RT News - January 16th 2023

A large explosion has been reported in Ukraine controlled Zaporozhye. A drone was shot down by Russian air defences in Sevastopol, Crimea; no reports of injuries. On Sunday evening, Ukraine forces continued with shelling of residential areas of Donetsk. At least five settlements were attacked, full injury report unknown but at least 3 civilians were wounded. 155 mm shells were used. Roman Kosarev reports from Gorlovka.
-
The Wagner military group shares exclusive footage with RT from the key town of Soledar, which has been taken under the control of Russian forces.
-
China reiterates its vision for a multi polar world, as Beijing's newly appointed Foreign Minister completes his multi-leg African tour.
-
RT's Marina Kosareva speaks exclusively to Petros Tseggi, the Eritrean Ambassador to Russia. The whole interview can be seen on RT's 24hr live Rumble channel throughout the day https://rumble.com/vwbbjn-putin-announces-special-operation-in-donbass-special-coverage.html
-
Over 10 years after the Arab Spring was cheered on by the West, Tunisia is still picking up the pieces after its fight for democracy. Clashes between protesters and police continue. Important report and background from Steve Sweeny.
-
Talks have commenced in Algeria as the Western Sahara Polisario movement holds congress amid rising tensions in the region. Political analyst Christopher Helali discusses "the state of western plunder" in the region.
-
India hits a historic import peak of one million barrels of Russian crude oil per day with Moscow remaining New Delhi's biggest energy supplier.
-
Qatar says it's inevitable that Europe will commence buying Russian gas again, that's according to Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar's Energy Minister speaking in Doha's Global Energy Conference.
-
NAFO (millions of mostly fake accounts on twitter) are calling for the execution of Julian Ropcke for geo-locating Ukrainian troops and publishing on twitter. (QS - Russia military does not rely on Julian Ropcke to establish it's military targets.. it's laughable). Opinion from Thomas Roper.
-
Russia has asked for another United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the persecution of the Orthodox Church and Ukraine's government political opposition. Nikki Aaron spoke with Russia's UN deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyansky.

(QS Not on newscast: neither Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin or any Russian business elites will be at Davos, Pres. Xi Jinping and Chinese businessmen will also not be there)
==============================================
Below - via RT website 1) --- US launches expanded training for Ukrainian troops in Germany
1a) --- US state senator points to 'threat' from Ukrainian troops
2) --- EU facing diesel crisis with Russian ban looming – Bloomberg
3) --- NATO promises more heavy weapons for Ukraine
4) --- First nuclear-propelled torpedoes for Russian mega-submarine ready – media
5) --- Prominent Ukrainian blogger calls for genocide of all Russians
6) --- Zelensky rolls out new anti-Russian sanctions
7) --- EU needs ‘war economy’ – veteran German diplomat
================================================

16 Jan, 2023 07:18

1) --- US launches expanded training for Ukrainian troops in Germany

The goal is for 500 soldiers to get to back to fighting Russia in five to eight weeks, General Mark Milley says

Washington kicked off its expanded training program for Ukrainian troops in Germany on Sunday, General Mark Milley, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said.

“This support is really important for Ukraine to be able to defend itself,” Milley said on Monday, as quoted by AP. “And we’re hoping to be able to pull this together here in short order.”

The plan is for a battalion of some 500 troops to get back to fighting Russia in five to eight weeks, according to the general.

The launch of the training program follows an announcement by the US earlier this month that it would be sending dozens of Bradley infantry vehicles to Ukraine, with Germany and France also promising to supply similar armor. At the weekend, the UK officially confirmed that it would provide 14 Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Kiev, with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg considering the provision of more “heavy warfare equipment” for the Zelensky government from the West in “the near future.”

It would be “ideal” if the newly trained Ukrainian troops were back in action and able to use this hardware “sometime before the spring rains show up,” Milley said.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is expected to visit the Grafenwoehr training base in Germany’s Bavaria on Monday to take a first-hand look at the program.

