India's population has surpassed 1.428 billion, slightly larger than China's 1.425 billion, according to the United Nations. You can imagine what would happen if one country with a population of almost one and a half billion people declared war on a country with the same number of people. No matter how events unfold, a war between them will be a disaster for both states. I think that both China and India understand this. Therefore, I don’t think that a real war will break out between them in the foreseeable future. Economic, yes, or some minor provocations.
China, I think, is more interested in Taiwan. But this will depend on the results of Russia’s war against Ukraine. If Russia does not win the war, China will also be forced to hold back its imperial ambitions.

Ukraine has at least six Patriot systems at its disposal. Two of them were previously supplied by the USA, two by the Netherlands and already two by Germany. And they repel Russian missile attacks quite well. No matter how many times Russia launched its missiles at Kyiv, even the latest “daggers” and “zircons,” it was still unable to break through the air defense. Ukraine has requested seven more such systems, including for the protection of Kharkov and Odessa, which Russia has recently been strenuously trying to destroy. The military leadership of Ukraine believes that this is the minimum that will help cover the sky over Ukraine.

The basis of Russian air defense is the S-300 and S-400 air defense systems. According to their stated characteristics, they should shoot down all Western-style missiles.
The contract value of one division of four vehicles of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system is about 625 million dollars (based on a deal between Turkey and Russia: 2.5 billion dollars for 4 divisions), or 59 billion rubles. The S-300 air defense system, accordingly, costs a little less.
If Ukraine spent a dozen missiles at Cape Tarkhankut, then their cost will be no more than 20 million dollars and this is much less than the cost of the destroyed four S-300 and S-400 vehicles, the approximate cost of which is hundreds of millions of dollars.

At the same time, the missile used in Patriot, the MIM-104, costs about $3 million, and the cost of the ATACMS missile ranges from one to two million dollars. For comparison: the price of the S-300 anti-aircraft guided missile is at least $2 million. The price of the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile is $10 million. And Russia spends them mainly on shelling populated areas of Ukraine.

The UN is staffed by officials corrupted by Russia. Russia, as the aggressor of the attack on Ukraine, could be put under very strong pressure if desired. The fact is that it is Russia that is blocking various necessary resolutions, including on the issue of its military attack on Ukraine. But Russia itself is in the UN illegally, and even more so as part of the UN Security Light. The fact is that no one accepted Russia into the UN; it is there without permission. The USSR was admitted to the UN, and the representative of Russia after the collapse of the USSR declared that he was the legal successor, although he did not have such powers from the republics that were part of the USSR. But even after such statements, the UN did not accept Russia into its membership and did not accept any resolutions or other UN documents regarding Russia. Ukraine, as a country that previously initiated the creation of the UN, turned to this organization to consider the issue of the legality of Russia’s presence in the UN, but they refuse to do so.

At the UN, significant issues must be decided by a majority of its members and the country in question does not have to vote. And in the current situation, Russia blocks any decisions against itself and therefore the UN is unable to do anything.

This is if we assume that Ukraine will hide the received F-16 aircraft from Russian missiles. Ukraine and their allies are aware of such risks and therefore are preparing to solve such a problem in a comprehensive manner. This means that before the F-16 is delivered to Ukraine, there will be a significant improvement in its air defense in order to cover airfields from Russian missiles. In the near future, 6 - 7 Petriot systems may arrive in Ukraine, which can solve this problem.

But Russia is also not doing well with air defense. This is evidenced by recent events at the occupied Cape Tarkhankut, where Russia immediately lost four air defense systems - three S-300 and one S-400. Previously, they were attacked by ATACMS missiles, which this vaunted air defense simply could not shoot down.

https://www.mv.org.ua/amp/news/276591-poterjany_sistemy_pvo_pogibli_11_voennyh_vsu_pricelno_udarili_po_mysu_tarhankut_v_krymu.html

Russian weapons turned out to be very vulnerable against high-precision Western ones, and countries around the world are therefore abandoning Russian weapons and buying Western ones. Even countries of the former USSR. Why do you think Kazakhstan sold its 117 combat aircraft at auction at a price of less than 20 thousand dollars per aircraft and what aircraft will they buy there in this case?

