US biolabs violate safety rules – Russian Defense Ministry

Chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov
©Dmitry Kharichkov/TASS

Breaches of safety rules were documented in high-security laboratories at universities of Washington, Minnesota and Illinois, Chief of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said on Saturday ahead of the Ninth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).

"Research conducted in high-security laboratories (BSL-3 and BSL-4) at the universities of Washington, Minnesota, and Illinois resulted in internal laboratory infections and increased the risk of further spread of genetically modified viral fever pathogens, severe acute respiratory syndrome, highly pathogenic avian influenza, and other infections," Kirillov said.

The general said that it was the conclusion of the US journal The Intercept, which in early November, under the US Freedom of Information Act, analyzed the data from the National Institute of Health related to safety breaches in biolabs in the US. In the past 18 years, more than 5,500 pages of incident reports were examined.

A high risk of accidents in the US biological laboratories has triggered their relocation to third countries, including Ukraine, Chief of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said on Saturday ahead of the Ninth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).

"The high risk of accidents in US biolaboratories is one of the reasons for their withdrawal from national jurisdiction and transfer to the territory of third countries, including Ukraine and other post-Soviet states. This explains the worsening of the epidemic situation in their locations and the emergence of diseases and their vectors that are not typical of these regions," he said.

There is no control over private biological laboratories in the United States despite the fact that they carry out research with highly dangerous pathogens, Chief of Nuclear, Kirillov.

"I would like to point out that in the US, the system for controlling safety violations in biolaboratories is decentralized and covers only facilities that receive federal funding. There is little or no oversight of private laboratories, even though they conduct research with highly dangerous pathogens. The lack of uniform standards for such facilities creates risks of bypassing the BWC and grossly violating biosafety requirements," Kirillov said.

US military bio-research violates international law

The United States is reported to have 336 bio-labs in 30 countries, including 26 in Ukraine. Media reports also say that the research the biological laboratories funded and controlled by the US in Ukraine conducted could be behind the increase in the number of cases of diphtheria, rubella, tuberculosis and measles in the country since 2014. Besides, the World Health Organization has included Ukraine in the list of countries with a high risk of a polio outbreak.

The Russian Defense Ministry claims the documents it has acquired from the personnel of a bio-lab in Ukraine show that the US and its NATO allies have been conducting research on biological weapons, including the highly infectious bird flu virus which spreads through migratory birds, and pathogens such as bacteria and viruses that can be transmitted from bats to humans.

The bio-labs in Ukraine, according to some reports, have been working to develop components of biological weapons, just like what Japan's Unit 731 did before and during World War II.

Japan's use of chemical and biological weapons in China caused the deaths of about 1.2 million Chinese people between 1932 and 1945. The US acquired and utilized the research materials and personnel of Japan's Unit 731, and used such weapons in Korea (during the Korean War－1950-53), Vietnam, the Middle East and Kosovo, poisoning and killing millions of people after World War II.

The international community reached a consensus on banning the use of biological weapons after World War I, during which Germany, the United Kingdom and France used such weapons, leading to heavy casualties. The ban was reinforced in 1972 and 1992 with the prohibition on the development, production, stockpiling and transfer of biological weapons.

The 1925 Geneva Protocol is the first international pact that banned the use of asphyxiating, poisonous and other gases, and bacteriological weapons in war. The Biological Weapons Convention or the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention of 1972 moved further toward the total elimination of such weapons by prohibiting their development, production, stockpiling, acquisition, retention, transfer, and their delivery systems, as well as requiring their destruction.

The BTWC supplements the 1925 Geneva Protocol. And the Chemical Weapons Convention, concluded in 1992, extended the prohibition to the development, production, stockpiling, retention and transfer of chemical weapons, and their delivery systems. The CWC also requires such weapons to be destroyed.

And the US has ratified all these conventions and agreements.

The US military's bioresearch in Ukraine and other countries violates the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the BTWC, which are an important part of the international law to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. And as a pillar of international peace and security, the BTWC has the support of an overwhelming majority of the countries in the world.

The state parties to the BTWC have ensured that it remains effective and is continuously strengthened. However, the US refuses to allow international monitoring of its weapons research facilities, and has not stopped research into biological and chemical weapons. In 2001, the US unilaterally withdrew from the negotiations on the development of an additional protocol to the BTWC, according to which an independent body, the "Technical Secretariat", was supposed to monitor the microbiological research activities of all countries.

