Russian rocket attack on Donetsk mayor’s office and a town across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
KYIV, Ukraine — Pro-Kremlin officials on Sunday blamed Ukraine for a rocket attack that struck the mayor’s office in Donetsk, a city controlled by the separatists, while Ukrainian officials said Russian rocket strikes hit a town across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, among other targets.
The United States did not take part in the attack, according to officials. American officials also said they were not aware of the operation ahead of time and would have opposed the killing had they been consulted. Afterward, American officials admonished Ukrainian officials over the assassination, they said.
The Russian Defense Ministry, in a statement cited by the state media outlets RIA Novosti and TASS, described the shootings as a terrorist attack. It said the two gunmen were from a former Soviet nation and had fired on the soldiers during target practice at a firing range.
The Institute for the Study of War said the damage to the bridge was likely to make it harder for Russia to ship supplies to its troops inUkraine, but it wasn’t going to cripple their ability to do so.
“We already established the route of the truck, and it went to countries like Georgia, Armenia, and Krasnodar,” he said.
Fighting in neighboring towns: A big strike on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, military command, and communication – a warning to Ukrainian terrorists
“This morning, a big strike was made on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, military command, and communications,” said Putin. “If there are attacks on Russian territory by Ukrainian terrorists, our response will be tough and proportional.”
Russia launched missiles from its Black and Caspian seas fleets, as well as Tu-95 strategic bombers from a base on the Russian Volga River for the first time, according to the Ukrainian military.
The Russians thought the war wouldn’t affect them in Russia or anywhere else. Ihnat said that he hope that this will benefit Ukraine because these things are happening more and more often.
The key areas to watch areneighboring towns. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address on Sunday that extremely heavy fighting is ongoing in Soledar and Bakhmut.
Klitschko’s office says several residential buildings were damaged. 18 people were pulled from the rubble of one building and rescuers are looking for two more. Many of the city’s central streets are closed for emergency services to respond.
“There was one explosion, then another one,” 76-year-old Mucola Markovich said. He and his wife shared an apartment on the fourth floor.
On Putin’s crimea of opening the Kerch Bridge: A terrorist act motivated by a missile attack on civilians in Ukraine and Russians in southern Ukraine
About 3 kilometers (2 miles) away in another neighborhood ravaged by a missile, three volunteers dug a shallow grave for a German shepherd killed in the strike, the dog’s leg blown away by the blast.
Abbas Gallyamov, an independent Russian political analyst and a former speechwriter for Putin, said the Russian president, who formed a committee Saturday to investigate the bridge explosion, had not responded forcefully enough to satisfy angry war hawks. The attack and response, he said, has “inspired the opposition, while the loyalists are demoralized.”
He said that when authorities said that everything is going according to plan, they’re lying and that demoralizes them.
Putin personally opened the Kerch Bridge in May 2018 by driving a truck across it as a symbol of Moscow’s claims on Crimea. The bridge is vital to maintaining Russia’s military operations in southern Ukraine.
It is a popular vacation spot for Russians. The people were trying to drive to the bridge and onto the Russian mainland.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/09/1127747909/putin-crimea-kerch-bridge-attack-terrorist-act
Russian attacks on the Donetsk city: The first 20 bodies exhumed in Lyman, Ukraine, after a shelling incident
The first 20 bodies were exhumed from a mass funeral site in the city of Lyman in northeastern Ukraine, after it was reclaimed by the army. Initial indications are that there are around 200 people buried in one spot, and that another grave has the bodies of dead Ukrainian soldiers. The civilians, including children, were buried in single graves, while members of the military were buried in a 40-meter long trench, according to police.
To the southwest of Donetsk city, another zone that sees almost constant battles, the Ukrainians said that Russian units had carried out “unsuccessful offensive actions” at several places in the region.
— The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, meanwhile, said that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s biggest, had been reconnected to the grid after losing its last external power source early Saturday following shelling.
Klitschko said Ukrainian air defenses intercepted all 16 missiles fired at Kyiv, and that at least three areas of the city were damaged by debris. Three people were reported injured in Kyiv from falling debris after defensive missiles shot Russian-launched ones out of the sky.
In western Ukraine, the mayor said that most of the city had no power and that the city’s waterworks could also stop working.
The US and NATO countries have been trying to find a way to help the government of Ukraine combat Russian strikes which have destroyed half the country’s energy infrastructure.
It caused a rare admission of a high death toll in Russia. Initially the Ukrainian military claimed up to 400 Russian soldiers had been killed. CNN cannot independently verify the death toll. It was one of the bloodiest episodes of the conflict for Moscow’s forces.
Ukraine’s top brass released a statement that said that the country’s air defenses took down at least 40 incoming air attacks, but several dozen more got through. The Ukrainian officials said suicide drones from Iran were behind many of the attacks. The Russian government requested more assistance from the Russian government after today’s attacks because of the willingness of Alexander Lukashenko to permit Russia to use his country as a staging ground.
Zelenskyy said in the video that it was difficult to deal with terrorists, as he recalled taking a picture of himself on the night Russia invaded. “They’re choosing targets to harm as many people as possible.”
On the destruction of buildings in Kyiv by a blast at the Ukrainian National Philharmonic and the Musovsk Philharmonic Halls
In Kyiv, Ukraine Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko says that at least two museums and the National Philharmonic concert halls sustained heavy damage. A strike damaged the country’s main passenger terminal which caused delays to trains during this morning’s rush hour.
“This happened at rush hour, as lots of public transport was operating in the city,” said Ihor Makovtsev, the head of the department of transport for the Dnipro city council, as he stood by the wreckage. Four passengers and the bus driver were taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
“I can’t think of a logic to their work since it’s just for civilian purposes,” Makovtsev said.
81-year-old Viktor Shevchenko looked out from what once were the windows of his first floor balcony, just next to the bus stop. Shattered glass covered the ground below. He said he had been watering the plants on his balcony just minutes before the blast, but went to his kitchen to make breakfast.
He said that the explosion blew open all of his cabinets and almost knocked him to the ground. “Only five minutes before, and I would have been on the balcony, full of glass.”
There is now a race between the Ukrainians and the Russians, with the Russians able to damage Ukrainian infrastructure with their deep stocks of missiles and the Ukrainians unable to acquire new air defense hardware.
Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of Chechnya, wrote in his letter to Zelenskyy that they had warned him that Russia had not started yet.
Russian missile attacks against Ukraine in the first three months of the Ukrainian war: What will we learn from the future? – Vladimir Zelensky, a Russian ambassador to Ukraine
The Ukrainian State Emergency Service said on Tuesday that at least 19 people were killed and 105 people were injured in Russian missile attacks across Ukraine on Monday.
Critical and civil infrastructure was hit in 12 regions and the capital, where more than 30 fires broke out, the emergency services said, adding the blazes have been put out.
The math for Moscow is simple: A percentage of projectiles will make it through the missile defense of Ukraine.
The question of longevity and sustainability remains because it is unclear how long Iran can or would continue providing weaponry – including more advanced missiles – to Russia.
As of November, Iran was preparing to send about 1,000 more weapons, including surface-to-surface short-range ballistic missiles and more attack drones, to Russia to use in its war against Ukraine, officials from a western country that closely monitors Iran’s weapons program told CNN at the time.
Russia has Kinzhal-type missiles which can strike at a range of distances. “They have Kh-22 missiles that strike at ballistic trajectory, and they have S-300 and S-400 rockets that strike at ballistic trajectory. Those are challenges and threats we are facing at the moment.”
According to him, this was the first time that Russia has targeted energy infrastructure since the beginning of the war.
