Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[China]

Ukraine live updates: Secretary of State Antony Blinken makes a surprise visit, announces billions more in aid

 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced trip to Kyiv on Thursday. The Biden administration is expected to ask Congress for another $2 billion for long-term investments in security in Ukraine and neighboring countries.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

 

[Ball Security]

 

 

[FootballZombie]

Ukraine chuggin all kinds of Bro-tein for these gains.

 

 

[TheGreatBuzz]

Battle of the Bulge much?

[tshile]

I understand the cost that was getting to this point, but man it’s cool to see success like this at the moment. 

[Riggo-toni]

Izyum and Kupyansk are the main rail hubs in the Donbas. Given how utterly incompetent the Orcs aka Russians are at logistics, the Ukrainian takeover of these two hotspots means the Russian dream of taking Donbas is ending.

[China]

Ukraine claws back some territory; nuclear plant in peril

 

Ukrainian forces on Friday claimed new success in their counteroffensive against Russian forces in the country’s east, taking control of a sizeable village and pushing toward an important transport junction. The United States’ top diplomat and the head of NATO noted the advances, but cautioned that the war is likely to drag on for months.

 

Anxiety increased about Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which was operating in emergency mode Friday for the fifth straight day due to the war. That prompted the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog to call for the establishment of an immediate safety zone around the plant to prevent a nuclear accident.

 

The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant came under the control of Russian forces early in the war but is being operated by Ukrainian staff. The plant and surrounding areas have been repeatedly hit by shelling that Russia and Ukraine blame on each other. The last power line connecting the plant to the Ukrainian electricity grid was cut Monday, leaving the plant without an outside source of electricity. It is receiving power for its own safety systems from the only reactor — out of six total — that remains operational.

 

Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear operator, said Friday that repairs to outside electric lines at the Zaporizhzhia plant are impossible because of the shelling and that operating the plant in what is called an “island” status carries “the risk of violating radiation and fire safety standards.”

 

“Only the withdrawal of the Russians from the plant and the creation of a security zone around it can normalize the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. Only then will the world be able to exhale,” Petro Kotin, the head of Energoatom, told Ukrainian TV.

 

Earlier, Kotin told The Associated Press the plant’s only operating reactor “can be stopped completely” at any moment and as a consequence, the only power source would be a diesel generator.

 

There are 20 generators on site and enough diesel fuel for 10 days. After that, about 200 tons of diesel fuel would be needed daily for the generators, which he said is “impossible” to get while the plant is occupied by Russian forces.

 

Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Friday that there was little likelihood of reestablishing reliable offsite power lines to the plant.

“This is an unsustainable situation and is becoming increasingly precarious,” Grossi said, calling for an “immediate cessation of all shelling in the entire area” and the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone.

 

“This is the only way to ensure that we do not face a nuclear accident,” he said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[The Sisko]

Top Russian Commander of Invading Army Captured by Ukraine—Report

Ukrainian media outlets and social media users have speculated that a top Russian commander has been captured as Kyiv's counteroffensive against Moscow's forces gathers pace.

Images and video shared on Twitter and Telegram purportedly show Lieutenant General Andrei Sychevoi among a group of Russian troops handcuffed on their knees with one social media user saying they were near Balakliya, in the Kharkiv region.

Many noted the similarity of one of the captured men to other images of Sychevoi. Nexta TV tweeted a screen grab of the alleged general next to a previous image of Sychevoi in his regalia. "It seems that the Armed Forces of Ukraine captured not the usual 'lieutenant colonel', but the commander of the 'West' grouping, Colonel General Andrey Sychevoi," it said.

The Lviv Journal tweeted a clip it said was of the Russian troops following their capture, with the message, "Time will tell if it's Gen. Andrei Sychevoi that appears in the video.

"What I find intriguing is that 6 Ukrainian soldiers surround him & look at him as if he is the big fish, & the way he looks away from the camera [he surrendered after all]", it added.

Military analyst Rob Lee tweeted "Russian Telegram channels are already [pointing] the finger at Lieutenant General Sychevoi who is the 'West' group commander responsible for this area."