The US military used on its own territory a combat biological formulation of anthrax strain, Ames strain, resistant to all antibiotics and not amenable to treatment, according to the Russian Academy of Sciences. Worse, the US has been blocking the establishment of the BTWC's verification mechanism for more than 20 years.

It is clear therefore that the US resorts to double standard on bioresearch, as it does on many other issues of global concern. And yet it made outlandish accusations against China that the novel coronavirus had leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology without providing any evidence.

Moreover, US President Joe Biden ordered a 90-day review by US intelligence agencies even after the WHO report on COVID-19 concluded that a lab leak was "extremely unlikely". On the other hand, the US has not accepted an international investigation into Fort Detrick, a US military lab where research on coronaviruses had been going on for years.

In July 2019, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered a halt in research work at Fort Detrick in Maryland after a respiratory disease of unknown causes broke out in a community near the lab and several thousand cases of pneumonia with symptoms similar to those of COVID-19 were reported in several states in the US.

The US rejected reports that it has been developing and possesses chemical and biological weapons and that the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic could be linked to its military bio-labs. As a party to the BTWC and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the US is obliged to comply with the BTWC and international law. So it should not only abide by the BTWC and other international conventions but also allow global investigation into its biological facilities.

The author is a research fellow with the Institute of International Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Lab-made hybrid version of coronavirus created at Boston University - Russian Defense Ministry

©AP Photo/Thibault Camus

A hybrid version of coronavirus, which fuses an Omicron version with a virus of the Wuhan strain, was developed by researchers at Boston University in October, Chief of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said at a briefing on Saturday ahead of the Ninth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).

"In October, Boston University developed a chimeric coronavirus based on the Omicron variant and the original 'Wuhan' strain. The hybrid virus developed by the Americans killed 80% of the infected lab animals causing atypical neurological symptoms and significant lung injury," Kirillov said.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has ruled to investigate the activities of the university management. Nevertheless, according to Kirillov, the ‘Boston experiment’ shows that the United States lacks the government control over the genetic engineering and synthetic biology research.

"Despite high biological risks, the research was conducted with US government funds, but without proper authorization by the national biosafety and biosecurity watchdog," he said.

Papers prove US worked on pathogens in Ukrainian labs - Russia Defense Ministry

The papers made available to the Russian Defense Ministry disclose cooperation between Kiev and Washington, as well as attempts to establish control over pathogens in Ukrainian laboratories, Chief of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said on Saturday ahead of the Ninth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).

Kirillov pointed out that the US Department of Defense concealed the activities of its Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) from Americans, deleting the information about the research results obtained in Ukraine from their reports.

"The disclosed papers again indicate Kiev-Washington cooperation, as well as attempts to create pathogen control in Ukrainian laboratories by installing the PACS system, portions of which were provided to Ukraine under the ‘US government property’ sign," Kirillov said.

"This corresponds to the materials we have at our disposal, which include the project registration card and contract documents approved by the Ukrainian Economy Ministry," he added.

He recalled that the PACS system made it possible for the Pentagon to track in real time the whereabouts and use of highly dangerous pathogens in laboratories all over the world, and to get access to results of "ethically and legally ambiguous experiments.".

Lavrov says Ukrainians will be liberated from neo-Nazi rulers

©Russian Foreign Ministry Press

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said in a documentary aired on Saturday that Ukrainians deserve friendly relations with their Slavic brothers and will be liberated from neo-Nazi rulers.

"The Ukrainian people will be liberated from neo-Nazi rulers. It deserves to live in good neighborliness, friendship, prosperity next to its Slavic brothers," he said in the film aired by the Rossiya-24 television channel.

Lavrov has collaborated with a documentary on the Russian television channel24 –entitled ‘Nazism under investigation– where he has stressed that Ukraine’s plans to regain control over Crimea and Donbas will not come to fruition.

In this sense, Lavrov has criticized Zelenski for, he says, ignoring the history of these territories, especially Crimea, and has taken the opportunity to ridicule the president by slipping that while events were taking place on the peninsula he was acting in ‘The Club of the Alegre and Ingenious’, a humor program

On February 24 Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. The West subsequently imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia and stepped up the shipment of weapons to Kiev, which are worth billions of dollars.

Russian forces destroy 2,565 Ukrainian drones during special operation

Already more than 900 Ukrainian multiple rocket launcher combat vehicles have been destroyed during Russia’s special military operation, Russian Defense Ministry data shows.