The Ukrainians have been practicing using their limited air defenses, which include the BUK and S-300 systems. The equipment that is used in combat may have losses, said the spokesman for the Air Force Command.
One video shows a tank in action and the other shows an infantry fighting vehicle, both of which were damaged by a mine. There are images of Ukrainian drones dropping small bombs on static tanks in open country.
In August, US officials said Russia had bought these drones and was training its forces how to use them. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that Russia had ordered 2,400 Shahed-136 drones from Iran.
Ukraine’s wish-list – circulated at Wednesday’s meeting – included missiles for their existing systems and a “transition to Western-origin layered air defense system” as well as “early warning capabilities.”
He said the system that is being built would not control all the airspace over the country, but would be focused on controlling priority targets that Ukraine needs to protect. What you’re looking at really is short-range low-altitude systems and then medium-range medium altitude and then long-range and high altitude systems, and it’s a mix of all of these.”
The systems of the western world are beginning to trickle in. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Tuesday that a “new era of air defense has begun” with the arrival of the first IRIS-T from Germany, and two units of the US National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAM) expected soon.
This is not the end. Before meeting with the donors at the Brussels meeting, Reznikov said that the first thing they need is more air defense. I feel optimistic.
These items are not off-the-shelf. There was a requirement that the IRIS-T had to be made in Ukraine. Western governments have a limited number of such systems. And Ukraine is a very large country under missile attack from three directions.
The Odesa bridge, Ukraine: a bridge in crisis? An analysis of the damage caused by the Ukrainian drone attack on a southern port city
Ukraine’s senior military commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, tweeted Tuesday his thanks to Poland as “brothers in arms” for training an air defense battalion that had destroyed nine of 11 Shaheeds.
He said “Ukrainian sky defenders” had shot down 10 of the 15 drones, but the damage was still “critical” and he suggested it will take a few days to restore electricity supply in the region.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that Russian drone strikes on the southern port city of Odesa left more than 1.5 million people in that region without power Saturday night, the latest attacks in an ongoing series of assaults on Ukrainian energy infrastructure by the Kremlin.
But Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says Ukrainian intelligence believes that Russian forces planned the attack as a pretense to escalate the war in Ukraine.
“The Crimea bridge incident gives the Russian military a convenient alibi for all of its defeats in southern Ukraine,” Podolyak told Ukraine’s national broadcaster.
There are many theories about who was responsible and how they did it. Andrew Barr says it’s difficult to be certain about this despite all of the publicly available photos and videos.
There are a lot of people asking why this satellite image of the crimean bridge shows so many damaged sections, so here’s a brief Bridges 101 on the likely failure mechanism. pic.github.io/MMxXjbrrB
Nick Waters, an analyst with the digital forensics firm Bellingcat, points out that the bridge’s underside shows barely any blast damage, dismissing a popular Ukrainian theory that a special naval operation destroyed the bridge from below.
Ukraine has not taken credit for the blasts, though many in the country celebrated it as a Ukrainian victory due to the bridge’s strategic and symbolic value to Russia.
The video shows a truck and its X-ray, which is said to show explosives. Where on the “x-ray” there was a frame and wheels that were gone, the FSB didn’t specify. pic.twitter.com/o9c8Vwm5u
After Russian state media posted the government’s evidence for a truck bomb — the alleged truck involved and a X-ray scan of its cargo — Ukrainian journalists pointed out that the two images showed different trucks.
He says the Crimean bridge is designed to have a single section of road floating above several piers and detached from other sections. One span is pulled by the other spans into the water.
Based on the ways the flames repeatedly shot out from the blast site, Barr also suggests that the truck was loaded with specialized compounds that burned hot enough to ignite a passing fuel train traveling on a parallel rail bridge, severely weakening it.
Mika Tyry, retired military demolition specialist, stated that the flames and sparks were consistent with a thermite bomb. Russia’s military has been known to use thermite, a substance that could have been obtained from unexploded Russian weapons.
It’s a successful attack on a protected structure with advanced explosives and timed with a train. “That’s highly suggestive of a carefully planned military operation rather than a lone actor or other group.”
Kamikaze Drones as a Response to the Ukrainian Counteroffensive: Military Training in the Nikopol Region of Zaporizhia
Kamikaze drones, or suicide drones, are small, portable aerial weapon systems that are hard to detect and can be fired at a distance. They are designed to hit enemy lines and be destroyed during the attack.
The attack has led to vocal criticism of Moscow’s military from pro-Russian military bloggers, who claimed that the troops lacked protection and were reportedly being quartered next to a large cache of ammunition, which is said to have exploded when Ukrainian HIMARS rockets hit the school.
Zelenskyy accused Russia of including convicts “with long sentences for serious crimes” in its front-line troops in return for pay and amnesty — something Western intelligence officials have also asserted.
Video reportedly from the scene of the attack is circulating widely on Telegram, including on an official Ukrainian military channel. Almost no part of the building is visible in the picture, which shows a pile of rubble.
In the last six months, the area around the city of Nikopol has been the scene of several quiet nights. Nikopol is located across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under control of the Russian forces.
The region of Zaporizhzhia was illegally annexed by Russia last month, despite the fact that 20% of it is under Ukrainian military control.
France is stepping up its military training for Ukraine in an attempt to correct claims that it has not done enough to support the country. Up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be embedded with military units in France, rotating through for several weeks of combat training, specialized training in logistics and other needs, and training on equipment supplied by France, the French defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said in an interview published in Le Parisien.
The Institute for the Study of War said Saturday that Moscow was likely to be involved in ethnic cleansing after conducting large-scale deportations of Ukrainians.
Russian authorities claimed this week that thousands of children from the occupied region of southern Russia had been placed in rest homes and camps as a result of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The remarks by the deputy prime minister of Russia were reported on Friday.
Russian authorities have previously admitted to placing children from Russian-held areas of Ukraine, who they said were orphans, for adoption with Russian families, in a potential breach of an international treaty on genocide prevention.
The military said that in parts of Kherson, Russians are doing something to civilians. Filtration measures include detention and deportation to Russian territory.
Pro-Kremlin commentators on social media said a Russian commander wanted for his involvement in the downing of a Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine has been deployed to the front. Posts by Maksim Fomin and others said Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov, has been given responsibility for an unspecified Russian front-line unit.
The alleged downing of the Kuala Lumpur-bound flight, which killed almost 300 people, has led to the listing of his name on an international wanted list. He remains the most high-profile suspect in a related murder trial in a Dutch court, with a verdict expected Nov. 17.
Russia’s battlefield failures were lashed out at in posts by Girkin on social media. Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency said Sunday it would offer a $100,000 reward to anyone who captures him.
Anton Gerashcenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Internal Ministry, reported attacks on infrastructure near the city’s main rail station, but lines were operating as normal midmorning Monday.
“”The enemy can attack our cities, but it won’t be able to break us. The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations, and we will get victory,” wrote Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy’s chief-of-staff, Andriy Yermak, again called on the west to provide Ukraine with more air defense systems. “We have no time for slow actions,” he said online.
He removed the photo of the shrapnel labeled “Geran-2,” because commenters criticized him for being in agreement with a Russian strike.
State of Ukraine: NPR’s Report from the 15th Brussels Working Group on the U.S. Embassy in Luxembourg and the First Delays in Ukraine
The European Union’s foreign ministers are in Luxembourg. Before the meeting, Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, told reporters that the bloc would look into “concrete evidence” of Iran’s involvement in Ukraine.
The Iranian government acknowledged in November that it had sent a limited number of drones to Russia in the months before the start of its invasion of Ukraine, but has denied supplying military equipment for use in the war in Ukraine.
