Droplet

https://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/articles/2024/06/23/1045620-udarili-raketami-atacms

5 dead now.

Sevastopol has been struck by four ATACMS loaded with cluster warheads. More than 125 people are injured and a number in critical conditions.

In case there is still any illusion about Washington “ramping down” the conflict in Ukraine, this should remind you that we have not seen even the slightest indication of them willing to do so.

Correction: 4 ATACMS were shot down but one exploded in the air with the fragments of its cluster submunitions falling over the coastal region injuring a lot of people.

I’m tearing up just watching that last clip wtf!

From Rage Against The Machine to cat videos. True story.

Reuters top picture of the week

Putin - at a gala reception on behalf of the President of Vietnam:

The great statesman of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh said: “In any matter, think first not about yourself, but about your compatriots, about all the people. Be in the forefront when it comes to hardship, and take the back seat when it comes to reward.” We will try to follow these traditions. In our interactions with Vietnamese friends, we will certainly follow these wise tips. All our joint efforts are aimed at improving the well-being of citizens of the two countries. We will continue to act in the interests of our peoples, in the name of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

I don’t want to see the Proud Boys or similar fascist thugs roaming the streets beating up and murdering people. Which would happen under Trump.

I have a feeling that Kim Jong-un has been looking for a second dad for guidance since Kim Jong-il died (it was a messy family affair after all). He’s been waiting for Putin to fill that shoe and he looks really happy here.

Putin and the Pioneers, Hanoi, today.

Hey uh, how about we all try to evoke the good memories of USSR locked away in some distant part of Putin’s brain?

While we’re at it, how about we re-enact the memories of Cuban Missile Crisis by sending Russian warships to perform naval exercise in Cuba?

Soyuz has escape systems that made it one of the safest spacecrafts out there.

Most Soviet/Russian platforms have specially designed escape systems to improve the survivability of the crew. Soviet/Russian submarines have escape pods that their American counterparts don’t. The Russian Ka-50/52 attack helicopters are the only helicopters in the world that have an ejection system, and has been used successfully at least once in its operational history (during the war in Ukraine).

Putin visit to the DPRK, perspective from Russian communist:

Politician, historian, ex-State Duma deputy Daria Mitina, speaking specifically for BRIEF about the prospects for cooperation between Russia and the DPRK:

We must not forget that Kim Jong-un was the only leader who, firstly, openly supported the Special Military Operation, saying that the Russians and Koreans are in the same trench. Even our closest allies, such as Belarus and Iran, are formally neutral in this regard. The DPRK does not maintain neutrality, but quite supports us. Despite the fact that it is doing this purely in advance, because Russia has not actually remembered the DPRK for 25 years.

In general, the strategic partnership agreement that Putin signed is, after all, a military-political alliance of two nuclear powers. And the most important thing is that this agreement can be very long-term, because, apparently, the world situation will not change for a very long time. The main thing is that our goals and our principles, which now situationally find themselves quite on the same wavelength as the Korean ones, do not once again turn into a subject for bargaining, as they turned into the 90s.

Our cooperation now is very limited, sectoral, and this is completely wrong, taking into account the fact that we have a common border with this country. We have virtually zero trade turnover, although there is huge potential for both exports and imports from North Korea, which has a completely diversified, diversified economy.

We still don't have direct flights. If you want to fly from Moscow to Pyongyang, then you must fly through either Vladivostok or Beijing. There must be direct air service, there must be sea air service. We have a common sea border.

Energy is a very painful problem for the DPRK. Unfortunately, due to sanctions and a very cruel blockade, the DPRK is in a very cruel energy saving mode. And here we can greatly help with the construction and modernization of new thermal power plants and hydroelectric power plants. I know that such negotiations have been and are ongoing with Rosatom, which means that there may well be mutually beneficial cooperation. In exchange, for example, the DPRK may allow us to develop uranium deposits.

Military cooperation. Here, most likely, there will be a powerful defense order that will be placed by Russia. For 152mm shells, the most popular type of shell in the current theater of operations in Ukraine. Shells for multiple launch rocket systems. In terms of MLRS shells, the DPRK is generally the world leader.

Labor resources, because everyone knows the extremely disciplined, hardworking and non-drinking Korean workers at Russian, Far Eastern and Siberian construction sites. They can work on construction in any region of Russia: we have a huge need for such workers - in new territories, for example.

In some completely shameful way, we joined the anti-Korean sanctions, from which we now cannot get out. The problem is that these sanctions are not inter-country, but sanctions of the UN Security Council. Here Russia supported them and now formally cannot leave them. That is, in order to get out of the sanctions regime, we need to re-initiate consideration of the issue at the UN Security Council, and only if the UN Security Council votes to lift them will our karma be cleared. But in this case, we understand due to political arrangements that this is impossible.

Why did Russia join this? That is a huge mystery. I suspect that Chinese considerations were not at the top of the list of priorities for Russia in this case. Nevertheless, what is done is done. Now we need only state that we can not only circumvent these sanctions, but directly violate them. If we cannot change the situation de jure, then we can ignore these sanctions de facto, which, in fact, we have been doing for a long time.

Within a month of taking office, President Putin visited China, Belarus, Uzbekistan, North Korea and Vietnam. Perhaps this is some kind of world record for the activity of the country's leader after the inauguration

Putin doing a socialist world tour. Ironic it’s a capitalist doing this

I will remind everyone that the last time Putin won the presidential election in 2018, the first country he visited was Austria to secure further economic cooperation with the EU.