“A total of 333 aircraft, 177 helicopters, 2,565 drones, 390 surface-to-air missile systems, 6,825 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 904 multiple rocket launcher combat vehicles, 3,620 field artillery and mortar guns, as well as 7,362 pieces of special military vehicle equipment,” the military ministry said in a summary published Saturday.

The Russian MoD’s briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

• The Russian Air Force struck three points of temporary deployment of Polish mercenaries in the Kharkov region, up to two hundred militants were destroyed;



• In the DPR, the Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed more than a hundred mercenaries, as well as one tank, two armored combat vehicles, and eight cars;



• As a result of an attempted offensive in the LPR, up to 30 Ukrainian servicemen, three infantry fighting vehicles, and four armored vehicles were destroyed;








• Near Krasny Liman, LPR, Russian troops conducted a preemptive attack on Ukrainian positions. The Ukrainian regime lost up to 70 militants, one tank, four armored combat vehicles, and two pickups;



• As a result of an unsuccessful attack in the DPR by Ukraine, up to 60 Ukrainian servicemen, two tanks, and three infantry fighting vehicles were destroyed;



• During a counterattack attempt in the Zaporozhye region, more than 50 Ukrainian servicemen, two armored vehicles, and two pickups were destroyed;



• Russian troops hit six enemy control points in the Kharkov region, the LPR, and the DPR, as well as 67 artillery units in firing positions, manpower, and military equipment in 164 districts;



• In the DPR, a US-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar station was destroyed. In the Zaporozhye region, a warehouse of rocket and artillery weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was destroyed.

John Bolton Coauthored Strategy on Creating Bioweapons to Assure US 'Global Leadership': Russian MOD

©AP Photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Russia's Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops have released trove after trove of confidential documents detailing Pentagon bioweapons programs across the globe, particularly in Ukraine. US officials and media have broadly ignored the revelations, but part of the information has been corroborated in independent reporting.

John Bolton, the Washington arch-neocon who served as one of the architects of George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, and as former President Donald Trump's national security advisor before resigning in disgrace, was intimately involved in formulating the US drive for global dominance in bioweapons research, a top Russian military official has indicated.

"The ongoing research by the United States to enhance the pathogenic properties of microorganisms is forcing us to rethink the statements of US officials in charge of countering biological threats. One such official is John Bolton, who [previously] served as the US national security advisor," Russian RCBP Troops chief Igor Kirillov said in a briefing Saturday.

"Consider Bolton's September 2000 report 'Rebuilding America's Defenses'," Kirillov said, recalling the paper's call for the US to take steps to maintain its military superiority deep into the 21st century.

"The paper noted that to achieve a position of world leadership, the United States must maintain its military superiority, and one of the ways to do so was the creation of biological weapons. At the same time, the paper indicated that advanced forms of biological weapons capable of targeting certain genotypes could change the role of this type of weapon - from a deterrent into a beneficial policy tool," the senior officer said.

Kirillov further recalled that John Bolton led the US delegation to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention's Fifth Review Conference in November-December 2001. Thereafter, Washington blocked the functioning of the UN body's verification mechanism, as well as proposed measures to check bioweapons storage sites, citing threats such verification measures would pose to US "national interests." Bolton also characterized the BTWC's verification protocol as "dead," and promised that it's "not going to be resurrected."

The MoD's briefing included the relevant quote from the 2000 document, which would go on to serve as a blueprint of sorts for the Bush administration's foreign and security policy.

Excerpt from the September 2000 document Rebuilding America's Defenses by the Project for the New American Century.
©Photo : PNAC

The 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' paper's reference to the need for "some catastrophic and catalyzing event -like a new Pearl Harbor" for neocons to be able to implement their empire-building plans raised eyebrows among journalists and historians in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, which took place one year after the paper was published.

New Documents

As is typical in his briefings, Kirillov accompanied his presentation with a fresh trove of documents, including papers related to US efforts to build up the country's military-biological potential.

Unlike in earlier briefings, which featured classified materials, most of the documents cited in Saturday's presentation are already publicly available, with the MoD's take focusing on analyzing what is said and reading between the lines to uncover their implications.

The docs included the National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Plan, a policy document published by the White House in October detailing US efforts ostensibly aimed at "countering biological threats, enhancing pandemic preparedness, and achieving global health security."

Kirillov pointed out that the strategy has received $88 billion in funding for its implementation over five years, including $17 billion during the first year.

