#iran plane crash

[mapsontheweb]

Where the Iranian President Raisi died

[luminalunii97]

It's been almost two months since the MURDER of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian kurd girl who's MURDER sparked a wave of protests against the regime. I insist on the word "murder" because I feel like some non Iranians are still dubious about the cause of her death. Which is understandable, the authorities in Iran denied the accusation and are still insisting that her death, plus every other murdered protesters, aren't the regime's doing!!! These denials are widely ignored by Iranians because it's a widespread known fact that islamic republic goons only lie. No one remember the last time this regime's figures and followers or IRIB, their monopoly media corporation, spoke the truth. They are the empire of lies, to the point that if we ever watch their news programs, it's to find the truth in reverse of what they say. If they deny something, then with no doubt it has happened. If they claim something, that's definitely a lie.

I won't be able to explain how this mistrust and this circus of fabricated lies happened, there's a history behind it, but I'll give you one very painful example to see why you should never trust what IR says.

Flight PS752, Iran - Ukraine

On January 8, 2020, a plane with 167 passengers and 9 crew members aboard took off from Tehran to the destination Kyiv. Shortly after takeoff, it was shut down by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), shooting 2 missiles at it. All 176 occupants were killed within seconds.

Islamic Republic authorities immediately claimed the crash was because of a technical issue, that an engine was caught on fire, that it was the pilot's fault. Within the same day, the USA followed by Ukraine, Britain, and Canada claimed that the cause of the crash was most probably a missile strike.

At the time, there was tension between Iran's regime and the US because of the assassination of Ghasem Soleimani, the guy who was directly responsible for part of the destructions in the middle east, the guy whose family's life was full of contradictions, the guy Islamic Republic swore to take his revenge on the US, but instead, they took his revenge on innocent civilians.

For the next 72 hours, our regime lied and lied and lied and countered every accusation and proof with denial and slander. In response to every claim foreign intelligence agencies made, they said things like it's "a rumor", "lie", "American deception", "psychological war" and "false scenarios of the West" by "enemies", "adversaries" and "counter-revolutionaries" for "hostility", "marginalizing the attack on the Ain al-Assad barracks " or "Boeing's attempt to prevent the stock from falling and to cover up the technical problems of its plane"! For 72 mother fuckin hours they looked into the eye of the families of the victims and our nation and lied. Until they couldn't hide it anymore. So after 3 days they finally admitted that it was a missile strike, that they had mistaken the plane for an American cruise missile. A human error. And then they refused to give any more explanations.

There have been arguments around this "human error" excuse, doubt and speculations. But most important of all there has been public demand for prosecution. The families of the flight victims rightfully demanded a just trial for the responsible parties. Can you guess what did the regime do? They called it "a bitter accident", "a human error" and "an unforgivable incident". That's it. No one resigned, no one apologized and no one took responsibility. They didn't even want to pay compensation, saying "why should we pay when the plane had European insurance?!". Our beloved parliament, the parliament that's calling for the execution of protesters these days, praised IRGC for doing their duties so well! Hossein Salami, IRGC commander-in-chief, gave a speech in parliament about the incident that was salt in the wound. He lied "we were under pressure by our people to avenge Soleimani", "I wish I was in that plane", "we never wish to harm our own people" and the biggest lie of all "we were the first to announce this hypothesis of missiles hitting the plane causing the crash. If we were not the source of the formation of this hypothesis, no one could understand"!!!

It was only about 2 months after the 2019 protests in Iran in which the government shut down the internet for a week and mass murdered more than 1500 protesters in only 3 days. As was expected anger stirred up again and there was another wave of protests in the country where people chanted death to the dictator and demanded the overthrow of Khamenei. They tore Soleimani's pictures and put them on fire. Do you know any better way to say he wasn't popular among people and we didn't put anyone under pressure to avenge him?

To add a side note here, there have been protests after protests in the past couple of years. Here's a diagram of all mass protests in iran since Islamic revolution:

Protests got suppressed again. The families of the flight victims were offered bribery or threatened to keep their mouths shut. Some of them even got arrested and were put in jail temporarily. But the families didn't back down so The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims was formed. (Website, Instagram, YouTube)

Out of 176 lost lives, 147 of them were Iranian or Iranian-Canadian and the other 29 were Canadian, Ukrainian, Afghan, and Swedish. The association represents 140 of the victims. Through this association, we learned more about the lives of the victims as the association stated that it has been established to keep the memories of the passengers alive and seek justice.