“This is a partnership of convenience between two embattled dictatorships,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Both countries are deep in crisis, struggling economically and politically. Iran is attempting to quell street protests that pose the most serious challenge in years to the government, while Russia is trying to manage rising dissension over a faltering war effort and an unpopular draft.
NATO will hold nuclear deterrence exercises starting Monday. NATO has warned Russia not to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine but says the “Steadfast Noon” drills are a routine, annual training activity.
The Russian agents arrested eight people who were suspected of carrying out the explosion on the bridge.
The General Assembly strongly condemns Russia’s actions to annex four regions of Ukraine. In the Oct. 13 session, four countries voted alongside Russia, but 143 voted in favor of Ukraine’s resolution, while 35 abstained.
Russian troops began arriving in Belarus Oct. 15, which Minsk said were the first convoys of almost 9,000 service members expected as part of a “regional grouping” of forces allegedly to protect Belarus from threats at the border from Ukraine and the West.
You can find recaps on this page. For context and more in-depth stories, you can find more of NPR’s coverage here. You can listen to NPR’s State ofUkraine for updates throughout the day.
The Russian-Ukraine War and the U.S.-Russia Air Defense Plan: Mark Cancian’s Comment on the Shahed Drones
Mark Cancian, who used to be a marine colonel, said the Shahed drones have a disadvantage in their speed.
“The problem with them is that they’re slow,” Cancian said. “They’re propeller-driven and you know, like all propeller-driven drones, they’re just not very fast so they’re susceptible to being shot down by either missiles or by aircraft guns.”
Russia obtained and purchased weapons from Iran due to the fact that they had their own stock of missiles, which they have not been able to replenish. “So they have had to find cheaper Iranian options.”
“Iran has time and again declared that it is siding with no side in the Russia-Ukraine war. Iran has not given arms to either warring side,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Twitter.
The Russian move to target cities was compared to the German bombing campaign that targeted London in World War II by both Nadimi and Cancian.
By focusing on the cities, Cancian said, Ukraine’s military would have more time to recover from the front lines similar to what Britain did in WWII.
At the same time, the U.S. has said it is speeding up its delivery of NASAMS, the same ground-based air defense systems that are used to protect the White House in Washington, D.C., and the systems are expected to be in Ukraine in a few weeks.
Ukrainian “Kamikaze” Drone Strikes in Intl-Hnk: A Case Study of a Kiev-Kaliv Couple
A pregnant woman and her husband killed in Kyiv by what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian “kamikaze” drone strike were inseparable, like “yin and yang,” their close friend has told CNN.
“They had a lot of plans – they dreamed of their own home, children, a full-fledged family, travel. They had very big plans for this life,” Petrukova said.
Ukrainian officials say that a husband and wife died in their home in Kyiv on Monday after a series of strikes by Russian and Iranian drones.
The first strikes had trapped the couple in their apartment, according to the woman who talked with Victoria just minutes before her death.
The people had to stay at the house because there was an incoming hit at the power plant. “So they were sitting in the corridor.”
“The last message from her was at 8:18 a.m. She heard two more hits. Obviously there was a fifth one after that. And the connection with her was lost.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/19/europe/russia-ukraine-kyiv-couple-killed-kamikaze-drone-strike-intl-hnk/index.html
Rinve, Victoria, a happy, funny, deeply kind, passionate person: From wine sommelier to bottle manager and back again
Victoria’s home town of Rinve in western Ukraine was where she returned to in August. She had missed her work as a sommelier at a local wine shop, Petrukova said.
The person said she was cheerful, highly intelligent, funny, deep kind of person. “We always had something to talk about and something to be silent about.”
“It is impossible to imagine them separately. They held hands and hugged. There was a lot of tenderness and warmth between them. It was a pleasure to be around them. They were fun people.”
How the Draganfly Drones Over Ukraine have Helped the Heroes, and What they Have Learned About Their Heroin
He noted that the Draganfly drones “can carry sensitive pharmaceuticals, like insulin. That’s how we got started over there. It’s just expanded even more. More than 50 drones have been sent to different Ukrainian organizations for a variety of missions. They conduct search and rescue operations, they detect landmines from the air, and they deliver blood and other critical supplies to front-line areas. Chell says this war is demonstrating how a smaller country can use civilian drones, creatively and effectively, when facing an enemy with a larger, more powerful, traditional air force. “Before, you needed massive systems, you needed manned aircraft. He said there are at least $5,000, $20,000 and $50,000 systems that have an impact.
In March, the Pentagon announced it would send 100 “tactical unmanned aerial systems” called Switchblades. The administration promised another 300 in the next month. The Defense Department said it would send 120 drones to Ukranian. In July, the United States provided funds for Ukraine to buy 580 more of them.
In August, the Pentagon said it would send Puma drones — small aircraft that soldiers toss into the air to launch and then control by remote control from up to nine miles away. Pumas can stay at altitudes of about 500 feet.
After shooting down five Iranian Shahed 136 drones over the Ukrainian city of the same name, a Ukrainian pilot became a folk hero in the country, but was forced to abandon his jet after crashing into the debris. The pilot, Karaya — who identified himself by only his nickname, according to military policy — told the local news media afterward, “Within a short period of time, we are adapting to this kind of weapon and are starting to destroy it successfully.”
After colliding with the airborne debris, he said, Karaya steered his MiG away from Vinnytsia and ejected. Nobody was hurt when the jet crashed into houses in anoutlying area. Karaya went to the site to apologize.
The Arrival Time of the Iran Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and the Investigation of Their Interaction with the Russian Embassy in Kiev Observed on Instagram
“I visited the scene, said I was sorry for the discomfort I caused the residents and thanked them for their steel nerves,” he wrote on Instagram, saying he showed up in his tattered uniform, missing epaulets. He said it was a violation of military protocol. He said that he lost them while leaving the office.
This expected shipment would mark a significant increase in Iranian support for Russia. While the precise timing of when the shipment will arrive in Russia is unclear, officials believe the weapons will definitely be delivered before the end of the year.
The Iranians are known as a loitering munition because they can be circling for some time around an area identified as a target and only striking when an enemy asset is identified.
The US is looking at more than just sanctions, as they try to disrupt Iranian weaponry from going to Russia, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said last week. He said that the US is “trying to break up these networks.”
John Kirby said earlier this month that the presence of Iranian personnel was proof of Tehran’s engagement in the conflict.
We know that drones have been used to target civilians. And we know that Iran, in the face of all of this evidence, keeps lying and denying that it’s happening,” Malley said.
On Monday a senior US defense official said they didn’t have any information to provide on the suggestion Iran is preparing to send missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine.
Last month the US sanctioned an air transportation provider for its involvement in the shipment of the Iranian drones, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to Russia. The US is also ready to “target producers and procurers” contributing to the UAV program, the Treasury Department’s Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said.
Shelling of the Kherson Region in the U.S. House of Representatives and Security Assistance to Ukraine (Aug. 2004)
The Kherson region is in the northeast. According to the Ukrainian military, there was also heavy shelling of towns and villages in recently liberated parts of Kherson in the south. It listed 10 areas that had been shelled, including the city of Kherson.
Even if the Republicans win control of the House, they may limit funding for Ukraine, after warnings by some that the party could limit funding if it were to lose.
Also Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Sweden has to meet certain conditions before it can join NATO.
The General Assembly of the UN is expected to discuss a report on the Atomic Energy Agency, which is expected to include the topic of Ukraine.
Russian air bombardments have left many people without heat in the cold, prompting the Ukrainian president to accuse Russians of “energy terrorism”. Russian officials claim that Moscow is demoralizing the Ukrainian resistance.
