There are more and more problems in NATO because of supplies to Ukraine. Many Western countries that flooded Kyiv with weapons faced a shortage of artillery ammunition.
Extracts translated from RIA Novosti

The situation is aggravated by the shortage of raw materials. Germany imports cotton lint necessary for the production of shells from China, and in early December, for unknown reasons, the PRC delayed sending the next batch. Moreover, the Bundeswehr admitted that in recent months the lead time for this material has tripled.

The Americans handed over a million 155-mm shells to Kyiv. The Pentagon's army warehouses were noticeably empty. As a result, only 21,000 pieces of ammunition for M777 howitzers were sent to Kyiv in November, although in the summer they were transferring from 75,000 to 120,000 per month.

The United States is trying to urgently correct the situation. The Pentagon recently placed two government orders for 155mm munitions. New production lines will open in Texas and Ohio.

The American army promised to reach 20 thousand shells per month by spring, by 2025 – up to 40 thousand. It is unclear, however, how much this will help the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which fire up to ten thousand NATO-caliber shells per day. Russian artillery along the entire line of contact on average spends three times more.
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The draft US budget for 2023 banned the allocation of funds for the national battalion "Azov"

WASHINGTON, December 20 – RIA Novosti. The published draft US budget for 2023 prohibits allocating money to the Ukrainian nationalist Azov Battalion.
Back in 2015, Congress adopted an amendment prohibiting funding this formation, but there was no such wording in the law on additional appropriations for Ukraine for 2022.

#TransFormatorBuzzes 💤 :
So, Azov is not in favour any more? May that also happen to someone else?
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The process has begun: Russia and India will create an independent tanker fleet

MOSCOW, December 20 - RIA Novosti. In order to send even more fuel to the new key consumers that have replaced Europe and not lose profits, Moscow offered to help Delhi with the lease and purchase of oil tankers. Indeed, our own transport, including sea transport, is essential in the new realities.

"Absorbing" volumes
The price ceiling introduced on December 5 by the G7, the European Union and Australia has had no effect on Russia's Asian partners. Chinese traders are working as usual, private refineries, the so-called samovars, have purchased batches of Russian ESPO oil for delivery in December-January and an increased discount to the benchmark Brent. The number of transactions continues to grow.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), since February, India has increased purchases by 36 times – from 30,000 to 1.08 million barrels per day – and even overtook China (830,000 per day). The total flow of fuel to Asia has tripled to 2.5 million barrels. A third is taken out of Russian ports by tankers that hide the destination.

As a result, according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea, the share of China and India in sea exports of crude oil from Russia reached 68 percent. "Asian giants swallowed up European barrels almost completely," analysts stated.
The G7 Price Cap Mechanism, which controls access to insurance and transportation services, provides for a transitional period of 45 days for ships loaded before December 5 and unloaded at the port of destination before January 19. Consumers use this window. Moreover, according to industry sources, Indian refineries signed contracts for even larger volumes in advance in anticipation of possible failures.

“We are not asking our companies to buy Russian oil specifically. We are asking them to focus on the best available offer,” said Indian Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar.

Reducing dependance
However, the routes became much more complicated, which led to an increase in freight rates. In addition, Western companies refuse to insure carriers.

"It is necessary to change the routes of about half of the two million barrels per day. A shortage of ships is inevitable," the S&P Global rating agency indicated.
“Oil from Russia is exported mainly on foreign tankers. Under the conditions of insurance sanctions, raw materials are actually delivered at the risk of shippers and consumers. If the tanker crashes, no one will compensate for the losses,” explains Leonid Khazanov, an independent industrial expert.
The Federation of Indian Exporters has long pushed for a reduction in dependence on Europeans. The government was required to develop its own shipping lines and stimulate the production of shipping containers. "The rise in freight costs in global companies creates serious problems," market participants complained.

Delhi will continue to buy as much oil as it wants, including at a price above the one set by the G7. Plus India will achieve complete independence from Western insurance, financial and transport services.