Among the passengers, there were 15 children, one infant, and one pregnant woman. Many university students and professors were on board too. You can read some of their stories on the association's website or social media.

Hamed Esmaeilion, the spokesman of the association, has one of the most tragic stories. He lost his wife, Parisa Eghbalian, and 9-year-old daughter, Reera, in this incident.

The association has been active in every anti-regime movement since its establishment. In the uprising of Mahsa Amini's murder, Esmaeilion organized global rallies in more than 150 cities all over the world. Someone described that day as Iranian New Year's Eve, not because it was a merry occasion, but because Iranians around the globe came together, united, and rallied, like a wave, from the most eastern side of the earth to the most western side, like how clock strikes 12 in every country from east to west for waiting crowds. Esmaeilion, later on, organized another big rally in Berlin, where the Berlin victory column is located. The first picture is of the said rally.

The 2019 protests and massacre happened 3 years ago these days. There's going to be protests all over Iran on November 15, 16, and 17 (24, 25, and 26 of Aban). Outside of Iran in an act of solidarity, the association has called for another global demonstration on November 19 (28 of Aban). More informations about time and location in different countries are posted on the association social media. In case you're interested to participate and meet some Iranians, everyone's welcome to join.

[whilomm]

"helicopter flying through foggy mountains crashes" yeah thats normal its like enrichment for them

[zabaloon]

Report of the tragic plane crash in Iran

This is one of the most searched and accessed topics on zabaloon.

[hayarthun]

The Iranians claim that the Turks were not the first to find the wreckage of their president's helicopter. In Tehran they say that the Turkish Akıncı UAV did NOT detect anything, but was found by the Iranian Air Force itself. Iranians say Turkey sent its drones for political PR for Erdogan and Turkish weapons produced by his son-in-law Seljuk Bayraktar.

Иранцы утверждают, что турки не находили первыми обломки вертолета их президента. В Тегеране говорят, что турецкий БПЛА «Акынджи» НЕ обнаружил чего-либо, а нашли ВВС самого Ирана.

Тепловая сигнатура, обнаруженная «Акынджи», находилась на координатах 38°47'09N 46°42'57E, а обломки вертолета были обнаружены на координатах 38°43'08 N 46°39'16E, недалеко от Сунгуна, на расстоянии более 9 км.

Иранцы говорят, что Турция направила свои дроны ради политического пиара Эрдогана и турецкого оружия, которое производит его зять Сельджук Байрактар.

[topniks]

Tragedy in Iran: President and Foreign Minister killed in plane crash

[randomaccessmedia]

Episode 003 - Hidden Secrets of the Iranian Downing of Flight PS-752

[thebrightestwitchofherage]

Let me get this Israel killed Raisi theory straight

In case you don't know, Iran's president died yesterday in a plane crash along with the plane's crew and his higher-ups ( ministers, an Imam, etc). While on a flight through foggy mountains.

A year ago, when it was trendy, everybody was talking about how Iran is an awful extremist& misogynistic regime that kills its own people (extreme understatement but bear with me).

Everyone immediately decided that Israel was to blame. Multiple official Israeli sources have said that Israel has nothing to do with it. IDK maybe don't fly a risky flight when all of the important people are on board together???

The violence against the Iranian people doesn't end when it's no longer trending on Western social media.