On Nov. 2, Russia rejoined the deal to safely ship grain and agricultural goods from Ukranian. Moscow had suspended its part in the deal a few days prior after saying Ukraine had launched a drone attack on its Black Sea ships.
The Pentagon announced $400 million in additional security aid to Ukraine, on Nov. 4, to include 45 refurbished T-72 tanks, 1,100 Phoenix Ghost drones and other vehicles, technology and training.
The fate of Russia in the midst of the Ukrainian Civil War: Analysis of recent missile attacks by the Khmer Rouge, Lviv and Crimea
Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, is a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen” and blogs at Andelman Unleashed. He formerly was a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia. The views are not those of his employer. View more opinion at CNN.
The most recent missile attacks seem to have pushed Putin’s nation further from the pack of civilized powers that he once sought to join.
The Polish and NATO leaders suspected a Ukrainian anti-aircraft rocket may have shot down the Russian missile in the vicinity of the city of Lviv. Zelensky insisted the missile was not Ukrainian.
The West condemns Putin’s claims that he didn’t have a choice, as they say Moscow bears full responsibility for the war.
These attacks began at the outset of the war and have only increased in scope and virulence since Ukrainian forces last month attacked a bridge – one particularly close to Putin’s heart – between mainland Russia and Crimea, which the Russians annexed in 2014.
His forces have planted mines in vast stretches of territory in Kherson from which they’ve recently withdrawn – much as the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia stretching back to the 1970s. Cambodia has been called in to assist with the monumental task of removing de-mining remnants of the Ukrainian Civil War. Russian armies have also left behind evidence of horrible atrocities and torture, reminiscent of the Khmer Rouge.
That said, a growing number of Russian soldiers have rebelled at what they have been asked to do and refused to fight. Russian troops may be prepared to shoot retreating soldiers according to the UK’s Defense Ministry.
The hotline was formed as a Ukrainian military intelligence project that was designed to help Russian soldiers who wanted to defect.
Diplomatically, Putin finds himself increasingly isolated on the world stage. He was the only head of state to stay away from a session of the G20, which Zelensky dubbed the “G19.” When Putin was ousted from the G7 he wanted a return to the group but it seems like it’s out of the question. Russia’s sudden ban on 100 Canadians, including Canadian-American Jim Carrey, from entering the country only made the comparison with North Korea more striking.
Above all, many of the best and brightest in virtually every field have now fled Russia. Some of the most creative technologists, scientists and engineers also include writers, artists, and journalists.
One leading Russian journalist, Mikhail Zygar, who has settled in Berlin after fleeing in March, told me last week that while he hoped this is not the case, he is prepared to accept the reality – like many of his countrymen, he may never be able to return to his homeland, to which he remains deeply attached.
Russia’s Cold War with the Future Combat Air System: The Ukrenergo, Mykolaiv, and Moldovan Cases
The West wants to deprive Russia of material resources so as to pursue the war. “We have understood and learnt our lesson that it was an unhealthy and unsustainable dependency, and we want reliable and forward-looking connections,” Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission told the G20 on Tuesday.
Moreover, Putin’s dream that this conflict, along with the enormous burden it has proven to be on Western countries, would only drive further wedges into the Western alliance are proving unfulfilled. On Monday, word began circulating in aerospace circles that the long-stalled joint French-German project for a next-generation jet fighter at the heart of the Future Combat Air System – Europe’s largest weapons program – was beginning to move forward.
He continued in his address in the Kremlin that attempts by a few countries to rewrite and change world history are becoming increasingly aggressive, and that they aim to divide our society and weaken Russia.
Ukrainian energy operator Ukrenergo said on Friday that Russian strikes had left 50% of the country’s energy capacity lost.
After a brief emergency shutdown, the nuclear reactors have been turned back on, but were still not reconnected to the national grid, the company added.
In the southern region of Mykolaiv, the military administrator, Vitaliy Kim, also said the nuclear plant in his area has been cut from the grid, leading to a risky shutdown of the reactors there.
Ukrainian officials stress that the cascading effect of power cuts is turning off the heat and water. The water in the pipes could freeze if the temperature is below freezing.
In Moldova, President Maia Sandu wrote this about Russia on Facebook: “We can’t trust a regime that leaves us in the dark and cold, that purposely kills people for the mere desire to keep other peoples poor and humble.”
The Ukranian President Zelenskyy’s ‘Points of Invincibility’: Warheads for the Future
The Ukranian is preparing for the winter. President Zelenskyy said in the video address that there are 4,000 centers to take care of civilians in the case of power cuts.
He called them “points of invincibility,” saying they will provide heat, water, phone charging and internet access. Many will be in schools and government buildings.
The Biden administration and members of Congress were urged by Ukrainian officials to provide the Ukrainian military with cluster munition, weapons that are banned by more than a hundred countries but that Russia continues to use to devastating effect inside Ukraine.
CNN has learned that Biden administration officials have been fielding this request for months, and have not rejected it completely.
The long-term risk to people is similar to that posed by land mines, as cluster munitions can fail to explode on impact in large areas. Mark Hiznay, a weapons expert and the associate arms director for Human Rights Watch, told CNN that they create nasty, bloody fragment to anyone they hit, because of the dozens of submunitions that explode at once across a large area.
The Biden administration has not taken the option off the table as a last resort, if stockpiles begin to run dangerously low. But sources say the proposal has not yet received significant consideration in large part due to the statutory restrictions that Congress has put on the US’ ability to transfer cluster munitions.
The chance that they will pose a risk to civilians is heightened by the fact that they apply to weapons with a higher unexploded ordnance rate. The administration told theUkrainians that it was unlikely that Biden would be able to circumvent the restriction in the near term.
The United States andUkraine agreed not to attack Russia with American-supplied weaponry. The Biden administration has vowed to avoid American involvement that could escalate to direct confrontation with Russia. But American officials clarified they will not object to Ukraine striking back with its own weaponry.
The Ministry of Defense told CNN it does not comment on reports of requests for particular weapons systems, preferring to wait until an agreement is reached with the supplier.
The US replaced the dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, known as DPICMs, with the M30A1 alternate warhead. The M30A1 contains 180,000 small tungsten steel fragments that scatter on impact and do not leave unexploded munitions on the ground. According to the Ukrainian officials, the US could help the army much more than the M30A1 due to the fact that they have in storage the DPICMs.
Putin’s comments on the Kursk airfield in Ukraine are beyond the reach of the country’s declared drone targets: a reference to alleged genocide in Russia
He gave a glass of champagne to the group of soldiers who were receiving the awards.
At the awards ceremony, Putin continued to list alleged aggressions: “Who is not supplying water to Donetsk? Not getting water to the city of million is an act of genocide.
The reference to Kursk appears to reference Russia’s announcement that an airfield in the Kursk region, which neighbors Ukraine, was targeted in a drone attack. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has not commented on recent explosions in Russia. Officially, the targets are well beyond the reach of the country’s declared drones.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-12-08-22/h_aea9d9149a72232d60137554cc312f1e
The Water Crisis in the Republic of Moldavian Republic of Ukraine, a response to Russian shelling, fires and air defense in the area of Melitopol
He ended his apparent off-the-cuff comments by claiming there is no mention of the water situation. Not a word about it has been said. At all! Complete silence He said that was what he meant.
Russian shelling has been reported in parts of Kharkiv region, as well as in other areas of northern Ukraine.
The Melitopol mayor Ivan Fedorov said there had been several explosions, including at the Melitopol Christian Church, “which the occupiers seized several months ago and turned into their hideout.”
