Ukraine Notes - things are about to get really bad
I've been compiling this for over a week.
As always, under a cut.
A second American internet backbone provider to Russia, Lumen (formerly Century Link, which itself has quite a sordid history) is cutting service to Russia. An interesting point comes up: with the Russian economy in collapse, how will Russian ISPs continue paying backbone fees?
TikTok has suspended service in Russia, which is interesting since it’s Chinese.
Speaking of TikTok, apparently Russian TT influencers are being paid to spread Kremlin propaganda about the war. Which is interesting since TikTok has stopped service inside Russia.
Two major cyber security companies have stopped operations in Russia. The sad thing about this is it makes it easier for the Kremlin to spy on citizens. Avast is base in the Czech Republic, DigiCert is a website-certification company based in Utah.
All foreign gaming consoles - Xbox, Sony, Nintendo - have gone dark in Russia as the companies have shut down their network.
A very serious situation has started regarding Chernobyl. As you may know, the site is located close to the border with Belarus. Early in the invasion, a radioactive spike was registered with all of the troop and vehicle movement passing through the area and stirring up radioactive dirt, that spike is expected to dissipate and return to normal. The crew that continues to operate the facility has been operating under Russian guard, effectively hostages, since the beginning of the war. Their situation isn’t entirely known. Now, the facility has lost power. The incoming power lines have been casualties to fighting. Here’s the problem. On-site at Chernobyl are pools cooling radioactive fuel rods removed from the damaged reactor(s?). They require continuous water circulation and fans for air movement to keep them cool. No power: no pumps or fans. The situation is growing, shall we say, more heated. There is an increasing risk of another explosion. Ukraine’s defense minister claims that Russia is planning to carry out “some sort of terrorist attack at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor power plant” and blame Ukraine, according to a new piece at CNN. As they control the plant and the plant is without power, it would be pretty easy for them to do such a thing. This would be extremely bad news for Central and Eastern Europe, along with Europe as a whole.
Ukraine has cut half of the world’s neon supply, which is going to further cripple the chip manufacturing industry. Apparently this processing happens in their coastal ports immediately prior to shipping, and as those ports are under attack, no big surprise. I hope Russia is smart enough to declare those facilities no-attack zones. Neon gas has to be refined to 99.99% purity for use in lasers/chip making.
Russian television and media doesn’t show any of the devastation being caused by the invasion, it’s also grossly undercounting casualties. Severing the internet will make it harder for civilians to get accurate news. The massive use of rockets and artillery that. Russia is doing is pretty much in and of itself a war crime because against a city, they can’t be too tightly targeted, meaning you’re going to hit civilian non-military targets, greatly increasing civilian casualties. Meanwhile Putin’s people have negotiated safety corridors for people to flee cities that are under attack, then attacked those areas that they’d agreed not to attack! Let’s have some more war crimes!
Apparently Putin is a charter member of the IDGAF Club for Despots.
A big news item: following Microsoft, Red Hat, the biggest Linux vendor and a subsidiary of IBM, announced they are shutting down sales and service in Russia. IBM has done likewise.
Aeroflot, Russia’s state airline, has been banned pretty much around the world. The only place they’re flying these days is Belarus, a country that is also increasingly falling under sanctions, but no where near as onerously as Russia. Because of the economic lockdown, the denials are also encompassing spare parts and insurance, so soon, one by one, those planes are going to stop flying.
Russia is getting ready to start stealing intellectual property. With companies pulling out of Russia or stopping doing business there, they are passing laws saying it’s okay to reverse engineer or flat-out steal software from said companies. In the situation of Software As A Service, things like Microsoft Office Online, it’s a bit trickier, but when software is downloaded and just needs an activation, like Adobe products, it’s different. I can see some surreptitious vendor malware attacks being launched to destroy their installs, but maybe that’s just a fantasy.
That monster convoy that was heading to Kyiv that has been stalled for so long? Well, it is breaking up with units moving into the woods and artillery and rockets setting up into attack positions. It looks like the attack on Kyiv is going to be starting very soon. With Russia having no problem with indiscriminate targeting of civilian facilities, it will be a bloodbath.
I have been reading up a bit on the drone that the Ukraine military has been using. It’s a very capable unit, and they’re buying more. I hope they get them and the munitions in time to help them in this upcoming battle for their capital. You can read about it by going to Wikipedia, pull up the article on the Turkish Air Force, go down to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and click on Baykar Bayraktar TB2.
