- Today’s D Brief: Ukraine liberates village, hits Russian warships; China investigates military chief; USAF seeks new drone bases; And a bit more. Defense One
- Ukraine claims to recapture Russian-occupied village south of Bakhmut CBS News
- Russian Brigade ‘in Tatters’ After Liberation of Andriivka: Ukraine Newsweek
- Ukraine’s Armed Forces storm and liberate Andriivka, have successes near Klishchiivka in Donetsk Oblast – General Staff report Yahoo News
- Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 569 of the invasion The Guardian
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: warships
Russia pauses grain deal after Ukraine strikes warships in Sevastopol
The Russian Foreign Ministry said separately that because of the attack it would “no longer guarantee the safety of civilian dry cargo ships participating in the Black Sea Grain Initiative and will suspend its implementation from today for an indefinite period.”
Britain responded to the drone attacks accusation by saying that Russia was making “false claims of an epic scale.” Ukraine did not officially claim responsibility for the attacks.
A video that emerged on Ukrainian Telegram channels on Saturday showed a naval drone targeting what appeared to be the Russian Admiral Makarov frigate. The Makarov had reportedly replaced the flagship of the Russian navy’s Black Sea fleet, Moskva, which sank in April after Ukrainian forces hit it with Neptune anti-ship missiles. The Washington Post was not able to independently verify the authenticity of this video.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the drone attacks were largely repelled, and only one minesweeper sustained minor damage.
Moscow and Kyiv signed the grain deal in July, opening up Ukrainian Black Sea ports for exports, which had been halted after Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24.
Turkey played a key role in brokering the deal, as it has close ties with Russia and Ukraine and has sought to raise its diplomatic profile to mediate the talks between warring sides.
As part of the deal, Ukrainian pilots guided ships through the port, which Ukraine mined earlier in the war to prevent Russia from capturing key ports like Odessa. The United States and Ukraine also accused the Russian navy of laying of mines near Ukrainian coast.
Then the ships were given safe passage by the Russian military to sail to Turkey, which organized teams with experts from all involved parties to inspect the vessels before they set off to their destinations. Ships going into Ukraine were also inspected for weapons, a condition Moscow set to ensure the grain corridor is not used to supply Western arms to Ukraine.
More than 8 million tons of grain were exported from Ukraine as part of the deal that saw global food prices go down, according to the United Nations.
“It is vital that all parties refrain from any action that would imperil the Black Sea Grain Initiative which is a critical humanitarian effort that is clearly having a positive impact on access to food for millions of people around the world,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, said in a statement.
Negotiations over an extension of the deal were strained even before the ship attacks, as Moscow has indicated it may back out of the deal after repeated complaints about its implementation.
In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin floated the idea of limiting the deal, saying that the goods went to the European Union rather than to poor countries experiencing dire food shortages.
Erdogan echoed Putin’s complaints, adding that he wants to see Russian grain exported too.
“The fact that grain shipments are going to the countries that implement these sanctions [against Moscow] disturbs Mr. Putin. We also want grain shipments to start from Russia,” Erdogan said at a news conference. “The grain that comes as part of this grain deal unfortunately goes to rich countries, not to poor countries.”
After the explosion on the strategic bridge linking Crimea with mainland Russia in early October, Putin speculated that the grain corridor might have been used by Ukrainian special services to attack the highly symbolic gateway. If proven, he suggested, it would jeopardize the agreement.
Later in October, Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said that ships under the Russian flag weren’t accepted in European ports due to sanctions and lamented difficulties in obtaining insurance and financing for Russian grain and fertilizer shipments.
Ukraine, in turn, accused Moscow of not fully implementing the deal. In one of his nightly addresses last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia was “deliberately delaying the passage of ships,” creating an artificial backlog of more than 150 vessels.
Zelensky said the situation with Ukraine’s food exports was becoming “more and more tense” and that Moscow was “doing everything to slow down” the process.
“I believe that with these actions, Russia is deliberately inciting the food crisis so that it becomes as acute as it was in the first half of this year,” Zelensky said.
Last week, Ukraine also accused Russia of blocking the full implementation of the deal, saying that the Ukrainian ports have recently been working at 25-30 percent of their capacity.
“Russia is deliberately blocking the full realization of the Grain Initiative,” the country’s infrastructure ministry said at the time.
In a Saturday tweet, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Moscow was using a “false pretext” to stop Ukraine from exporting its grain and other agricultural products.
