Ukraine: mass burial sites found in wake or Russian retreat ...

Izium, Ukraine

Complied from various sources:

Even the heavy rainfall couldn’t erase the smell of death in the pine forest in Izium on Friday afternoon, as Ukrainian investigators worked their way through a mass burial site found in the eastern Ukrainian city after its recapture from Russian forces.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said at least 440 “unmarked” graves were found in the city in recent days. The country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that some of the bodies found in Izium showed “signs of torture,” blaming Russia for what he called “cruelty and terrorism.”

Izium was subject to intense Russian artillery attacks in April. The city, which sits near the border between the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, became an important hub for the invading military during five months of occupation. Ukrainian forces took back control of the city on Saturday, delivering a strategic blow to Russia’s military assault in the east.

Wooden crosses, most of them marked with numbers, were discovered in a forest outside the city by advancing Ukrainian forces.

Authorities said they would start exhuming some of the graves on Friday.

 

It is not yet clear what happened to the victims.

Speaking on Friday, the head of Ukraine's national police service said most of the bodies belonged to civilians.

Ihor Klymenko told a news conference that although soldiers were also believed to be buried there, there was so far no confirmation. Earlier, Ukrainian authorities told the BBC more than 400 bodies were thought to be buried at the site.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, that "many places of mass burials" had been discovered in some liberated areas.

"We saw many places where people were tortured," Mr Podolyak said. "We saw wildly frightened people who were kept without light, without food, without water, and without the right to justice. Because there was no authority there, there were only people with weapons."

WARNING GRAPHIC VIDEO: LINK

Russian energy magnate "falls" from hospital window after criticizing war in Ukraine

The chairman of Russian energy firm Lukoil has died after "falling" from a hospital window in Moscow, state media has reported.

Ravil Maganov, 67, was pronounced dead after plunging from ward on the sixth floor of the Central Clinical Hospital where he was receiving treatment, according to Russian state news agency Interfax.

Lukoil confirmed Maganov's death in a press release on Thursday, but said only that it came "after a serious illness."

But Maganov is now the latest in a series of Russian business executives who have died in unusual circumstances this year, amid speculation that murders of top businessmen are being staged to look like suicides.

In March, Lukoil's board of directors issued a statement expressing "its deepest concerns about the tragic events in Ukraine."

It said: "Calling for the soonest termination of the armed conflict, we express our sincere empathy for all victims, who are affected by this tragedy. We strongly support a lasting ceasefire and a settlement of problems through serious negotiations and diplomacy."

Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, the former top manager at Lukoil, was one of the oligarchs who died in strange circumstances this year.

Iran tries to steal US Surface (water) drone. VIDEO

The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy attempted to capture a U.S. Navy unmanned surface vessel that was operating in the Arabian Gulf on Monday and Tuesday, U.S. 5th Fleet said in a statement.

The Navy stopped the IRGCN support ship from capturing the Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessel, which was not named in the news release. The USV does not store sensitive or classified information. It is equipped with commercially available cameras, radars and sensors for data collection and navigation.

the U.SL 5th Fleet spotted IRGCN support ship Shahid Baziar towing the USV around 11 p.m. local time Monday, according to the release. Navy patrol coastal ship USS Thunderbolt (PC-12), which was operating nearby, responded while 5th Fleet also sent a MH-60S Sea Hawk from the Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 26 out of Bahrain.

Shahid Baziar detached its towing line from the USV and left the waters about four hours after the U.S. responded.

“IRGCN’s actions were flagrant, unwarranted and inconsistent with the behavior of a professional maritime force,” Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces, said in the release. “U.S. naval forces remain vigilant and will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows while promoting rules-based international order throughout the region.”

USAF SECRETLY TESTS LONG RANGE CRUISE MISSILE - LAUNCHING FROM B-2

DEFENSE ONE: The U.S. Air Force secretly test-fired a long-range variant of a stealthy cruise missile from a B-2 stealth bomber late last year, defense contractor Northrop Grumman revealed Thursday.

The disclosure of the December 2021 test comes amid increased tension between the United States and China. Beijing conducted military drills and ballistic missile launches near Taiwan after high-profile visits to the island by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other U.S. lawmakers.

The cruise missile—Lockheed Martin’s JASSM-ER—has about triple the 370-kilometer range of the standard JASSM, and is slated to be retargetable in flight, making it easier to hit mobile targets deep behind enemy lines. The variant has already been fitted to the B-1 bomber and F-15E strike fighter.

“That's a real advantage to be able to conduct strikes in any direction, if you will, and at range,” said Mark Gunzinger, a retired Air Force B-52 pilot who directs future aerospace concepts and capabilities assessments at The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. It also “expands their ability to avoid the highest-risk threat areas while still holding the targets at risk.”

Few details of the test were revealed. The “B-2 successfully released a Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile – Extended Range,” Northrop said in a Thursday statement. Air Force officials confirmed the test occurred, but did not immediately have additional details.

“The JASSM-ER further enhances the B-2’s ability to hit any target, anywhere,” Northrop said in the statement. “The integration of JASSM-ER enables the delivery of a low observable asset capable of traveling greater distances than its predecessor.”

READ MORE HERE

NASA releases stunning images of Jupiter from James Webb telescope

NASA:

click to enlarge (C) NASA

With giant storms, powerful winds, auroras, and extreme temperature and pressure conditions, Jupiter has a lot going on. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of the planet. Webb’s Jupiter observations will give scientists even more clues to Jupiter’s inner life.  

“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, professor emerita of the University of California, Berkeley. De Pater led the observations of Jupiter with Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory, as part of an international collaboration for Webb’s Early Release Science program. Webb itself is an international mission led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). “It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image,” she said. 

The two images come from the observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details of the planet. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped onto the visible spectrum. Generally, the longest wavelengths appear redder and the shortest wavelengths are shown as more blue. Scientists collaborated with citizen scientist Judy Schmidt to translate the Webb data into images. 

In the standalone view of Jupiter, created from a composite of several images from Webb, auroras extend to high altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of Jupiter. The auroras shine in a filter that is mapped to redder colors, which also highlights light reflected from lower clouds and upper hazes. A different filter, mapped to yellows and greens, shows hazes swirling around the northern and southern poles. A third filter, mapped to blues, showcases light that is reflected from a deeper main cloud.  

The Great Red Spot, a famous storm so big it could swallow Earth, appears white in these views, as do other clouds, because they are reflecting a lot of sunlight. 

“The brightness here indicates high altitude – so the Great Red Spot has high-altitude hazes, as does the equatorial region,” said Heidi Hammel, Webb interdisciplinary scientist for solar system observations and vice president for science at AURA. “The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms.” By contrast, dark ribbons north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover.  

click to enlarge