Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[China]

Putin claims that western Poland is gift from Stalin

 

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has described western Polish territory as a "gift" from Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, claiming that it was his actions that caused Poland to receive this area from Germany after World War II.

 

"The western territories of present-day Poland are a gift from Stalin to the Poles, have our friends in Warsaw forgotten about this? We will remind you," Putin threatened at a meeting with members of the Russian security council on July 21.

 

The dictator also instructed the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergei Naryshki,n to monitor Poland's possible intention to “occupy Western Ukraine.” There is no evidence of this being a possibility.

 

In Putin's imagination, a "Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian initiative in the field of security" may “occupy” Western Ukraine. He did not provide any evidence for this.

 

He threatened Poland with the loss of its independence as a result of "such aggressive politics." Putin also claimed that Poland owes its independence to the Soviet Union.

 

On May 21, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin blamed Poland for “betraying historical memory” and claimed it owes over $750 billion to Moscow for its liberation from Nazi Germany and rebuilding of the country.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Gurgeh]

On 7/21/2023 at 11:42 PM, China said:

Putin claims that western Poland is gift from Stalin

 

....

 

In Putin's imagination, a "Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian initiative in the field of security" may “occupy” Western Ukraine. He did not provide any evidence for this.

 

....

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

There was a story doing the rounds in the early days of the Russian invasion, that before the war there had been an impromptu meeting between a high ranking Russian official and the Polish ambassador. To the disbelief of the ambassador, the Russian guy "let it be known" that the Russians would have no objection to the Poles taking over the western part of Ukraine including Lviv, as long as they didn't interfere with the Russians taking over the rest of the country. This apparently was reported straight back to Warsaw where the Polish government became convinced the Russians were serious about invading Ukraine.

 

The story is very unlikely to be true because it is crazy that the Russians would make such an offer, and especially to Poland given that the Russians and Germans basically made exactly the same deal in carving up Poland at the start of world war 2. But then you get Putin making statements like this and you start to wonder if the story is really that far-fetched,

 

 

 

[EmirOfShmo]

 

[MrSilverMaC]

Newsweek :

Russia Preps Elite Unit for Bakhmut 'Slaughter' Amid Mutiny Fears: Report

 

Russia is prepping its elite airborne forces, the VDV, to be deployed to Donbas hot spots in eastern Ukraine amid fears its troops could start a coup, an alleged leak of a secret memo obtained by Russian dissident in exile, Vladimir Osechkin, appears to show.

 

Osechkin, a Russian human rights activist who runs the anti-corruption website Gulagu.net, said he received a secret memo from a source purporting to be from Russia's General Staff. The letter, which Newsweek couldn't immediately verify, appears to be addressed to President Vladimir Putin's top general, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

 

[China]

Drunk Wagner Fighters Are Clogging Up Russian Train Stations

 

A huge number of Wagner fighters have been sent back to Russia from Belarus, but many of them have wound up going on drinking binges at train stations instead of returning to their families.

 

That’s according to a new report from the independent Russian outlet Mozhem Obyasnit, which reports that “every other brigade” of the mercenary group has been sent on vacation, with only the most experienced fighters remaining at the group’s new camp in Belarus.

 

Relatives of the Wagnerites have reportedly taken to a group chat to vent about the mercenaries’ misadventures.

 

“My [relative] is calling, he says one of them was taken away in an ambulance, he got drunk and became ill,” one family member was quoted as saying.

 

“Mine is home, although he’s drunk. The others haven’t managed to make it back yet, but they’re hammered already,” another loved one said.

 

Another woman complained that “those getting drunk at the station” are “idiots” for not going home when their families are waiting for them. “They’re boozing to their heart’s content,” she wrote.

 

Several Wagner fighters previously released from the group after dodging prison time by way of mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s pardons-in-exchange-for-killing-Ukrainians scheme went home only to commit murders and rapes.

 

The independent investigative outlet Verstka reported earlier this month that Russian authorities appear to be trying to conceal a wave of crimes committed by freed prison inmates-turned-Wagner fighters, with their names erased from court documents and details of their crimes kept under wraps by prosecutors and investigators.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Bluffing or not, Putin’s declared deployment of nuclear weapons to Belarus raises tensions

 

Sometime this summer, if President Vladimir Putin can be believed, Russia moved some of its short-range nuclear weapons into Belarus, closer to Ukraine and onto NATO’s doorstep.

 

The declared deployment of the Russian weapons on the territory of its neighbor and loyal ally marks a new stage in the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling over its invasion of Ukraine and another bid to discourage the West from increasing military support to Kyiv.