“We have warned of Russia’s plans to ruin the Black Sea Grain Initiative,” Kuleba wrote. He also called on the world community to “demand Russia to stop its hunger games and recommit to its obligations.”
The head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, said that Moscow was engaged in “blackmail” using food products, energy, and nuclear materials, which he described as “primitive.”
David Stern contributed to this report.
US sends two warships through Taiwan Strait, first transit since Pelosi trip
The guided-missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville were on Sunday making the voyage “through waters where high seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” the US 7th Fleet in Japan said in a statement.
It said the transit was “ongoing” and that there had been “no interference from foreign military forces so far.”
“These ships (are transiting) through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state. The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows,” it said.
The strait is a 110-mile (180-kilometer) stretch of water that separates the democratic self-ruled island of Taiwan from mainland China.
Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan despite China’s ruling Communist Party never having controlled the island — and considers the strait part of its “internal waters.”
The US Navy, however, says most of the strait is in international waters.
The Navy cites an international law that defines territorial waters as extending 12 nautical miles (22.2 kilometers) from a country’s coastline and regularly sends its warships through the strait in what it calls freedom of navigation operations, including recent voyages by the guided missile destroyers USS Benfold and USS Port Royal.
Those transits drew angry responses from Beijing.
“The frequent provocations and showing-off by the US fully demonstrate that the US is the destroyer of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the creator of security risks in the Taiwan Strait,” Col. Shi Yi, spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command, said after the Benfold’s transit on July 19.
Beijing has ramped up military maneuvers in the strait — and the skies above it — following the visit by Pelosi to the island earlier this month.
Within minutes of Pelosi landing in Taiwan on August 2, the PLA announced four days of military exercises in six zones encircling the island.
The maneuvers included launching ballistic missiles into waters around Taiwan, numerous Chinese warships steaming in the Taiwan Strait and dozens of PLA warplanes breaching the median line — the midway point between mainland China and Taiwan that Beijing says it does not recognize but had largely respected.
Since those exercises officially ended, PLA warplanes have continued to cross the median line daily, usually in double-digit numbers, according to statistics from Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. From August 8, the last of the four days of drills announced the night Pelosi landed in Taiwan, through August 22, between five and 21 PLA aircraft crossed the median line each day.
In July, the month before Pelosi’s trip, Chinese warplanes crossed the median line just once, with an unspecified number of jets, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry.
In addition, Taiwan reports between five and 14 PLA warships have been seen in the waters surrounding Taiwan.
The PLA’s exercises have been continuing this week, part of what is normally a busy season for Chinese drills.
China’s Eastern Theater Command said on Friday it had conducted “joint combat-readiness security patrols and combat training exercises involving troops of multiple services and arms in the waters and airspace” around Taiwan.
That announcement came after US Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, became the latest member of Congress to visit Taiwan defying pressure from Beijing, saying, “I will not be bullied by Communist China into turning my back on the island.”
In tweets Friday morning, the US senator, who does not represent the Biden administration, reiterated her support for Taiwan.
“I will never kowtow to the Chinese Communist Party,” she said in one. “I will continue to stand with the (Taiwanese) and their right to freedom and democracy. Xi Jinping doesn’t scare me,” she added later, referring to China’s leader.
Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China, told CNN last week that Beijing’s response to the Pelosi visit to Taiwan has been “an overreaction.”
“We do not believe there should be a crisis in US-China relations over the visit — the peaceful visit — of the speaker of the House of Representatives to Taiwan … it was a manufactured crisis by the government in Beijing,” Burns said in an interview from the US Embassy.
It is now “incumbent upon the government here in Beijing to convince the rest of the world that it will act peacefully in the future,” the ambassador said.
“I think there’s a lot of concern around the world that China has now become an agent of instability in the Taiwan Strait and that’s not in anyone’s interest,” he said.
Other US officials had said Washington would not be changing the way the US military operates in the region.
“We’ll continue to fly, sail, and operate where international law allows, consistent with our longstanding commitment to freedom of navigation, and that includes conducting standard air and maritime transits through the Taiwan Strait in the next few weeks,” Kurt Campbell, US President Joe Biden’s coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, told reporters at the White House on August 12.
Chinese Ambassador to Washington Qin Gang said last week that the US transits only intensify tensions.
“I do call on American colleagues to exercise restraint, not to do anything to escalate the tension,” Qin told reporters in Washington. “If there’s any move damaging China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, China will respond.”