HE'S LITERALLY CALLED THE BUTCHER OF TEHERAN. A DICTATOR. He's responsible for so many innocent lives ending: Hamas praised Mr Raisi's support of the Palestinian group, while the Tehran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon said it was mourning the death of its protector. (BBC)

Iranians are celebrating* as I write this. *as much as they can

---

Anyways, it's time to listen to this bop

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

Only going to say this once even though I know it doesn't matter but I never, not once, said the protests in Iran were a bad thing, denied Mahsa Amini's murder, or said theocracy and religious police are good things. Literally the only commentary I have offered on this is pointing out the United States and other Western powers have a vested interest in using the protests to manufacture consent for further aggression against Iran and pointing out which commentators are literally payrolled US propagandists, namely Masih Alinejad, who I've seen getting boosted in basically every single post about Iran. Like I said I know saying this doesn't matter because USAmericans and westerners (including/especially the self-avowed "progressive" "leftist" ones) take even the most mild acknowledgment of imperialism and the United States being a hostile force to the overwhelming majority of humanity with the grace and nuance of a crashing plane. But whatever, I'll just put it on record anyway.

[tomorrowusa]

Pardon me for not shedding tears over the death of the misogynistic theocratic thug Ebrahim Raisi.

As a strong supporter of Ukraine, I note that Iran under Raisi has supplied Russia with Shahed drones which have murdered or maimed thousands of Ukrainians.

Of course Raisi, first and foremost, has repressed and killed countless Iranians over the span of his brutal career.

Iran’s hardline President Ebrahim Raisi — once seen as a potential successor to 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — died after his helicopter crashed into trees in a mountainous northwestern region of the Islamic Republic on Sunday.  The Iranian branch of the Red Crescent humanitarian network said on Monday its search and rescue teams had reached the crash site and “found no signs of the helicopter’s occupants being alive.” The discovery of the burned-out wreckage of Raisi’s helicopter among blackened trees — with seemingly only the tail surviving the crash — followed hours of searches in the fog-bound mountain valleys of Dizmar forest near the border with Azerbaijan.  [ ... ] Raisi, 63, was a conservative cleric and former judiciary chief who was responsible for decades of vicious crackdowns against his own people’s aspirations for greater personal freedoms and democracy, arresting, torturing and executing tens of thousands of the Islamist regime’s opponents.  Educated in the seminary city of Qom and dubbed “the butcher,” he was alleged to have been involved in the execution of thousands of political prisoners in the late 1980s, according to Iran’s opposition. As judiciary chief, he was also directly responsible for the wave of arrests and executions that followed massive anti-regime protests in 2019-2020.  As president, he oversaw the iron-fisted repression of the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement that followed the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Tens of thousands were arrested, and the death toll is estimated at more than 500. 

Raisi was a way bad person – even by the standards of the ruling theocratic mafia in Iran.

As for the helicopter crash that killed Raisi, look to Iran's terrible air safety record.

Iran's poor aviation safety record

The cause of the helicopter crash is not yet known - but Iran has a poor air transport safety record. This is at least partly the result of decades of US sanctions, which have severely weakened its aerial fleet. President Raisi was on board a Bell 212 helicopter, state news agencies said. The model was made in the US and could not have been sold to Iran since the 1979 revolution. Previous ministers of defence and transport, as well as commanders of Iran’s ground and air armed forces, have died in plane or helicopter crashes. When reformers led Iran's government, they aimed to modernise the country's fleet of aircraft by negotiating a deal with the West that would see sanctions lifted in return for limiting Iran's sensitive nuclear activities and allowing in international inspectors However, these efforts stalled when President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal and reimposed sanctions. Reformers were subsequently opposed and mocked by hardliners, who insisted that Iran could rely on its domestic industries and foreign allies to improve aviation safety.

Iran has been devoting more attention to building killer drones than to maintaining its own aircraft. The helicopter crash is poetic justice of sorts.

[usafphantom2]

On This Day In 1970 The Grumman F-14 Tomcat Made Its First Flight

December 21, 2019 Military Aviation

the first Full Scale Development (FSD) Grumman F-14A Tomcat (BuNo 157980) during its first flight in 1970. (Image credit: Grumman)

It’s the anniversary of Turkey’s first flight.

On Dec. 21, 1970, the first Full Scale Development (FSD) Grumman F-14A Tomcat (BuNo 157980) took off for its maiden flight from Grumman’s flight test centre at Calverton, on Long Island.

The poor weather conditions forced the two test pilots flying the first “Turkey” (as the aircraft would be later nicknamed), Grumman chief test pilot Robert K. Smyth and project test pilot William Miller, to cut the maiden flight, carried out a month ahead of the contracted data, short. However, in spite of the short duration of the flight (consisting in a few visual patterns with wing swept forward), the F-14 had taken to the air for the first time: the first of many flights in the U.S. until the last one conducted in 2006.