The Russian military has taken over local houses, schools and kindergartens. Military equipment is stationed in residential areas,” Federov said in November.
Alexei Kulemzin, head of the Russian-backed city administration, said Ukraine launched 20 Grad missiles around 5:54 a.m. local time Sunday in the direction of the Voroshilovsky and Kalininsky districts.
The unofficial Crimean media portal “Krymskyi veter” said an explosion at a Russian military barracks in Sovietske had set the barracks on fire and there were dead and wounded.
The head of Crimea said on Telegram that the air defense system worked in Simferopol. All services are working as usual.
The news comes amid reports that 1.5 million people in the Odesa region of Ukraine have been left without power following strikes by Iranian-made drones.
“In general, both emergency and stabilization power outages continue in various regions,” Zelensky said. The power system is far from normal right now, to say the least.
The Ukrainian War against Odesa: A grim cycle in the wake of Russian attacks on power systems and infrastructure in the southern Mykolaiv region
“This is the true attitude of Russia towards Odesa, towards Odesa residents – deliberate bullying, deliberate attempt to bring disaster to the city,” Zelensky added.
The new support package from Norway, which was received on Saturday, is expected to be used for the restoration of our energy system after the Russian strikes.
The southern Mykolaiv region has seven drones shot down, said Gov. Vitali Kim. three more were shot down in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region.
The repeated assaults on the plants and equipment that Ukrainians rely on for heat and light have drawn condemnation from world leaders, and thrust Ukraine into a grim cycle in which crews hurry to restore power only to have it knocked out again.
“The power system is now, to put it mildly, very far from a normal state — there is an acute shortage in the system,” he said, urging people to reduce their power use to put less strain on the battered power grid.
“It must be understood: If there are no heavy missile strikes, this doesn’t mean there are no problems. “Almost every day, in different regions, there is shelling, there are missile attacks, drone attacks. Energy facilities are hit almost every day.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has threatened to ban the Russian Orthodox Church in the country, and many are watching him to see if he follows through.
Infrastructural damage after a missile attack on Engels during the December 5 terrorist attack: The U.S. Embassy in Moscow
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Norwegian Prime Minister Diana Gahr Store will be in Paris for a working dinner on Monday.
The country of France is hosting a conference with Ukraine in support of the people of that country in the winter.
Following Brittney Griner’s release from Russian prison, fans, friends and family are celebrating the basketball player’s return to the U.S. Meanwhile, some Republican politicians have been complaining about the prisoner swap and other U.S. citizens still held by Russia.
New measures targeting Russian oil revenue took effect Dec. 5. They include a price cap and a European Union embargo on most Russian oil imports and a Russian oil price cap.
President Zelenskyy had a phone call with President Biden on Dec. 11, as well as the leaders of France and Turkey, in an apparent stepping up of diplomacy over the 9 1/2-month-long Russian invasion.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a meeting that Ukrainians had been set a goal of being left without light, water and heat.
This situation reminds of the events of December 5, where the Russians launched a massive missile strike. “Therefore, we should be prepared for this, take it into account in our plans and do not forget to proceed to the shelter.”
People bundled in winter coats, hats, and scarves lined up in the underground stations as the sirens wailed. They were on the escalators and their faces were lit by their phones.
Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration, said that at least 10 missiles hit various targets in the north of the region. Power was beginning to be restored in Kharkiv city after being knocked out for much of the day. “There is a colossal infrastructural damage,” Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said, instructing residents to use so-called “invincibility points” – makeshift centers offering relief from power outages – to collect food and hot drinks, and recharge cellphones.
The incident took place in the western port city of Engels, some 500 miles southeast of Moscow and on the Volga River. This month has seen the second attempted attack on the city, which houses the strategic bomber air base of the Engels-2.
An MiG-31K, a supersonic aircraft capable of carrying a Kinzal hypersonic missile, was also seen in the sky over Belarus during the air attacks on Friday in Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s Armed Forces. But it was not clear from their statement whether a Kinzal was used in the attacks.
Kirby said that Russia’s defense industrial base is being taxed. They know they are having trouble keeping up with that pace. We know that Russian President Vladimir Putin is having trouble with his precision guided weapons.
The Biden administration is close to a deal to send the US most advanced ground-based air defense system to Ukraine, according to two US officials. TheUkrainian government has asked for the system to help defend against repeated Russian missile and drone attacks. It would be the most effective long-range defensive weapons system sent to the country and officials say it will help secure airspace for members of the North Atlantic Treaty and America (NATO) in eastern Europe.
He declined to announce any details on the next security assistance package for Ukraine, but said that there “will be another one” and that additional air defense capabilities should be expected.
The Sky is Bright: Christmas is Coming! An artificial Christmas tree in the city of Kyiv for Ukraine to be lighted up with energy-saving garlands
The Iranian-made, self-detonating Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 drones were launched from the “eastern coast of the Sea of Azov,” the Air Force said in a statement on Facebook.
Zelensky thanked everyone who carried out the repair works during the day and during the night. It is difficult but we will pull through, and Russia will fail.
As the Ukrainians far from the eastern and southern frontlines of the ground war seek some semblance of normality in the lead-up to Christmas, they have had repeated attacks.
An artificial Christmas tree in the center of Kyiv was installed and decorated over the weekend, set to be illuminated with “energy-saving garlands” that will be powered by a generator at specific times, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
Roughly 1,000 blue and yellow balls and white doves will decorate the tree in Sophia Square, with a trident placed at the tree’s summit. Flags of countries that are supporting Ukraine will be placed at the bottom.
He claimed that Ukrainian children wrote to St. Nicholas requesting air defense, weapons, and victory.
Three Russian servicemen were killed Monday after a Ukrainian drone was shot down by air defenses as it approached a military airfield in Saratov Oblast, deep inside Russian territory, according to Russian state news agencies, citing the defense ministry.
The explosion at the airfields of Saratov and the Kharkiv regions in Ukraine: the first shell attack in the last few weeks
The Governor of Saratov Oblast said on Monday that law enforcement agencies are investigating the incident at the airfield. There have been reports of an explosion in the city.
There were no emergencies in the residential areas of the city, and no infrastructure was damaged. He also extended his condolences to the families of the servicemen, saying the government would provide them with assistance.
The Ukrainian military has not directly confirmed the strike, but seemed to acknowledge what appeared to be the same attack that Russian authorities reported.
Earlier this month, there was an explosion in the sky. Gov. Busargin assured residents that no infrastructure was damaged and that information about incidents at military facilities is being checked by law enforcement.
In Ukraine, the night from Sunday into Monday appeared unusually quiet. The governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region said that the Russian forces didn’t shell the region for the first time in weeks.
The Ukrainian General Staff also reported an uptick of cross-border shelling into the Kharkiv region, saying 23 communities had been affected – including the border town of Vovchansk.
The missiles that are launched from the Russian airfields could be destroyed before they can be deployed because of the strikes.
Mr. Zagorodnyuk said that he did not speak for the government and that he was fighting back and that the person was going to attack him. There is no reason for this to not be attempted.
The Russian-Ukraine War and the Establishment of a Nuclear Security Order in the Early 1990s: An Observational Counterexample
The Kinzhal, a weapon that can reach targets in minutes and is impossible to shoot down, is in less supply than other missiles in the arsenal.
Colonel Ihnat said that the Russians were mistaken if they thought that no one at home would be affected by the war. He said that the bombing campaign against Ukraine was complicated by the explosions at Russian airfields, and that Moscow relocated some of its aircraft, though no one was claiming that the strikes have seriously hampered the Russian bombardment.
