Ukraine has suspended preparations for a trade deal with the EU.

A government statement said the decision had been taken to protect Ukraine's "national security". Hours earlier MPs rejected a bill that would have allowed jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to leave the country - which the EU had demanded as a condition for the deal to proceed. Ukraine had come under intense pressure from Russia not to sign the historic EU deal at a summit next week. The Ukrainian government said on Thursday that it was instead looking into setting up a joint commission to promote ties between Ukraine, Russia and the European Union. Russian officials said they welcomed any Ukrainian moves to foster closer relations. Russia wants Ukraine to join its own customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus, which it sees as a prototype rival to the European Union.

The EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called the decision a "disappointment". "We believe that the future for Ukraine lies in a strong relationship with the EU," she said in a statement. Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych was later quoted by AFP as saying Ukraine "will work further on this path... to EU integration" - although it is not clear how this will now be achieved. Stefan Fuele, European commissioner for enlargement, cancelled a trip to Kiev after news of the decision broke. He had been due to travel to the Ukrainian capital for the second time this week on Thursday. He tweeted that it was "hard to overlook in reasoning for today's decision [the] impact of Russia's recent unjustified economic & trade measures". Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt went further, saying Ukraine had "bowed deeply" to the Kremlin, which he accused of using the "politics of brutal pressure".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25032275

Poland interested in Ukraine's high-precision anti-tank weapons

KYIV, November 7 /Ukrinform/. Poland is interested in purchasing the latest high-precision anti-tank missile system "Barrier-B", developed and produced by the Luch State Design Bureau, which is part of the State Concern Ukroboronprom. This was stated by Waldemar Skrzypczak, Polish Deputy Minister of Defense, responsible for armament and modernization, during the International Exhibition Defense and Security 2013, Ukroboronprom's press office said in a statement. "The Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland expect updates of anti-missile systems and the modernization of weapons of combat helicopters. We are ready to consider the purchase of advanced 105mm anti-tank guided missiles produced in Ukraine by the Luch design office. We are interested in the prospect of joint production of high-precision weapons," Skrzypczak noted. The sides agreed that prior to a meeting the Polish-Ukrainian subcommittee on defense cooperation, to be held this month in Kyiv, Ukraine will provide the relevant technical and commercial proposals. 

The anti-tank long-range guided missile system (ATGM) Barrier, a design by the Luch State Design Bureau, is intended to defeat armored targets at distances from 100 to 5,000 meters. The Barrier ATGM system comprises part of the SHKVAL remotely controlled unmanned turret for armored personnel carriers and armored infantry fighting vehicles, among them the all-new Ukrainian-designed  BTR-3E1 and BTR-4, and the upgraded BMP-1M infantry fighting vehicle. The SHKVAL turret accommodates two Barrier ATGM containers with ready-to-launch missiles.

http://www.ukrinform.ua

http://en.uos.ua/

 

 

The Soviet “Flying Fortress” K-7 by Konstantin Kalinin

The Kalinin K-7  was a heavy experimental aircraft built and tested in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. It was named after Soviet aircraft designer Konstantin Alekseevich Kalinin (1889 – 1938). The K-7 was one of the biggest aircraft built before the jet age. It had an unusual arrangement of six tractor engines on the wing leading edge. In civil transport configuration, it would have had a capacity for 120 passengers and 7,000 kg  of mail. The K-7 was built in two years at Kharkiv starting in 1931. The K-7 first flew on 11 August 1933. The very brief first flight showed instability and serious vibration caused by the airframe resonating with the engine frequency. The solution to this was thought to be to shorten and strengthen the tail booms, little being known then about the natural frequencies of structures and their response to vibration. The aircraft completed seven test flights before a crash due to structural failure of one of the tail booms on 21 November 1933. The existence of the aircraft had only recently been announced by Pravda which declared it was "victory of the utmost political importance" since it had been built with steel produced in the USSR rather than imported (mostly from Sweden). Kalinin was executed as an enemy of the state in 1938 during the Stalinist purges. One of attached pictures were taken in Kharkiv early 1930s, and the third one is just a computer model created to show what the term of  "flying fortrass" was assosiated with many decades ago.

Corrected evidence of Poltava liberation.

70 years ago, troops of the Steppe front, successfully developing their offensive, forced the River Vorskla, and after three days' fierce fighting, on September 23, captured the regional centre of the Ukraine, the town of Poltava, a powerful German defense centre in the Ukraine to the east of the Dnieper River. 