https://www.unian.net/weapons/voyna-v-ukraine-ssha-priobreli-81-boevoy-samolet-sovetskih-vremen-u-soyuznika-rf-12619707.html

All countries that set as their goal the construction of communism slipped into authoritarian states. Communism is good in theory, but its principles do not work in practice. Perhaps human society is simply not ready for this form of building society. To build communism, the level of development of society and the material well-being of each of its members must be very high. There must also be a completely different consciousness. I don’t know whether we will achieve such a development in our civilization as to set the goal of building a communist society. For now, this remains only a dream for romantics. I don’t yet see such opportunities in the foreseeable future. If humanity continues to fight for its existence, then we will never see a communist society.

Denmark is giving Ukraine all its F-16 fighters: they should be provided this summer. This was stated by the Ambassador of Denmark to Ukraine Ole Egberg Mikkelsen. “There will definitely be planes for Ukraine. This is our entire F-16 fleet, which is now being retired because we are getting a new generation of aircraft - the F-35. No need to worry. The F-16s will be delivered as we promised,” said Ole Egberg Mikkelsen.
https://uatv.ua/daniya-otdast-ukraine-ves-svoj-park-istrebitelej-f-16-podrobnosti/

Since Denmark is going to transfer its entire fleet of F-16s to Ukraine, it is hardly worth considering that they are all old models. Denmark began receiving F-16s in January 1980. The country first ordered 58 aircraft, and in the mid-80s - 12 more, which came to replace the most worn-out aircraft of the first batch. This order was completed approximately in the late 80s of the 20th century.

  The media claim that all F-16 aircraft of the Netherlands and Denmark were modernized from the mid-90s to the mid-2000s under the Mid-Life Update (MLU) program. The fighters were also regularly maintained to extend their service life. In the F-16 aircraft modernized under the MLU program, the radar station was replaced with AN/APG-66(V)2 with a target detection range of up to 110 km. To use high-precision weapons on the fighter, the ability to mount Lantrin or Litening type containers was added. The on-board computer, on-board display equipment, electronic warfare, navigation and communications systems, and low-altitude flights were updated.
https://tsn.ua/ru/svit/kakuyu-versiyu-f-16-peredadut-ukraine-daniya-i-niderlandy-ocenki-ekspertov-2394970.html

The F-16 MLU version is a full-fledged multi-role fighter that can conduct dogfights at ranges of more than 100 km and use a wide range of precision weapons. Soon we will have the opportunity to evaluate these aircraft in combat with Russian fighters, which has never happened before, especially on such a scale.

Man is a social being. People can exist in this gross physical world only if they unite and each does a certain job for the benefit of everyone. In order to exchange goods easily and quickly, money was invented, the form of which changed frequently until it became paper and electronic. All this has been combined into a single financial system, which is controlled by the government, in order to quickly and correctly distribute cash flows for the development of the economy and society as a whole. It is banks that are the instrument for regulating financial flows and have actually become part of the state as the highest form of social structure so far. Therefore, banks will exist as long as states and their governments exist. They may change their name and form, but the essence will still remain the same - regulation of the financial system. Those who assume that money in the state can be decentralized are deeply mistaken. Decentralization of money in the state is allowed, but only as an alternative and with a secondary role in relation to fiat.

Robotization of production in general is very beneficial for humanity. It dramatically increases the efficiency, quality and quantity of products produced. Yes, at first there will be job cuts, but you shouldn’t be afraid of that. There will simply be a redistribution, but people will always find work. Technological progress cannot be stopped anyway, and the introduction of robots where possible will be the right decision. People, due to robotization, on the contrary, will have more time for rest and other useful activities. People will direct their efforts to creativity and new achievements, and not engage in monotonous manual labor, as is done now. If there is nothing to do on Earth, although I very much doubt this, humanity will turn its gaze to space. There is a lot of work for us there. There is always a job for everyone, if there is a desire.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022 and the very brutal war in Ukraine, which is now in its third year, has disrupted the entire global security system. Before this, European countries did not see any serious threat of war and were very reluctant to allocate money for defense. Now, especially recently, the situation has changed dramatically.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) notes that global defense spending in 2023 increased by 6.8% compared to the previous year to more than $2.4 trillion.