European drought unearths Nazi warships in Danube, historic ruins
A junior Serbian transport minister told local media there were around 10,000 explosive devices in the water.
Other ruins have also emerged around Europe as waters recede in the drought. In July, an ancient Roman bridge built during the first century B.C. was uncovered in the Tiber river, and in August, a village that had been deliberately flooded in 1963 to build a dam appeared from the Belesar Reservoir in Spain.
The village is one of several sites submerged under reservoirs in Spain. A ghost town that had been flooded to build a dam on Spain’s border with Portugal emerged in February, revealing houses with windows and walls still intact.
The drought has threatened shipping routes, food supply and electricity in Europe this summer. European Union researchers said earlier this month that nearly half of the continent is under “warning” conditions, which connote a severe drought and a major soil moisture deficit, The Washington Post has reported.
This is not the first time most of the sites and relics have poked out of the water. The Nazi ships, for instance, also made an appearance during a 2003 heat wave. But the severity of this year’s drought has made the waterways particularly difficult to navigate, as the sunken boats pose a danger to fishing and shipping vessels that have to skirt the hulks to get by. Ships now have to squeeze through a 110-yard stretch of the Danube, nearly half the available waterway they once had access to, according to Reuters.
Officials estimate it will cost some $30 million to remove over 20 ships, ammunition, and explosives, the newswire reported.
But the dry conditions have also given archaeologists and researchers a rare glimpse into the past and contact with ruins that are normally difficult to access.
Earlier this week, the unrelenting heat wave that left the Iberian peninsula drier than any time in the last 1,200 years also exposed dozens of prehistoric stones in a reservoir in central Spain.
The drought drained the reservoir to a fraction of its capacity, the Spanish government said, granting archaeologists precious access to the Dolmen of Guadalperal, believed to be from 5000 B.C. Known as the “Spanish Stonehenge,” in a reference to the prehistoric monument built in what is now England, the stones were first uncovered in the 1920s. The area where they stood was flooded in the 1960s to build a dam, and they have only been fully visible a handful of times since, according to the NASA Earth Observatory.
“It’s a surprise, it’s a rare opportunity to be able to access it,” archaeologist Enrique Cedillo, who is rushing to examine the relics before they become submerged again, told Reuters.
Matthew Cappucci contributed to this report.
Chinese and Taiwanese warships eye each other as drills due to end
TAIPEI, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Chinese and Taiwanese warships played high-seas “cat and mouse” on Sunday, hours before the scheduled end of four days of unprecedented Chinese military exercises launched in reaction to a visit to Taiwan by the U.S. house speaker.
Nancy Pelosi’s visit last week to the self-ruled island infuriated China, which responded with test launches of ballistic missiles over the island’s capital for the first time and the cutting of communication links with the United States.
Some 10 warships each from China and Taiwan sailed at close quarters in the Taiwan Strait, with some Chinese vessels crossing the median line, an unofficial buffer separating the two sides, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
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As Chinese forces “pressed” the line, as they did on Saturday, the Taiwan side stayed close to monitor and, where possible, deny the Chinese the ability to cross.
“The two sides are showing restraint, the person said, describing the manoeuvres as high seas “cat and mouse”.
“One side tries to cross, and the other stands in the way and forces them to a more disadvantaged position and eventually return to the other side.”
Taiwan said its shore-based anti-ship missiles and its Patriot surface -to-air-missiles were on stand-by.
The Chinese exercises, centred on six locations around the island, began on Thursday and are scheduled to last until midday on Sunday. China’s military said on Saturday it was conducting sea and air joint exercises north, southwest and east of Taiwan with a focus on testing land-strike and sea-assault capabilities.
The United States called the exercises an escalation.
“These activities are a significant escalation in China’s efforts to change the status quo. They are provocative, irresponsible and raise the risk of miscalculation,” a White House spokesperson said.
“They are also at odds with our long-standing goal of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, which is what the world expects.”
‘DAMAGING PEACE’
China halted communication through various channels with the United States as part of its response to Pelosi’s visit, including between military theatre commands and on climate change.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China of taking “irresponsible” steps and moving away from prioritising peaceful resolution towards the use of force. read more
A woman looks at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft flying over the 68-nautical-mile scenic spot, one of mainland China’s closest points to the island of Taiwan, in Pingtan island, Fujian province, China August 5, 2022. REUTERS/Aly Song
Taiwan’s military on Saturday said the Chinese ships and planes taking part in the drills were conducting a simulated attack on the island that China claims as its territory.