On the uniform of the man believed to be Sychevoi are the two stars worn by Russian lieutenant generals. Two stars are also on display on the shoulders of his ceremonial uniform he is wearing in images shared of him on social media.

"Striking similarity, isn't it?" wrote Twitter user Nordic Arctic Fox Operative who also tweeted a combined image of the Russian captured with Sychevoi in his garb...

Edited September 10, 2022 by The Sisko

[visionary]

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

 

[China]

 

[RansomthePasserby]

CNN: Ukraine Forces Enter Izyum

 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/10/europe/ukraine-kharkiv-advances-intl-hnk/index.html

Edited September 10, 2022 by RansomthePasserby

[DCSaints_fan]

17 hours ago, The Almighty Buzz said:

Battle of the Bulge much?

Battle of the Bulge was a German counteroffensive which failed and also could not eliminate a completely surrounded enemy (101st airborne at Bastogne) before they were relieved by Patton.  So Ukraine would be like the Germans in that sense and I hope thats not the case.

 

I was thinking more like Stalingrad - where weak flanks were attacked by the Soviets and the Axis were cut off / surrounded and the trapped troops eventually surrendered.  This is more of a single envelopment though rather than the double envelopment of Stalingrad, however.   Also the Russian troops are not technically completely cut off quite yet as there is a small bridge across Oskill to the east from which they could retreat - thats if Ukraine hasn't already capture it as things are moving quite rapidly.  They would have to abandon a fair amount of heavy equipment and any remaining depots but would be able to get some personnel out.

 

I'm now hearing that Russia is withdrawing from Izyium area and the bridgehead across Severetsky Donets completely to the east bank of Oskill.  This is unconfirmed info and probably won't know for sure until tomorrow.  UAF is wisely trying to keep info under wraps as much as possible

Edit: checking the above posts and it appears my info is already out of date.  Wow.   Either they had only a paper force there or this is a massive morale collapse / surrender of Russian forces.

 

Its getting less and less likely Putin survives this debacle ... a slow grind out win by Ukraine maybe he could have hung on for a few more years but a complete collapse of Russian forces is something entirely different.  I can't see Kherson front lasting for much longer than a few weeks.  After that the war is pretty much lost for Russia barring some massive black swan event - because  with the southern front secure and blocked by the Dniper UAF would be free to redirect those forces to the eastern fronts in which are already making substantial gains.   Either Putin's going to have to remove all pretenses of a democracy in Russia and go full mad dictator or he's going to be facing a uprising/coup pretty soon.

 

 

Edited September 10, 2022 by DCSaints_fan

[The Sisko]

If things continue on this trajectory, the Ukrainians will have taken back significant territory just as winter sets in which will give them time to consolidate those gains and prepare for another offensive after the next mud season. This has been brilliantly planned and executed so far. They are absolutely killing it.

[MrSilverMaC]

A little satire for a serious situation:

 

Quote

Putin Says He Is Losing War in Ukraine Because F.B.I. Seized Stuff He Needed
 

 

MOSCOW (The Borowitz Report)—Amid reports that the Russian front has collapsed near Kharkiv, Vladimir Putin complained that the only reason he is losing the war in Ukraine is that the F.B.I. recently seized stuff he needed.

 

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/putin-says-he-is-losing-war-in-ukraine-because-fbi-seized-stuff-he-needed/amp

[TheGreatBuzz]

1 hour ago, DCSaints_fan said:

Battle of the Bulge was a German counteroffensive which failed and also could not eliminate a completely surrounded enemy (101st airborne at Bastogne) before they were relieved by Patton.  So Ukraine would be like the Germans in that sense and I hope thats not the case.

 

Oh, I hope so also.  I was just noticing the similarities between the situations. 

[The Sisko]

 

[China]

Russia announces troop pullback from Ukraine’s Kharkiv area

 

Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Saturday that it was pulling back troops from two areas in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region where a Ukrainian counteroffensive has made significant advances in the past week.

 

The news came after days of apparent advances by Ukraine south of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, in what could become the biggest battlefield success for Ukrainian forces since they thwarted a Russian attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, at the start of the nearly seven-month war.

