Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[PleaseBlitz]

When is this spring offensive starting?  LETS GO PEOPLE!!!!!

[China]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

16 minutes ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

 

Russia meant The Americans.

[China]

Bizarre Plot To Steal Russian Jets Ends In Ukrainians Charged With Treason

 

An undisclosed number of Ukrainian service members have been charged with treason, the Ukrainian State Security Service (SBU) announced Thursday, after a bizarre plot to convince Russian pilots to steal their aircraft apparently backfired. As a result of the ensuing Russian investigation, its forces launched a "massive missile attack" on Ukraine's "Kanatove airfield on July 23, 2022.” It killed a commander, wounded 17 airmen, destroyed two fighter jets and caused “significant damage” to the airstrip and several buildings, SBU stated in a release.

 

Just two days after the deadly attack, Bellingcat Russia investigator Christo Grosev described the plot in a Twitter thread as a “crazier-than-fiction story of triple-agents, fake passports and faux girlfriends.” Bellingcat, he said, was chronicling this plot as it unfolded, via a documentary about “one of the wackiest counter-counter-intel operations of all time.”

 

It was a tale, he said, that Russia's FSB security agency falsely accused him of being involved in.

 

 

Click on the link for the full story

 

[The Sisko]

16 hours ago, China said:

What’s Perfectly Round, Made Of Metal, And Keeping Russia From Replacing the 2,000 Tanks It’s Lost In Ukraine?

 

A shortage of modern optics is throttling Russia’s ability to manufacture new T-72BM3 and T-90M tanks, and restore older T-72s, T-80s and T-90s, to make good the thousands of tanks it’s lost its wider war on Ukraine.

 

But optics aren’t the only thing in short supply in the Russian armored vehicle industry. The Russians also are desperately short of ball-bearings, which they used to get from the United States and Europe before the United States and Europe tightened their sanctions on Russian industry.

 

A new study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. confirmed what independent analysts have been saying for months. Tanks and other modern armored vehicles need a lot of ball-bearings. And Russia doesn’t have enough bearings to maintain steady production of new vehicles.

 

Especially considering that the Russian war effort—indeed, the whole Russian economy—utterly depends on trains for transportation. And trains also need a lot of ball-bearings. The Russians have a choice. Build more tanks and let the rail system fall apart. Or keep the trains moving, and slow tank-production.

 

“Historically, Russia has imported most of its high-quality bearings from Western manufacturers,” CSIS analysts Max Bergmann, Maria Snegovaya, Tina Dolbaia, Nick Fenton and Samuel Bendett noted. “In 2020, for instance, Russia imported over $419 million worth of ball bearings, around 55 percent of which originated in Europe and North America; Germany was Russia’s largest trading partner, taking up 17 percent of its total imports that year.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

Mrs. Sisko's cousin works for Timken. I had no idea how big a deal ball bearings are until I started talking with him. This could really be a problem for them.

 

12 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

It seems Moronie is working for the Ruskies now.

 

 

[Pwyl]

So we cut off Russia's balls.  

[DCSaints_fan]

15 hours ago, China said:

 

 

I guess Americans aren't the only ones who celebrate 420

[China]

A fifth of Russian prisoners recruited to fight in Ukraine are HIV positive, with convicts promised anti-viral drugs if they agreed to fight: report

 

About a fifth of recruits sent to fight in Ukraine from Russian prisons are HIV positive, according to estimates by Ukrainian authorities, with several captured Russian soldiers telling The New York Times they were promised life-saving anti-viral medications if they agreed to fight.

 

One detainee told The Times that he took the offer to fight in Ukraine because the Russian prison system deprived him of supplies of effective medications that he needed to survive.

 

Timur, 37, told the publication that in prison he was put on HIV medications that he feared were ineffective, and that he worried that he wouldn't survive on these treatments for the duration of his sentence. He was identified only by his first name in order to avoid retaliation if he returned to Russia.

 

Timur told the newspaper that in December he was offered an alternative — six months with the infamous Wagner Group fighting in Ukraine in exchange for a pardon and the promise of supplies of anti-virals.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Ukraine war: Bakhmut defender remembered by comrades

 

Senior lieutenant Pavel Kuzin took his position at the machine gun - the only soldier still able to fight. Everyone else in his troop lay dead or injured.

 

Suffering from shell-shock and with one arm bandaged, the 37-year-old fired at the waves of Russian soldiers trying to storm his position. They didn't even try to take cover, but simply walked towards him across the open field.

 

It was clear Pavel wouldn't be able to hold the position for long, but he needed to buy time for a rescue team to arrive. His final action in life was to ensure his wounded comrades got to safety.