 

Neither Putin nor his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, said how many were moved — only that Soviet-era facilities in the country were readied to accommodate them, and that Belarusian pilots and missile crews were trained to use them.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Russian Cruise Ship Leaves Georgia Port Early After Being Heckled by Angry Protesters

 

A cruise ship carrying Russian tourists left a port in Georgia early on Thursday to the sound of angry protesters cheering their hurried departure. The Astoria Grande docked in the Black Sea port of Batumi on Thursday morning, with passengers reportedly given a day to explore the historic city. But by evening, crowds angry about the invasion of Ukraine and some of the tourists’ comments to the press accusing Georgia of occupying the Abkhazia region gathered to protest the vessel’s presence. The demonstrators waved signs reading “Russian ship, **** you,” “Russia is an occupier,” and “Go back to your ****ing country,” according to Meduza. One Russian passenger seemed confused, telling the BBC: “We are the Soviet Union. We are one country.” The ship left an hour ahead of schedule, with Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili tweeting that he was proud of the people “protesting peacefully the latest russian provocation.”

 

Click on the link for the video

[Gurgeh]

Ukrainian counteroffensive’s slow going offers reality check but could yet pay off | Ukraine | The Guardian

 

Tanks, as the military experts had warned, were not a solution on their own. Without air superiority in the skies above and overwhelming artillery support, they were vulnerable to Russian anti-tank missiles fired from the trenches and from gunships able to strike them over the horizon. The Ukrainians had mine-clearing vehicles but not enough. They were priority targets for the Russians, who learned to stack anti-tank mines on top of each other to hobble them...

 

The Ukrainians adapted their tactics, switching to platoon-sized infantry units, often at night, to pick their way through the minefields. But that has meant that progress has been slow, at walking speed, with frequent halts and withdrawals. Pathways cleared through minefields have been quickly reseeded remotely by Russian drones or artillery...

 

While Ukrainian forces had to claw back Russian-held territory 100 metres at a time, and their advances look almost negligible on a map of the whole front, territory is not the only measure of success. The impact of attrition on Russians forces may not be immediately apparent but it could be equally significant in the longer term. Frontline units have been hollowed out, many with less than a third or a quarter of their full numbers. US-donated Himars rockets and British and French Storm Shadow missiles have wrought havoc in Russian rear lines, destroying ammunition depots and supply hubs.

 

Russian military bloggers have painted dire pictures of damage to Russian forces and their morale, issues that came to the surface when Gen Ivan Popov, the commander of the Russian 58th Combined Arms Army, fighting in Zaporizhzhia region, claimed last month that he had been fired for complaining about Moscow’s mismanagement of the war...

 

The efforts to minimise Ukrainian casualties and the protection offered by western armoured vehicles, even when knocked out of action, have meant that most assault units are not as depleted as they had been expected to be. Almost all the Leopard tanks damaged in battle have been repaired in Polish workshops.

[CousinsCowgirl84]

Been seeing a lot of articles about how the west and us is frustrated by Zelensky and lack of progress…

 

Biden needs Zelensky to win so he can campaign on it, and he needs to pivot if it isn’t going well. That is kind of the advantage Putin/Xi have.

Edited August 2, 2023 by CousinsCowgirl84

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Gurgeh]

They hit an oil tanker used by the Russian military usually for transporting aviation fuel

 

 

[LD0506]

[Gurgeh]

At the moment each side is trying to force the other to fight elsewhere...

 

Ukraine forces have retaken land near Bakhmut from Russia, Kyiv says | Ukraine | The Guardian

 

Ukrainian forces have recaptured the heights over Bakhmut and are successfully encircling Russian troops in the city, a defence minister in Kyiv has said... 

 

“The main focus of the Ukrainian army is the south, and the Russians are focused on the east. The Russians are infiltrating in two main areas – Kupiansk and Lyman. It’s a nightmare there.

 

...She added: “Why are the Russians doing this? We were making good progress on both flanks in Bakhmut. We have taken almost all the key heights there. The Russians were trapped there, they couldn’t get out and now they can’t move around the city of Bakhmut because the Ukrainians are shelling the city from the heights. And in order to pull our forces away from Bakhmut, the Russians moved forward in other directions so that we would throw our forces to save them. And they exposed their rear near Bakhmut. That’s why they launched an offensive in other places to stop our attack on Bakhmut.”

 

 

 

[China]

Russian convicts released to fight with Wagner accused of new crimes

 

A prisoner believed to have been released early to fight with Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine has been accused of committing a double murder in Russia after returning home from the war.

 

Demyan Kevorkyan, who was given an 18-year prison sentence in 2016, has been arrested for killing a young man and woman on their way home from work.

 

He denies the accusation.

 

The BBC has learned he is not the only convict freed early to fight, pardoned and then accused of reoffending.

 

We have confirmed that suspects in about 20 serious offences, including rape and murder, are fighters recruited by the Wagner mercenary group in prison and released early to serve in Ukraine.