Taiwan’s defence ministry later said its forces scrambled jets to warn away 20 Chinese aircraft, including 14 that crossed the median line. It also detected 14 Chinese ships conducting activity around the Taiwan Strait.
The ministry released a photograph showing Taiwanese sailors closely watching a nearby Chinese vessel.
Taiwan’s forces on Friday fired flares to warn away drones flying over its Kinmen islands and unidentified aircraft flying over its Matsu islands. Both island groups are close to China’s coast.
“China’s military drills have unilaterally changed the current situation in the region and seriously damaged the peace in the Taiwan Strait,” the ministry said.
‘DON’T ACT RASHLY’
Pelosi, a long-time China critic and a political ally of U.S. President Joe Biden, arrived in Taiwan late on Tuesday on the highest-level visit to the island by an American official in decades, despite Chinese warnings. She said her visit showed unwavering U.S. commitment to supporting Taiwan’s democracy.
“The world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy,” she said. She also stressed that her trip was “not about changing the status quo in Taiwan or the region”. read more
Taiwan has been self-ruled since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s communists took power in Beijing after defeating Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang nationalists in a civil war, prompting their retreat to the island.
China says its relations with Taiwan are an internal matter and it reserves the right to bring the island under its control, by force if necessary. Taiwan rejects China’s claims saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
Speaking during a visit to the Philippines, Blinken said the United States had been hearing concern from allies about what he called China’s dangerous and destabilising actions but Washington sought to avoid escalating the situation.
He said China’s cessation of bilateral dialogue in eight key areas were moves that would punish the world.
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, told a media briefing on Friday that Blinken was spreading “misinformation”, adding: “We wish to issue a warning to the United States: Do not act rashly, do not create a greater crisis”.
China has not mentioned a suspension of military talks at the senior-most levels, such as with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley. While those talks have been infrequent, officials have said they are important in the case of an emergency.
Japan’s defence ministry said last seek that five of nine missiles fired toward its territory landed in its exclusive economic zone.
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Reporting by Yimou Lee in Taipei, David Brunnstrom in Manila, Brenda Goh in Shanghai, Meg Shen in Hong Kong, Jeff Mason in Washington; Additional reporting by Ryan Woo; Writing by Tony Munroe and Greg Torode; Editing by Robert Birsel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Turkey blocks warships from straits amid Russia-Ukraine crisis | Russia-Ukraine crisis News
Move comes after Ukraine asked Turkey to prevent the transit of Russian warships from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.
Turkey has barred warships from passing through the key straits of Bosphorus and Dardanelles in a bid to de-escalate the crisis over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The move on Monday came after Kyiv asked Ankara to activate a 90-year-old international pact and prevent the transit of Russian warships from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.
The Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits connect the Aegean, Marmara, and the Black Sea, the latter from which Russia launched an incursion on Ukraine’s southern coast.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that Ankara is activating the Montreux Convention and warning both Black Sea and non-Black Sea countries not to pass warships through the Turkish waterways.
The 1936 pact gives Turkey the right to bar warships from using the Dardanelles and the Bosporus during wartime.
“We have alerted both countries of the region and elsewhere not to pass warships through the Black Sea,” Cavusoglu said. “We are applying the Montreux Convention.”
It is not clear how much of an impact Turkey’s decision to close down the straits would have on the conflict. At least six Russian warships and a submarine have transited the Turkish straits this month.
Cavusoglu’s announcement came shortly after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government would use “authority given to our country by the Montreux Convention regarding maritime traffic in the straits in a way that will prevent the crisis from escalating”.
He reiterated that Turkey will not give up on its relations with either Russia or Ukraine.
“We will not compromise our national interests,” he said, “but we will not neglect regional and global balances. We say that we won’t give up neither Ukraine nor Russia.”
A member of NATO, Turkey has sought to balance its Western commitments as well as its close ties to Moscow, and until Sunday, had not described the situation in Ukraine as a war.
Erdogan on Monday said he considers “Russia’s attack on Ukrainian territory as unacceptable” and called for good faith negotiations from all sides.
Russia-Ukraine: Russian warships heading to Black Sea for naval drills: LIVE UPDATES
Russia ‘has all the chips’ in Ukraine standoff: McFarland
Rep. Rosendale introduces bill to block military assistance to Ukraine until US border is secured
FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., on Tuesday introduced legislation that would block security and military assistance to Ukraine until the U.S. southern border is secured — the latest example of Republican concern that Ukraine’s border security is being prioritized over American border security.
