Armed Forces trained in Russia. The draft of vehicles from organizations continued, as well as the removal of military equipment from storage.

Brigade tactical drills will be conducted with the 19th Mechanized Brigade on the territory of Pastavy district after the completion of measures to bring the brigade to complete combat readiness.

• The 40th Separate Mechanized Battalion of the 11th Mechanized Brigade (military unit 20170, Slonim) is also involved in the combat readiness inspection. On March 18, the battalion marched from the permanent deployment point to the assigned area in a combined manner to perform combat and training tasks.

• On March 18, it was also reported that as part of the combat readiness inspection, one of the artillery units of the Western Operational Command began to perform the assigned tasks. It was not specified which unit exactly.

Earlier, it was reported that units of the 111th Artillery Brigade and the 841st Artillery Group of the 11th Mechanized Brigade are involved in the combat readiness inspection. We recall that currently artillery units of the Western Operational Command are at field drills.

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Defence Intelligence
INTELLIGENCE UPDATE
UPDATE ON UKRAINE 19 March 2024

Ukraine's continued success in conducting its asymmetric maritime strike campaign has resulted in a visit by Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu to the Black Sea Fleet (BSF) command post in Crimea on 17 March 2024. Shoigu received updates on Ukrainian operations and discussed the performance of Russian naval assets in the region. According to the Russian Ministry of Defence he announced new measures for BSF units to mitigate the threat of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) and uncrewed surface vehicles (USV).

Emphasis was given to the conducting of daily anti-UAV/USV preparedness exercises to enable ships' crews to quickly repel attacks during the day and at night. Shoigu also ordered additional large-calibre weapons be fitted to unspecified assets to augment their defences.

The Russian Navy has highly likely resorted to limiting its
operations to the eastern Black Sea as its losses mount, and its threat perceptions increase. With Ukraine continuing to seek out opportunities to strike at distance, the Russian Ministry of Defence has been prompted to increase its efforts to preserve its fleet in the Black Sea.

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Gunvor: Russia has lost 600,000 barrels of daily oil-refining capacity due to drone attacks

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This is more likely the actual number than 995,000 BPD nameplate capacity of refineries hit. This also makes the 12% loss of gasoline more viable.

FWIW, refineries rarely reach actual nameplate capacity due variations in crude feedstock assays.

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"So that will probably take down exports by a couple of hundred thousand barrels, so to me, it's a distillate problem."

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Distillates are kerosene (Jet Fuel) and diesel. Two mainstays of end products exported by Russia. Some refineries here in the USA blend the kerosene back into diesel. I have no idea if any Russian diesel has kerosene blended back into it. It is easier to achieve ULSD sulfur limits this way without a costly separate ULSD process unit.

IMO, Russian farmers will be the hardest hit.