In 2023, Ukraine was eighth in the world in terms of military spending, which rose 51% to $64.8 billion and accounted for 58% of total government spending. Russia's military spending increased by 24%, reaching an estimated $109 billion in 2023. This is 57% more than in 2014, when Russia illegally occupied Crimea. In 2023, Russian military spending amounted to 16% of total government spending.

Ukraine's military spending in 2023 amounted to 59% of Russia's. However, during the year, Ukraine also received at least $35 billion in military aid, including $25.4 billion from the United States. Taken together, SIPRI estimates that this aid and Ukraine's own military spending are equivalent to about 91% of Russian spending. Given the recently allocated $61 billion in military aid to Ukraine, Ukraine's opposition to Russia's aggressive plans will be very serious.

Moreover, military tension due to Russia’s actions has arisen all over the world. For the first time since 2009, military spending increased in all five geographic regions defined by SIPRI. Particularly significant growth was recorded in Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East.

But the world is moving in the wrong direction again. Instead of improving technologies to solve the numerous problems of mankind, space exploration, thanks to countries like Russia, we are again sliding into the abyss of endless wars and the next death of human civilization...

This is one of the biggest problems in using cryptocurrency. The confidentiality and anonymity of cryptocurrency is both its advantage and disadvantage. Our nature is such that we rarely take steps in the event of our death, especially if we are not of advanced age. Therefore, we must take care of such a situation in advance, or act at our own peril and risk. But no matter what we do, a lot of cryptocurrency will disappear forever due to the death of their last owners.

In Russia’s war against Ukraine, which is now in its third year, Putin and his entourage have repeatedly threatened Ukraine and the whole world with the use of nuclear weapons. One by one, the conditions were set that if the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the annexed Crimea, the territory of Russia itself, Moscow, then nuclear weapons would be used. But the Ukrainians are now attacking both the Crimea peninsula they captured and almost the entire territory of Russia, including Moscow.

If they attack you and try to kill you with conventional weapons, then it practically doesn’t matter if they also blackmail you with the use of nuclear weapons. If you die, then it makes no difference from what weapon, so Ukraine practically does not react to nuclear blackmail and continues to defend itself by all available means. In addition, any use of nuclear weapons will boomerang on the territory of Russia itself and this cannot be ignored. Even the use of small tactical nuclear weapons will mean that it will be impossible to live normally in this territory for decades and centuries. And then why do the occupiers need such conquered territory? In 2022, the Russians invaded the Chernobyl zone of Ukraine from Belarus and even dug in there. After some time, they were all taken to Belarus with signs of radiation sickness. They say that every single one of them has already died. But almost forty years have passed since the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Therefore, not everything is so simple. A major war involving many nuclear states does not really mean that it will be nuclear. But at the same time, it only takes a few idiots with access to the nuclear button to threaten the existence of all humanity. After all, if even one nuclear explosion occurs, after that there will no longer be any deterrent to the use of other nuclear weapons.

Due to the loss of the European market for its gas, Russia is very quickly turning into a raw material colony of China. Until 2027, China will buy gas from Russia at a discount of more than 28%. The basic scenario of the forecast envisages the sale of Russian gas to China already in 2024 at a price of $257 per thousand cubic meters. For comparison: Europe and Türkiye buy the same gas for $320. In the next three years, the Chinese will have the opportunity to purchase Russian gas even cheaper - with a discount of 28%. At the same time, every subsequent year the cost of “blue fuel” from the Russian Federation for China will decrease: in 2025 it will be $243.7, in 2026 $233, and in 2027 $227.