An F-14 with bomb markings earned during Operation Desert Fox in 1999, aboard USS Enterprise. The aircraft’s role evolved during the years and the F-14 also carried out the bomber mission in a variant also referred to as “Bombcat”. (Image credit: Author).

The F-14 BuNo 157980 took off for the second test flight on Dec. 30 with the two test pilots swapping their seats: Miller sat in the front cockpit and Smyth in the back. The second flight is quite famous in the story of the Tomcat, as the aircraft crashed due to hydraulic failure: a mishap that was caught on camera by a chase plane.

Ezoic

Here’s how we described that second sortie in a previous article we published here at The Aviationist:

It was during this flight that a chase plane noted that the Tomcat was leaving a trail of smoke: shortly thereafter the F-14 experienced a primary hydraulic system failure forcing Miller to head immediately back to base.

While they were preparing to land, the secondary hydraulic system also failed, due to the use of the emergency nitrogen bottle to lower the landing gear: once it failed, the crew tried to rely on the Combat Survival System which had to supply the power to the rudders and tailerons only.

However this last limited control system showed signs of failing as well, the pilot lost control all over the aircraft and the crew was forced to eject.

The breakdown was caused by a fatigue failure of both titanium main hydraulic lines due to a coincidence of pump resonance and a loose connector: ironically, the F-14’s hydraulic system was fixed by changing from titanium to stainless steel hydraulic lines only.

As you can see from footage (around 03:20 min), the crew ejected only few meters above the trees but, luckily, they suffered only minor injuries.

Sadly, Miller died on 30 June 1972 when its Tomcat crashed into Chesapeake Bay during preparation for an air display with the tenth FSD F-14 (BuNo 157989), while Smyth passed away this year.

Both Smyth and Miller contributed in bringing the last in a long tradition of Grumman Cats to life.

The F-14 is still flying in Iran.

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

@theaviationist via X

[stele3]

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/iran-deliver-hundreds-ballistic-missiles-russia-soon-intel-sources-say-2024-08-09/

[mightyflamethrower]

The theocracy of Iran has been the world’s arch-embassy attacker over the last half century.

So it has zero credibility in crying foul over Israel’s April 1 attacks on its “consulate” in Damascus and the killing of Iran’s kingpin terrorists of the Revolutionary Guard Corps there.

Remember, the world was first introduced to the Iranian ayatollahs by their violent takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1980.

Iranian surrogates next bombed the American embassy in Beirut and the Marine barracks in 1983.

In fact, Iran has attacked US and Israeli diplomatic posts off-and-on for decades, most recently in 2023, when Iran helped plan an attack on the US embassy in Baghdad.

For this reason and several others, Iran’s justification for sending 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles, and 120 ballistic missiles into Israel on the grounds that Israel had bombed an Iranian diplomatic post is completely ridiculous.

One, Iran has never honored diplomatic immunity.

Instead, it habitually attacks and kills embassy personnel and blows up diplomatic facilities across the world.

Two, on April 1, the Israelis attacked a pseudo-“consulate” in Damascus which was hosting grandees of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as they planned terrorist attacks on Israel.

Without Iran, the Middle East might have had a chance to use its enormous oil and natural gas wealth to lift its 500 million people out of poverty rather than to be mired in constant tribal and religious anti-Israeli, anti-American, and anti-Western terrorism.

During the Iraq War, Iran’s Shiite terrorists and its massive supplies of deadly shaped-charge explosive devices killed hundreds of Americans. It routinely hijacks container ships in the Straits of Hormuz and stages near collisions with American ships and planes.

How does Iran get away with nonstop anti-Western terrorism, its constant harassment of Persian Gulf maritime traffic, its efforts to subvert Sunni moderate regimes, and its serial hostage-taking?

The theocrats operate on three general principles.

One, Iran is careful never to attack a major power directly.

Until this week, it had never sent missiles and drones into Israel. Its economy is one-dimensionally dependent on oil exports. And its paranoid government distrusts its own people, who have no access to free elections.