#India
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"Transneft" has received applications from Germany and Poland for the supply of oil through the Druzhba pipeline for 2023

This was stated by the head of Transneft Nikolai Tokarev, recalling that earlier Berlin and Warsaw announced the rejection of Russian energy.

“They announced that they would not take oil from Russia from January 1. And now we have received applications from Polish consumers: “Give us 3 million tons next year.” And for December 360 thousand tons. Germany has already applied for the first quarter (2023)," Tokarev said in an interview with Russia-24 TV channel.

#TransFormatorBuzzes 💤 :
It looks like not just India and China are buying Russian oil...
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Former Trump adviser, US Army Colonel Douglas McGregor

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Translated from Ukrainian channel:
"80% of the Kiev region without light, the situation is critical," the head of the region Kuleba.

The most difficult situation in Buchan, Vyshgorod, Obukhov and partially Fastovsky districts.

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Millions of lives. Billions of dollars.
All this is called "Democracy".

"Democratic countries do not invade anywhere, do not harbor terrorists and do not use weapons of mass destruction" - Condoleezza Rice.

Ka-52 attack helicopter crews strike at AFU strongpoints and armoured vehicles

🚁 In the course of the combat missions, the army aviation pilots launched unguided aerial missiles at the detected fortified points and areas of concentration of the enemy's manpower.

Army aviation during the special military operation performs the tasks of escorting convoys, destroying armoured vehicles, delivering airborne troops and military supplies, as well as air support to units.

🔹 @mod_russia_en

Translated from Sergey Kim
December 18 at 09:59
News from the front
(Personal)
Hi, 87 days have passed since I was mobilized, and for 54 days now I have been in the SVO (Special Military Operation) zone.

Everything is fine with me, the situation is calm... As far as possible, of course. At the village where we are based, mortars are fired from time to time, but you quickly get used to it, and as the worst, shrapnel falls behind the fence. You also can get used fast for our artillery to work, however, it does not work as powerful and accurate as they say in the news.

The "Bars 65" battalion which we were destined to, unfortunately, was disbanded and we were sent to make up for the combat losses of the active units.

Of course, I will not name my current unit, how and where exactly we are based. For all understandable reasons. But I still remained a machine gunner, if anything. And if anything, we are in the DPR.

I haven’t been in battle yet, but I met my birthday in a trench on the front line in a forest belt, where a neutral zone already began behind minefields, and then enemy positions a couple of kilometers away.

Of course, this war is going on in a completely different way than it is beautifully broadcast in the news. It is fatigue, dirt and cold. There is no romance at all, and whoever is thinking of volunteering or on a contract here, I advise you to think a hundred times. Disappointed. Better stay with your families, they need you more. One person here will make little difference, unless a specialist with combat experience.

Most of all, I want to go home. Me too...probably. My situation is a little unusual, of course – friends, acquaintances, relatives remained at home... But after the death of my mother, I still feel a little lonely, and now my family is my comrades in arms. Some of them, alas, are no longer alive. I have been going to the decision to go to the army for a long time, and others should think – my choice was only mine.

The supply and equipment of the "second army of the world", frankly, is not brilliant. That may probably be understood based on how much volunteers are collecting for various equipment. The weapon is in good working order, often new from conservation, but it doesn’t even smell of high-tech. The bulletproof vest that we were given before the summer was heavy, held bullets well, but very open and almost did not protect against shrapnel. And shrapnel wounds here are 90% of all wounds, if not even 99%. I found myself a "Ratnik" body armor, but I was lucky. Almost no one wears a winter statutory uniform either – everybody equips themselves at their own expense. There are few thermal imagers, there are copters, but also not many. Autumn boots, however, not fully suitable, but you can use them. I wear them around, because there is a terrible mud all around and it’s a pity to walk in good boots just like that.

