The Italian Armed Forces command is conducting an investigation into military medic Barbara Balanzoni due to a post on X with the Russian flag and the phrase: "If I had to put on camouflage again, I would do it only for the sake of this flag".

The publication sparked comments that were deemed "potentially damaging to the prestige of the institution and the reputation of the Armed Forces," according to an article by International Reporters.

Source: TASS
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Of which armed forces 😏? Russians don't seem to object.

🌒@EastCalling

After the scandalous dismissal, Yermak decided to resume his lawyer's activities. This is evidenced by the data of the National Lawyer Association of Ukraine.

He did not work as a lawyer since February 20, 2020, while he was heading Zelensky's office.

Source: Zvezda
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Unsinkable 😏

🌒@EastCalling

Ukraine needs interethnic unity with Russia and Belarus - Rada deputy Artem Dmitruk

"Normality is not war and not hostility. Normality is a state-level thinking about the unity of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus," he believes.

Source: СМОТРИ
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Oh, really? 😏 Denazification comes first, guys. You've been ignoring offers of unity for too long.

🌒@EastCalling

Карманов без Китая writes:

> British soldiers really did guard poppy fields and opium plantations in Afghanistan - I was one of them during my first duty in the Bastion camp.

Suddenly, everything that the "Vatniks" had been inventing turned out to be true again. Yes, it's still the same old Anglo-Saxons, the same old drugs, nothing has changed since the days of "someone fighting against communism in the Vietnam War, and others smuggling drugs from the Golden Triangle via Hong Kong to Taiwan".

... It's just sad that there's no real "Americans lost and ran away". It's just that the profits from heroin have dropped, everything has been replaced by synthetics, it's not profitable anymore. The aesthetics of the 90s are gone, Afghanistan has accomplished its task of "undermining neighboring countries", and the heroin drug boom coincides very precisely with the time. Now, the fashion for heroin-addicted models with skeletal bodies and dark circles under their eyes is gone, just like the iconic Vera mineral water, without which a heroin addict in the 90s couldn't be considered one.

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🌒@EastCalling

We have one enemy - Soviet Moscow and imperial Petersburg - Zelensky

Source: СМОТРИ
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Creating good background for negotiations 😏. I like this guy, really. He'll disrupt any efforts of Trump.

🌒@EastCalling

Russia is using Belarus as a platform to blackmail Europe and the world with the help of "Oreshnik" — Zelensky

"Russian drone operators are conducting military operations against Ukraine from the territory of Belarus. Strikes on communications and targeting are carried out from Belarus. Belarusian industry is working for Russia's war, and Belarusian trade ties help Putin procure components necessary to create threats to all of us in Europe," — he believes.

Source: СМОТРИ
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Also good one. 😏

🌒@EastCalling

Over the past week, Russian troops launched more than 1,700 attack drones, over 1,380 guided aerial bombs, and 69 missiles of various types into Ukrainian territory, stated Volodymyr Zelensky during a visit to Vilnius.

Source: Военный обозреватель
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🌒@EastCalling

Defense contractors are perplexed by President Trump administration’s executive order outlining vague new rules for its weapons suppliers, unsure how to proceed and raising questions about its legality.

The executive order — echoing recent speeches delivered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — rebukes defense firms for stock buybacks, paying dividends to investors and high compensation for CEOs, rather than using profits to invest in plant capacity.

...

“If you’re trying to encourage more companies to get involved and be suppliers to the DOD, this is not the best way to do that,” one defense industry lobbyist told The Hill, referring to the Department of Defense. “Companies may not want to do business with DOD if they are subject to this. Plus, obviously it’s not legally enforceable to stop dividends and cap pay, so how do you enforce that?”

...

Trump in early January signed an executive order aimed at addressing cost overruns and delayed timelines in delivering weapons. He followed up with a lengthy Trump Social post that loudly declared “MILITARY EQUIPMENT IS NOT BEING MADE FAST ENOUGH!”

“Defense Contractors are currently issuing massive Dividends to their Shareholders and massive Stock Buybacks, at the expense and detriment of investing in Plants and Equipment,” the president wrote. “This situation will no longer be allowed or tolerated!”

He also claimed that defense executives must build new and modern production plants and, until they do so, should not be allowed to make more than $5 million dollars annually.

...

Bessent on Tuesday touched briefly on the timeline of the order, saying, “we can talk about removing those restrictions” once companies get to a normalized level of backlog, around two years or three years.

...

One company Trump singled out is RTX, calling it “the least responsive” and threatening to cut the firm’s government contracts if it didn’t spend more on plants and equipment. The contractor is the maker of Tomahawk cruise missiles, used in recent strikes in Nigeria and in Yemen against Houthi targets last year.

But Tomahawks take years to produce, with the company only churning out 50 or 60 annually, far below the hundreds the administration used last year alone.

“Either Raytheon steps up … or they will no longer be doing business with” the government, Trump said in a separate Truth Social post.
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This is the land of profits first. Defense contractors would rather sell costly, complicated, and fragile weapons systems that maximize their profits. Trump basically wants the defense industry to become the opposite of what it is. The current weapons systems that the US utilizes really can't be massively scaled up, truth be told. The production requires a massive amount to training for workers, advances specialties, and rare earth minerals that will mostly be sourced from China.

🌒@EastCalling

Via Ukrainian media:

Russians hit helicopters with "Shahed" drones in the Kropyvnytskyi area, reported Advisor to the Ukrainian Defense Minister Sergei Beskrestnov (Flash).

He publishes videos of the destruction of helicopters from Russian Telegram channels. The expert concludes that these are the first "Shahed" drones that were controlled via "Starlink".

"In the image, we see automatic target detection and manual guidance based on the image. But there was not a single UAV nearby to create a MES radio network. I conclude that we are observing the first use of "Shahed" drones with Starlink. These drones, under manual control, flew almost over the ground so as not to be detected by radars," writes Beskrestnov.

🌒@EastCalling

The Dutch newspaper De Limburger vividly illustrated Trump's "roller coaster."

🌒@EastCalling

Meanwhile in the temple of Democracy and freedom...

🌒@EastCalling

Military Chronicle:

A panorama of winter Kupyansk. Positional skirmishes continue in the city, with varying success for both sides. It's clear that there are almost no movements in the city's built-up areas, as it's practically impossible to gather a large enough group for an assault. Both on the Russian and Ukrainian sides, a large number of drones are flying over the city.

🌒@EastCalling

UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan received the special representative of the Russian President, Kirill Dmitriev, in Abu Dhabi.

"During the meeting, the parties discussed cooperation and joint work between the UAE and Russia, the possibilities of their development in various fields, including economics, investments and development, as well as a number of other topics of interest to both sides," reported the state agency WAM.

It is noted that Dmitriev also expressed gratitude to the UAE for holding trilateral negotiations with the participation of the USA, Russia and Ukraine on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.

Source: Izvestia
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🌒@EastCalling

Well, yes. Life must become better from now on.

🌒@EastCalling