Pointing to the document's statement that "biological risk management requires understanding and assessing biological risks and taking steps to mitigate those risks, regardless of whether they originate in the United States or abroad," Kirillov cited this as evidence of US attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of other states.

The officer also pointed to US plans to continue the study of the pathogens of especially dangerous infectious diseases endemic to certain geographical areas, and efforts to cover up accusations of military biological activity by inviting the participation of civilian health organizations and scientists to work as contractors for the Pentagon.

"Thus, within the framework of the strategy, the United States intends to strengthen global control over the biological situation in the world, and reserve the right to conduct 'dual purpose' research, including outside US territory," Kirillov said.

Excerpt from White House national biodefense strategy document pointing to the dual-use nature of life sciences and biotech research.
© Photo : White House

Kirillov also pointed to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Strategy document for the years 2022-2027, whose unclassified portion similarly acknowledges the "dual use nature" of biological research, and prioritizes US and allied forces' "ability to compete and, when necessary, win against potential WMD-armed adversaries," including by "highlighting WMD warfighting challenges and adversary vulnerabilities through strategic and operational analysis, and supporting DoD plans and exercises focused on CWMD threats."

Unclassified portion of the DTRA's 2022-2027 Strategy document.
©Photo : DTRA

The Russian MoD previously implicated the DTRA in a broad range of bioweapons-related activities around the globe, including the operation, funding, construction and modernization of biolabs across Ukraine working with dangerous pathogens since at least 2005.

Kirillov also pointed to the heavily redacted 345-page trove of documents recently retrieved by Judicial Watch through a FOIA request regarding the Pentagon's biological activities in Ukraine, including financing to Pentagon contractor Black and Veatch. The contractor and others like it received tens of millions of dollars to assist in a range of biowarfare-related programs across the Eastern European nation, from research into plague and typhus to diseases targeting agriculture, flora, fauna and even certain ethnic groups.

"The published documents once again confirm the extent of cooperation between Kiev and Washington, as well as attempts to establish control over pathogens in Ukrainian laboratories through the introduction of the Pathogen Asset Control System (PACS), elements of which were transferred to Ukraine under the label 'property of the US Government'," Kirillov said.

"This corresponds to the materials at our disposal," the Russian officer said, pointing out that the MoD has already detailed how PACS has been used to enable the Pentagon to monitor in real time the location and use of deadly pathogens in laboratories across the planet, and provide it access to the results of ethically and legally dubious experimentation.

Unredacted excerpt from government document obtained via FOIA request detailing the PACS system and US reliance on contractor Black & Veatch.
©Photo : Screengrab of document obtained by Freedom Watch

What Could Go Wrong?

One example of such dubious research has been the effort by virologists from Boston University to create a modified, chimeric SARS-CoV-2 strain with the spike protein of its Omicron strain and the remaining viral structures of the original virus, resulting in an estimated deadliness of 80 percent.

"Although the US Department of Health and Human Services has decided to conduct an investigation into the activities of the university's leadership, the Boston experiment suggests that the United States does not have a system of state oversight on R&D in place in the field of genetic engineering and synthetic biology. Despite the high biological risks, the study was conducted using US government funds and without the appropriate approval from the national biosafety regulator," Kirillov said.

The officer cited a recent US media analysis of over 5,500 pages of National Institutes of Health documents uncovered evidence of hundreds of accidents at biolabs across the US over the past two decades, with the incidents going undisclosed to the public and incuding instances of intralaboratory infections by deadly, genetically modified pathogens, and the escape of viruses and infected lab animals into heavily populated urban areas.

Just, Why? Boston University Researchers Combine Omicron, Wuhan Strains to Make Deadliest COVID Ever

"The high risk of accidents in American biological laboratories is one of the reasons for their withdrawal from US jurisdiction and transfer to the territory of third countries, including Ukraine and other states. This explains the deterioration of the epidemiological situation in areas where they are situated, the emergence of diseases uncommon for these regions and their vectors," Kirillov said, pointing to the spread of a range of exotic diseases across Ukraine during the period that US biolabs have operated there.

Russia's Proposals

Ahead of the upcoming Ninth Review Conference to the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons, which will kick off in Geneva on November 28, Kirillov outlined a series of steps which can be taken to reduce the global risks posed by both natural and man-made epidemiological risks.

