Ukraine vs Russia IV - The Betrayal

Refugee Russian journalist (38) falls out of window in France: man crashes seven floors and dies
A Russian journalist who fled to France fell out of the window of his apartment and collapsed seven floors. This is reported by French media. The man did not survive the fall. It is unclear whether it was his own choice.
The incident happened in Meudon, a municipality 9 kilometers southwest of Paris. The body of the journalist was found on Tuesday morning, at the foot of the apartment building where he lived. In his flat, the police discovered a chair near the windowsill and medicines in a garbage can. Death threats According to a police source from the newspaper Le Parisien, the man was 'possibly the target of death threats'. The independent Russian journalist Denis Balashov, who also lives in Paris, tells the Telegram messaging service that his colleague reported a week ago that his phones and social media had been hacked. Balashov says it is 38-year-old Yevgeny Safronov. He fled Russia before the invasion of Ukraine, after the media company he worked for fell out of favor with the Russian regime.

At the end of 2024, Safronov was fired from that company, which also moved to Europe, according to him 'in an unjustified way'. He then wandered through India and Turkey for a while, until he got a French visa.

Safronov had become depressed
Six months ago he moved to Paris. According to Balashov, Safronov was depressed and the hacking of his accounts made him "completely upset." Balashov believes that his friend took his own life. The police are investigating the exact circumstances of the death. The French authorities also consider an act of desperation to be the most likely, but for the time being nothing is excluded. Safronov lived with a roommate. He was in shock and could not be questioned immediately because of the language barrier.

 

This day marks the 1,417th day of Putin's 3-day Special Military Operation.

Russia fought Germany for 1,417 days in WWII.

Second best army in the world, my arse

 

If that’s what happened at ice hockey, I dread to think of the outtakes when he went riding a horse bare-chested

 

Is it settled yet? I thought it was going to take 24 hours?

Then I was two weeks....about a hundred times.

Nothing huh? I'm shocked I tell you. Shocked.

 

1418, actually

 

Ukraine struck three drilling platforms in the Caspian Sea, shutting them down.

https://bsky.app/profile/militarynewsua.bsky.social/post/3mc674rqfec2o

 

newsukraine.rbc.ua

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua › news › united-kingdom-to-develop-first-nightfall-1768159430.html

United Kingdom to develop first Nightfall ballistic missiles for Ukraine
1 dag geledenThe United Kingdom has confirmed plans to develop and transfer Nightfall ballistic missiles to Ukraine. This missile carries a 200-kilogram warhead and is capable of hitting targets up to 500 kilometers from the launch point.

• GOV.UK
  
  https://www.gov.uk › government › news › uk-to-develop-new-deep-strike-ballistic-missile-for-ukraine
  
  UK to develop new deep strike ballistic missile for Ukraine
  1 dag geledenThe UK will develop new tactical ballistic missiles that boost Ukraine's firepower to defend itself from Putin's war machine.

• 
  The Kyiv Independent
  
  https://kyivindependent.com › uk-developing-ballistic-missiles-for-ukraine-capable-of-striking-deep-within-russia
  
  UK developing ballistic missiles for Ukraine capable of striking deep ...
  1 dag geledenThe United Kingdom has launched Project Nightfall, a competition to rapidly develop new long-range ballistic missiles for Ukraine that can strike targets far behind enemy lines, according to a U.K. Defense Ministry handout provided to the Kyiv Independent on Jan. 11. The announcement follows U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey's recent visit to Ukraine, which coincided with a massive Russian ...

 

Three Greek-operated tankers were hit by Ukrainian drones on the way to the KTK terminal where Kazakh oil is loaded in the Black Sea. Ukraine attacked the terminal itself before.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-...hit-by-drones-tuesday-sources-say-2026-01-13/

 

A prepared artillery ammunition depot (the kind of place with buildings holding exposives with earthen berms around them) in Crimea was attacked by drones with three buildings directly hit. But there was no secondary explosions, demonstrating how difficult these things are to destroy. While they certainly hold lots of ammunition and their locations are known, as long as the Russians maintain proper discipline (which they haven't in the past), they aren't really good targets.