The so-called combined arms training will see US instructors teaching Ukrainian servicemen to better coordinate their company- and battalion-size units, jointly using artillery, armor and ground forces. Those skills should allow them to resist Russian attacks more effectively and carry out offensive operations of their own, according to AP.

Milley pointed out that the US had been providing this type of training to the Ukrainians before the conflict between Moscow and Kiev began. Since last February, the Americans have been more focused on teaching Kiev’s soldiers to operate specific US-supplied equipment, including HIMARS multiple rocket launchers and M777 howitzers. Over 3,100 servicemen have received such training so far, the general said.

Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that the US and NATO “de facto… have already become an indirect party” to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Their extensive assistance to Kiev has made their involvement “obvious,” he said.
https://www.rt.com/news/569928-ukraine-training-us-germany/
=================RELATED
13 Jan, 2023 12:29

1a) --- US state senator points to 'threat' from Ukrainian troops

Trainees in Oklahoma could misfire a missile and endanger civilians, as Kiev’s troops did in Poland, Nathan Dahm argued

An Oklahoma senator is seeking to derail the Pentagon’s plan to train some 100 Ukrainian troops at Fort Sill in his state. Nathan Dahm, who styles himself as the state's most conservative lawmaker, submitted a draft resolution on Wednesday claiming servicemen who are not from a NATO nation may pose a threat to local residents.

The proposed document aims to block plans to train Ukrainian forces in the use of Patriot air defense systems at the Oklahoma military base. The lawmaker cited the incident in November when an anti-aircraft missile fired by Ukraine veered into Polish airspace and killed two civilians in a border village.

“The citizens of Oklahoma need not be under threat of a similar failure impacting our people,” the document, which Dahm shared on Twitter, read.

He argued that the US should not be obliged to train the Ukrainians since their country is not a NATO member and the US never formally declared war against Russia in support of Kiev. If adopted, the resolution would urge the state government to use its authority “to keep foreign soldiers off” of Oklahoma soil.

However, Dahm’s stance toward the Pentagon’s plans was rejected by some of his fellow legislators. A statement from the State Department responding to his proposal said that Oklahoma “has had partnerships with military forces from partner countries … for decades” and claimed that cutting them would jeopardize US national security. The rebuke was signed by seven state senators, all of them fellow Republicans, including State President Pro Tempore Greg Treat.

Dahm brushed off critics of his proposal on social media. He said he was putting his country and Oklahomans first, and was not interested in the opinions of “foreigners and bots.”

see https://twitter.com/NathanDahm/status/1613616379269353472 and earlier post on this channel https://rumble.com/v25gm57-rt-news-january-14th-2023.html or visit RT.com

The planned training program at Fort Sill is intended to prepare Kiev’s military to receive a Patriot battery, which the Biden administration has pledged to provide. It usually takes months to teach a crew to operate the highly sophisticated weapons system.

Washington claims it does not want to get its own troops directly involved in the Ukraine conflict, but pledged to provide weapons, training, funding, and support to Kiev’s army “for as long as it takes” to defeat Russia. Some conservative politicians in the US oppose the open-ended policy for various reasons, including its cost and possible corruption.
https://www.rt.com/news/569814-oklahoma-ukrainian-soldiers-senator/
============================================

16 Jan, 2023 06:41

2) --- EU facing diesel crisis with Russian ban looming – Bloomberg

The bloc still relies on Moscow for 40% of imports, according to ship tracking data

The EU will have a difficult time replacing Russian diesel when a ban on the country’s seaborne oil products and an accompanying price cap come into force on February 5, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

According to the outlet, citing ship tracking data from Vortexa, the EU imported about 220 million barrels of diesel-type product from Russia in 2022. By December, some 40% of the fuel came to the bloc from the sanctioned country.

While the region’s reliance on Russian petroleum products was reduced last year, in 2021 more than half of all seaborne shipments into the EU and UK were Russian, further illustrating the difficulty of replacing the barrels which will fall under the ban in less than three weeks.

