TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@social.cleverlibre.org

The commander of the Azov National Guard brigade, Denys "Redys" Prokopenko, emphasized the enduring significance of infantry in warfare, despite advancements in modern technologies. Speaking at the EstMil.tech 2024 military conference in Tallinn, he stated, "Our experience shows that when we are dealing with a sufficiently strong enemy, the concept of modern warfare without well-trained and disciplined infantry is false."

Prokopenko highlighted a key conclusion drawn by the Azov brigade, shaping their training concept: the most effective weapon is a motivated, well-prepared, and disciplined soldier, with the latest modern technology serving as their valuable assistant. He expressed the belief that the future of warfare hinges on a comprehensive system that prioritizes the development of infantry, acknowledging them as a crucial resource alongside advanced weaponry and technologies.

Over the past year, 67 UAV models were codified, and 58 received government contracts. Overall, more than 200 Ukrainian companies are operating in the UAV or drone services and products market, — Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov.

The minister said that a few days ago he met with more than 120 drone manufacturers and emphasized that in 2024 companies need to scale up to meet the growing needs of the frontline.

According to Fedorov, the government is adapting the laws and working to facilitate contracting.

"The key thing is that we need to standardize the requirements and tactical and technical characteristics for drones. It is also important for manufacturers to understand the forecasting of contracts and the needs of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces — we are working on this as well.

I believe in the potential of Ukrainian manufacturers and their ability to create revolutionary technologies for the battlefield," the minister said.

He added that UAV technology is now a priority for development:

▫️Ukrainian "Lancet";

▫️AI for automatic target acquisition;

▫️guided munitions;

▫️targeting and striking electronic warfare;

▫️anti-drone solutions, etc.

"Last year, we launched the Brave1 cluster for the development of military technologies, which supports manufacturers of innovations, provides grants, and helps with approval and codification. We plan to increase the size of the grants to $200 thousand so that inventors can make a high-quality prototype," summarized Fedorov.

The Russian boat Ivanovets is now part of Davy Jones's fleet

https://t.me/United24media/18088

Before the extraordinary EU summit, where €50 billion of aid for Ukraine was finally agreed, there were long negotiations that took place in the background

Prime minister Orbán of Hungary previously blocked the decision in December and leaders were negotiating even at the last minute to avoid the use of a veto by Hungary.

Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, shared a picture half an hour before the start of the summit, as Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, is negotiating with Viktor Orbán in the company of French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Tusk of Poland stated that the leaders of the 26 member states do not have a plan B, so it is up to Viktor Orbán to decide "whether Hungary wants to be a member of our community or not."

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also spoke about the importance of a unanimous decision, and said that they cannot leave the European Council building today without an agreement, as only one person would be happy with that, Vladimir Putin.

The details of the background negotiations are not known at this stage, but it is believed to relate to EU funding for Hungary, which is frozen due to concerns about human rights and the rule of law in the country.

From "The Analyst":

EU UKRAINE AID APPROVED!

Victor Orban, pressed hard to stop it but it was made clear to him that if he continued to blackmail the EU to get his way over issues, ‘other means’ would be implemented to change his mind. It’s largely accepted though nobody wants to admit it (and Orban certainly won’t or would make him look weak), that financial and economic measures would be used to undermine the Hungarian Florint currency and cause economic hardship for the Hungarian government if they continued down this path.
Orban said he couldn’t be blackmailed but they gave him a face saver - the right of any nation to revue the budget every four years - which pretty much happens anyway.
The deal includes €50 billion ($55b, £43b) spread over four years , that will support Ukrainian institutions and government expenditure.

GUR MO destroyed an enemy missile boat

On the night of January 31 to February 1, 2024, soldiers of the special unit "Group 13" of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine destroyed the missile boat "Ivanovets" of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation. The enemy ship was on a raid of Lake Donuzlav in the temporarily occupied Crimea.

