Earlier today these two tweets passed my timeline.
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The first lauded UK cybersecurity efforts to protect networks in Ukraine. The next one reported of successful efforts by some group from the Donetsk republic to hack into the U.S. provided military software used to manage the battlefield in Ukraine.
The hack seems to be very real.
Back in April I warned of uncontrolled weapon proliferation from the war in Ukraine:
The U.S. and its proxies in Europe are moving an enormous amount of weapons into Ukraine. But no one has an idea where those weapons will end up. It is likely that many of those will proliferate outside of the Ukraine and some of those weapons will inevitably hit those who now deliver them.
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The U.S. pushed an enormous amount of weapons into Syria. Those weapons did not end up with the ‘moderate rebels’ the U.S. propaganda had elevated but in the hands the most ideological committed and most brutal actors on the ground: …
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In a repeat of that ‘strategy’ the U.S. is currently pushing an enormous amount of weapons as well as mercenaries into Ukraine. The bigger stuff it delivers is not of much concern. But the huge amount of small arms and small ammunition, the anti-tank weapons and the handheld anti-air systems are of serious, long term danger. These fit into a car trunk and can easily be smuggled across boarders.
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If there is a lesson to learn from Syria it is that the most ideological committed and most brutal people on the ground will not only proliferate their ideology into other countries. They are also the groups which inevitably end up holding the most dangerous weapons. They will give some to those groups in other countries which have the same ideology.
On Sunday Finland said that it sees signs that such proliferation is happening:
Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said it has received preliminary information that criminals in Finland might have captured military arms, such as assault rifles, meant for Ukrainian forces.
“Weapons shipped [by various countries] to Ukraine have also been found in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands,” NBI Detective Superintendent Christer Ahlgren told Yle.
International media outlets have reported that the European law enforcement agency Europol has anticipated criminal gangs stashing weapons in border areas. This past summer Europol issued a statement warning that the proliferation of firearms and explosives in Ukraine could lead to an increase in firearms and munitions trafficked into the EU via established smuggling routes or online platforms.
“We’ve seen signs of these weapons already finding their way to Finland,” Ahlgren said.
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“Three of the world’s largest motorcycle gangs—that are part of larger international organisations—are active in Finland. One of these is Bandidos MC, which has a unit in every major Ukrainian city,” he explained. “We know that contacts and routes are being warmed up, so that they’re in place.”
The Bandidos are an organized criminal group prohibited in several countries. Police is likely able to handle them. The Ukrainian Nazis and their international proliferation are a much bigger problem.
In response to the concerns voiced by Finland the U.S. military yesterday announced that is has finally started to check where all those weapons are ending up:
A small number of U.S. military forces inside Ukraine have recently begun doing onsite inspections to ensure that Ukrainian troops are properly accounting for the Western-provided weapons they receive, a senior U.S. defense official told Pentagon reporters Monday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide a military update, would not say where the inspections are taking place or how close to the battlefronts the U.S. troops are getting. The official said U.S. personnel can’t do inspections “close to the front lines,” but said they are going where security conditions allow.
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The effort is part of a broader U.S. campaign, announced last week by the State Department, meant to make sure that weapons provided to Ukraine don’t end up in the hands of Russian troops, their proxies or other extremist groups.
Notice the slimy propaganda phrasing AP has been using here: “… Russian troops … or other extremist groups.”
That it took eight month to even start this lame weapon control effort shows the lack of concern our well guarded rulers have for their own security.
For some curious reason the New York Times has been unable to ‘independently confirm’ that 10 Russian suicide drones were sufficient to apparently hit 18 targets:
The Ukrainian military said Russia fired 55 missiles on Monday, 45 of which were shot down. Thirteen civilians were injured, the Ukrinform news agency reported. The Foreign Ministry said 18 “objects of civilian critical infrastructure” were damaged. None of the figures could be confirmed independently.
One really wonders why …