 

The Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian armed forces reported that the number of Ukrainian casualties in 2025 was 13% less than in 2024.

Meanwhile, Russian casualties are growing faster than ever, as Putin launched a major push starting in September to take over vast areas before the year's end, which obviously has not succeeded.

 

Plant Atlant in Taganrog that manufactures drones has been attacked last night and is on fire today.

 

With the US now seizing (and selling the oil) of ships in the shadow fleet, are we about to see Europeans finally cracking down on them? Germany just rejected a ship in the shadow fleet permission to enter its territorial waters. The ship was forced to turn around and is currently near Norway headed for the White Sea.

https://bsky.app/profile/tendar.bsky.social/post/3mcijhgy34s2w

 

This ship is a particularly egregious example, and makes a good test case for this. It's so old and beat it could legitimately be refused for being a shipping hazard, and it's changed its name a dozen times so clearly it's up to something shady. Even the IMO number given in that BlueSky post is a fake - no such ship number exists.

Britain has been making noise that they might start seizing ships like this in their waters soon.

 

Russia's inflation took a big step up this month because of new rules about their Value Added Tax that went into effect at the start of the new year. Not only has the VAT gone up, it now applies to many more kinds of business than it did before.

 

Earlier this month Ukraine shot down some Russian Shahed drones carrying man-portable anti-air missile launchers. Last night Ukraine shot down a Shahed carrying a R-60, roughly the Russian equivalent to the Sidewinder air-to-air missile. I assume they are for attacking helicopters that Ukraine uses to shoot these kinds of drones down. I can't imagine the weight and drag of such things does wonders for Shahed performance.

In other Russian drone news, Ukraine shot down a BM-35 (a newer, smaller cousin of the Shahed) carrying a Starlink receiver. These drones tend to be used near the front as the are remote controlled - the Starlink lets them be remote controlled at any distance.

 

I guess Ukrainians would know this, but this is the first I've heard that Ukrainian electricity substations are now protected by concrete structures proof against Shahed hits.

https://bsky.app/profile/militarynewsua.bsky.social/post/3mcjrrezor22i

 

With how hard Russia has been hitting them over the last few years, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. Obviously, there's probably hundreds to thousands of them across the country, so it could just be a "Don't mention it until it is done" thing.

I wonder what they'll be doing about the power plants. Those are also getting hit by Russia. I would imagine hardening those is a lot more complicated.

 

I don't know. Russia has been using net or fence structures on various buildings for a year, but they don't seem to work that well and Russian warheads are bigger than Ukrainian ones.

 

To continue the energy conversation, the Ukrainian Energy Minister said today that there isn't a single power plant that is undamaged, and Ukraine's power plants are now producing only about 2/3rds of the power being used in the nation.

 

Funny Kremlin boys suggested they could aid Trump in conquering Greenland.
Yeah, you got troops twiddling their thumbs, idly watching the successful operations in the Ukraine

 

There's nothing real underlying their statements - they are designed to goad Trump into acting and thus fulfill their plan of weakening the West.

 

The rumors are swirling that Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of Chechnya, is near death. If you thought, like I assume Putin did, that he would be succeeded by his son (whose main claim to fame is getting a new high-level medal each week for playing soldier with his bodyguards) then you might not like today's news. The son was in a car accident, and was taken to the hospital in serious condition and unconscious. He has since been transferred to Moscow.

 

Step one: car accident.
Step two: defenestration.

 

"Due to French assistance, Ukraine has significantly reduced its dependence on U.S. intelligence support. According to Macron, France currently provides two-thirds of Ukraine’s intelligence capabilities."

That's good news if it's true. Even if, course, there are no details on that.

https://theukrainianreview.info/mac...thirds-of-ukraines-intelligence-capabilities/