So Iranian strategy over the last few decades has relied on surrogates—especially expendable Arab Shia terrorists in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, along with the Sunni Arabs of Hamas—to do its dirty work of killing Israelis and Americans.

It loudly egged all of them on and then cowardly denied responsibility once it feared Israeli or American retaliation.

Two, it has fooled Western governments and especially left-wing American administrations by posing as a persecuted victim. Iran claims it is the champion of aggrieved Shiite Arab and Persian minorities, unfairly exploited by Israel, moderate Arab regimes, and rich Sunni Gulf monarchies.

Three, Iran hopes its pseudo-diplomatic outreach to left-wing Western governments, coupled with its lunatic existential threats and unleashing terrorist attacks on its enemies, can coax or bully the West into granting it concessions—especially time to acquire a dozen or so nuclear weapons.

Yet for all its loud, creepy threats, Iran is incredibly weak and vulnerable.

Israel and its allies shot down almost all its recent nocturnal missile and drone barrages. Lots of other missiles reportedly blew up on liftoff in Iran or crashed in transit.

Before the Biden appeasement of Iran, the Trump administration had isolated and nearly bankrupted Tehran and its proxies. Its Revolutionary Guard terrorist planners proved to be easy targets once they operated outside Iran.

Iran’s only hope is to get a bomb and, with it, nuclear deterrence to prevent retaliation when it increases its terrorist surrogate attacks on Israel, the West, and international commerce.

Yet now Iran may have jumped the shark by attacking the Israeli homeland for the first time. It is learning that it has almost no sympathetic allies.

Does even the Lebanese Hezbollah really want to take revenge against Israel on behalf of Persian Iran, only to see its Shia neighborhoods in Lebanon reduced to rubble?

Do all the pro-Hamas protestors on American campuses and in the streets really want to show Americans they celebrate Iranian attacks and a potential Iranian war against the United States?

Does Iran really believe 99 percent of any future Israel barrage against Iranian targets would fail to hit targets in the fashion that its own recent launches failed?

Does Iran really believe that its sheer incompetence in attacking Israel warrants them a pardon—as if they should be excused for trying, but not succeeding, to kill thousands of Jews?

In sum, by unleashing a terrorist war in the Middle East and targeting the Israeli homeland, Iran may wake up soon and learn Israel, or America, or both might retaliate for a half-century of its terrorist aggression—and mostly to the indifference or even the delight of most of the world.

[fleetstreetpies]

Hi friends.

This past year has been terrifying, heartbreaking, uplifting, soul crushing, and every experience in between. I’ve lost a lot of my family, both stateside and abroad. I’ve raised my GPA in college. I’ve been at the same shitty retail job. Dear god. It’s been a long year.

It’s the anniversary of 9/11 again, and I think this year is probably going to be the worst for anti-Arab and Islamophobic hate crimes since 2001. They’ve been progressively on the rise since Trump’s presidency began back in 2016, and have accelerated since the start of the genocide against Palestinians (yknow, the one where I lost a lot of my family). Anti-Arab racist propaganda most news outlets and social networks feed the American public has been on the rise and spreading like wildfire. And this year, the twenty-third anniversary of one of the largest scale terrorist attacks in the United States, I feel is going to be the worst.

The United States of America did experience a great loss of life during the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and during the passenger reclamation of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. Those 2996 people had families, friends, pets, and colleagues who loved them and valued them so deeply. And the people who have died from smoke inhalation and the diseases related to smoke inhalation over the past 23 years have just as many loved ones. These are people and families and communities and friends, not numbers.

One of my mom’s best friends was working in the Pentagon at the time of the attack. She was on the other side of the building in a meeting when the plane crashed. She survived. 184 of her colleagues and friends did not make it home that night. 184 never made it back from work. 184 people would never see their spouses and kids, would never go to a bar to watch a big sports game with friends, would never see their friends getting married or having kids, would never call their moms or dads again.

184 people died. They died. And that was only one of the attacks.

Their lives do not go unremembered.

Neither do the thousands and even millions of lives lost in the Middle East.