There was a subdued US reaction to the assaults. Lloyd J. Austin says they are not trying to prevent Ukraine from developing their own capability. Ned Price, the State Department spokesman, stated only that the United States was neither encouraging nor enabling attacks on Russia.
In an interview with the Associated Press on Monday, Kuleba said that his government would like to have a peace summit by late February, but that Russia would not be invited unless it first faced something. It was the latest in a string of claims by each country to be open to peace talks — but only on terms that are unacceptable to the other.
People are Out of Whack: Cyberattacks on Ukraine’s Internet and the Ruling of a Child Protected by the Central Nerves
“It’s the same as the central nervous system of the human body – if you mess with it, all sorts of systems are out of whack,” says Rajan Menon, a director of the Defense Priorities think tank. It’s an huge cost and it’s an inconvenient thing. It’s an effort to make the civilian population feel pain, to show that the government can’t protect them adequately.
Menon said that every one of his comments could apply to Russia’s previous waves of cyberattacks on the country’s internet, which included the NotPetya maliciousware released by the GRU five years earlier. “They’re different in the technicalities, but the goal is the same,” he says. “Demoralizing and punishing civilians.”
The lead for disaster response in the Ukrainian presidential office said that several residential buildings in the capital were destroyed.
An explosion near a playground rattled the windows of nearby homes. In the event of shortages, the mayor urged residents to charge their devices and fill water containers.
Ukrainian air defense systems shot down 21 cruise missiles near Odesa, said Maksym Marchenko, the regional administrator for that region along the Black Sea. But successful missile strikes left the city without electricity or water.
Since October 10, the strikes of the scale have become less frequent. According to the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Russia is running low on cruise missiles.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Russian media that Moscow would try to achieve its objectives in Ukraine with perseverance and patience.
The dark side of Ukraine: When the sirens sounded, people slept in the theaters and the media carried out their protests
Anna Kovalchuk, another Kyiv resident, said she was determined not to let the Russians ruin her upcoming celebrations. “I’m more worried that most likely there will be no electricity on New Year’s Eve and the holiday will have to be spent in the dark. She told CNN that she stocked up on garlands, power banks and other items to be ready for such a scenario in advance.
Hryn said that after the sirens sounded, life went back to normal and his neighbors got to see the new movie at the cinema on time. Parents took their children to school and people went to work, while others continued with holiday plans in defiance.
Elsewhere in the capital, Halyna Hladka stocked up on water as soon as the sirens sounded and quickly made breakfast for her family so they would have something to eat. After two hours, they heard the sound of detonations. It appeared to her that they were close, but it turned out to be air defense. “Not a single attack will cancel the fact that we will celebrate the new year with the family.”
The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti states that the Russian foreign minister said that Zelensky was scheming to force the withdrawal of Russia from the peninsula, as well as the occupied parts of Ukraine. “We will not talk to anyone under such conditions,” he said.
The Russian attack on a vocational school housing Russian conscripts in Makiivka on Thursday, New Year’s Eve: a source of frustration for Moscow
Two people were removed from a damaged home on Thursday, while a 14-year-old was taken to the hospital with injuries. Homes, an industrial facility and a playground in the capital were damaged in attacks on Kyiv, according to the city military administration.
“Senseless barbarism.” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said those were the only words that came to mind watching Moscow launch a fresh wave of attacks on Ukrainian cities ahead of the New Year, adding there could be “no neutrality” in the face of such aggression.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has claimed that a wave of missile attacks against Ukraine on Thursday, believed to be one of the biggest barrages yet in the war, “neutralized'” all their assigned targets.
The ministry didn’t claim to have made any territorial advances against Ukrainian forces, which is consistent with reports of the two sides being locked in a stalemate.
Moscow claimed that a large number of the soldiers of the Ukrainian army were killed in a Russian attack.
The strike took place just after midnight on Sunday, New Year’s Day, on a vocational school housing Russian conscripts in Makiivka, in the Donetsk region, according to both Ukrainian and pro-Russian accounts.
One of the worst episodes in the war for Moscow is believed to have happened when 63 Russian servicemen died.
According to the state news agency, Russian senator Grigory Karasin said that the people who were responsible for the killing of Russian servicemen must be found.
“Greetings and congratulations” to the separatists and conscripts who “were brought to the occupied Makiivka and crammed into the building of vocational school,” the Strategic Communications Directorate of the Chief Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Telegram. “Santa packed around 400 corpses of [Russian soldiers] in bags.”
Daniil Bezsonov, a former official in the Russia-backed Donetsk administration, said on Telegram that “apparently, the high command is still unaware of the capabilities of this weapon.”
Bezsonov said that he hopes that those responsible for using the facility will be reprimanded. “There are enough abandoned facilities in Donbas with sturdy buildings and basements where personnel can be quartered.”
A Russian propagandist who blogs about the war effort on Telegram, Igor Girkin, claimed that the building was almost completely destroyed by the secondary detonation of ammunition stores.
“Nearly all the military equipment, which stood close to the building without the slightest sign of camouflage, was also destroyed,” Girkin said. Many people are still missing and there are no final figures on the number of casualties.
The inability to grasp the experience of war is one of the most serious problems that Boris Rozhin has found to be a problem.
“As you can see, despite several months of war, some conclusions are not made, hence the unnecessary losses, which, if the elementary precautions relating to the dispersal and concealment of personnel were taken, might have not happened.”
Yanushevich’s New Year’s Resolution of Ukraine’s Nuclear Counteroffensive: “It was a difficult, necessary decision”
The Russian military lost 760 people yesterday, and continued to attempt actions on Bakhmut.
A missile strike using a U.S.-supplied weapon that is critical in enabling Ukrainian forces to hit key targets has delivered a new blow to Russia who have been reeling from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The invasion by Moscow on Feb. 24 went awry, putting pressure on Russian President Putin as his ground forces struggle to hold ground. He said in his New Year’s address to the nation that 2022 was “a year of difficult, necessary decisions.”
Five people were wounded in the Monday morning shelling of a Ukraine-controlled area of the southern Kherson region, its Ukrainian Gov. Yaroslav Yanushevich said on Telegram.
The Russian forces attacked the city of Beryslav, the official said, firing at a local market, likely from a tank. Three of the wounded are in serious condition, and will be taken to Kherson.
A blistering New Year’s Eve assault killed at least four civilians across the country, Ukrainian authorities reported, and wounded dozens. The fourth victim, a 46-year-old resident of Kyiv, died in a hospital on Monday morning, Klitschko said.
The Bryansk regional governor said a Ukrainian drone had hit an energy facility in the region. A village was left without power as a result, he said.
The use of cell phones by Russian soldiers in the occupied city of Makiivka was the main cause for the strike, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
But that account was angrily dismissed by an influential military blogger and implicitly contradicted by the leader of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine, pointing to discord in the Russian command over Moscow’s response to the attack.
One of those bloggers, Semyon Pegov, who uses the online handle “War Gonzo” and was recently awarded a medal by Vladimir Putin, also rejected the military’s claim about cell phones, calling it a “blatant attempt to smear blame.”
He questioned how the Ministry of Defense could be “so sure” that the location of soldiers lodging in a school building could not have been determined using drone surveillance or a local informant.
And he again raised suspicions about the official death toll, which was revised upward by Moscow to 89 from 63, writing that “their number will still be growing.”
In another post on Wednesday, Pegov warned that apathy on the battlefield will lead to more “tragedies.” He said, “If you ask me personally what is the most dangerous thing in war, I will answer, ‘Not to bother.'”
Pegov and Denis Pushilin both praised the soldiers who were killed in the strike shortly after the government pinned the blame on them.