 

The Ukrainian military says Bakhmut is now the scene of many "unprecedentedly bloody" battles like this, where they now have to repel up to 50 attacks on their positions every day. Russia has concentrated massive forces in this area, and their brutal strategy of launching human wave attacks helps them to advance slowly - but at a very high cost.

 

Pavel was in charge of a forward observation group that consisted of six Ukrainian soldiers. On 17 February, shortly after the start of their watch, they came under heavy fire. A tank began hammering their position.

 

Unlike relentless mortar rounds, the tank's aiming was chillingly accurate. Shells were landing a few metres from their trenches. Two soldiers were wounded and Pavel told them to go into a dugout. A combat medic went down to tend to their injuries and prepare them for an evacuation. Moments later, the wooden shelter was directly hit by a shell.

 

"There was a bright flash," one of the wounded soldiers with a callsign Tsygan told the BBC. "I was thrown onto the logs with such force that it nearly crushed me. I couldn't understand whether I was dead or alive. Someone was shouting, it seemed the sound was coming from 100m away."

 

It was Pavel's voice who was checking on them. The other soldier was half-buried under dirt and logs. He was dead.

 

Tsygan could barely move and Pavel had to drag him up over the splintered logs that blocked the way. It was painfully slow to move Tsygan just a few metres away into a nearby trench. When the shelling paused briefly, Pavel went back trying to find others.

 

Two minesweepers arrived to clear the logs and find the bodies. But yet another shell hit the dug out, killing one of the men and injuring the other. The tank kept firing.

 

At that moment, Russian troops started storming their position. Pavel called for a support group to evacuate the wounded and rushed back to his Browning machine gun to stop the Russian infantry.

 

Click on the link for the full story

[Gurgeh]

Ukraine has crossed the Dnipro river south of Kherson. The land there is marsh with few roads, ideal for infiltration but not easy at all for vehicles.

 

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 22, 2023 | Institute for the Study of War (understandingwar.org)

 

Russian milbloggers have provided enough geolocated footage and textual reports to confirm that Ukrainian forces have established positions in east (left) bank Kherson Oblast as of April 22 though not at what scale or with what intentions. Geolocated footage published by a Russian milblogger on April 22 shows that Ukrainian forces have established positions on the Dnipro River bank north of Oleshky (7km southwest of Kherson City) and advanced up to the northern outskirts of the settlement on the E97 highway, as well as west of Dachi (10km south of Kherson City). This footage also indicates that Russian forces may not control islands in the Kinka and Chaika rivers less than half a kilometer north of the geolocated Ukrainian positions near the Antonivsky Bridge.

 

Russian milbloggers claimed on April 20 and 22 that Ukrainian forces have maintained positions in east bank Kherson Oblast for weeks, established stable supply lines to these positions, and regularly conduct sorties in the area—all indicating a lack of Russian control over the area. Another milblogger’s battle map claimed that Russian forces do not control some Dnipro River delta islands southwest of Kherson City as of April 22, suggesting possible Ukrainian advances on these islands. Some milbloggers complained that the slow rate of Russian artillery fire due to the over-centralization of the Russian military command allowed Ukrainian forces to land on the east bank.

[FootballZombie]

Crossing that river is a major hurdle. That is very significant.

 

Secure a foothold... ensure supply lines...

 

That upcoming Ukraine Offensive is gonna do mad damage.

[Larry]

12 hours ago, FootballZombie said:

That upcoming Ukraine Offensive is gonna do mad damage.

Just observing. Offense requires a lot more firepower than defense does. 

[China]

Chinese ambassador sparks European outrage over suggestion former Soviet states don’t exist

 

European countries are demanding answers from Beijing after its top diplomat in Paris questioned the sovereignty of former Soviet republics, in comments that could undermine China’s efforts to be seen as a potential mediator between Russia and Ukraine.

 

The remarks by China’s ambassador to France Lu Shaye, who said during a television interview that former Soviet countries don’t have “effective status in international law,” have caused diplomatic consternation, especially in the Baltic states.

 

Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia would be summoning Chinese representatives to ask for clarification, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis confirmed on Monday.

 

Officials including from Ukraine, Moldova, France and the European Union also all hit back with criticisms of Lu’s comments.

 

Lu made the remarks in response to a question on whether Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, was part of Ukraine.

 

“Even these ex-Soviet countries don’t have an effective status in international law because there was no international agreement to materialize their status as sovereign countries,” Lu said, after first noting that the question of Crimea “depends on how the problem is perceived” as the region was “at the beginning Russian” and then “offered to Ukraine during the Soviet era.”

