Author: Steven Sahiounie

The breakaway eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk have been placed on high alert amid reports of hundreds of violations of the Minsk ceasefire by Ukrainian troops firing artillery, mortars, and anti-tank weapons across the line of contact over the past 48 hours. Authorities in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic have discovered an explosive device under a bridge being used by buses evacuating civilians from the region to Russia, a source affiliated with the security services has told Sputnik. The device was said to be found outside the town of Malogvardeysk, on route toward the Izvarino border post. This…

On February 19, a convoy of the US-led coalition was intercepted by soldiers from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) while moving in the northern countryside of al-Hasakah. The soldiers stopped the coalition’s convoy, which consisted of four Oshkosh M-ATV MRAP [Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected] vehicles, in the outskirts of the town of Tell al-Dahab. After a brief stand-off, the soldiers forced the convoy to retreat. The Syrian state TV shared footage showing US-led coalition armored vehicles only a few meters away from the SAA’s checkpoint on Tell al-Dahab entrance. This was the second such confrontation in less than a week. On February…

On February 19, warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out more than 70 airstrikes on ISIS’s areas of influence in Syria’s central region, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). The London-based monitoring group said that the airstrikes targeted hideouts of the terrorist group in the following areas: The outskirts of the town of al-Sukhnah in the eastern Homs countryside;The Hama-Aleppo-Raqqa triangle;The western desert of Deir Ezzor. According to the SOHR, this was the largest wave of Russian airstrikes to hit ISIS cells in central Syria in February. The previous wave of airstrikes on the region, which…

A shell has exploded in the Rostov Region of Russia, one kilometer away from the Russian-Ukrainian border. TASS reported that the explosion occurred in the morning of February 19 at about 4:00 Moscow time. The shell exploded near the village of Mityakinskaya in Tarasovsky district, 300 meters from a house. Employees of law enforcement agencies are working at the scene. There were no injuries or damage as a result of the shell explosion. Head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Bastrykin instructed to initiate a criminal investigation into the fall of a Ukrainian shell on Russian territory. UPDATE…

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) intelligence obtained a plan for a Ukrainian offensive operation against the republics, Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the DPR militia said on Saturday. “The purpose of the Ukrainian offensive operation is to ‘cleanse’ the territory of the people’s republics of the Russian-speaking population, squeeze it into the territory of Russia, and gain control over the entire territory of the people’s republics’,” Eduard Basurin said. “During the course of the hostilities, it is planned to encircle and block the large cities of Donetsk, Lugansk, Gorlovka and Alchevsk,” Basurin added. Kiev’s planned offensive involves…

The head of the Donetsk People’s Republic has called on all able-bodied men to stand up to “Kiev’s aggression” The leaders of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine have announced on Saturday that they have ordered the mobilization of all able-bodied men in response to claims of shelling along the frontline. “I urge compatriots who are in the [army] reserve to come to military enlistment offices,” DPR head Denis Pushilin said in a video address. “I call on all men in the republic capable of carrying arms to stand in defense of their families, their…

On Thursday, the Ukrainian army launched an attack against the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, with Donbass authorities warning that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could order a full-scale offensive against the republics at any time. Tensions are running high in the self-proclaimed Donbass republics, where thousands of people have had to leave their homes and are being evacuated to Russia due to constant shelling by Ukrainian forces. Kiev has repeatedly used 120mm mortars banned by the Minsk accord, against the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR). Over the past hours, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in…

On February 16, the Houthis (Ansar Allah) released footage showing the wreckage of a Chinese-made CASC Rainbow CH-4 combat drone of the Royal Saudi Air Force that was recently shot down by their air defenses. The CH-4 was flying over district of Harad on February 10 when the Houthis shot it down with an unidentified ground-to-air missile. The incident took place amid a heated battle in Harad between the Houthis and Saudi-led coalition proxies who were attempting to storm the district center. Houthi forces in Harad have been showing fierce resistance. As of February 17, the district center remains under their control. The…

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – Russia and Venezuela have reviewed plans for cooperation in the military sphere and agreed to boost it to protect peace and sovereignty in the South American country, President Nicolas Maduro said after a meeting with a Russian government delegation. He noted that Russia has Venezuela’s support “amid threats from NATO and the Western world”. “We have reviewed military cooperation [with Russia] and approved the direction for powerful military cooperation between Russia and Venezuela to protect peace, sovereignty, and territorial integrity”, Maduro said during a joint speech in Caracas with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov. The Venezuelan president also stressed…

Following the recent collision with a submarine of the US Navy in the territorial waters of the Russian Federation near Urup Island of the Kuril Ridge, the Russian military received U.S equipment at their disposal. On February 16, the Russian media reported that, a few miles from the Russian island of Urup, Russian sailors discovered a submarine simulator that was launched by the U.S. Virginia-class submarine on February 12. The U.S. submarine used a self-propelled simulator to split targets on radar and acoustic monitoring equipment and left the territorial waters of the Russian Federation at maximum speed. After imitating the course of…