“There’s a total re-jigging in terms of diesel trade flows from the start of February,” Mark Williams of Wood Mackenzie consultancy told the news outlet.

Data showed that the EU has already started to boost diesel shipments from Saudi Arabia and India. Analysts say that these shipments may be further increased this year, through a number of new oil refineries that are soon to come online. Experts also point to the US as having the potential to deliver more diesel to the bloc.

Furthermore, China may indirectly aid the region in acquiring diesel supplies. The country’s diesel-type fuel exports are forecast to be similar in volume to what the EU and UK used to receive from Russia prior to sanctions. While those shipments do not usually end up in Europe, they could replace volumes from other producers, which would then be free to supply their fuel to the region.

“China policy is the game changer,” Williams told Bloomberg, adding that the country “holds the key to all of the surplus refining capacity globally.”

The EU could also use intermediary countries to get the fuel. Türkiye, not being a member-state and thus not party to sanctions against Moscow, could raise imports of Russian diesel and sell it to the bloc after refining, which is allowed under the terms of the ban and price cap. However, the final cost of the fuel may be much higher in that case.

Experts warn that sanctions may result in Russian barrels disappearing from the global market altogether, if the country fails to find new non-EU buyers. This would force Moscow to slash production and, consequently, lower overall supply and drive up prices. Coupled with high demand, this could lead to a worsening of the energy crisis in the bloc.

“The higher the demand and the steeper the Russian diesel production decline, the more complicated and potentially fractured things could get,” Hedi Grati from S&P Global told the news outlet.
https://www.rt.com/business/569787-eu-russia-diesel-crisis/
==============================================

15 Jan, 2023 20:48

3) --- NATO promises more heavy weapons for Ukraine

The bloc’s military leaders will meet in the coming days to drum up additional arms for Kiev

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Saturday that Ukraine would receive more “heavy warfare equipment” from the West in “the near future.” The UK has already pledged tanks to the country, and Germany is under pressure to follow suit. A US-led ‘contact group’ for arming Ukraine will meet on Friday.

"We are in a crucial phase of the war,” Stoltenberg told Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper on Sunday, days after Ukraine lost the strategically important Donbass town of Soledar to Russian forces. “We are experiencing heavy fighting,” the NATO chief continued. “It is therefore important that we equip Ukraine with the weapons it needs to be able to win.”

Recent weeks have seen a dramatic escalation in the equipment promised to Ukraine by NATO’s largest powers. The US, France, and Germany simultaneously announced at the beginning of the month that they would donate infantry fighting vehicles to the Ukrainian military, while the UK officially confirmed on Saturday that it would send fourteen Challenger 2 main battle tanks.

"The recent pledges for heavy warfare equipment are important, and I expect more in the near future," Stoltenberg told Handelsblatt.

Further weapons packages will likely be announced after the US-led ‘Defense Contact Group’ meets on Friday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. This panel of nearly 50 countries has met seven times already since Russia’s military operation in Ukraine began last February, with each meeting followed by fresh pledges of military aid from America and its allies.

One of the first meetings in May was followed by deliveries of anti-ship missiles from Denmark, helicopters from the Czech Republic, and artillery systems from Italy, Greece, Norway, and Poland. The group’s last meeting in November came as the US announced a $400 million aid package, including surface-to-air missiles.

Although Stoltenberg insists that he does not want “a full-blown war between NATO and Russia,” Moscow has repeatedly warned the West that its continued arms deliveries will only prolong the conflict in Ukraine, while making the Western powers de-facto participants. Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the conflict as one between Russia and “the entire Western military machine,” but said on Saturday that the progress of Moscow’s military operation is “positive,” with the battlefield situation “developing within the framework of the Defense Ministry’s and the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s plan.”
https://www.rt.com/news/569919-stoltenberg-more-weapons-ukraine/
=============================================

16 Jan, 2023 07:55

4) --- First nuclear-propelled torpedoes for Russian mega-submarine ready – media

The Poseidon weapons are among the latest additions to the country’s nuclear deterrence

Russian shipbuilders have produced a full set of atomic Poseidon torpedoes, which will be carried by the nuclear mega-submarine Belgorod, a source close to the Defense Ministry has told TASS.