Due to aggression against Ukraine, Russia lost the European market in 2022, which is not only more favorable in terms of prices, but also more convenient in terms of logistics. The Russian Federation rushed to urgently redistribute supplies, trying to take a place in the markets of the East. However, no one there needs Russian gas; they agree to buy it only at large discounts. Now supplies of pipeline Russian gas to Europe have fallen to their lowest level since the 70s of the last century. If before the war the Russian Federation exported 201 billion cubic meters. m, then at the moment supply volumes have decreased to 45 billion cubic meters and continue to decline. Last year, 2023, Gazprom had to take an unprecedented step in its history and cut production by a quarter. This was a necessary measure, since after the loss of the European market there was nowhere to put gas.
What can we call this if not a disgrace for Russia and Putin personally?

Currently, the Russian Federation exports about 22.7 billion cubic meters to China through its Power of Siberia pipeline. Moscow is making plans to increase export volumes to 38 billion cubic meters by 2025. Moreover, the Kremlin is also persistently persuading Beijing to invest in the construction of a new gas pipeline, Power of Siberia 2, with a capacity of 50 billion cubic meters, but without much success. The Chinese authorities, apparently, do not want to repeat the mistake of Europe by becoming energy dependent on the Russian Federation.

If you haven’t understood yet, then I can explain that the Russian Black Sea Fleet has lost a unique rescue vessel, which is the “Commune”. Without this ship as a whole, the Russian submarine fleet has no right to go to sea, since there is no mechanism for rescuing the crew and the submarine if it crashes. Going out to sea, Russian sailors will understand that any problem on a submarine is practically death for them, since no one will get them. And this applies not only to submarines, but also to ships if they suffer the same fate as the cruiser Moskva.

The Russians modernized the vessel in 2016 to perform deep-sea work, including the recovery of submarines and sunken cargo, and had the most advanced equipment on board. Its indisputable value for Russia lies in the fact that it is the only rescue ship of its class in the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Therefore, it does not matter its cost in rubles or dollars. The important thing is that without it, the Russians will be even more afraid to go to sea, while Ukraine has improved its surface drones and created a small and formidable Kronos submarine, armed with six torpedoes and capable of sinking the remnants of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

https://zn.ua/TECHNOLOGIES/na-vystavke-v-abu-dabi-ukrainskie-razrabotchiki-prezentovali-kompaktnuju-podlodku.html

https://24tv.ua/ru/kronos-harakteristiki-ukrainskoj-podvodnoj-lodki-24-kanal_n2536565

The real madness would have begun if Putin had not been stopped in Ukraine. Putin only understands power and will go as far as he is allowed. Therefore, the Baltic countries would definitely be next in his aggression. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia understand this very clearly and help Ukraine in any way they can so as not to see destroyed houses and killed people on their territory. In fact, now Ukraine is fighting not only for its independence, but also the independence of all of Europe. Putin's Russia was not punished for the 2008 attack on Georgia, the 2014 attack on Ukraine and the seizure of the Crimean peninsula and parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine. That’s why he decided to take over all of Ukraine.

Have you seen what happened in just a month of occupation of the Kiev region by Russians? Dead civilians were lying right on the street: an elderly man on a cyclist, a woman with scattered groceries from her bag. They were killed simply for fun, because they felt permissiveness. And how many corpses were then removed from mass graves hastily dug in forest plantations and from basements with their hands tied behind their backs and bullets in the back of their heads. Would you like to see this in your country?

Of course, even Poland is afraid of such a repetition at home and therefore wants to place nuclear weapons on its territory to deter the horde of Russians. Escalation of hostilities and a reason for Putin to invade? The best reason for him to invade is weak neighbors. On the other hand, is Putin’s deployment of his nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus not an escalation of the war with NATO?

Have you ever wondered why Finland and Sweden asked to join NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Because the Finns have not yet forgotten how these neighbors attacked them in 1939-1940 and also do not want such a repetition. Russia's neighbors know what this horde is like. Your country is probably located far from Russia, so you feel relatively safe. To prevent this from happening again, Putin and his army of orcs must now be kicked in the teeth, so that many generations of these orcs will pay reparations to the Ukrainians for the evil they have done and remember the fatal mistake of their older generations.