The officer pointed out that since the last time that the state parties to the treaty was held in 2016, the world has faced a number of new threats, "including the pandemic spread of human and animal infections (COVID-19, monkeypox, African swine fever), risks posed by modern advances in biotechnology and synthetic biology, as well as the military biological activities of the Pentagon in various regions of the world."

"In the face of the emerging challenges and threats, the Russian Federation proposes: First: restarting negotiations on the creation of a legally binding protocol to the BTWC which would include lists of pathogenic microorganisms, toxins, and specialized equipment, taking into account modern scientific and technological achievements in biology to provide for an effective verification mechanism," Kirillov said.

"Second: Complementing confidence-building measures with information about biosecurity-related research outside parties' national jurisdictions, as well as information about animal vaccine production facilities. Third: Providing for the creation of a scientific advisory committee to assess developments in science and technology relevant to the Convention, with broad geographical representation and equal rights for participants," he added.

According to Kirillov, the implementation of these three proposals would increasehe transparency of national biological research, and help assure the observance of BTWC requirements by state parties. The officer promised that Moscow would bring up US bioresearch activities outside its national borders, and the funding these projects get from the Pentagon, at the Geneva conference.

"Second: Complementing confidence-building measures with information about biosecurity-related research outside parties' national jurisdictions, as well as information about animal vaccine production facilities. Third: Providing for the creation of a scientific advisory committee to assess developments in science and technology relevant to the Convention, with broad geographical representation and equal rights for participants," he added.

According to Kirillov, the implementation of these three proposals would increase the transparency of national biological research, and help assure the observance of BTWC requirements by state parties. The officer promised that Moscow would bring up US bioresearch activities outside its national borders, and the funding these projects get from the Pentagon, at the Geneva conference.

Ramai soal Suara Dentuman Terdengar di Jaktim dan Jaksel, Ini Penjelasan TNI

BMKG mencatat ada beberapa aktivitas petir di Gunung Salak Bogor yang jadi dugaan sementara penyebab suara dentuman misterius yang terdengar oleh sebagai warga Jakarta, Minggu (20/9/2020) malam. [Twitter@DaryonoBMKG]

TNI memberikan penjelasan terkait suara dentuman yang terdengar di sebagian wilayah Jakarta Selatan dan Jakarta Timur tadi pagi. Suara dentuman itu berasal dari peledakan TNT yang menandai pembukaan pendidikan Tamtama di Rindam Jaya, Condet, Jakarta Timur.

"Suara ledakan berasal dari TNT di Rindam Jaya," kata Laksamana Muda Kisdiyanto. Lebih lanjut, Kisdiyanto mengatakan, ledakan TNT tersebut tak menyebabkan timbulnya bahaya.

"Iya, bener (suara dentuman itu berasal dari Rindam Jaya). Acara pembukaan pendidikan yang ada di sana, itu kayak bunyi TNT gitu. Biasanya kan tanda dimulainya pendidikan dan itu tiap acara pembukaan begitu pasti ada," ujar Kapendam Jaya, Kolonel Cpm Dwi Indra Wirawan, saat dihubungi, hari Sabtu, 26/11/2022.

Dwi Indra mengatakan peledakan TNT dilakukan sebanyak tiga kali. Dia memastikan peledakan TNT dalam acara pembukaan pendidikan di Rindam Jaya itu tak berbahaya.

Pembukaan Pendidikan Tamtama

Dia menerangkan peledakan TNT itu dilakukan saat pembukaan pendidikan di Rindam Jaya. Dia menyebut hal itu sebagai tanda dimulainya masa pendidikan prajurit calon TNI di Rindam Jaya.

"Pembukaan pendidikan Tamtama yang mau jadi tentara, itu kurang lebih berapa bulanlah mereka di sana. Nah, ini ceritanya gong awalnya mereka di sana, kita mau melaksanakan pendidikan, biasanya kan ada upacara-upacara tuh," ucapnya.

Sudah Diinformasikan ke Warga Ia menambahkan pihak Rindam juga telah memberikan pemberitahuan terkait peledakan TNT tersebut kepada warga sekitar. Menurutnya, warga yang kebingungan soal suara itu berada jauh dari lokasi Rindam.

"Padahal saya konfirmasi ke sana ke Rindam itu sudah ada pemberitahuan ke warga sekitar. Nah mungkin yang dengar ini dari warga yang jauh," ucapnya.

Sebelumnya warganet di media sosial dihebohkan dengan suara dentuman yang terdengar di wilayah Jakarta Selatan dan Jakarta Timur.