 

The remarks appeared to disavow the sovereignty of countries that became independent states and United Nations members after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 – and come amid Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine under leader Vladimir Putin’s vision the country should be part of Russia.

 

The Chinese embassy in France said later that Lu’s comments were “not a statement of policy, but an expression of personal views.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Wildbunny]

I saw that interview live and it was amazing... But not in a good way.

That was pure dictatorship propaganda full of bull**** from a high chinese diplomat that is no newbie here. He knows what he can say and what he can't say.

 

China didn't even contradicted him in their statement, speaking in general regarding international laws and treaties and not going over the specific ex Russian states.

Like Russia they do have an history of taking what they think it's theirs even if that goes against international laws. They do that a lot in the Pacific area, and sea of china which they like to claim is theirs when it officially isn't.

 

He wen't against Mao's doing, claiming those crimes as "gossip". You cannot be more propagandist than that.

 

And he was wrong, as Crimea wasn't Russian at the beginning. It used to be Turkish, Tatar, depends on when you place the cursor of the beginning.

[China]

Ukraine planned attack on Moscow that could have triggered WW3, leaked memos say

 

Ukraine planned a massive strike on the Russian capital earlier this year, and it was only called off after a warning from the US government.

 

A leaked Pentagon report reveals that Ukraine’s head of military intelligence (HUR) ordered agents to prepare for “mass strikes” using “everything the HUR had” to mark the first anniversary of the outbreak of war on February 24.

 

But once news of the planned attacks reached Washington, the CIA warned President Zelenskyy that a strike on Russia's capital could trigger a direct conflict between America and Russia.

 

On February 22, just two days before the attacks were due to take place, US officials were told that the HUR “had agreed, at Washington’s request, to postpone strikes” on the Russian capital.

 

By then, news of the planned attacks had already reached the Kremlin. In the weeks leading up to the anniversary, air defences were installed on numerous key buildings in and around Moscow.

 

The US appears to have learned about the plan by tapping the phones of Ukrainian officials

 

The Pentagon has supplied arms to Ukraine under strict condition that US military hardware is not used to strike at targets within Russia. Concerns have been raised within the Biden administration that the use of US weapons on Russian soil could trigger a global conflict.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[DCSaints_fan]

On 4/23/2023 at 6:18 PM, FootballZombie said:

Crossing that river is a major hurdle. That is very significant.

 

Secure a foothold... ensure supply lines...

 

That upcoming Ukraine Offensive is gonna do mad damage.

I don't think the offensive will launch from there.   An offensive over the Dnipro would face the exact same problems the Russian one did - supply bottleneck at the choke points.  Currently the only land connection is the one over the Nova Khakova dam further north - the Antonovsky bridge has not been repaired.  Even if it was, Russia can still hit it about as easily as Ukraine did. So it would be hard to transport heavy equipment (i.e. tanks) over the river, or sustain the logisitics for a large force.

 

This is probably a raid to be sure Russia keeps troops there so they can't be somewhere else, thinning out their lines.  At best, it is a reserve force that might be able to quickly collapse the entire Zaphorhiza-Kherson line if they achieve breakthrough further east, like around Melitopol.  In that case RuAF would risk being outflanked and would almost certainly pull back to Crimea.

[China]

Russia’s new T-14 Armata battle tank debuts in Ukraine: Report

 

Russia has begun using its new T-14 Armata battle tanks to fire on Ukrainian positions “but they have not yet participated in direct assault operations”, the RIA state news agency reports.

 

The tanks have been fitted with extra protection on their flanks, and crews have undergone “combat coordination” at training grounds in Ukraine, RIA on Tuesday quoted an unnamed source close to the matter as saying.

 

The T-14 tank has an unmanned turret, and its crews remotely control the armaments from “an isolated armoured capsule located in the front of the hull”, RIA reported.

 

The tanks have a maximum speed on the highway of 80 kilometres per hour (50mph), the agency said.

 

In January, British military intelligence reported Russian forces in Ukraine were reluctant to accept the first tranche of the tanks because of their “poor condition”.

 

It also said any deployment of the T-14 would likely be “a high-risk decision” for Russia and one taken primarily for propaganda purposes.

 

“Production is probably only in the low tens while commanders are unlikely to trust the vehicle in combat,” the British military said. “Eleven years in development, the programme has been dogged with delays, reduction in planned fleet size, and reports of manufacturing problems.”

