ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Arina TSUKANOVA US Ambassador to UN Blames Russia for new violence in eastern Ukraine: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, blamed Russia on Thursday for the recent surge of violence in eastern Ukraine and warned Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia will not be lifted until Moscow returns Crimea to Kiev. The speech by the new US permanent representative to the UN Security Council, Nikki Haley, at a Security Council meeting on 3 February backed up the idea that the foreign policies of two American administrations – the previous one and the current one – will be continued. Haley said exactly the same as Samantha Power before her: «Our Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine». The White House supported Haley’s statement on the need for Crimea to be returned to Ukraine, and the White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, stated during a briefing that: «With respect to the sanctions, I think Ambassador Haley...

A controversial new monument has been erected in Dresden in honor of the victims of the battle for Aleppo. Photo: Getty Images / AFP / Sebastian Kahnert Syrian artist Manaf Halbouni has erected a controversial new monument in the central square of Dresden city, Germany. According to the artist, he tried to recreate a famous photo, taken by a Reuters’ photo-journalist during the battle for Aleppo in order to honor memory of the victims of the hostilities in the city. However, some people think that the monument may have been inspired by temporary fortifications, set up by radical Islamists, who killed Christians and was linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist group. A photo, which inspired Halbouni, shows three buses, which were vertically set up on one of the streets of Aleppo city and used as a fortification against snipers of the Syrian Arab Army. According to anti-mass migration NGO Einprozent, the flag, which can be seen on the top of one of the buses, belongs to the Ahrar al-Sham group,...

Original by Dr. Evgeniya Bilchenko; translation by J.Hawk My address is intended for those Ukrainian intellectuals who have not lost the remnants of their common sense, my colleagues and kindred spirits. It’s pointless to discuss with closed minds. By intellectuals I don’t mean a specific social class of snobs, but people whose lives revolve around letters, spirituality, and education. Many of them attempt to participate in social and academic life. And I know that the overwhelming majority of these people are not in agreement with what’s happening in the country. Here’s what I’ve seen in recent times: kitchen talk, half-whispers, pleas whispered into ears, claims that still more can be lost, injunctions to act with care. Why are you afraid to speak the truth? Simple truth that our country is under a totalitarian regime. A dumb, lying totalitarian regime only interested in prolonging the war and profiting from it. In sacrificing soldiers for the sake of cheap PR. In repressing civilian...

The Russian Navy intends to use the experience of the voyage of the Admiral Kuznetsov heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser to Syria for developing of new tactics for the naval task forces. The Admiral Kuznetsov heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser (Photo: TASS / Russian Navy Northern Fleet Press Office / Andrei Luzik) Russia is going to use the experience of the Syrian voyage of the Admiral Kuznetsov heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser for developing of new tactics for the naval task forces in the World Ocean, the TASS news agency reported on Thursday, citing Commander of the Russian Navy, Admiral Vladimir Korolyov. “The tactics used in the voyage will also be analyzed by us. We’ll develop new approaches to employing aircraft carrier naval task forces in various parts of the World Ocean,” Korolyov said. He also added that all the positive aspects that were practiced at sea for the first time, will be analyzed by the Russian Navy’s Command. “Each subsequent voyage of a warshi...

by JONATHAN COOK Photo by Swithun Crowe | CC BY 2.0 Nazareth. The Israeli parliament passed the legalisation law on Monday night – a piece of legislation every bit as suspect as its title suggests. The law widens the powers of Israeli officials to seize the final fragments of Palestinian land in the West Bank that were supposed to be off-limits. Palestinian leaders warned that the law hammered the last nail in the coffin of a two-state solution. Government ministers gleefully agreed. For them, this is the extension of Israeli law into the West Bank and the first step towards its formal annexation. The legalisation law – also commonly translated from Hebrew as the regulation or validation law – was the right’s forceful response to the eviction last week of a few dozen families from a settlement “outpost” called Amona. It was a rare and brief setback for the settlers, provoked by a court ruling that took three years to enforce. The evacuation of 40 families was transformed into an expens...

Click to see the full-size image Originally appeared at Sputniknews Daesh has identified a weak spot in Germany’s legendary Leopard 2 battle tanks, and has destroyed ten of the machines used by the Turkish Army in northern Syria, the German newspaper Die Welt reported. Battles in Afghanistan and elsewhere have earned Germany’s Leopard 2 battle tank a reputation for being indestructible. In one case, Canadian forces managed to drive a Leopard through a massive Taliban bomb blast and survive. However, Turkish troops fighting the terrorist group Daesh in northern Syria have had a different experience. According to reports, Daesh fighters in the city of Al Bab have destroyed ten Leopard 2A4 battle tanks. Searching for answers, some German bloggers have speculated that leadership failures or a lack of experience among Turkish troops may be to blame. However, the fundamental issue appears to be whether the 60 ton tanks are suitable for use in an urban environment, the German newspaper Di...

A video, showing the T-90K tank, operating in Syria, has been published online. Photo: YouTube / الاعلام الحربي المركزي A video, showing the T-90K tank, operating during a battle, has been published on an official Youtube channel of the Syrian Army . The T-90K is a rare commander’s version of the T-90 tank, characterized by its high mobility and equipped with a special set of communication and navigation tools. The fact that the Russian T-90 tank, also known as ‘Vladimir’, takes part in the Syrian war is not a secret. The government army adopted a “classical” modification of the T-90, as well as its improved version, the T-90A. These well-proven tanks have many times become heroes of combat video reports. However, the commander’s T-90K tank was captured on video for the first time. Though, that is not surprising. As military expert Aleksey Khlopotov told the Vestnik Mordovii informational website, only two such tanks were produced. They were a part of the first batch of tanks...

A squad of women of the Islamic State terrorist group has tortured to death a 10-year-old Iraqi girl for the crime of going outside without an escort. Photo: Reuters / Thaier Al-Sudani Members of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group tortured to death a 10-year-old Iraqi girl, living in occupied Mosul city, the UK Daily Mail newspaper reported. The little girl, whose name was Faten, was killed with iron fangs in front of her mother for the crime of going outside without an escort. According to the newspaper, the murder of the kid was committed by a squad of women working as the hisbah (morality police) for the IS’s all-woman Al-Khansaa Brigade. Reportedly, Faten was helping to clean her house and accidentally stepped outside of the house. ‘Morality policewomen’ said that this was a transgression of Islamic law that should have been punished with a certain number of ‘bites’. They offered the girl’s mother to endure the punishment on behalf of her daughter. However, the woman refused...