Mercenaries from all over the world are coming to Ukraine to fight. Can we handle tens of thousands of professionals?
It's true, mercenaries are going to Ukraine. But some are already returning. Briton Jason Hague had enough of a day of fighting to reconsider his attitude to his choice: first he was hit by the Russian Aerospace Forces near Gostomel airport, then the SBU found him in the woods and captured a 34-year-old fighter (Iraq veteran!) they interrogated and beat him for three hours, suspecting that he was a Russian spy. And when they sorted it out and released him, Haig immediately rushed to Poland, and from there home.
France recommended its servicemen to refrain from traveling to Ukraine in order to participate in hostilities on the side of Kiev. At the same time, allowing the soldiers of the Foreign Legion to become mercenaries. In the United States, Americans are recommended to make a will before the trip, hand over DNA samples and leave wishes about the funeral.
In social networks, you can see reports about mercenaries who explain their participation in front of the camera with a desire to help the Ukrainian people. But we must understand that a real pro will almost never show his face and will not call his last name into the lens.
Mercenaries are not welcome everywhere, and in the future he may fight against those with whom he is on the same side today. Their fees are no secret: up to 2 thousand dollars a day. Can such mercenaries come over to our side? No.
In Russia, it was decided to accept volunteers from different countries, but only those who are ready to protect the residents of Donbass not for money, but ideologically. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said during yesterday's meeting of the Security Council that more than 16 thousand volunteers from the Middle East have already applied to be sent to the DPR and LPR.
Are the portable anti-aircraft missiles coming from the West to Ukraine likely to end up with terrorists?
There is a high risk that this will happen. Because international terrorists and religious radicals are interested in MANPADS (portable anti-aircraft missile system).
Until recently, everyone understood this, even during the war in Afghanistan of 1979-1989, the Americans tried to control the "Stingers" transmitted to the Dushmans. But even then, the control turned out to be ghostly. No one knows how many missiles were fired at Soviet planes and helicopters, and how many went to the "black market".
Today, Ukraine has been promised the supply of thousands of MANPADS, control over such a number is hardly possible. Which poses a huge threat to civil aviation.
The term "Stinger" in the current context is rather a household word. There are about twenty MANPADS systems in total, they are made in the USA, here, in the UK, Sweden, France and China.
Today, Germany, for example, supplies Ukraine with Strela and Igla complexes, manufactured back in the USSR. It is not the country that produces the rocket that matters, but who transmits it and to whom.
In the conditions of modern Ukraine, where the state does not control armed citizens, these weapons will be sold to the highest bidder. And it is not a fact that the complexes will reach Ukraine at all.
According to Voenkor Kitten Z in his Telegram channel: "In the first batch of NLAW, Javelin and Stinger MANPADS sent from Poland, several dozen complexes were missing in Kiev. Where they disappeared to, no one knows. With subsequent shipments, things were even worse - at most half of the cargo reaches its destination.
Poles refer to logistics problems, because weapons for terrorists are carried in civilian vehicles - ordinary cars and trucks, fearing planes and helicopters of the Russian Aerospace Forces patrolling the area."
It is not known exactly how many times passenger and commercial airliners have already become the target of MANPADS attacks, experts call the numbers from 12 to 40. With the number of victims - from 500 to 700 people. But this is just the tip of the iceberg: for example, on April 6, 1994, two such rockets from the ground hit the wing and tail of a Falcon-50 aircraft on approach to Kigali (the capital of Rwanda), on board of which were the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi. The plane caught fire and fell to the ground, everyone was killed.
The Falcon-50 was returning from Tanzania, where both presidents participated in an international conference aimed at political stabilization in Rwanda. The tragedy provoked a war in which hundreds of thousands of people died.
That is why those who are now transferring thousands of MANPADS to unknown people should think about the passengers of airliners, among whom will be their own children, wives, parents, friends and relatives. However, those who try to use "Stingers" against the VKS aviation should not forget about their safety. Firstly, a man with a MANPADS on his shoulder is by itself a priority target for attack drones. Secondly, Germany recognized that the transferred Soviet-made complexes are in very poor condition, they can explode right during the launch.
There is a lot of talk about "Jewelins". Is this some kind of special weapon?