The Russian Black Sea Fleet suffered further losses. On Sunday, April 21, in annexed Sevastopol, after a Ukrainian missile attack, the rescue ship “Kommuna” of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which was moored at berth No. 14 on the northern shore of Sevastopol Bay, caught fire. It is quite possible that it was not the target of the Ukrainian missile, but the real target was the Yamal BDK, which was standing nearby, but due to its smooth trajectory, the missile caught on the high side of the Commune.

  This is the oldest ship in the Russian fleet, which managed to take part in two previous world wars. In 1913, the ship was launched and on July 15, 1915, it became part of the Russian Imperial Navy under the name Volkhov. The vessel's displacement is 3100 tons, length - 96 meters, width - 18.57 m, height - 8.40 m, draft - 3.65 m. In February 1918, the Volkhov was captured by German troops in Reval (now Tallinn), and later transferred to socialist Russia. Before and during World War II, the Commune recovered dozens of sunken submarines, ships and vessels in the Baltic Sea. The importance of this vessel was appreciated by Forbes, stating that without the Commune, the remaining submarines of the Black Sea Fleet will have to sail without support. A fire was recorded on it, but the extent of damage is still being determined.

Despite the systematic destruction, Russia continues to retain a large number of Black Sea Fleet ships in occupied Crimea. But these are secondary ships; the most valuable assets are located in Novorossiysk on Russian territory. Large landing ships, support vessels, minesweepers, and everything that the Russian Federation is ready to sacrifice in order to maintain its combat functionality remain in Crimea for repairs.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have already carried out successful attacks on 14 Russian oil refineries, which led to a reduction in the export of petroleum products by a third. At the same time, some politicians in the United States were indeed dissatisfied with such attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since as a result, prices for gasoline and diesel fuel rose. But Ukrainian President Zelensky directly stated that he would not listen to this advice and that the terrorist country Russia can only be stopped if it strikes military facilities and other Russian facilities that support the invasion of Ukraine.

Considering that Russia continues to methodically launch missile and bomb attacks on populated areas of Ukraine, trying to destroy them to the ground, including such a multi-million Ukrainian city as Kharkov, killing civilians every day, it seems that any ban on attacks on military targets on Russian territory with the help of Western weapons has already been removed or will be removed in the near future.

Today the US Senate is scheduled to vote on the $60 billion aid bill to Ukraine, which was approved by the House of Representatives on April 20. Biden has already stated that he will sign it as quickly as possible and weapons, including long-range ATACMS shells, will soon arrive in Ukraine. Then it will be possible to clearly see at what depth in Russia military installations will explode under the blows of high-precision Western weapons.
In this regard, the Crimean Bridge, it seems, will soon tire and fall in parts to the bottom of the sea.

China in its political activities is always guided by its economic interests, and the concept of friends in this regard is rather conditional for China. Therefore, Russia and Iran will be friends of China as long as it is beneficial to China itself. Considering that China's trade turnover with the European Union and the United States in 2022 amounted to $1.6 trillion - 8 times more than with Russia, and this balance generally continues to be maintained, China is not going to support Russia where this support could lead to a serious conflict with Europe and the USA.

Therefore, fearing secondary sanctions, large Chinese banks actually stopped accepting payments from Russia. Problems with transactions began at the end of 2023, when the US expanded its secondary sanctions mechanism. After this, Russian companies had difficulties with transfers to China in dollars, and at the beginning of 2024, Chinese banks began to block receipts in yuan. In January, transactions in Chinese currency were limited by PingAn Bank and Bank of Nongbo (the country's 13th and 15th banks by capitalization) and several other financial institutions. However, over time, the list of banks from China that refuse to accept payments in yuan from Russia has expanded.

In March, the largest Chinese bank ICBC, as well as China Citic Bank, Industrial Bank, Bank of Taizhou and Bank of China stopped processing most transfers from the Russian Federation.

Several large Chinese banks, including Bank of China (the fourth largest in terms of assets among Chinese banks) and Great Wall West China Bank, when accepting payments from Russia, began to request information about whether they are connected with the “LPR”, “DPR”, the occupied Russia Crimea, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Syria or with the armed forces and defense industry of Russia. Chinese banks began requesting such information around the beginning of the year, even if the payment comes not from Russia, but from third countries. The payment currency does not affect the situation.

