Shadow Warfare

Posted on by Thor

Forbes reported that 32 Russian helicopters have been shot down so far by Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion of it’s peaceful neighbor. NPR put that number at 125,  the BBC at 80, and Newsweek 77.

 I have been following Ukrainian Officer Starsky on Youtube. His footage of a KA52 Russian helicopter reminded me of a burnt out skeleton of a demonic beast. The KA 52 is touted by Russia as a helicopter that can not be destroyed. Ukrainians conscripts shot down the helicopter in Hostomel.

Non-state militias are set to play a larger and less supervised role as the conflict set to explode in the Donbas of Ukraine. The Wagner Group on the Russian side is a 6,000-strong mercenary force, which is usually based in Africa and is believed to be funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close links to Vladimir Putin.

About 1,000 Wagner Group fighters have been drafted in as part of the invasion. It was reported at the end of March that members of the group had been tasked with finding and assassinating the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. They failed. Though continuing to cause massive destruction among the civilian population, the Russian forces continue to fail on every front.

Up to 20,000 volunteers, from all over the world, have joined up to fight Russian invaders. The goal of these foreign fighters is to save people and save civilians. The bulk of thee foreign fighters come from the United States, United Kingdom and Georgia, which has also been invaded by Russia. Members of this legion were the first to confront Russians at the airport in Hostomel, in the Kyiv region. The top thing needed in Ukraine is a no fly zone to stop the constant airstrikes and ballistic missiles that are constantly battering civilian populations. Since they can not gain victory on the battle fields, the Russians indiscriminately kill civilians.

Bureaucrat at Work

Posted on by Thor

Putin is a bureaucrat. He was in the KGB agent but as a paper pusher in Dresden Germany. When the Berlin wall fell, and the Soviet Union collapsed, so to did his world view.

When he retreated back into Russia, he rose through the ranks as a very efficient bureaucrat.   Russia’s first president, Boris Yelsen, who was trying to bring democracy to the country, took Putin under his wing. Putin lied and claimed he had the same ambitions.

In 1999 Yelsen made Putin acting prime minister but by the end of his life realized he had made a mistake. Putin violently invaded invaded Chechnya. Television which supplied news to Russians became state run. Putin then was elected president.

In a small town of Beslov, terrorists took a school full of children hostage. If Putin negotiated he might loose his macho image. Putin’s tanks and troops surrounded the school. The army shelled the school. An explosion detonated in the school and there was chaos. Troops had rockets grenade launchers and flame throwers. Many children were burned alive. Corpses of children were stacked like fire wood. Over 320 people died, half of them children, but Putin’s strong man image remained.

Today over 103 children have died from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and that number is likely much higher. Frustrated by the military’s inept advance, he has taken to killing women and children. There are reports of troops cheering when a child is killed. They specifically target civilians trying to flee. 378,000 children in need of protection and assistance on Ukraine’s front line, according to the U.N.

Ukrainian President Zelensky‘s wife Olena said Putin’s troops were ‘consciously and cynically’ killing children. She highlighted the case of Alisa Hlans, 7, who was one of six people to die when her kindergarten in Okhtyrka was hit by a cluster bomb on the second day of the Russian invasion. Her grandfather had tried to shield her. He died in front of her and she was rushed to the hospital where she later died. Olena Zelenska has asked NATO to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine to ‘save our children, because tomorrow it will save yours’.

A father discovered his wife and children were dead when he saw a photo on Twitter of their lifeless bodies lying dead in the street after a mortar attack. Their suitcases were packed lying beside them since they were attempting to flee. He was in an eastern Ukraine city helping his ailing mother.

The report today is that Moscow’s forces bombed an art school in Mariupol where more than 400 people had taken shelter. There was no immediate word on casualties. Civilians from the devastated southern city were being forcibly transported to Russia.

Killing babies is Putin’s ongoing plan.

Russian Spike

Posted on by Thor

In Russia the COVID-19 spike in cases shows no sign of letting up. The daily COVID-19 cases and deaths in Russia remain at their highest numbers of the pandemic as of November 3, 2021 as more regions announced they were extending existing restrictions in an effort to tame the country’s  surge of infections.

Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 40,443 new confirmed cases from a day earlier. It was the fifth time in seven days that the country reported more than 40,000 infections. The task force also reported a daily record of 1,189 COVID-19 deaths. Some experts believe that those numbers a far under reported.

The United States is reporting over 76,000 daily cases with the downward trend now leveling off and going up again. On November 2, 2021 there were just over 1500 deaths in America. So if this were an arms race of COVID-19 cases and deaths, America is still winning.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered many Russians to stay off work between Oct. 30 and Nov. 7 2021. He authorized regional governments to extend the number of non-working days, if necessary. “One non-working week is not enough to break the chain of infection,” Tomsk governor Sergei Zhvachkin said. Many other regions are planning to extend the lockdown.