 

Kevorkyan was one of 150 prisoners recruited on 31 August 2022 when the head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, visited his prison, according to a former inmate quoted on a social media channel.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

46 minutes ago, China said:

A prisoner believed to have been released early to fight with Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine has been accused of committing a double murder in Russia after returning home from the war.

 

You mean Russia is actually allowing the convicts to come home?  I figured they'd keep them in the meat grinder till victory or death.  

[PokerPacker]

5 hours ago, China said:

Kevorkyan was one of 150 prisoners recruited on 31 August 2022 when the head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, visited his prison, according to a former inmate quoted on a social media channel.

 

Click on the link for the full article

It wasn't murder, it was assisted suicide.  Unwilling assisted suicide.

[FootballZombie]

6 hours ago, Larry said:

You mean Russia is actually allowing the convicts to come home?  I figured they'd keep them in the meat grinder till victory or death.  

 

Pretty sure those guys were recruited to Wagner... makes sense.

they aint exactly doing much else.

[China]

A Ukrainian making gear for the war says his cheap tech wouldn't work against the US or China, but 'we're fighting the Russians'

 

A Ukrainian creating technology for soldiers to use on the front lines said devices that wouldn't work against the US or China work just fine against Russia's forces.

 

Misha Rudominski, the cofounder of Himera Tech, which makes jam-resistant radio handsets, told Bloomberg that his technology "wouldn't defeat US or Chinese electronic warfare systems, but it doesn't need to. We're fighting the Russians."

 

Himera Tech's headsets make use of readily available chips rather than military-grade ones, which makes them cheaper but less secure.

 

"We wanted to build a solution that is just good enough," Rudominski said.

 

Since its invasion, Russia's military has had to resort to using old technology and weapons. This includes decades-old tanks and aged missiles, as well as newer tanks fitted out with older and less sophisticated systems.

 

Russian troops have also been recorded using civilian phones rather than more secure means of communication.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

The Kremlin won't admit how many soldiers have died in Ukraine, but researchers have now identified 30,000 dead Russians by name

 

Publicly, Russian officials have admitted to losing no more than 6,000 men since last year's all-out invasion of Ukraine. But researchers working with the BBC say they have now identified — by name — more than 30,000 dead Russian soldiers, including more than 1,300 in the last two weeks alone.

 

That Russia has suffered huge losses in Ukraine is undeniable, evidenced by Moscow's push to expand the draft and recruit from the incarcerated.

 

In May, the White House said Russia had likely suffered more than 100,000 casualties, a figure that includes the injured. The British government, earlier in the year, said as many as 60,000 Russians had been killed in action.

 

But Mediazona, an independent Russian news outlet that has partnered with the BBC's Russian service, says its figure of 30,000 dead, while certainly an undercount, is not a mere estimate. Each number represents a soldier with a name.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Gurgeh]

On 8/12/2023 at 12:44 PM, China said:

The Kremlin won't admit how many soldiers have died in Ukraine, but researchers have now identified 30,000 dead Russians by name

 

Publicly, Russian officials have admitted to losing no more than 6,000 men since last year's all-out invasion of Ukraine. But researchers working with the BBC say they have now identified — by name — more than 30,000 dead Russian soldiers, including more than 1,300 in the last two weeks alone.

 

 

 

While there's been only small gains in territory by Ukraine this summer, the reports are they've inflicted a large number of casualties. If they'd only managed to find a way to get through the minefields they'd probably be at the coast by now. Unfortunately, no-one seems to have an effective alternative to sending in the troops at night to clear the mines out by hand, and with mines spaced 6 feet apart for 10 to 20 miles, there's no chance of getting it done this year.

[FootballZombie]

Russian ruble is now worth less than a penny, infuriating Vladimir Putin’s inner circle: ‘They’re laughing at us’

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russian-ruble-now-worth-less-140326750.html

 

 

What Russia did to artificially prop up their economy has run its course.  They will probably have to make continued drastic economic moves that will be ultimately damaging for their country.

[Captain Wiggles]

[Riggo-toni]

What the Ukrainians have done is force Putler to do another heavy round of conscriptions before the year is done...look for draftable age to increase to at least mid 30s because Ruzzia is running out of young dudes.

[DCSaints_fan]

5 hours ago, FootballZombie said:

Russian ruble is now worth less than a penny, infuriating Vladimir Putin’s inner circle: ‘They’re laughing at us’

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russian-ruble-now-worth-less-140326750.html

 

 

What Russia did to artificially prop up their economy has run its course.  They will probably have to make continued drastic economic moves that will be ultimately damaging for their country.

They jacked up interest rates to 12%

 

They do have means to stop the free fall.  The problem is that these means also have their own downsides - i.e. economic contraction.