Things are better with water and food, but we still buy more at our own expense. Purely on the official supplies, such as pates and soups in three-liter jars, you won’t last long.

Money is paid on time, they pay what has been promised. But that is for the mobilized – contract soldiers are sometimes experiencing delays.

Holidays are also almost non-existent. Very few and only contract soldiers are being released, but many of then simply do not return here for whatever reason. As for the mobilized, there is generally nothing at all.

Therefore, in general, the mood of everyone is not decadent, but dreary – the routine of such a war is addictive. As we stand now, you can stand for a year, or ten years.

If you hear here some notes of pessimism, it just seems to you. It’s just that you don’t need to fall into a patriotic frenzy. The boys are working, there is still a lot of work. Divide any info by ten – both victorious and defeatist. Not everything is so good, but not everything is so bad. Better read books. Eventually, I can sit down and read, which I have long put aside...
(hopefully, to be continued)
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Ukraine has recently made a great contribution to science, this achievement actually baffles researchers and observers throughout the whole world, as there is yet to be an explanation for it.

Pavel's classical conditioning theory, which earned him a Nobel Prize, bluntly states that creatures will tend to associate positive things with an object or an action, while they will associate negative things with a negative action or an undesirable object, therefore, creatures and animals tend to avoid the negative action to prevent the rise of the undesirable object or punishment

Ukrainians recently broke this law of nature and pyschology - everytime they do a negative action (bomb civilians, schools, and commit terror attacks inside Russia), and they get a punishment (their electrical grid going to shit and massive air strikes), they repeat the same action, and get punished over and over again, a pure animal with instincts would've known already to avoid doing what caused the punishment, but apparently the nationalist Ukrainian is a level beneath animals.

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President Putin talked with Donetsk region governor Denis Pushilin today.
Putin: As for the shellings, I understand that the AFU shells fall directly on the residential quarters of Donetsk?
Pushilin: Yes, purposeful work on civilian areas. Only in Donetsk city from the 2nd to the 18th, 21 people were killed, 94 were injured.
Putin: Are these civilians?
Pushilin: Absolutely. I request an increase in modern air defense systems and the strengthening of our artillery, this will allow us to push back the enemy. The enemy doesn't stop at anything.
Putin: And no foreign media, human rights organizations will raise their voices about this.
Pushilin: We have been living like this since 2014. Double standards, as if we don't exist. Now the West has confirmed that there can be no trust in them. The ex-Chancellor of Germany admitted this.
Putin: They said that they were not going to do anything. And they signed Minsk only in order to gain time for arming Ukraine and conducting a military operation.
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The US Congress is waiting for Zelensky on Wednesday, according to the American edition of Punchbowl News

It looks like Zelensky is flying to personally thank the American taxpayers and motivate Congress for new assistance. We'll find out tomorrow.
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Good night 💤

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Providing US Patriot missiles could transform Ukraine’s defences. But it’s a move with risks
Jack Wartling for the Guardian

The Biden administration has crossed a new line in its support for Ukraine, by indicating its willingness to send Patriot air and missile defence systems to aid in the war against Russia. The system – which includes powerful missile interceptors and radar – is likely to prove highly effective for Ukraine, and marks a significant step forward in the scope and complexity of the US’s support. But the gift of such prestige systems will present longer-term challenges for Nato.
...
Ukrainian armed forces’ consumption of ammunition significantly exceeds the available supply, and their artillery is wearing out barrels faster than they can be replaced. The hollowing out of Nato’s defence industries has left the alliance in poor shape to support sustained high-intensity operations. In the case of systems such as Patriot, the challenge is greater because it takes much longer to manufacture precision weapons such as air defence missiles than it does to make unguided artillery rounds.
...
#TransFormatorBuzzes 💤 :
Well, there are two aspects to the whole story, which becomes especially important given the fact that Zelensky is already in the USA, begging for more money and weapons. The first is that there is no such a thing like 100% efficient air-defense system. Certainly, Americans are keen to test it in a real combat situation with a competent adversary, though simultaneously they are running the risk of set-backs that may negatively affect their image. Second aspect is something that you would not expect... Russian military were trained to deal with "Patriot" for all the time the system is being used. There were some indications, that they can do it better, than counteracting the Soviet made S-300, which were presenting the bulk of Ukrainian air-defense and are much depleted now.