 

Click on the link for the full artticle

[Gurgeh]

23 hours ago, DCSaints_fan said:

I don't think the offensive will launch from there.   An offensive over the Dnipro would face the exact same problems the Russian one did - supply bottleneck at the choke points.  Currently the only land connection is the one over the Nova Khakova dam further north - the Antonovsky bridge has not been repaired.  Even if it was, Russia can still hit it about as easily as Ukraine did. So it would be hard to transport heavy equipment (i.e. tanks) over the river, or sustain the logisitics for a large force.

 

This is probably a raid to be sure Russia keeps troops there so they can't be somewhere else, thinning out their lines.  At best, it is a reserve force that might be able to quickly collapse the entire Zaphorhiza-Kherson line if they achieve breakthrough further east, like around Melitopol.  In that case RuAF would risk being outflanked and would almost certainly pull back to Crimea.

 

I believe you're right that the offensive can't be launched from there for the reasons you state, plus the fact that the whole area there is just marshland. Any heavy vehicles would be restricted to a handful of roads even assuming they could be landed. After the Ukrainians retook the west bank of the river and commentators were asking "what next?", the river delta area was described as a "special forces playground" suitable for small boat raids and elite infantry.

 

However, for much the same reasons it will be difficult for the Russians to use their usual tactics of mass bombardment and expendable waves of conscripts to clear away the Ukrainians. Likewise the supply lines to their own troops stationed there are now threatened. Do they stick it out, or pull back and surrender the marsh?

 

Apart from forcing the Russians to relocate defenses, the Ukrainians might be able to use small to medium size drones launched from that area to reach further behind Russian lines than before, and not just for strikes but for reconnaissance.

[China]

Two Russian officials and allies of Vladimir Putin dead on the same day

 

Two members of the ruling United Russia party who served Vladimir Putin have died on the same day.

 

The deaths of Nikolay Bortsov and Dzhasharbek Uzdenov, both allies to the Russian leader, have raised eyebrows across the world.

 

Approximately 20 high-profile Russians with ties to Vladimir Putin have died in mysterious circumstances since the war began.

 

Mr Uzdenov passed away due to a “serious and prolonged illness”, according to officials. The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, has yet to comment on his death. Vladimir Vasilyev, head of the United Russia faction shared his condolences, saying “death snatched another comrade from our ranks”.

 

“Sensitive, attentive, strong-willed, always ready to help — this is how we will remember Jasharbek Borisovich. He fought for a long time, but, unfortunately, the disease turned out to be stronger. We will miss him very much,” he said.

 

Mr. Bortsov, aged 77, died at his home in the Lipetsk region. However, the official cause of his death is yet to be announced.

 

He had recently been struck by sanctions from the US and Western allies following the Ukraine invasion.

 

He was also one of the nation’s wealthiest government employees with an estimated net worth of $550 million, earning a spot on Forbes’ Russian rich list in 2021.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[CousinsCowgirl84]

I guess putins peeps have finally smartened up and are avoiding windows

[China]

Crows Carrying Mines Are Becoming a Major Problem in Kharkiv Region

 

As if Ukrainians don’t have enough things to worry about, a new and potentially fatal phenomenon has emerged in the Kharkiv Region – crows carrying landmines.

 

 A number of recent incidents have seen people injured by the explosive devices in populated places not known to have been mined during the conflict and areas previously cleared by ordnance disposal workers.

 

 On April 14, according to the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region, a woman recently stepped on a mine in the market in Izyum, severely injuring her leg.

 

 Employees of the Kharkivoblenergo electrical company were checking power lines in Stepne village, Kharkiv region, when a 46-year-old man stepped on a mine. The explosion blew off his foot.

 

 On April 18, it happened near the center of the city Balaklea, Kharkiv region, a stone’s throw from a supermarket. A woman stepped on a PFM-1 anti-personnel mine almost in the city’s center. Diagnosed with a left foot laceration, she was hospitalized in a local medical center.

 

 The incidents have led experts at the local Kharkiv Zoo to speculate that the mines have been moved by crows.

 

 “The situation is completely unexpected. Of course, I’d like to have specifically confirmed observations and evidence. However, it’s quite plausible!” said Dmitry Strelkov, deputy head of the cultural and educational department of the Kharkiv Zoo.

 

 “Crow-type birds, especially ravens and grey crows, are very intelligent and can be curious about unusual-looking, unfamiliar objects,” he said. “Usually, these birds are wary of human-made items, but nowadays, some are so used to living around people that they can take such things quite easily."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[PokerPacker]

I've heard of crows dive-bombing, but this is ridiculous!

[TradeTheBeal!]

 

Big boom.

 

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

The Crimea bombing didn’t go over well.