In the aftermath of the attacks on September 11, 2001, approximately 1,445,590 innocent Muslims in countries across the seas were killed in invasions by the United States. The goal was to eradicate terrorism, but the end result was another terrorist regime replacing the last. America itself often became the terrorist regime, even if only temporarily. Innocent people have died, and their blood is on America’s hands.

This doesn’t even begin to cover the murders and violence against Arabs and Muslims in the States.

People in other religious and philosophical communities, including but not limited to Sikhs, have been and still are being attacked.

My fear is that this year is going to be worse. Hate crimes are already rampant. People who are just trying to go to work or to school are being harassed, threatened, assaulted, or even killed. It’s not right to just sit back and not acknowledge that. People can twiddle their thumbs and turn the other way all they want, but in the end these are people with families who are in danger.

And I get it; this is small potatoes compared to what’s happening overseas. I know that intimately well. But PLEASE. I beg of you. Your Arab, Muslim, Sikh, etc. neighbors, friends, coworkers, family, and in-laws are all people too. They have families. They are alive. This September, keep them safe. Don’t speak over them. Amplify their voices.

Keep talking about Palestine, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Yemen. Keep talking about what’s happening elsewhere. Keep talking about persecution of Muslims and Arab people. Keep talking about how misconceptions about other religions and cultures are spread in the US/global north. Keep talking about it. Keep calling genocide and apartheid states out for what they are. Keep speaking up and showing up. Use your vote. Use your platform to reduce harm that comes to others. Make it so that people CANNOT look away. All eyes on these places, and on genocide the world over.

No more lives lost. Never again, for anyone.

— an exhausted Arab Jew

[warningsine]

Iran's former minister is blaming the crash on the US I'm-😭😭😭

Of course he is.

When you can't blame it on the Jews (and I'm sure the conspiracy theorists will), blame it on the West/US. The cornerstone of Iranian and Russian politics.

Ok, it's not that I don't believe you, anon, but I had to check what he said exactly:

Well.

Iran has had 20 deadly crashes since 2000: 9 of them were Russian planes, 8 were American and 3 were European.

They had the money to launch missiles and drones, but not enough money to fix the 30-40 year old helicopter they let their president use? Why didn't they ask their buddies (China and Russia) to give them spare parts?

And of course they had to fly that helicopter in rough weather.

Yes, I'm sure their safety records are not to blame at all.

[ukrainenews]

Daily Wrap Up October 18, 2022

(Hello, all 400 of you now!)

Under the cut:

The death toll from a military jet crash in the Russian town of Yeysk has risen to 14, including three children, and dozens more are injured.

Thirty percent of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed in just over a week, leading to “massive blackouts” across the country, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, as the Kremlin steps up attacks on critical energy infrastructure.

Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface to surface missiles, in addition to more drones, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters, a move that is likely to infuriate the United States and other Western powers.

NATO will deliver anti-drone air defence systems to Ukraine in coming days to help the country defend itself against the wave of Iranian-made drones with which Russia is targeting critical infrastructure, the alliance's secretary-general said.

The new commander of the Russian army in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, said on Tuesday that civilians were being “resettled” from the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, describing the military situation in Ukraine as “tense.”

“The death toll from a military jet crash in the Russian town of Yeysk has risen to 14, including three children, and dozens more are injured.

The SU-34 figher-bomber crashed into a nine-storey residential building on Monday evening, with Russia’s investigative committee putting the collision down to a “technical malfunction”.

It has launched a criminal inquiry into possible violations of flight rules, and investigators are questioning the pilots who managed to parachute out of the plane before it made impact with the building.

Airfield staff are also being talked to, while fuel samples and the flight recorder box are being seized.

President Putin has expressed his “deep condolences to those families who lost their loved ones” in the disaster.”-via The Guardian

~

“Thirty percent of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed in just over a week, leading to “massive blackouts” across the country, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, as the Kremlin steps up attacks on critical energy infrastructure.

“Another kind of Russian terrorist attacks: targeting energy & critical infrastructure. Since Oct. 10, 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country,” Zelensky tweeted Tuesday.

He added that there was “no space left for negotiations with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s regime.”

The Russian Defense Ministry later confirmed that the country’s military had launched high-precision strikes on “energy systems” in Ukraine.