Pushilin said on Telegram Wednesday that they knew what it was to suffer losses. There were a number of displays of courage and true heroism by the guys in this infantry, according to the information I have.
The Russian Defense Ministry and Ukraine’s Misuse of the Defense Ministry Statement for a Special Military Operation: Serhiii Cherevatyi
Ukraine’s military mockery of the defense ministry statement from Russia can be found here. It’s a mistake to use phones with location information. But it is clear that this version looks a bit ridiculous,” the spokesman for the Eastern Group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi, said Wednesday.
This is a mistake. [of the Russians], and I think that now they are engaged in [searching for] who is to blame. They are putting the blame on each other,” he continued.
The main reason was not the use of phones. They couldn’t covertly deploy these personnel. We detected the target and destroyed it, thanks to that.
The soldiers missed their wives, their families, so they turned on their cellphones and called home. Suddenly, HIMARS rockets, satellite-guided precision weapons that the United States has supplied to Ukraine, hit the school, almost completely destroying it, and igniting the cache of ammunition.
No one has blamed Vladimir Putin so far. The editor-in-chief of state-run international network RT and a regular on domestic Russian TV talk shows hopes the responsible officials will be held accountable. She said the attack could fuel public discontent and it’s high time to understand that not everyone is happy. Impunity leads to more crimes and, as a consequence, public dissent.”
It seems that this is the first time that this has been done publicly during a special military operation. I hope the names of these persons and the extent of punishment will also be announced,” she said.
When Vladimir Mironov called the attack in Makiivka, southeast of the Volga River, Ukraine, on September 22, 2002
The governor of Russia’s southwestern Samara region held talks in Moscow on Tuesday with the leadership of the country’s defense ministry, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
The cell phone explanation was called a “99% lie” by Grey Zone, who said that the explanation was an attempt to evade responsibility. He said it was more likely an intelligence failure.
There was a lot of reaction to Mironov’s comments. Putin called up about 300,000 men in September, but hardliners think he failed to go far enough. They want a full mobilization that would put the entire country on a war footing. They want revenge on the land of their forefathers.
Many of the soldiers who perished at Makiivka came from Samara, a city on the Volga River in southwestern Russia, and the families of those killed are mourning their loved ones, bringing red carnations to a rare public memorial service, as priests led people in prayer and a choir sang the liturgy for the young men who had recently been sent to the front.
But the finger of blame, so far, is pointed only at military leaders, no higher. President Putin did not speak about the attack, a sign that he intends to be as far away from it as possible.
Even in this “open” discussion, several commentators have raised the possibility that “informants” may have tipped off the enemy, a go-to conspiracy theory that Russia’s state-run propaganda outlets often promote. The usual complaint is that the tragedy was a result ofkhalatnost: carelessness.
There was no indication that there were massive casualties in the area. There is nothing unusual in Kramatorsk and close to the city mortuary, the team reported.
A reporter from Kramtorsk reported that there were no signs of Russian strikes on two college dormitories they claimed had been housing hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers.
The Ukrainian Air Force doesn’t have the means to defend against Iranian missiles, if Russia acquires them for use in its war in Ukraine.
The Russia and Ukraine Air War: Why Are The Best Fighters in the Sky? The Case of Top Gun: The Stimson Center’s Kelly Grieco
Yet one thing makes this battle distinctive from all previous air wars of the past century: pilots are rare. This goes against the traditional perception of air combat.
The film “Top Gun: Maverick” is up for an Oscar this year. We watch an air war happening. “It looks different from anything we see in Top Gun,” said Kelly Grieco, with the Stimson Center.
There are at least some planes that are still flying. But we’re talking a very small number of sorties compared to compared to past wars,” said Grieco, who keeps close tabs on the air war.
He knows these tenets well. Gersten flew combat missions as an F-16 pilot early in his career, and later commanded U.S. drone operations in the Middle East. He watched drones play a major role in the US air campaign in Iraq and Afghanistan. But piloted U.S. war planes played a significant role in those conflicts as well, and the U.S. alone dominated the skies.
Gersten says it’s still not entirely clear why the Russian air force has fared so poorly. He stressed that Russia still has over 1,000 advanced fighter jets with trained pilots and that they are not going to be sent into the skies over Ukraine. Some of the best pilots in the world are from Russia. They’re also some of the most disciplined pilots in the world. At least for now, Russia has chosen to keep these pilots and their planes on the sidelines. Russia is relying on missiles and drones, which are much cheaper and easier to replace.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1153438336/russia-and-ukraine-battle-daily-in-the-sky-so-where-are-the-pilots
Investigating alleged Russian attacks on separatists of the Donetsk Republic in Ukraine: Joint investigation of the DONETS project and Russian requests for higher air defense
“We were contacted by an American (aid group) that couldn’t get their ambulances into besieged cities and asked if it could use our drones,” said Chell, who’s based in Vancouver.
The spare parts or the supply chain was never brought up when I asked about F-16. The answer was normally, ‘Oleksii, you know, it’s a very long period of training courses for your pilots.'” But President Biden has been clear. The U.S. is sending air defenses, but not fighter jets — which would put more vulnerable pilots and expensive planes in the sky.
Citing intercepted telephone conversations by Russian government officials, the Public Prosecution Service’s Joint Investigation Team said there were “strong indications that in Russia, the president made the decision about the provision of the Buk-TELAR to separatists of the DPR,” or the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, in eastern Ukraine.
Even so, investigators said that even though the high bar of full and conclusive evidence is not met, Putin has immunity from prosecution. The Joint Investigation Team said that it had shared its findings with the families of the 298 victims.
CNN is unable to independently confirm the claims for each alleged attack, and Ukraine did not immediately comment on the incident. Attacks inside Russia were previously declined to comment on by Ukraine.
Dutch investigators concluded that a missile that downed the Malaysian Airlines plane was fired from a Russian anti-aircraft system. The Dutch court found two Russians and a Ukrainian guilty of mass murder for their role in the downing of Flight 17 over conflict ridden eastern Ukraine.
In their newest finding, investigators say that DPR leaders appeared to be in “close contact” with Kremlin advisers and the Russian intelligence service.
“After the separatists ask for anti-aircraft guns with higher range, their request is in the second half of June 2014 discussed at the Presidential administration in Moscow. That is a state body that supports the president. After this, the request for a heavier air defense system is presented to the minister of Defense and the president,” investigators told the Dutch court on Wednesday.
Russian government officials said the decision about military support rests with the president according to the Joint Investigation Team. The person who is at a summit in France is the one who has to make the decision. President Putin at that time, on 5 and 6 June 2014, was at the D Day commemoration in France.
“Because at this moment it cannot be determined who the operators of the Buk-TELAR were, and other concrete information about this is lacking, it cannot be determined why they fired a Buk rocket at MH17, what their mission was, and what information they had at the moment of firing.”
Conflict Armament Research Observations of the Odesa Operational Command North: Shocks and Damage caused by an Unexploded Warhead
Two people were killed in a village east of the city of Kharkiv, said the head of the military administration in the region. There are Russian forces on the east bank of the river.
The Ukrainian military also reported Wednesday that more than 30 settlements in the regions of Kharkiv and Sumy came under fire, with some of the shelling directed from Russian territory.
“The occupiers continue to shell the border of Sumy region with mortars” 12 times on Wednesday evening in the area of Seredyna-Buda — which is right near the Russian border — according to Operational Command North. There were no casualties reported.
An unofficial Telegram account of troops in Ukraine’s 46th Brigade, which has been in the Bakhmut area for several weeks, said the Russians had reached a highway northwest of the city and that fighting was continuing there.