Salah satu akun yang mengaku telah mendengar suara dentuman tersebut adalah akun Twitter ini.

"Dpt laporan dr Warga Jkt yg tinggal d Jaksel:Pd pkl 08.03 WIB trdengar Suara Dentuman mirip ledakan Bom.Dentuman trdengar 3X.Dentuman berasal dr arah Selatan Jkt.Mungkin Warga yg tinggal d sktr Ltg Agung,Srngsng Sawah bahkan Depok&Bogor mungkin jg dengar?," tulis akun tersebut.

Akun yang lain yang mengabarkan mendengar suara dentuman adalah akun Twitter @BangPitung_AJW.

Dpt laporan dr Warga Jkt yg tinggal d Jaksel:Pd pkl 08.03 WIB trdengar Suara Dentuman mirip ledakan Bom.Dentuman trdengar 3X.Dentuman berasal dr arah Selatan Jkt.Mungkin Warga yg tinggal d sktr Ltg Agung,Srngsng Sawah bahkan Depok&Bogor mungkin jg dengar?#DentumanJakarta#DUMBs https://t.co/kwpqbexhKF

— Bang Pitung (@BangPitung_AJW) November 26, 2022

Sejumlah warganet lain mengatakan juga mendengar hal serupa.

"Aku di pengadegan kalibata denger 3x, di jam yg sama. terus ngeliat acc ini yg nyatet tiap ada dentuman dan aku jg pernah denger yg sebelum sebelumnya.. apa ya," tulisnya.

Western-Supplied Guns Burning Out From Overuse in Ukraine as Pentagon Faces Maintenance Headache

©AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky

Since Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine the US, Britain, and the European Union have backed Kiev with a steady supply of weapons deliveries, fanning the flames of the conflagration further. Moreover, Washington has been forced to speed up its own weapon acquisition programs to compensate for the vast shippments to Ukraine.

As the US and its western allies continue to pump weapons to prop up the regime in Kiev, maintenance of the armaments is increasingly becoming a headache, US media reported.

Overused weapons utilized by Kiev’s forces are being either wiped out or damaged as Russia continues its special military operation in Ukraine.

No less than a third of the estimated 350 Western-made howitzers supplied to Kiev are out of action at a given moment, American defense officials are cited as saying.

‘Wear & Tear’

After Kiev authorities ran out of the howitzers dating back to the Soviet-era, which fire 152-millimeter ammunition, they were forced to rely on the NATO-standard guns supplied to them. The Pentagon has delivered 142 M777 howitzers to Ukraine – enough to outfit eight battalions, said the report. These cannons fire 155-millimeter shells, with a supply of compatible munitions also on offer from Kiev’s cohorts.

The Ukrainian army has reportedly been using these armaments for anything from launching attacks to laying antitank minefields.

However, dozens of the battle-scarred western howitzers are being towed off for repairs, such as replacing the gun barrels, at a facility in Poland, according to cited US and Ukrainian officials.

Most of the battered and damaged armaments cannot be maintenance-serviced in the field. Besides, Ukraine’s military is not up for the job. Accordingly, maintenance of the armaments has become a headache for the Pentagon’s European Command. The reported overhaul of the damaged western weapons in Poland is said to have started in recent months.

“With every capability we give to Ukraine, and those our allies and partners provide, we work to ensure that they have the right maintenance sustainment packages to support those capabilities over time,” Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Day, a spokesman for the US European Command, was cited as saying in a media statement.

Ukraine has been constantly demanding more weapons and shells from the US and its allies, with Washington responding by shipping hundreds of thousands of rounds of 155-millimeter ammunition. The US is said to have pledged close to a million more of the shells from its own stockpiles, with other allies also on board on the matter.

However, the fact is that some of those shells and propellant charges tend to result in greater wear and tear for the Pentagon-supplied howitzer barrels, the insiders revealed. The report clarified that rocket launchers like the HIMARS vehicles supplied to Ukraine by the West fire ammunition from pods of pre-loaded tubes. What makes servicing the howitzers more complex is that they need to be reloaded with shells weighing approximately 90 pounds or over 40 kilograms each. Bearing in mind that these guns are then used to fire sometimes thousands of times, the inner parts of the guns can take only so much battering. Furthermore, the Ukrainian military often resorts to firing from very long distances, which calls for larger propellant charges. The latter, in turn, generate more heat and also add to the wear and tear, said the sources. Furthermore, the damaged shells often fail to cover the distance required, with accuracy also leaving much to be desired. Chiefly constructed out of titanium, the M777 howitzers were originally used by the US for their illegal forays into Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s.