As a result of a number of direct hits to the hull, the Russian ship suffered damage incompatible with further movement - the "Ivanovets" rolled to the stern and sank. The value of the ship lost by the aggressor state is approximately $60-70 million.

According to preliminary information, the search-and-rescue operation of the Russian occupiers on the Donuzlav was not successful, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported.

From "The Analyst":

UKRAINE’S CRIMEA STRATEGY REVEALED

During early January, following on from last years success in taking out Russia’s much vaunted Niobium mobile radar complex near the northwestern coast, Ukraine began multi-stage plan to render Crimean air defences inoperable.
Using combinations of air and naval drones they pushed what remained of the naval forces out of Sevastopol.
They also began hunting down open air space and, using drones, found pathways to the remaining radar at Yevapatatoria. This site also contained a primary command centre and communications hub, and it’s largely regarded that the Russians just didn’t think it was targetable.
Ukraine disabused them of that theory in mid January and destroyed it.
With the only other Niobium system radar gone - these have very long range (550km high 150km low) dual band phased array capabilities, that can see high and relatively low targets in 3D - allegedly even capable of spotting an F-35 at a reasonable range, Russia was faced with a real problem.
Ukrainian missiles and drones started to make their way across the Crimean peninsula from Kherson and Odesa, all the way into Russia itself. Striking at Tuapse and Rostov along with several other key sites in southern Russia.
The shooting down of the A50 was part of this campaign. The Russians brought the aircraft into the field to plug the gap left by the loss of the two very expensive Niobium radars. Realising that with it flying it would likely reduce their opportunity to reach into southern Russia, the Ukrainians managed a remarkable and highly secret operation to get a Patriot battery far enough to the front line to engage it and also took the opportunity to strike the accompanying Il-22 SIGINT aircraft in the area. The success of that strike caused the Russians to lose one of only ten A50’s - but also one of only four that had been modernised for 21st century operations. The others are severely dated if even operational.
A second aircraft has since been deployed but it has to operate so far back from its ideal point of operations it’s become almost useless.
Just to emphasise how little effect it has had and how weak Crimean air defences are, yesterday Ukraine launched a multi-drone and missile strike on the airbase just north of Sevastopol, destroying the underground command facility and severely damaging the runway and support equipment.
These operations began before December with the destruction of the first Niobium complex - it was that lack of early warning radar that caused the injudicious use of the Su-34’s and the loss of 3 in a day and 5 that week overall. They just don’t have the capability to see threats the ground radars could pick up. Without the ground radars, the S-400 systems are limited in their capabilities to coordinate or even detect lower flying drones and missiles. Niobium systems were designed to work with 300 simultaneous targets and coordinate a response. Without them Crimean air defences are royally screwed. They are not easy to replace - three year build times are not unusual and they require very high tech processors, currently sanctioned.
So now the full picture has been revealed, we can see that Crimea is basically defenceless from the air right now. Russia is only doing what it can to protect the Kerch bridge. Meanwhile its logistics and infrastructure are under continuous pressure from drone strikes and missiles.
Another interesting phenomena came to light yesterday. The increasing number of Shaheed drones just landing without exploding. Video of multiple drones from across Ukraine just flat on the ground, almost undamaged (though they lose their
engines on impact). This is apparently
caused by an increasing number of
updatable EW ‘systems in a box’ that can
stop them functioning and lands them, more
and more of which are being deployed
around Ukraine.
So while not everything is brilliant on the front lines right now, Russian pain is high when it comes to Crimea and beyond. They
certainly aren’t winning this battle and they
aren’t getting their own way by any means.

🔴 IDF: IDF troops continue to operate in the northern and central Gaza Strip; the troops are conducting targeted raids on terrorist infrastructure and eliminating dozens of terrorists in the Gaza Strip

Over the last day, IDF troops operating in the northern Gaza Strip killed more than 15 Hamas terrorists during battles in the area. In a significant targeted raid on terrorist infrastructure embedded inside a school in the area, approximately 10 Islamic Jihad terrorist operatives, who were using the school as a hideout, were apprehended by IDF troops. In addition, the troops located and destroyed five ready-to-fire rockets in the area.