Russia has low vaccination rates, although the Sputnik V vaccine was the first in the world to be distributed. Put simply, Russian citizens do not trust the government since the vaccine did not undergo rigorous testing before it was offered to everyone. Russians also have lax public attitudes toward taking precautions. Less than 35% of Russia’s nearly 146 million people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged Americans to avoid traveling to a new batch of countries, including Russia and Belgium, because of high levels of COVID-19. Russia had the third-highest number of coronaviruses cases in the world over the past 28 days – more than 917,300 cases, according to John Hopkins data.

 

Sputnik V

Posted on by Thor

Russian President Vladimir Putin just approved a COVID-19 vaccine for use in tens of thousands of people, though it has not been thoroughly tested for effectiveness. One of Putin’s daughters had received the inoculation.  “She has taken part in the experiment,” Putin said, according to the Associated Press.

The vaccine was named Sputnik V, in reference to the world’s first artificial satellite, launched during the space race back in the 1960s. Putin said, “We must be grateful to those who made that first step very important for our country and the entire world,” Putin said in a cabinet meeting Tuesday morning, August 11, 2020 in reference to the vaccine developers. There is no published data from early human tests of the vaccine and no late-stage human trials currently underway. Early human tests of the Russian vaccine began in mid-June and included 76 participants, but no data from those trials has been released, according to The Associated Press. 

Scientists worry that there was no phase 3 clinical trial, which is the final stage of testing required for a vaccine to be approved. Phase 3 trials, which include thousands to 30 thousand volunteers, can compare rates of infection between those who are vaccinated and those who get a placebo. In other words, only phase 3 trials can demonstrate that a vaccine prevents COVID-19 infection.

Russia plans to begin such tests of its already approved vaccine on Aug. 12, 2020. Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, told reporters, according to The Associated Press. The phase 3 trial will include “several thousand” participants from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and possibly Brazil, Dmitriev said. But before any data from that trial becomes available, Russia will offer the vaccine to tens of thousands of people, he added. “People outside of clinical trials will have access to the vaccine in August, and some, already on a massive scale, in October,” Dmitriev said.

Without phase 3 data, however, there’s no way to know the vaccine will protect most people who receive it; in addition, rare side effects associated with the vaccine may only emerge as more and more individuals get the injection. Despite not sharing solid proof that its vaccine is both safe and effective, Russia has reportedly received requests from more than 20 countries for access to Sputnik V, Dmitriev said, according to Reuters.

It will be made available first Russia’s front line public-service workers, such as medics and teachers, before being released to the general public, said Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko. Medics could have access to it as early as late August or early September, according to the agency.

In testimony to a congressional committee on July 31, 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, “I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing the vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone. Because claims of having a vaccine ready to distribute before you do testing is, I think, problematic at best.” according to CNN. Fauci added that he remained optimistic that the US would be able to produce its own vaccine by the end of the year, while not cutting corners with safety standards.

Researchers around the world are developing more than 165 vaccines against the coronavirus, and 30 vaccines are in human trials. Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists are racing to produce a safe and effective vaccine by next year. Some trials will fail, and others may end without a clear result. But a few may succeed in stimulating the immune system to produce effective antibodies against the virus.

In he United States, Moderna is developing vaccines based on messenger RNA (mRNA) to produce viral proteins in the body. They have yet to bring one to the market. In partnership with National Institutes of Health, they found that the vaccine protects monkeys from the coronavirus. In March, the company put the first Covid-19 vaccine into human trials, which yielded promising results, After carrying out a Phase 2 study they launched a Phase 3 trial on July 27. The final trial will enroll 30,000 healthy people at about 89 sites around the United States. The government has bankrolled Moderna’s efforts with nearly $1 billion in support. There will be results from the Moderna study in the first quarter of 2021 at the earliest.

President Donald Trump says he’s “optimistic” that his “Operation Warp Speed” program might have a vaccine ready around Election Day, and it “wouldn’t hurt” his chances against former Vice President Joe Biden. But having a vaccine available for widespread public use before 2021 is unrealistic, according to public health experts, including the Coronavirus Task Force’s Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The Soviet Union vaccine announcement was a political PR stunt to be the first to offer a virus even if it isn’t safe or effective. Trump has already floated the idea of using disinfectants to battle the virus so it isn’t far fetched to speculate that he might also force an untested vaccine to market to help his re-election results. He doesn’t care if the voters are alive after the election.