Currently, maintenance crews are on standby in Poland to take over the battered howitzers and change out their barrels, besides doing other repair work. But as hauling back the guns to the battlefield takes time, Ukrainian officials are reportedly demanding from their western-backers that the maintenance sites be moved closer to the front lines. The maintenance on the howitzers is supervised by US European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, yet this is set to change once a new command takes over as part of the effort to streamline the training and assistance to Ukrainian troops.

The allegedly increased wear and tear of the armaments being shipped to Kiev’s army comes as the Pentagon reportedly spent over $2.6 billion on replacing the weaponry it sent to fight its proxy war in Ukraine.

The United States has been forced to speed up its own weapon acquisition programs in order to compensate for the vast quantities being funneled into Ukraine in recent months, according to US media reports. Thus, the Pentagon spent over $2.6 billion between May and October on replenishing the stocks of weapons and equipment, claimed one recent report. Despite NATO member states hollowing out their own armed forces in their rush to arm Kiev, and amid reports of US weaponry bound for Ukraine often ending up “vanishing,” only to surface on the black market, the White House has been undeterred in its determination to spend more money on the issue, albeit while spouting its “non-involvement” in the conflict rhetoric.

Moscow has consistently underscored that western military and other assistance to Kiev is only drawing out the conflict, and is fraught with further conflagration as NATO risks being fully drawn into the conflict. Russia has also warned that Western countries should bear in mind that their weapons and mercenaries fighting on Kiev's side become a legitimate target for the Russian armed forces.

Tiba - Tiba Ada Retakan Tanah di Jalur Pendakian Gunung Salak Sampai ke Gunungputri Bogor

Ngeri Ada Retakan Tanah di Jalur Pendakian Gunung Salak Sampai ke Gunungputri Bogor

BBTNGGP bersama BTNGHS, menemukan adanya dua titik retakan tanah di jalur pendakian Gunung Salak dan Pangrango.

Balai Besar Taman Nasional Gunung Gede Pangrango (BBTNGGP) bersama Balai Taman Nasional Gunung Halimun Salak (BTNGHS), menemukan adanya dua titik retakan tanah di jalur pendakian Gunung Salak dan Pangrango.

Kepala BBTNGPP, Sapto Aji Wibowo mengungkapkan, lokasi retakan tanah di jalur pendakian Gunung Salak dan Pangrango berada di sekitar Cisalada dengan lebar 1 meter dan panjang 100 meter.

Dia menduga, retakan tanah di jalur pendakian Gunung Salak dan Pangrango terjadi akibat gempa pada awal pekan lalu yang berpusat di Kabupaten Cianjur.

“Pada Rabu lalu kami menemuka empat rombogan penjadi dari daerah Rarahan dan Cianjur Kota dan langsung diimbau untuk segera turun untuk melapor ke resor Cibodas,” kata Sapto, hari Jumat, 25/11/2022.

Kata Sapto, tak hanya retakan tanah di jalur pendakian Gunung Salak dan Pangrango, di Gunungputri terdapat lokasi retakan tanah di Blok Romusa sepanjang 7 meter dan longsoran di Blok Tanah Merah dengan lebar 8 meter dan tinggi sekitar 3 meter.

Menurutnya, gerang pertama di pos satu pun roboh, sementara shelter emergency dalam kondisi baik.

“Kondisi longsoran di dua jalur pendakian relatif kecil, karena banyak tegakan pohon masih sangat bagus. Namun, kami tetap menutup sementara kegiatan pendakian dan wisata air terjun Cibeureum-Cibodas sampai kondisi kondusif tidak terjadi gempa susulan dan longsor,” katanya.

Sementara Koordinator Geologi Gempa Bumi dan Tsunami Pusat Vulkanologi dan Mitigasi Bencana Geologi (PVMBG), Supartoyo mengungkapkan, kawasan Gunung Salak merupakan gunung berapi tipe C yang terakhir kali meletus sekitar tahun 1600-an.

“Tapi perlu kajian lebih retakan soal tanah di jalur pendakian Gunung Salak dan Pangrango. Kalau misalnya banyak sumber-sumber air panas pun, bisa disebabkan aktivitas vulkani, manifestasi panas bumi hingga patahan sesar,” katanya.