The new boat will be armed with the weapons “in the nearest future,” the source stated, adding that the weapon system has completed tests on its various elements, including the propulsion system.

Poseidon has an onboard nuclear reactor to generate propulsion and carries a powerful nuclear warhead as a payload. The first hints about its development were released by Russia in 2015. The weapon is yet to formally enter military service.

The system is designed as a hard-to-intercept weapon of mass destruction that can obliterate strategic naval assets, such as military bases, shipyards and aircraft carrier strike groups. It can also inflict massive damage on coastal cities in the event of a full-blown nuclear war.

While few details have been published about the torpedo, it’s known to require a specialized platform for deployment. The Russian military reported plans to build up to four nuclear submarines configured for this mission.

The first of them, the Belgorod, was completed in 2019 and commissioned in July last year. It’s not clear how many Poseidon torpedoes constitute a “set” for a vessel. Most assessments said the submarines can carry as many as six, but some suggested that up to eight can be deployed by a single boat.

The Belgorod has a reported displacement of 30,000 tons submerged and a record length of 184 meters. Poseidon torpedoes are believed to be 16 to 24 meters long and are expected to be carried in transport containers attached to the hull of the submarine rather than in internal tubes.
https://www.rt.com/russia/569927-poseidon-torpedoes-belgorod-ready/
===============================================

15 Jan, 2023 22:16

5) --- Prominent Ukrainian blogger calls for genocide of all Russians

Melania Podoliak wants the entire nation “wiped off the face of the Earth”

Ukrainian blogger Melania Podoliak, a prominent guest on Western news channels, has demanded that Russia and its people be “wiped off the face of the earth.” Podoliak issued her call for genocide on Saturday after her own country’s air defense supposedly caused a Russian missile to hit an apartment block.

“It’s absolutely fair for me to wish for all Russians and Russia to be wiped off the face of the Earth,” Podoliak tweeted. “It’s not hate speech, it’s not horrible of me, it’s just FAIR.”

Podoliak shared an image of an apartment block in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnepr, which she said was destroyed “after [a] Russian missile attack.” While Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that the building was hit by a Russian missile, his adviser, Aleksey Arestovich, admitted afterwards that the missile was shot down by a Ukrainian anti-air weapon, which caused it to hit the building.

twitter https://twitter.com/MelaniePodolyak/status/1614263831546499075

Commenters on Twitter hammered Podoliak for being “pro-ethnic cleansing,” but the Ukrainian blogger stood by her statement, responding to critics with expletives.

In a follow-up tweet on Sunday, she described Arestovich as “a f**king moron.”

Before calling for the deaths of 143 million people, Podoliak was lauded in the West. A former staffer in Ukraine’s parliament, she has been featured on NBC News as a “political activist” demanding the West send heavy weapons to Kiev, and on Fox News as a “media consultant” calling for sanctions on Moscow. On her YouTube channel, she offers viewers links to donate money to the Ukrainian military.

Russia’s defense ministry said on Sunday that Saturday’s missile barrage targeted “the military command and control system of Ukraine and associated energy facilities.” Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians, stating that the missile campaign was launched against Ukrainian military and infrastructure targets in response to Ukraine’s “terrorist” attacks on its own infrastructure, including the Crimean Bridge.
https://www.rt.com/russia/569914-ukraine-blogger-russians-genocide/
=============================================

15 Jan, 2023 23:07

6) --- Zelensky rolls out new anti-Russian sanctions

Nearly 200 public figures, including RT journalists and an award-winning filmmaker, have been targeted by Kiev

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree on Sunday, imposing personal sanctions on some 198 Russian nationals. The new list includes multiple prominent artists, journalists and other public figures.