The Secure America’s Border First Act would prohibit the expenditure or obligation of military and security assistance to Kyiv until there is “operation control” of the U.S.-Mexico border – where the border crisis is moving into its second year.
There is growing concern in Washington D.C. about the Russian buildup of forces at the Ukrainian border. U.S. combat forces have arrived in Poland this week amid fears that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could see Kyiv fall within days.
But Rosendale’s bill seeks to bring attention back to the southern border, where there were 178,840 migrant apprehensions in December alone, capping a year that saw massive migrant numbers as well as drugs such as fentanyl pouring into the U.S.
Click here to read more on Fox News.
Russian warships heading to Black Sea for naval drills
Six Russian warships are currently heading to the Black Sea — which borders Ukraine
— for previously-planned naval drills, Reuters reports, citing the Russian Interfax news agency.
Moscow last month announced military exercises involving all of its fleets in the Pacific and Atlantic, according to Reuters.
The ships are expected to travel though Turkey’s straits today and tomorrow in order to enter the Black Sea, sources told the news agency.
Russia will pull troops from Belarus after exercises, Paris says
Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Moscow that the troops stationed in Belarus will be pulled back once their war-game exercises are completed.
Reuters reported that Putin did not mention the agreement after the marathon, seven-hour meeting with his French counterpart in the Kremlin on Monday. A French official told the news service about Moscow’s plan to pull back the troops. Macron’s diplomatic gamble to meet with Putin– who has clashed with Western countries– may have paid off.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Putin, told Tass, the Russian news agency, that there was never any talk of the soldiers staying in the country after the war games.
“No one has ever said that Russian troops will remain on the territory of Belarus, this has never been discussed,” Peskov said. “We are talking about allied exercises and, of course, it is understood that upon completion of these exercises, the troops will return to their permanent places of deployment.”
The deployment raised concerns that Russia could be planning an Ukraine invasion from multiple fronts. – Edmund DeMarche
Biden warns Nord Stream 2 pipeline will not be operational if Russia invades Ukraine
The United States and Germany announced their “united approach” to deterring further Russian aggression against Ukraine, with President Biden warning that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will not be operational if Russia follows through with an invasion of Ukraine.
Biden welcomed German Chancellor Olaf Sholz to the White House for his first official visit to Washington on Monday for what he described as a “very productive meeting” in which the two discussed their countries’ “shared values that shape how each of us approaches leadership.”
Both Biden and Scholz, during a joint press conference Monday, said they spent a significant amount of time discussing the situation between Russia and Ukraine, maintaining their preference to pursue a diplomatic approach to prevent an incursion.
Nikki Haley: Putin, dictators know Biden is ‘weakest president in history,’ so they want to act now
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and other autocrats know Joe Biden is “the weakest president in history” and therefore understand that if they want to take drastic actions like invading Ukraine, “this is the time to do it.”
Haley, a former South Carolina governor, told “Special Report” it was important for Biden to meet with Germany’s new left-leaning chancellor, Olaf Scholz – as Berlin is in a sensitive diplomatic position given its place in NATO and Western democracy while also being reliant on Russian energy.
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Chinese military builds dummy American aircraft carrier, warships
Satellite images from China’s northwest Xinjiang region appear to show a full-scale outline of a “Ford-class” aircraft carrier currently being constructed for the US Navy, and the shapes of at least two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers at a new target range complex in the Taklamakan Desert, according to the USNI, a private, non-profit, professional military association.
The complex has repeatedly been used for ballistic missile testing, according to USNI and Maxar Technologies, a space technology company.
“This new range shows that China continues to focus on anti-carrier capabilities, with an emphasis on US Navy warships,” USNI reported.
Militaries around the world regularly build mock-ups of real-world targets such as iconic landmarks, warships, and aircraft carriers.
China’s anti-ship ballistic missile programs are overseen by the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF). CNN has reached out to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of National Defense for comment.
In a news briefing Monday, Pentagon press secretary John F. Kirby said the US Defense Department was aware of media reports about the mockups but was instead focused on its own preparedness to support a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
“What we’re concerned about … is the increasing intimidation and coercive behavior of the Chinese military in the Indo-Pacific, and also the coercive tactics they’re using, even using economic tools around the world to bend other nations to their will or to their view of what’s in their best interest,” Kirby said.