 

“The Russian army in these days is demonstrating the best that it can do — showing its back,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video released by his office Saturday night. “And, of course, it’s a good decision for them to run.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Switchgear]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-state-media-admits-vladimir-putins-worst-case-scenario-in-ukraine-war-is-coming-true

 

Quote

In the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin’s top propagandists predicted a swift victory and derided the Ukrainian military as an unwilling bunch of incompetents. As the war dragged on, they continued to claim that Volodymyr Zelensky’s government was about to fall. Faced with Ukraine’s mounting counteroffensive, which is rapidly achieving impressive gains, Russian propagandists are now describing an enormous horde, armed with the best Western weaponry and swimming in foreign specialists.

 

With state TV studios full of doom and gloom, prominent pundits and experts seem to be preparing Russian audiences for future losses of occupied Ukrainian lands, which are being painstakingly reclaimed by the Ukrainian military. During Wednesday’s broadcast of the state TV show 60 Minutes, host Evgeny Popov said: “We wish courage to our warriors, who are indeed doing very important work, they are resisting an enormous horde that has been trained in the West.”

 

Evgeny Buzhinsky, a retired Lieutenant-General of the Russian Armed Forces, claimed that the Ukrainian military is overflowing with American participants: “There are not only advisers, but specialists. I think that there are thousands of American advisers and specialists on the ground in Ukraine, they’re probably present in every unit.”

 

We're Russia's boogeyman

[CousinsCowgirl84]

After all we have seen I’d be a fool to underestimate Russias ineptitude but it seems a little suspicious to me that Ukraine can all of a sudden Russia in, and then Russia announces they are pulling out of Kharkiv….. just seems like a set up.

 

 

On the other hand, Ukraine does have access to some of the best Russia intelligence data available from the US so I’d think they would know what was up…

 

also, winter is coming and apparently that is supposed to be favorable for Russia since the ground will freeze up and allow easier movement of whatever resources they have left…..

 

G20 should be interesting….

[Switchgear]

46 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

After all we have seen I’d be a fool to underestimate Russias ineptitude but it seems a little suspicious to me that Ukraine can all of a sudden Russia in, and then Russia announces they are pulling out of Kharkiv….. just seems like a set up.

 

There were a few articles posted in this thread, I think in July, that predicted that the Russian military would collapse in late August. It was based on troop loss/fatigue, morale, and logistical challenges. They were off by a bit, and I don't think we're seeing a total collapse (yet), but maybe they were on to something. Here's hoping.

 

Edit:

Edited September 11, 2022 by Switchgear

[RansomthePasserby]

1 hour ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

also, winter is coming and apparently that is supposed to be favorable for Russia since the ground will freeze up and allow easier movement of whatever resources they have left…..

That was assuming Russia would be on the offensive, but if Ukraine are the ones moving and counterattacking now it seems like the winter advantage would be a wash. 

[Gurgeh]

Pretty brilliant if true:

 

Ukraine’s southern offensive ‘was designed to trick Russia’ | Ukraine | The Guardian

 

The much-publicised Ukrainian southern offensive was a disinformation campaign to distract Russia from the real one being prepared in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine’s special forces have said ... “[Russia] thought it would be in the south and moved their equipment. Then, instead of the south, the offensive happened where they least expected, and this caused them to panic and flee.”

On 29 August, Ukraine’s southern command announced that the long-anticipated offensive in the Kherson region had begun. But soldiers on the Kherson frontline said at the time that they saw no evidence of said offensive or that the active battles taking place were a reaction to an attempted Russian offensive several days earlier.

 

Much was made of the Ukrainian's attacks on the bridges in Kherson making it difficult for the Russians to reinforce and supply their troops on the west bank of the city. But the barrage went on for a month, in which time the Russians managed to boost the numbers across the river from 4,000 to 20,000 and probably felt quite secure.

 

Now they'll have to extricate those troops back across the river, and the damaged bridges, if they want to use them to defend in the east. That won't be an easy or quick task.

[TradeTheBeal!]