Kiev targeted award-winning director Andrey Konchalovsky and former governor of Moscow Region Boris Gromov, as well as several RT journalists and multiple bloggers. Commenting on getting on the blacklist, Konchalovsky told the RIA Novosti news agency that a “historical dazzle of large masses of people” was nothing new, but an eventual awakening of them was inevitable.

“I have not formed any particular opinion on the matter, except for what I have already said: I observe with compassion the tragic events in my beloved Ukraine,” Konchalovsky said.

The restrictions imposed for a 10-year period include freeze of assets, travel and visa bans, stripping of Ukrainian state awards, and some other measures.

The move comes one week after Zelensky decreed personal sanctions against 119 Russian public figures, including opera star Anna Netrebko, Oscar-winning film director Nikita Mikhalkov and pop singer Philipp Kirkorov. The Ukrainian president also targeted Russian journalists, including RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and Dmitry Kiselyov, the head of the Rossiya Segodnya media group.

Kiev has repeatedly sanctioned Russian nationals amid the ongoing conflict with Moscow, blacklisting hundreds of people.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give 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.”

Shortly before the hostilities broke out, 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. Last September, Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, were incorporated into Russia following referendums.
https://www.rt.com/russia/569922-zelensky-sanctions-russian-nationals/
=========================================

15 Jan, 2023 18:43

7) --- EU needs ‘war economy’ – veteran German diplomat

Kiev’s backers risk having no more munitions to share, Wolfgang Ischinger warned

The EU must drastically ramp up the production of ammunition and heavy weapons if it wants to help Ukraine succeed in the conflict with Russia, Wolfgang Ischinger, the former chair of the Munich Security Conference and a veteran German diplomat, said on Saturday. He stressed that Kiev’s supporters would run out of supplies unless they transform their economies.

“There is much to suggest that this war is far from over. Therefore, it is necessary for us to plan for the long term,” Ischinger stressed in an interview with Germany’s Welt newspaper. “All the military experts I know are saying that stocks of old Soviet weapons and respective ammunition are running out.”

Ukraine is forced to fire as much ammunition per day as we are producing in half a year. The end of our stocks is in sight. What comes next? Who handles replenishment? A war economy means that we – within NATO and in coordination at a European level – take the initiative and call on European armaments companies to produce more weapons and more ammunition as a result of the war.

Ischinger said that the supplying and resupplying of Ukraine with heavy weapons, such as tanks, missiles, air defense systems, and drones, should be “controlled and coordinated” by the EU, as well as by the governments of individual member states. He added that regular meetings of Western countries that support Kiev with arms and military equipment at the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany are not enough. “They are certainly very helpful, but we need a political prioritization so the industry would have necessary specifications,” he said.

Moscow has repeatedly urged the collective West to stop “pumping” Ukraine with weapons, maintaining that doing so will only prolong the hostilities and the suffering of common Ukrainians, rather than change the ultimate outcome of the conflict.

From 2008 to 2022, Ischinger served as chairman of the Munich Security Conference, the largest annual multinational security policy event of its kind. The conference was the platform where, back in 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin first voiced his concerns about NATO’s eastward expansion and warned that a unipolar model was not only “unacceptable, but outright impossible” for the modern world.

Now a proponent of even further militarization of Europe, Ischinger previously had a hand in the Ukrainian turmoil as well. In early 2014, he was tapped by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to become its representative tasked with establishing a ‘dialogue’ in Ukraine following the Maidan coup, which toppled the democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovich and ushered in the years-long conflict in the country’s east.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, which were designed to give 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.”

The admission has also been amplified by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, who have separately stated the Minsk agreements were never intended to actually be fulfilled but were merely a ruse to buy time for Ukraine to build up its military.
https://www.rt.com/news/569905-germany-eu-war-ecomnomy/
==============================================