The UK-based investigative organization Conflict Armament Research and the Ukrainian military looked at an unexploded warhead from an Iranian Shahed-131 drone found in the Southern Ukrainian region of Odesa. CAR provided its findings first to CNN.
The warhead is able to shred targets including power stations, distribution grids, transmission lines and large, high-power transformers if there are elements accumulated. They also make repair efforts substantially harder.
Men are running in every direction and the bodies of soldiers are in tank tracks in a chaotic scene.
But attacks launched in the last week of January were fatally flawed, he said. They were moving along a narrow route all the time, and facing about 500 meters of emptiness on the eastern side of the town, where Ukrainian observers had staked out on top of the high buildings.
About 20 videos geolocated by CNN show basic tactical blunders in an area that’s open and flat, where Ukrainian spotters on higher ground can direct artillery strikes and where minefields are worsening Russian casualties.
The videos, which were released by the Ukrainian military, and analyzed by CNN and military experts, show that two dozen Russian tanks and infantry vehicles have been disabled or destroyed in a matter of days. Satellite images show intensive patterns of impacts along tree lines where Russian tanks tried to advance.
The 155th Marines of the Marine corps are involved in the assault on the village of Vuhledar, which the Russian Defense Ministry insists is going well. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a recorded show that the marine infantry was working as it should. Right now. Fighting heroically.”
But the leader of the self-declared, Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, acknowledged Friday that the area was “hot” and said “the enemy continues to transfer reserves in large quantities, and this slowed down the liberation of this settlement.”
Moscow Calling: Russian Army in Vuhledar Donetsk Fiasco Intl: How Do Military Bloggers Get Their Attention?
Cooper says the Russians built a formidable force around Vuhledar, “say, a total of about 20,000 troops, 90 MBTs The main battle tanks are two times as large as IFVs and the number of artillery pieces is about 100.
The town has become a lynchpin in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces have been trying to take it for three months. Victory here could make it harder for the Ukrainians to shut down the nearby train that brings passengers from the eastern part of the country to the southern part of the country.
Critics of Russia’s military high command say the handling of the latest offensive is worse still, with one military blogger describing it as a “shameful debacle.”
A lot of good T-72 B3/T 80BVM tanks and the best paratroopers and marines were destroyed, said Strelkov on Telegram.
In a Telegram post, Strityck said that only morons attack in the same place heavily fortified and inconvenient for the attackers.
Russia’s military bloggers have tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of subscribers to their Telegram channels. They have been very critical of previous episodes.
Moscow Calling said that old T-72 tanks in Vuhledar lack new features that would improve the driver’s vision. That may help explain several instances in which Russian tanks seemed to get entangled or reverse blindly.
“How are blind, deaf tanks, armored personnel carriers, with equally blind, deaf infantry supposed to fight without columns? And then how to coordinate any actions if there is no communication and situational awareness?” he wrote.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/13/europe/russia-ukraine-vuhledar-donetsk-fiasco-intl/index.html
The Vuhledar assault of Vladimir Putin in Moldova: The airspace of Sergiy Sotnychenko, the commander of the Eastern Group of Forces
Several Russian commentators have called for the dismissal of Lieutenant General Rustam Muradov, the commander of the Eastern Grouping of Forces. Muradov was in charge in November when men of the 155th protested that his tactics had caused disastrous losses.
In an expletive-laden post, the pro-Wagner Telegram channel Grey Zone said of Muradov: “This coward is lying down at the control point and sending column after column until the commander of one of the brigades involved in the Vuhledar assault is dead on the contact line.”
The Institute for the Study of War thinks that poor leadership is only one part of the problem, and that the 155th Naval Infantry brigade is likely composed of poorly trained mobilized personnel.
According to Ukrainian military officials, there is a mix of Russian forces in the area including professional units, the DPR militia and a private military company that is close to the Russian defense ministry.
The commander of Ukrainian forces Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said effective fire damage, which requires appropriate amount of weapons and ammunition, was the key to success.
Russian forces continue to have a distinct advantage in firepower. They unleashed a volley of missiles at Vuhledar in a reminder that they are more likely to cause destruction than take territory.
Six enemy air targets were detected in the city airspace. Those were balloons that are moving with the wind,” the Kyiv city military administration said on Telegram, adding that the balloons could have been carrying reconnaissance devices.
“They use them [balloons] as false targets, they want air defense to work against them. The Air Force spokesman said that they need to deplete their air defense and distract their attention.
All air targets were MzE MzEd by the air defense. Most of the explorers were intercepted,” the Kyiv city military administration said. “The goal of the balloon launch was to detect and exhaust our air defenses.”
Ihnat claimed that Russian balloons were to blame for the closing of Moldova’s airspace. CNN can’t independently verify those claims.
When the war came to Sergiy Sotnychenko’s neighborhood in March 2022, he found himself carrying out daily performances for the drones that hummed constantly overhead. Desperate to prove that he wasn’t a combatant, he put on an orange hoodie which, out of all the clothing he owned, seemed least likely to be mistaken for military fatigues. He tried to show the drones he was carrying out innocent activities, like planting onions. Sometimes he would wave.
WarGonzo, a Russian military theorist, said that fighters of the private military company had attacked in several directions at once. He claimed “a slight advance” to the east of the city and repeated Wagner’s claim that it now controls Berkhivka, a village north-west of Bakhmut.
The Mariinka area, which has been virtually obliterated by the fighting, has been reported as an example of offensive actions by the Russian military.
According to the General Staff, at least 34 places in the South came under Russian attack from the east bank of Dnipro. It also claimed that “The russian invaders are searching houses and seizing boats and other watercraft.”
The ministry said Russian forces had carried out artillery and thermobaric attacks on Ukrainian positions in areas west of the city of Kreminna in Luhansk, and it claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on the Ukrainians in that area.
Russian Airlines Close Airspace after UJ-22 Drones Collided with a Civilian Infrastructure Facility in Krasnodar
The UJ-22 is relatively small and versatile, able to fly through poor weather and to travel up to 500 miles (800 kilometers). The location and the time of the photo of the crashed drone are not clear.
The defense ministry claimed two more strikes were foiled by the use of drone-jamming technology in the Krasnodar and Adygea regions after the crash was reported to be one of several attempts.
“Both drones lost control and deviated from their flight path,” the defense ministry said in a statement. “One UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) fell in a field, and another UAV, deviating from the trajectory, did not harm the attacked civilian infrastructure facility.”
At least one drone appeared to have evaded Russian defenses, with footage posted on social media overnight and geolocated by CNN showing a fire at energy firm Rosneft’s oil depot in Tuapse, on Krasnodar’s Black Sea coast.
Following the alleged attacks, Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg closed its airspace Tuesday within a 200-kilometer (124-mile) radius, briefly banning incoming flights, according to state media.
The president of the Russian Federation was briefed about the closures but his spokesman declined to say if it was related to the incidents in St. Petersburg.
Around the same time, Ukraine’s state-owned weapons manufacturer Ukroboronprom indicated that it is close to finishing work on a new long-range drone – though there is no public indication that such a device has been readied for deployment or was involved in explosions inside Russia.
The Defense Ministry of Ukraine offered no comment on the strikes, even as a presidential adviser cryptically sent out a message that seemed to hint at whether or not the country was behind the attacks.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/01/europe/russia-ukraine-drones-alleged-attacks-intl-hnk/index.html
The Earth is round – discovery made by Galileo. Kremlin preferred court astronomy when it came to astrophysics
“The Earth is round – discovery made by Galileo. Kremlin preferred court astrologers when it came to astronomy. He said at the time that they would know if something was launched into other countries’ airspace.