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Read the complete version here ⬇️

French intelligence spoke about the strength of Russia
French spy Juillet: It's time for the West to stop thinking that Russia's forces are running out

MOSCOW, December 21 - RIA Novosti. The West should stop entertaining the illusion that Russia is running out of power and the Ukrainians are doing just fine, Alain Juillet, the former head of France's economic intelligence service, told Mondafrique.
"We need to stop fantasizing. Europeans often take their desires for reality. They forget one thing: these people, whether Russians or Ukrainians, are great at fighting because they are very brave. <...> They are real warriors," the publication leads expert statement.
At the same time, according to him, it was the United States that provoked the conflict in Ukraine and did everything to involve Russia in hostilities.
This, in his opinion, explains the fact that the American intelligence services were the only ones who warned about the risk of military operations before February 2022. The doubt of European intelligence about the possibility of an armed conflict in Ukraine last winter was the result of distrust of the Americans, who "regularly lie", the post says.

According to Juillet, in 2014 and 2015, France and Germany were well aware that US actions in Ukraine threatened a full-scale conflict between the pro-Russian and pro-Western populations.

"What happened next? We were unable to achieve the implementation of the first and second Minsk agreements, because the Americans, together with NATO, put pressure on the Ukrainians, who seized power in Kyiv. From that moment on, we lost our footing, and our special services could only watch what happens from the outside, but do not interfere," he said.
#TransFormatorBuzzes 💤 :
Apart from trying to whitewash their own failures, the blaming of Americans appears natural for a French officer...
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Russia and India are moving away from the dollar and the euro in mutual trade

MOSCOW, December 21 - RIA Novosti. Russia and India are switching to national currencies in mutual trade, Zamir Kabulov, director of the second department of the Foreign Ministry, told RIA Novosti.
"We are fundamentally moving away from the dollar and the euro, we must switch to national currencies," the diplomat said.
He added that for a full-fledged transition, the issue of the remaining imbalance in trade operations must be addressed.
“India still buys more than five times more than it sells from us. <...> Specialists are working on this, looking for a reasonable compromise,” Kabulov concluded.

In early November, the Indian government allowed the use of the national currency in international trade settlements. Last week, the CEO of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations, Ajay Sahay, announced that the country would start using the rupee in settlements with Russia this year.

According to the Indian Express, India intends to double the volume of trade with Russia, using, in particular, the national currency.
#India
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Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament Kever called the West's plan to turn Ukraine into a military base a mistake

MOSCOW, December 21 - RIA Novosti. The Western world has made a serious mistake in the situation with Ukraine, Laszlo Kever, speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly, said on the air of the InfoRadio radio station.
"The West made a strategic mistake when it tried not only to take Ukraine out of Moscow's sphere of interest, but also to turn it into a large military base aimed at Russia," he said.

According to the politician, sanctions have harmed Europe much more than Russia.
"As the sanctions policy began, it became more and more obvious that there were efforts, not necessarily European initiatives, of which the European political elite for some reason became enthusiastic supporters: to destroy Russia economically, politically, in every sense, separate from Europe in order to create a new Iron Curtain", Kever added.
At the same time, he stressed that Budapest stands for the sovereignty of Ukraine.
The armed conflict should be resolved as soon as possible, and then a new European security system should be created, in which the interests of all countries of the continent will be fairly taken into account, the head of parliament concluded.

#TransFormatorBuzzes 💤 :
That is a rare occasion when a politician demonstrates some common sense while in office, not right after retirement and becoming just another "ex". But that is Hungary...
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