In the central Gaza Strip, IDF troops struck and killed over 10 armed terrorists in less than an hour. In the outskirts of Al-Shati in the northern Gaza Strip, IDF and IAF troops eliminated armed terrorists who were operating nearby the troops, posing an immediate threat to the forces. Moreover, the troops conducted searches of military sites in the area in which they located large quantities of weapons, as well as documents and military equipment belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization.

During operational activity in western Khan Yunis, IDF troops identified a terrorist who was connected to an armed terrorist cell that was maneuvering near the troops. Following the identification, IDF troops directed an aircraft to strike and kill the terrorist cell. During additional activity in the area, IDF and IAF troops struck a military site used by a Hamas terrorist cell to carry out ambushes on IDF troops.

Attached is video footage of the IDF strikes in the Gaza Strip: https://bit.ly/3OqrEVQ

Attached is video footage of the IDF operational activity in the Gaza Strip: https://bit.ly/4beHzQV

Attached are photos of the IDF activity in the Gaza Strip: https://IDFANC.activetrail.biz/ANC310120246374

🇮🇱 @israel_report

Good morning Resisters

Won't actually hit
A million shells
https://t.me/liveukraine_media/17736

https://t.me/liveukraine_media/17736

Good morning from around the clock news.

https://t.me/aroundtheclocknews/4579

Russia denied it had plans to invade Ukraine until it actually did.

https://t.me/aroundtheclocknews/4589

Trying to get all these donation requests etc out of the way.

Guys, I'm Roman with you.
I want to share my opinion about supporting the Ukrainian army.
In fact, there are very few TG channels in support of Ukraine in English, but there are an insane number of pro-Russian ones!
I'll tell you a little about the channels and owners.

Channel name/format/Nationality
1) Denis Davydov (media, Ukrainian)
2) Combat Footedzh (media,Volunteer,Ukrainian)
3)War in Ukraine (media, Russian)
4) Live Ukraine (media, Ukrainian)
5)Warriors Ukrainian (Media/Volunteer/Ukrainian)

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆
This list contains the 5 largest telegrams of the channel in support of Ukraine, and please note only Warriors Ukrainian The only channel that officially deals with volunteer assistance to individual units!
And now a little about myself and the channel.

I am the only one of the above listed channel owners who served in the Army, I took part in the Anti-Terrorist Operation in Donetsk in 2020-2021, and I was also on the front line for a year and a half.

I have a lot of friends at the moment on the front line and I know from the inside how hard it is for the guys in Avdeevka this winter,
In literally 2 years of war, I lost more than 15 friends in this war, and I want to assure you these were the best of the best guys!!!

Most of all, I want the war to end as quickly as possible, I want every soldier to return home to his family, I don’t want to see the tears of children who will no longer see their fathers...
And that’s the only reason I help the military, and not pocket money (as some accuse me of doing)

Yes, Ukraine is truly corrupt and strange, but there are also honest people!

Every donation you make is the life of a soldier/father/friend and just a good person!

Please, if anyone really has the opportunity to support the guys in such a difficult time, they really need Drones for: Reconnaissance / coordinates for artillery / and dropping grenades on the Russians!

If you have the opportunity to contact me, This account is anonymous and you will only contact me!
@WarriorsUkrainianWar

Russia is reportedly establishing a new "Africa Corps" to replace the "Wagner" Private Military Company (PMC) with the aim of rekindling Cold War-era influence on the continent, as per Bloomberg. A source close to the Russian Ministry of Defense indicates plans to deploy five brigades totaling 20,000 personnel in Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali, the Central African Republic, and Niger by mid-year. However, uncertainties persist, given the ongoing need to reinforce troops in Ukraine.

A senior adviser to the President of the Central African Republic, shared that the number of Russian troops in the country has doubled since the death of Prigozhin, reaching around two thousand soldiers. Plans for a military base are also mentioned to accommodate the increasing presence.