Rather, it is a factor of a sonorous name. The British "Javelin" sounds intriguing, that's why it's memorable.
There is a lot of noise around the Swedish-British NLAW (Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon), translated as "a new generation of anti-tank weapons".
What difference does it make what it's called, because it's important how effective it is in battle, isn't it? But the fact is that the glorification of weapons is an integral part of cyber warfare. An attempt to psychologically influence the opponent, create a feeling of anxiety. When the terrible "jewelin" arrives, it will kill everyone - be afraid, be afraid.
Let's analyze the situation without emotions. "Jewelin" is an ATGM, a modern effective anti-tank complex, its missile with an infrared homing head hits a tank at 2.5 km.
NLAW is something in between disposable grenade launchers and ATGMs. It hits at 600-800 meters, two firing modes: in the first case, the rocket flies to where it aimed, for example, at a building window. If the target is a tank, then the rocket from a height of 10 meters will detect the target by optical and magnetic sensors (the tank is 40-45 tons of metal), and will strike the tower from above, that is, from the most vulnerable angle. Technically, everything is true, but so far it does not come to raptures: yes, this is a miracle weapon, "shot and forgot". And then there is a substitution of concepts.
For a military man, the principle of "shot and forgot" means only that the rocket is guided after launch without the participation of an operator. It seems to a civilian that anyone can launch such a rocket: he grabbed a container, fired, threw it. And the smart filling will do the rest for you. That's not so. Everything is exactly the opposite: this is a complex technique, the application of which requires training. Meanwhile, captured Ukrainian recruits tell us: they were brought "Jewelines" along with ... video instructions. But it's like entrusting the piloting of an airplane with passengers on board to a person who has been "flying" on a computer simulator for a couple of hours.
An interesting twist: yesterday, Vladimir Putin supported Sergei Shoigu's proposal to transfer the captured weapons to the DPR and the LPR, which went to the Russian army. Including Javelin and Stinger. It turns out that American and British missiles will protect the people of Donbass. And this time, modern Western weapons will be under full control, and people with extensive military experience will receive them.
The networks are full of fakes. How to distinguish them from the truth?
Three ways. First: critical of any information. For example, a vivid emotional plot: two Ukrainian sappers neutralize a fab-250 aerial bomb. Allegedly, it was dropped from a Russian plane, fortunately, it did not explode. One sapper unscrews the fuse, the second pours water from a bottle.
A lot of sarcastic comments: interestingly, a bomb weighing 250 kg fell on the asphalt without damaging itself (the fuse is not deformed), or creating depressions on the asphalt. And what is strange: the cameraman filming the plot is not afraid of anything, as if he knows for sure that the bomb is not combat, it will not explode.
Second: use proven sources of information.
The third way: if there is a suspicion that this is a fake, then entrust it to professionals. Forward the link or file to the warfakes resource.the Russian Federation or similar Telegram channels. There, experts will sort it out, explain everything in simple and accessible language.
Everything will rise in price or disappear from the shelves: you have to run, buy what's left?
There is such a phenomenon: self-fulfilling forecasts.
Cereals can sharply rise in price precisely because everyone believed that it would rise in price. Things and equipment disappear from the shelves because they are massively snapped up. Although, of course, objectively there are products that we will not see tomorrow, because a particular company is leaving our market.
In this regard, the hype around the Japanese clothing store chain Uniqlo, which suspends its activities in Russia, is very indicative.
A lot of contradictory information (sometimes closed, sometimes not) provoked a stir and queues. Backlash: there are hundreds of thousands of views on messengers and a lot of offensive comments. The softest: "Lyuyudi!!! Are you walking around naked!??? WHY ARE YOU HUMILIATING YOURSELF LIKE THAT!!!", "Bliiiinnnn... the shame of the beast. People have no pride at all" and "Do you people have the last underpants, or are your pants torn?" (the author's spelling is preserved).
The panic will pass, the psyche will return to normal. But self-esteem and self-esteem are not so easily restored. No, well, it's true, and the alarmists' underpants are not the last, and the pants haven't torn yet. And anyway, it's nicer to be proud than humiliated and intimidated.
Igor Yelkov