I believe we’ve done everything right I just hope if he ever steps out of Russia he is arrested for war crimes, so in reality he is trapped in Russia for the rest of his days or until someone assassinates him.
Can't say I've seen the UN mentioned much at all from what I've read, it's always been NATO that Zelensky has asked for assistance from. The Ukrainian farmers have had more publicity than the UN I think.
The problem as i see it with the UN is that their hands are tied. Russia would have veto'd any vote. The UN probably needs to redraw it's charter/connstitution so that if any member nation is involved in a war then they are excluded from any votes related to that war.
Either scenario would suit me and l do think the answer lies with the Russian people Which makes it toothless
I was watching as a Dutch NATO E3 Sentry (out of Turkey) over Romania was being Joined by a Stratotanker out of Mildenhall. I was wondering if they were going to prod when the Sentry pulled away toward Moldova then disappeared off the track. It felt a bit like Hunt for Red October at this stage, but I didn't hear any singing! I presume it switched its transponder off and was wondering if this was normal procedure? From the tanker's flight trace it looks like the Sentry might have been topped up, but it still hasn't reappeared so I think it might have gone for a sneeky peek over Moldova or the Black Sea.
Depends. Flight trackers usually work on ADS B rather than transponder data. There are still some areas with no SSR (the radar that reads the transponder data) coverage. If the E3 is using its radar it has to be visible to controllers so they can avoid it. Presuming it's operating outside the restricted area of course....
Gone over the historical track now and here's the gen; At 10:30 (all times UTC) the Stratotanker entered theatre at 33,000ft and 478 knots then descended to 24,975ft at 405 knots. The Sentry was normal figure of 8 racetrack cruising at 31,975 ft at 415 knots then at 10:48 it came off racetrack track and down to 24,100ft at 428 knots then, after a couple of minutes its track overlay the Stratotanker which was just above (24,975ft at 404 knots). Then the Sentry's transponder track froze at 10:55 then it disappeared at 11:03 and the Stratotanker started a starboard turn at 11:04. The Sentry reappeared further south over the Carpathians at 11:47 (24,875ft at 308 knots) flying directly below, but on the reciprocal track to, the Stratotanker, which was flying at 24,975ft at 402 knots and had never dropped below 360 knots during the time the Sentry had disappeared. The Sentry increased speed up to 420 knots whilst climbing, then settled down to 340 knots at 34,000ft and then slowly increased to 460 knots in its patrol area. So the Sentry was off track for 44 minutes . My interpretation - the tanker's arrival was set up to look like the Sentry was taking on fuel. In reality the AWACS took a speedy dash over the Romanian border into Moldova and possibly even into Ukraine. It then returned to the Carpathians and settled down to appear right under the tanker but on a track that was supposed to make it look like it had been taking on fuel the whole time and was now resuming its normal figure of 8 patrol.
Now there's a Global Hawk UAV flying over the eastern Black Sea - about midway between Crimea's Kerch peninsula and Turkey.
Yes - but there is some disagreement about the meaning of the term drone. The basic meaning that is given is a craft without a pilot on board. However, some disagree and say that a craft that is remotely piloted is not a drone. Here they differentiate between a radio controlled aircraft which flown remotely but without onboard cameras or sensors, a craft that has onboard cameras and GPS but no other sensors and a craft that has cameras, GPS and additional sensors (eg airspeed, wind direction, temperature, fuel level, etc) which all transmit back to base where the controller(s) can make use of to truly pilot the craft. UAV = Unmanned Aerial Vehicle; it can be remote piloted or its entire flight can be pre-programmed and flown autonomously so some people say it is a drone, but some don't, arguing that it is a normal craft that is piloted remotely. You might think there is no difference, or importance, to the varying terminology but it caused ructions in Germany with. predominantly, the Greens arguing they were robots and as such Germany experienced a political block on buying armed drones.
OK, had a think about this and done some nosing about the UN charter, etc. My conclusion is that the UN cannot really do much. The UN General Assembly cannot order any military actions or peacekeeping operations, only the UN Security Council can do that. The UN response to the Korean War is a prime example of the type of action that can be ordered, but that was only passed because of special circumstances. The UN had recognised the Republic of China (Taiwan) as the China which was to occupy China's seat on the UN Security Council, the USSR (which, incidentally, had previously demanded that Ukraine was a separate country and so must have a separate seat at the UN) protested by not taking its permanent seat on the Security Council and the resolution was passed in its absence. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council had the USSR taken its seat then it could have used its 'veto' to stymie the resolution. This is the problem at the UN now, Russia just uses its 'veto' to halt any action being taken. I think that the current fuss at the UN about Russia being expelled from the UN Security Council (because no UN Procedures were followed when Russia were awarded the permanent seat of the USSR after the USSR was dissolved) is valid, but is taking too much time due to the legal issues involved. Moreover, doing this only feeds Putin's paranoia plus it gives him a propaganda weapon to convince the Russian population that the UN are a tool of NATO and they are trying to 'cancel' Russia. Ultimately this road leads to WW3 and the possibility of nuclear weapons being used. What I think we should be doing is getting the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution that no country can take its (permanent or elected) seat on the UN Security Council whilst it is in contravention of an agreed UN General Assembly Motion requiring them to cease armed operations and withdraw from an occupied or contested territory. This is eminently doable, given that the 11th Emergency Special Session resulted in 140 Member States voting to adopt the resolution (drafted by Ukraine and 90 co-sponsors) entitled Humanitarian consequences of the aggression against Ukraine – with 38 abstaining and five against. Only having done that would then be possible to get some real action voted through the UN Security Council. Putin would still moan and gripe but the critical difference would be that the suspension would be the result of normal UN procedures and not disqualification of Russia as a permanent member of the UN Security Council based on questionable retrospective legal interpretation. The trouble is that the UK and USA would themselves likely have fallen foul of this in the past (eg Iraq and Afghanistan) and could be used against the UK's position on the Falkland Islands so they might not want to go down this route.
Seems a pretty significant development if true. Ukrainian choppers attacking targets within Russia...
Should of done this earlier when it wasn’t expected, on all their gas plants, well done to them, hope they keep doing it
Residents in Belgorod are baffled. Russia has told the people that they shot down all Ukrainian choppers within 6hrs of the invasion...
