Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[China]

France says uncovers major disinformation campaign by Russia

 

France on Tuesday said it had uncovered a major Russian disinformation campaign which involved posting false news items disguised as articles by prominent media, in a "hybrid" war waged by Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

 

Western states h

ave been acutely concerned about an intensification of Russian-led disinformation campaigns, as Moscow seeks to influence public opinion across the world over the war in Ukraine.

"France condemns these actions unworthy of a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council," Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said.

 

"The French authorities are working closely with their partners to defeat the hybrid warfare led by Russia," she added.

 

France has for several years sounded the alarm over alleged Russian disinformation campaigns in areas of Francophone Africa, particularly those where the Russian mercenary group Wagner has been active.

 

The campaign was carried out by "Russian actors" with "state entities or entities affiliated to the Russian state" then working to amplify its impact, according to Colonna.

"This campaign is based in particular on the creation of fake web pages impersonating national media and government sites as well as the creation of false accounts on social networks," she said.

 

At least four French daily newspapers -- Le Parisien, Le Figaro, Le Monde and 20 Minutes -- were victims of the operation.

 

Other major media were also targeted, particularly German ones including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Der Spiegel and Bild.

 

"No attempt at manipulation will deter France from supporting Ukraine in the face of the Russian war of aggression," she added.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[MrSilverMaC]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-soldiers-corpses-line-road-into-liberated-ukrainian-village-2023-06-14/

Russian soldiers' corpses line road into liberated Ukrainian village

 

STOROZHEVE, Ukraine, June 14 (Reuters) - The road into the newly liberated Ukrainian village of Storozheve is lined with the corpses of Russian soldiers and burnt-out armoured vehicles.

The grisly scenes bear witness to the ferocity of fighting as Ukrainian troops recaptured Storozheve and several other villages in the past few days as part of a counteroffensive in southern and eastern Ukraine.

Some of the dead Russian soldiers lay on the dusty ground beside the husks of their vehicles when Reuters journalists reached the village on Wednesday. Others were crumpled in the grass and fields nearby where they died.

[PleaseBlitz]

Based on my quick reading of headlines, the counteroffensive doesn’t seem to be going well. Is that an accurate assessment?

[Fergasun]

Nobody effing knows. 

 

Russia has troops in Ukraine. Ukraine is still fighting.  Russia is still bombing Ukraine.  I think it is pretty interesting that Russia has to fortify their defenses with Ukraine.

 

War is hell and Russia could stop this by withdrawing.  

[China]

If Ukraine had any semblance of an air force that would help them immeasurably.  The fact that Russia seems unable to use their air superiority to their advantage doesn't speak well of their air combat capabilities.

Edited June 14, 2023 by China

[China]

Top Russian officer reported killed in Ukraine counteroffensive

 

A top Russian officer has been reported killed in a Ukrainian missile strike during Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russian forces, a Russian-backed official in Ukraine has said, offering his condolences.

 

Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in a part of the southern Zaporizhia region under Moscow’s control, said on Tuesday that Russian Major-General Sergei Goryachev, Chief of Staff of Russia’s 35th Army, had been killed a day earlier on the Zaporizhia front where Ukrainian forces have been retaking some territory.

 

There was no immediate confirmation of the news of Goryachev’s death from the Russian Defence Ministry.

 

Goryachev, 52, was a highly-decorated officer. During his career, he fought in the Second Chechen War, commanded a tank brigade, oversaw a Russian military base in Tajikistan and led Russian forces in Moldova’s breakaway pro-Russian region of Transdniestria, according to the Reuters news agency.

 

If confirmed, the death of Goryachev marks the first Russian senior officer killed in Ukraine in almost a year. His death was first reported by “Voenkor Z”, a Russian war correspondent and military blogger.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Gurgeh]

5 hours ago, PleaseBlitz said:

Based on my quick reading of headlines, the counteroffensive doesn’t seem to be going well. Is that an accurate assessment?

 

It's way too early, and it's not like Kharkhiv last year where the Russians were caught by surprise and had nothing prepared.

 

The Russians have built multiple lines of defences and everything is heavily mined. This forces the Ukrainians to clear narrow paths through the mines for their tanks and APCs, which the Russians shell with artillery the minute they spot them. This is how most of the Ukrainian vehicle losses have occurred, they are unable to manoeuvre until they clear the minefields. It's why they are holding back most of their Western armor, but without the better tanks it's very tough going.

 

They also don't have air superiority. The edge in the air is clearly with the Russians simply because they have more aircraft they can afford to lose.

 

The one clear advantage the Ukrainians do have is in night vision. They are making most of their progress in the dark, but come daylight the Russians hit back.

 

 

[Die Hard]

From everything I’ve read, Gurgeh nailed it. 
 

Russia has been fortifying their positions in anticipation of this counter offensive. And it’s had an impact… Ukraine has suffered some losses.

 

But Ukraine has been pushing forward… just slow measured gains.

 

And apparently Ukraine is launching this in phases… it’s not just some big onslaught. 
 

So it’s going to drag out…. 