Journalists highlight the strengthening military cooperation between Russia and Sahel countries. If successful, this move could significantly alter the geopolitical and diplomatic balance of power, especially with the withdrawal of French troops, according to Jay Pham, a former US special envoy to the Sahel.

Molly Fee, the US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, raises concerns about the potential threat posed by Russian troops in Niger, where the US has a substantial base.

Guys, I wanted to say that when you make donations for drones, etc., you are not just buying gadgets, but saving the lives of our soldiers!

And the souvenirs that we offer you are the gratitude of the guys, this is the least they can thank you, I want to remind you: Avdeevka is stormed 24/7, there is not a single whole house there... just ruins, the guys are very cold and there are some problems with food delivery, but the main thing for them now these are eyes (Drones) 24/7
Thanks to drones, they can adjust artillery, drop grenades on the occupiers and conduct reconnaissance!

All those guys who can really donate, but have doubts, write to me in DM @WarriorsUkrainianWar
and I will provide all the evidence!

Please, whoever has the opportunity,let's make a real gift for 110 OMBR, the cost of the drone is 1750 €, any donation will save dozens of lives!!!

Whoever is willing and wants to make an anonymous donation, write to DM Roman:
@WarriorsUkrainianWar

Many people have asked for donation details; all possible donation options are here!
https://t.me/Roman_DONATION

I’m also attaching the main details!

BITCOIN:
12x9KJBDy4bFYCfxBSA9oLQqYSQxru2AL3

Ethereum (ERC20):
0x8703a790109ee4c8a748a520d5afb5ebcfaa3069

💸USDT (Tron TRC20):
TNgDP1of62C7LrdSKQNxu4ocL2GWEFXhWr

💸PayPal (friends & family):
http://PayPal.me/eternityeternityeter

MonoBank, instant transfers!:🇺🇦
https://send.monobank.ua/9hppWypAJn

SWIFT:IBAN $: ROMAN CHERNENKO
UA943220010000026200313954701
ACCOUNT:
26200313954701
Reseiver:
CHERNENKO ROMAN, 68500, Ukraine, reg. Odeska, district. Tarutynskyi, pgt. Tarutyne, st. Dzerzhynskoho, build. 156

SEPA:IBAN €🇪🇺: CHERNENKO ROMAN
GB78CLJU00997188012245

Orban maintains the intrigue: the EU is not sure about the allocation of 50 billion euros for Ukraine at the February 1 summit

On the eve of the extraordinary meeting of the European Council, which will be held on February 1, there is still no certainty in Brussels that Hungary will not block the allocation of a new package of financial assistance for Ukraine in the amount of 50 billion euros.

Currently, the EU hopes for a unanimous decision, but they are preparing for plan "B", reports Interfax-Ukraine with reference to an unnamed high-ranking EU official.

The interlocutor of the agency noted that a "good meeting" of the ambassadors - permanent representatives of the EU member states took place on Wednesday morning, but it did not add clarity to what the position of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will be during tomorrow's vote.

The diplomat emphasized that work is currently underway to ensure that the decision is approved by all 27 leaders, but it is still difficult to say how quickly the discussion itself will proceed, during which "you can expect anything."

"It hurts me because I can't help every military woman." Women's form designer - hromadske

Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ana Suvorkina has directed all her knowledge and skills to help our defenders as much as possible, and joined the NGO "Women's Veteran Movement".

In a short period of time, it became clear that the Ministry does not have an approved uniform for the female part of the army. Therefore, volunteers took up this matter and organized the first sewing of such a uniform according to the patterns designed by Anna.

"We cover a very small part of what is asked of us, and not because we don't want to, but simply because we can't", says Anna Suvorkina, the designer of women's military uniforms.

"There are about 50,000 women in the Ukrainian army, and the Ministry of Defense has not yet approved winter uniforms for them."

On the creation of patterns for women's uniforms against bureaucratic offices, setting up production, the process of sewing a women's winter jacket and the problems they have to face.