“We’re focused on developing the capabilities, the operational concepts, making sure we have the resources and the right strategy in place so that we can deal with (China) as the No. 1 pacing challenge.”
According to the Pentagon’s latest assessment on China’s military and security developments, Beijing is rapidly expanding its arsenal and military capabilities.
In 2020 alone, the PLARF launched more than 250 ballistic missiles for testing and training — “more than the rest of the world combined,” according to the Pentagon.
The Pentagon report came amid heightened tensions over China’s military exercises in the Pacific, and was published hours after the most senior US general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley warned that China’s military progress amounted to “one of the largest shifts in global geostrategic power that the world has witnessed.”
A senior defense official briefing reporters on the report adopted a similar stance.
CNN has reached out to the Pentagon about the Maxar satellite images.
Beijing claims almost all of the vast South China Sea as its sovereign territory and has stepped up efforts to assert dominance over the resource-rich waters in recent years, transforming a string of obscure reefs and atolls into heavily fortified man-made islands and increasing its naval activity in the region.
Its territorial ambitions are contested by at least five other countries however, and have been rejected outright by Washington.
In August 2020, China launched a series of ballistic missiles into the South China Sea as tensions with Washington over the disputed waterway escalated. State media made several detailed references to the launches, involving DF-21D and DF-26 missiles — both of which have been touted in Chinese propaganda as highly accurate and able to hit ships moving at sea.
“China’s DF-26 and DF-21D are the world’s first ballistic missiles capable of targeting large and medium-sized vessels, earning them the title of ‘aircraft carrier killers,'” the state-run Global Times said at the time, citing military observers.
CNN’s Oren Liebermann and Brad Lendon contributed to this report.
Russian, Chinese warships hold first joint patrols in the Pacific
MOSCOW, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Russian and Chinese warships held their first joint patrols in the Western part of the Pacific ocean on October 17-23, Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Moscow and Beijing, which staged naval cooperation drills in the Sea of Japan earlier in October, have cultivated closer military and diplomatic ties in recent years at a time when their relations with the West have soured. read more
A group of naval vessels from Russia and China conduct a joint maritime military patrol in the waters of the Pacific Ocean, in this still image taken from video released on October 23, 2021. Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
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The naval manoeuvres have been closely watched by Japan which said earlier this week that a group of 10 vessels from China and Russia sailed through the Tsugaru Strait separating Japan’s main island and its northern island of Hokkaido. read more
“The group of ships passed through the Tsugaru Strait for the first time as part of the patrol,” Russia’s defence ministry said in the statement. The strait is regarded as international waters.
“The tasks of the patrols were the demonstration of the Russian and Chinese state flags, maintaining of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, and guardianship of the subjects of maritime economic activities of the two countries,” the ministry added.
Reporting by Polina Devitt
Editing by Peter Graff
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
World Of Warships Employee Suspended After Sending Abusive Message In Promo Code
This has not been a good month for World of Warships! Then again, running a shady monetisation scheme then having employees send an insulting message to a prominent streamer will do that to a game.
If you’re just joining us, last week many of World of Warships’ most prominent fans up and quit the game’s official community program over developer Wargaming’s increasingly shady use of random items and loot boxes. That would normally be the worst thing to happen to a game in a calendar month, but turns out Wargaming wasn’t done!
No, as PC Gamer report, an employee thought this would also be the perfect time to send an insulting message hidden in a promo code about a streamer (I’ll explain this in a minute) who has had a contentious relationship with Wargaming. That streamer’s name is Turry, someone who instead of leaving Warships’ community program voluntarily was actually kicked out for being critical of the developers.
The code, sent out as a freebie to some Russian fans watching a stream of the game, was “W0LAXU5FKUTURY5″, and it didn’t take long for English-speaking players to wonder whether the “FKUTURY” was actually saying “Fuck You Turry”. That question was soon answered by Wargaming themselves, who admitted it had been intentional. “This is unacceptable. We conducted an internal audit and found that this situation occurred due to the actions of a certain employee”, they said in a forum post originally in Russian, but sent in English to PC Gamer. “The employee was suspended from this job and the most stringent measures were applied to him according to the results of the audit.”
“On behalf of the entire World of Warships team, we apologize to the players, the viewers of Friday’s stream, and, most importantly, we apologize to @Turry. We made an unacceptable statement in your address and are fully aware of our responsibility.”
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As a further gesture, Wargaming then released another bonus code, this time for some in-game tokens, that read TURRYWEARESORRY.