[Wildbunny]

7 hours ago, Gurgeh said:

They also don't have air superiority. The edge in the air is clearly with the Russians simply because they have more aircraft they can afford to lose.

Yes, but you can't achieve air superiority with Prisoners as pilots. This ain't WW I or II anymore. You need competent and fully trained pilots to fly those planes.

 

So even if Russia can boast air superiority, they still should be cautious that in a few months, Ukraine will have a full air force with better fighters and more trained pilots against not so great planes and what they have left as pilots. Which might strike the Russians in the rear quite heavily then.

 

Sometimes you need to lose a battle here and there to win a war.

 

[Riggo-toni]

 

 

[PleaseBlitz]

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/18292
 

Quote

Russian milbloggers have said their army is “at war with our own stupidity and sloppiness”, after reports emerged that as many as 100 of Moscow’s troops were killed when a Ukrainian strike struck a gathering of soldiers waiting for their commander to give a speech. 

According to unconfirmed Russian sources, the massacre occurred near Kreminna in Luhansk Oblast when members of the 20th Combined Arms Army gathered in a large group not far from the front lines and in range of Kyiv’s HIMARS rockets for two hours.

Kyiv has not officially confirmed it was behind the strike but a Ukrainian official speaking on condition of anonymity, told Kyiv Post: “It's a really funny situation there. They stood in the open air for two hours listening to the speech.

“That is enough time to fix them, transport the HIMARS, enter the coordinates and hit them.“

Lol

[Gurgeh]

Focus of war shifting south towards Mariupol, Ukrainian minister says | Ukraine | The Guardian

 

Hanna Maliar, a deputy defence minister, said the most active fighting was no longer around Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region, but in the south, and specifically in the direction of the two coastal cities of Berdiansk and Mariupol.

 

“If in the first week the epicentre was the east, now we see that the fighting is moving to the south and now we see the most active areas are Berdiansk and Mariupol,” Maliar said. “In the east, the enemy has turned on all the forces to stop our offensive. And they are massing forces there to stop us. In the south they are not very successful.”

 

... Russia’s president claimed that Ukraine would soon be out of home-manufactured hardware and that he remained focused on his aim of “denazifying” Ukraine, adding, in a bizarre aside, that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was “not a real Jew”. “I have a lot of Jewish friends,” Putin told an annual economic forum in St Petersburg. “They say that Zelenskiy is not Jewish, that he is a disgrace to the Jewish people. I’m not joking.”

[China]

Well I hope they can cut off the land route to Crimea, then take out that bridge so Crimea is completely cut off.

[Gurgeh]

On 6/15/2023 at 8:52 AM, Wildbunny said:

Yes, but you can't achieve air superiority with Prisoners as pilots. This ain't WW I or II anymore. You need competent and fully trained pilots to fly those planes.

 

So even if Russia can boast air superiority, they still should be cautious that in a few months, Ukraine will have a full air force with better fighters and more trained pilots against not so great planes and what they have left as pilots. Which might strike the Russians in the rear quite heavily then.

 

Sometimes you need to lose a battle here and there to win a war.

 

 

An update this morning said that the Russians have changed tactics and stationed their helicopters about 100 miles from the front line and have switched them to using longer range missiles for ground attack, keeping the copters out of reach of Stingers and the like. A couple of days ago various NATO countries pledged to send more short to medium range AA systems which will hopefully redress the balance.

[China]

Russian Army Hit by Cholera Outbreak After Kakhovka Dam Flooding

 

The Russian army has been hit by a cholera outbreak, days after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine caused catastrophic flooding, a military partisan movement has said.

 

Atesh, a military movement of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, which has 41,000 subscribers on Telegram, cited "informants" from military hospitals of the Kherson region and Crimea as saying that many Russian soldiers are being admitted daily with suspected cases of cholera, a potentially deadly bacterial disease. Several Russian troops have died, the group said.

 

The reports come after the Soviet-era dam—part of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station in southern Ukraine on the Dnieper River—was breached in the early hours of June 6, unleashing water on swaths of land as a long-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive to take back the seized territories kicked off. The death toll from the flooding has risen to 52.

 

Click on the link for the full article 

 

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

Dark Brandon is taking Putin to the woodshed.

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

 

[Fergasun]

Yes.  It is the MODs fault.  Putin is using Prigohzen to blame Shoigu.  I would advise both men to stay away from windows.

[FootballZombie]

Been waiting for this

 

 

[ExoDus84]

57 minutes ago, FootballZombie said:

Been waiting for this

 

One war criminal declaring war on another war criminal? Sounds good to me.

 

 

[ExoDus84]

Special Revenge Operation

 

 

[Long n Left]

[DCSaints_fan]

So Russia is going to clip one of the few competent leaders they have. Great strategy.

[tshile]

MOD better stay on the ground level of all buildings going forward 

[Gurgeh]

The writing has been on the wall for Prigohzen since last week, when Putin backed Shoigu and decreed all mercenary companies had to sign a contract with the ministry of defence.  Prigohzen signing that contract would likely mean he ends up dead or in prison, given how much bad blood there is between him and Shoigu. So perhaps in typical Prigohzen fashion he's decided to go out with a bang.