In commemoration of the victory achieved, the formations and units who distinguished themselves in the fighting for the liberation of the town of Poltava were to bear the name of Poltava. On September 23, at 21.00 hours the capital of the USSR, Moscow, on behalf of the Motherland, saluted with 12 artillery salvoes from 124 guns the gallant troops of the Red Army which liberated the town of Poltava. One of the numerous places where the Soviet red flags were fixed was a monument dedicated to the 100^th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava in the center of the Round Square. It is easy to notice on the picture taken on September 23th that the flagstaff is made of branch. Before to publish this picture in newspaper it was previously corrected using a needle and a paint because there was no any computer and Adobe Photoshop available at that time....

This fall 5000 youths to be conscripted to Ukrainian army

This fall, during the last conscription to the army, 5000 young soldiers will replenish the military forces of Ukraine.

In parallel, recruitment is ongoing to the army of contractors, said Defense Minister Pavel Lebedev.According to him, now Ukrainian army is manned by the military on contract by 58 percent. This year it is planned to recruit 10800 soldiers bearing service contract. According to him, unlike conscripted soldiers, the service contract will last from 3 to 5 years. Thus soldiers and sergeants on contract deal exclusively with their professional responsibilities that positively affect their military training.

The National Radio Company of Ukraine.

 http://www.nrcu.gov.ua

The monument to Polish general in Leipsig

This pretty modest and inconspicuous monument is located in Leipzig near the St. Michaelis Church. It has been unveiled in honor of Jan Henryk Dąbrowski (1755 – 1818), a Polish general and national hero.

In June 1812 General Dąbrowski commanded a Polish division in the Grande Armee, joining Napoleon on his Moscow expedition. However, by October the Franco-Russian war was over and the French forces, decimated by a severe winter, had to retreat. Their defeat was completed by a battle lost during the crossing of the River Berezina, in which Dąbrowski was wounded. He fought under Marshal Auguste Marmont at the Battle of Leipzig (October 18, 1813).

His division was ordered to secure the withdrawal of French troops from Leipzig. Price at which the order was executed was very high, but anyway the division succeeded in holding its position. The fiercest fighting between French army and Russian-Prussian troops has taken place on the site where the monument was erected in 1863.

In the following year General Dąbrowski returned to Poland, unable to continue the fight any further. He was one of the generals entrusted by the Tsar Alexander I with the reorganization of the Polish army, and was named in 1815 general of cavalry and senator palatine of the new Congress Kingdom, and awarded the Order of the White Eagle. He retired in 1816 to his estates in Winna Gora in the Grand Duchy of Posen, Kingdom of Prussia, where he died in 1818.

He wrote several military historical works in Polish. His name, in the French version "Dombrowsky", is inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. "Dąbrowski's Mazurka" has become the national anthem of Poland. It was originally meant to boost the morale of Polish soldiers serving under General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski.

Russian air force puts X-38 air-to-surface missile into service

The Russian Air Force has put the advanced X-38 air-to-surface missile into service. Although the short-range missile was developed for the T-50 fifth generation fighter jet, the existing bombers and fighter jets, including Su-34 and MiG-29 CMT will be equipped with these missiles.

The missile was tested in great secrecy in 2012, and was commissioned in late December. The delivery of missiles will be started shortly. The new missile will be equipped with independently guided warheads. This solves various tasks and increases the striking power of T-50 multipurpose fighter jets. The missiles will be placed inside the jet that is being developed using stealth technology, says editor-in-chief of the “Independence Military Review” magazine Victor Litovkin.

“A fighter jet may have special characteristics, including non-visibility to radar and other detecting equipment, but it is just an aircraft. But when it is equipped with high-precision guided missiles, this is a high-precision aviation complex. That can be considered a fifth generation fighter jet. The fact, that the missile on board the jet increases its low visibility,” Victor Litovkin said.

The missile will not reflect on the radar screen. It has another advanced feature. It can orient itself during the flight using the GLONASS space navigation system. The recent armed conflicts, including in Afghanistan and the Middle East have shown that it is difficult to discover targets from air even with the guidance from the ground because advanced camouflaging systems have been developed. These missiles will be guided to the target by a GLONASS satellite, says Victor Litovkin.

“The missile’s accuracy increases owing to the GLONASS satellite that sees the target and missile and combines these two points. When taking into account the fact that this is a supersonic missile, a complicated task is solved, a missile that is flying at a high speed is guided to a target. In short, this is a great achievement of Russian missile designers,” Victor Litovkin added.

The X-38 missile is capable of hitting manoeuvering armoured vehicles and hideouts at a distance from 3 to 40 kilometers. These missiles will upgrade the combat capacity of the Russian Air Force.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_01_18/Russian-air-force-puts-X-38-air-to-surface-missile-into-service/