Or click here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baykar_Bayraktar_TB2
Very interesting craft.
As always, under a cut.
A second American internet backbone provider to Russia, Lumen (formerly Century Link, which itself has quite a sordid history) is cutting service to Russia. An interesting point comes up: with the Russian economy in collapse, how will Russian ISPs continue paying backbone fees?
TikTok has suspended service in Russia, which is interesting since it’s Chinese.
Speaking of TikTok, apparently Russian TT influencers are being paid to spread Kremlin propaganda about the war. Which is interesting since TikTok has stopped service inside Russia.
Two major cyber security companies have stopped operations in Russia. The sad thing about this is it makes it easier for the Kremlin to spy on citizens. Avast is base in the Czech Republic, DigiCert is a website-certification company based in Utah.
All foreign gaming consoles - Xbox, Sony, Nintendo - have gone dark in Russia as the companies have shut down their network.
A very serious situation has started regarding Chernobyl. As you may know, the site is located close to the border with Belarus. Early in the invasion, a radioactive spike was registered with all of the troop and vehicle movement passing through the area and stirring up radioactive dirt, that spike is expected to dissipate and return to normal. The crew that continues to operate the facility has been operating under Russian guard, effectively hostages, since the beginning of the war. Their situation isn’t entirely known. Now, the facility has lost power. The incoming power lines have been casualties to fighting. Here’s the problem. On-site at Chernobyl are pools cooling radioactive fuel rods removed from the damaged reactor(s?). They require continuous water circulation and fans for air movement to keep them cool. No power: no pumps or fans. The situation is growing, shall we say, more heated. There is an increasing risk of another explosion. Ukraine’s defense minister claims that Russia is planning to carry out “some sort of terrorist attack at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor power plant” and blame Ukraine, according to a new piece at CNN. As they control the plant and the plant is without power, it would be pretty easy for them to do such a thing. This would be extremely bad news for Central and Eastern Europe, along with Europe as a whole.
Ukraine has cut half of the world’s neon supply, which is going to further cripple the chip manufacturing industry. Apparently this processing happens in their coastal ports immediately prior to shipping, and as those ports are under attack, no big surprise. I hope Russia is smart enough to declare those facilities no-attack zones. Neon gas has to be refined to 99.99% purity for use in lasers/chip making.
Russian television and media doesn’t show any of the devastation being caused by the invasion, it’s also grossly undercounting casualties. Severing the internet will make it harder for civilians to get accurate news. The massive use of rockets and artillery that. Russia is doing is pretty much in and of itself a war crime because against a city, they can’t be too tightly targeted, meaning you’re going to hit civilian non-military targets, greatly increasing civilian casualties. Meanwhile Putin’s people have negotiated safety corridors for people to flee cities that are under attack, then attacked those areas that they’d agreed not to attack! Let’s have some more war crimes!
Apparently Putin is a charter member of the IDGAF Club for Despots.
A big news item: following Microsoft, Red Hat, the biggest Linux vendor and a subsidiary of IBM, announced they are shutting down sales and service in Russia. IBM has done likewise.
Aeroflot, Russia’s state airline, has been banned pretty much around the world. The only place they’re flying these days is Belarus, a country that is also increasingly falling under sanctions, but no where near as onerously as Russia. Because of the economic lockdown, the denials are also encompassing spare parts and insurance, so soon, one by one, those planes are going to stop flying.
Russia is getting ready to start stealing intellectual property. With companies pulling out of Russia or stopping doing business there, they are passing laws saying it’s okay to reverse engineer or flat-out steal software from said companies. In the situation of Software As A Service, things like Microsoft Office Online, it’s a bit trickier, but when software is downloaded and just needs an activation, like Adobe products, it’s different. I can see some surreptitious vendor malware attacks being launched to destroy their installs, but maybe that’s just a fantasy.
That monster convoy that was heading to Kyiv that has been stalled for so long? Well, it is breaking up with units moving into the woods and artillery and rockets setting up into attack positions. It looks like the attack on Kyiv is going to be starting very soon. With Russia having no problem with indiscriminate targeting of civilian facilities, it will be a bloodbath.
I have been reading up a bit on the drone that the Ukraine military has been using. It’s a very capable unit, and they’re buying more. I hope they get them and the munitions in time to help them in this upcoming battle for their capital. You can read about it by going to Wikipedia, pull up the article on the Turkish Air Force, go down to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and click on Baykar Bayraktar TB2.
Or click here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baykar_Bayraktar_TB2
Very interesting craft.