Some Chinese banks also face the threat of being disconnected from the global financial system for helping Russia circumvent sanctions, and they are unlikely to ignore this threat in order to maintain friendly relations with Russia.

Putin's Russia orchestrated the Crocus City Hall tragedy, planning to blame it on the Ukrainians and ensure that the US Congress would no longer provide aid to Ukraine. But then in Russia they made a fatal mistake: the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case for complicity in terrorism based on this fact against US congressmen and this caused the opposite effect. Trump and House Chairman Johnson quickly changed their rhetoric because of this, and on April 20, the House of Representatives voted for about $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, which Johnson had deliberately not brought to a vote since October last year.
Tomorrow, April 23, the Senate must vote on this bill, and Biden has already indicated that he will quickly sign it. NATO, in turn, also stated that they are ready to send weapons to Ukraine within a few days, which are already in European warehouses. Putin, who invested a colossal amount of money into the “congress” project, was ultimately defeated.

Recently, when Russia’s advantage in the air was one in thirty, and in shells one in ten, and even despite the fact that aviation was intensively dropping guided bombs weighing from 500 to 1,500 kilograms on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces simply could not resist with anything , and also with a significant superiority in manpower, the invaders slowly advanced through the ruins of the captured settlements of Ukraine. The situation should change in the near future, especially when the Ukrainian Armed Forces will have F-16s to shoot down bombers before dropping bombs. So the arrogance and imperial stupidity of Russia can play as a turning point in this war.

In addition, the US Congress also voted to confiscate the assets of the terrorist country Russia and its oligarchs collaborating with the Putin regime, and use them to help Ukraine's defense and reconstruction after the war. And although this amount is small, about 5 billion dollars, it is a precedent and a demonstrative step for Europe, where over 300 billion of Russian assets have been seized.

Everything has its time. After Neil Armstrong walked on the moon on July 20, 1969, the space race between the USA and the USSR was almost curtailed. Later, Edwin Aldrin, the second crew member of the Apollo 11 mission, stated that they then saw aliens on the Moon who did not hide their presence. In order not to show them to the whole world, mission control made artificial interference for two minutes. It seems that this was the reason that space exploration practically ceased.

Today, Russia, the USA and Europe are fighting for the right to become the first country to carry out a manned flight to Mars. The European Exomars Rover is set to head to Mars soon. It is planned that he will take soil samples and draw up a detailed map of the area. Even India launched its Mangalyaan space probe to Mars in November 2013. It is needed to develop technologies for space flights to the Red Planet. China also announced its plans to explore Mars, after the successful launch of the automatic interplanetary station Chang'e-3 to study the Moon. NASA is testing a “flying saucer” designed for a soft landing of a spacecraft in the rarefied atmosphere of the Red Planet.

At the end of July, scientists made a sensational announcement that a unique space engine had been created, thanks to which it would be possible to reach the Moon in just four hours of flight, and to Mars in two and a half months. That is, if you work in this direction, effective space technology will appear quite quickly.

Russia's war against Ukraine is not just a war to destroy the armed forces of Ukraine. Putin’s Russia wants to destroy this state and, since it has not been able to achieve military superiority on the battlefield for two years, it is relying on terror and intimidation of the civilian population. Therefore, a significant portion of missile, bomb and drone strikes are deliberately aimed at civilian targets.

Russia is a terrorist country. It has always extremely cruelly suppressed and is now suppressing any resistance of the nationalities conquered over the past centuries that are part of it. Having practically no oil and gas of its own, it ruthlessly exploits the previously conquered territory and pumps out natural resources from it, and also mainly mobilizes their male population for the war with Ukraine, trying to Russify it. This does not work with Ukraine, so the cruelty in the occupied territories of Ukraine is simply off the charts.

Nazi Germany was defeated in the war against the USSR largely due to their excessive cruelty to the population of the occupied territories. The same will happen with Putin’s Russia in Ukraine.