“During the day, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued to strike with long-range high-precision air and sea-based weapons on military command and energy systems of Ukraine, as well as arsenals with foreign-made ammunition and weapons, all designated targets were hit,” Lieutenant-Colonel Igor Konashenkov said Tuesday.

The death toll in Kyiv continues to climb this week, officials said. At least five people were killed Monday following Russian attacks with Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones and at least three people died in separate strikes on Tuesday.

Moscow has targeted key Ukrainian power facilities in recent days, leaving areas in at least three cities without power.

A residential neighborhood in the capital Kyiv is experiencing power cuts and water outages, local energy company DTEK said on Facebook Tuesday.

“Russian shelling has damaged a critical infrastructure facility in the Desnyansky district, causing interruptions in the electricity supply to the residents of the Troyeshchyna residential district and the water channel that supplies water to the Left Bank of the capital,” the company said.

In Dnipropetrovsk region, at least three areas, including parts of Dnipro city, experienced electrical outages and a water pumping facility lost power after Russia launched two missiles at an energy facility, causing “fire and severe destruction,” according to local authorities.

A CNN team in Dnipro saw from a distance the aftermath of a hit on a power plant in Dnipro and smoke rising from the facility.

Further west, the mayor of Zhytomyr said in a statement that the city was experiencing power and water cuts, with hospitals running on back up energy.

Residents in the Ukrainian capital were also urged by local officials to limit electricity and water usage, after two key infrastructure complexes were hit on Tuesday.”-via CNN

~

“Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface to surface missiles, in addition to more drones, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters, a move that is likely to infuriate the United States and other Western powers.

A deal was agreed on Oct. 6 when Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, two senior officials from Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and an official from the Supreme National Security Council visited Moscow for talks with Russia about the delivery of the weapons.

"The Russians had asked for more drones and those Iranian ballistic missiles with improved accuracy, particularly the Fateh and Zolfaghar missiles family," said one of the Iranian diplomats, who was briefed about the trip.

A Western official briefed on the matter confirmed it, saying there was an agreement in place between Iran and Russia to provide surface-to-surface short range ballistic missiles, including the Zolfaghar.

One of the drones Iran agreed to supply is the Shahed-136, a delta-winged weapon used as a "kamikaze" air-to-surface attack aircraft. It carries a small warhead that explodes on impact.

Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar are Iranian short-range surface to surface ballistic missiles capable of striking targets at distances of between 300 km and 700 km (186 and 435 miles).

The Iranian diplomat rejected assertions by Western officials that such transfers breach a 2015 U.N. Security Council resolution.

"Where they are being used is not the seller's issue. We do not take sides in the Ukraine crisis like the West. We want an end to the crisis through diplomatic means," the diplomat said.

Ukraine has reported a spate of Russian attacks using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks. Iran's foreign ministry on Tuesday dismissed as baseless reports of Iran supplying drones and other weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine, while the Kremlin on Tuesday denied its forces had used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.

Asked if Russia had used Iranian drones in its campaign in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin did not have any information about their use.

"Russian equipment with Russian nomenclature is used," he said. "All further questions should be directed to the Defence Ministry."

The ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.”-via Reuters

~

“NATO will deliver anti-drone air defence systems to Ukraine in coming days to help the country defend itself against the wave of Iranian-made drones with which Russia is targeting critical infrastructure, the alliance's secretary-general said.”-via Reuters

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“The new commander of the Russian army in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, said on Tuesday that civilians were being “resettled” from the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, describing the military situation in Ukraine as “tense.”

“The enemy continually attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” Surovikin said in his first televised interview since his appointment last week, adding that the situation was particularly difficult around the occupied southern city of Kherson.

“Further actions regarding Kherson will depend on the developing military and tactical situation, which is not easy, and difficult decisions cannot be ruled out,” he said.

Surovikin’s statements come amid Ukraine’s ongoing counter-assault against Russia in which Kyiv has recaptured 450 square miles of land since late August.

Shortly after Surovikin’s statements, the Russian-installed head of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said that some civilians were being “evacuated” in anticipation of a “large-scale offensive.””-via The Guardian

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