Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[Larry]

Combat can certainly stimulate creativity. 

[GhostofSparta]

36 minutes ago, Larry said:

Combat can certainly stimulate creativity. 

War and Porn, the 2 things that can assure creativity and advancement of human technology and innovation.

[TheGreatBuzz]

 

 

 

[EmirOfShmo]

Russian Naval Commander and 33 Officers Obliterated in Biggest Blow Yet, Says Ukraine

 

In one of the most devastating blows of the war so far, Ukraine says it took out a whole chunk of Russia’s naval leadership in a single missile attack, which killed the commander of the notorious Black Sea Fleet.

Vice Admiral Viktor Sokolov was allegedly killed in Friday’s missile strike on the Black Sea Fleet’s HQ in Crimea, which was illegally occupied by Russia in 2014.

Sokolov, who was drafted in to beef up the faltering navy last year, was attending a meeting of top naval and military figures when the missile crashed into the building in Sevastopol, according to the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine. The Spetsnaz unit claims that 34 officers in total were killed in the explosion.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/russian-naval-commander-33-officers-135850578.html

[Larry]

Hope we're not completely revealing our intel capabilities, here.  

[China]

Russia Vows to Return All Children 'Rescued' from Ukraine Upon Request

 

ussia's ambassador to the United States has told Newsweek that his government is prepared to act upon any request to facilitate the return of Ukrainian children brought to Russia amid the ongoing conflict between the two nations.

 

Around 700,000 Ukrainian children have been evacuated to Russian territory since the war began in February 2022. The governments of Ukraine and its top supporter, the United States, have alleged that such transfers amounted to a mass abduction, serving as the basis for an arrest warrant issued against Russian President Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March of this year.

 

But after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov faced a barrage of questions on the subject at a press conference Sunday during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Ambassador Anatoly Antonov criticized what he referred to as a Western media "perception" on the matter that "seems shaped more by propaganda spread by unscrupulous politicians in Kiev and Washington than by facts."

 

"We have nothing to hide in this regard," Antonov told Newsweek. "We are open and prepared for a constructive dialogue on this pressing issue."

 

"We stand ready to provide the names of all minors currently on Russian territory for their own safety," Antonov said. "We maintain a comprehensive list of these children. Any child for whom we receive requests from their legal representatives—parents or guardians—will be promptly reunited with their families. We haven't kidnapped anyone; quite the opposite, we have rescued these children."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[EmirOfShmo]

Elite Ukrainian commandos on jet skis conducted a daring raid on a Russian electronic warfare station in Crimea, report says

 

Ukrainian commandos on jet skis conducted a mission to damage a Russian electronic warfare station in Crimea.

Members of the group told The Times of London how they carried out their covert and daring mission.

The group had also been tasked with flying a Ukrainian flag on the peninsula for the first time in a decade.

A unit of Ukrainian commandos traveled covertly across the Black Sea on jet skis in a daring raid on a Russian electronic warfare station in Crimea, a report says.

A group of about 20 soldiers from the Brotherhood Battalion carried out the mission on Ukraine's Independence Day, August 24, The Times of London reported.

Each jet ski carried two Ukrainian frogmen and traveled 125 miles across the sea to reach the peninsula.

"Our first target was an electronic warfare station so powerful not even a compass could work within 20 miles of the shore," Borghese, the battalion commander who coordinated the mission on the day, told The Times.

The electronic warfare station had thwarted drone strikes and tracked British Storm Shadow missiles.

Levan, the second in command of the elite special forces regiment the Timur group, told The Times that he spent two weeks practicing the journey on a jet ski before their mission.

While the unit approached the peninsula, five Ukrainian support ships fired at Russian positions as a diversion tactic, per The Times.

The original plan was to place explosives at the site before leaving, but the soldiers were spotted and had to resort to their backup plan, and instead struck it with anti-tank weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, Borghese told The Times.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/elite-ukrainian-commandos-jet-skis-104433868.html

[EmirOfShmo]

On 9/25/2023 at 4:10 PM, EmirOfShmo said:

Russian Naval Commander and 33 Officers Obliterated in Biggest Blow Yet, Says Ukraine

 

In one of the most devastating blows of the war so far, Ukraine says it took out a whole chunk of Russia’s naval leadership in a single missile attack, which killed the commander of the notorious Black Sea Fleet.

Vice Admiral Viktor Sokolov was allegedly killed in Friday’s missile strike on the Black Sea Fleet’s HQ in Crimea, which was illegally occupied by Russia in 2014.

Sokolov, who was drafted in to beef up the faltering navy last year, was attending a meeting of top naval and military figures when the missile crashed into the building in Sevastopol, according to the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine. The Spetsnaz unit claims that 34 officers in total were killed in the explosion.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/russian-naval-commander-33-officers-135850578.html

 

Hmmm...

 

Russian admiral reportedly killed in Ukrainian attack shows up on TV, prompts ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ speculation

 

A Russian admiral Ukrainian forces listed among the 33 officers killed in an attack on a Black Sea navy base over the weekend showed up on a video conference call attended by Russia’s top military brass.

But still and brief footage of Adm. Viktor Sokolov, seemingly seated with a pillow behind his head, is prompting discussion over whether Ukrainian officials exaggerated the success of their strike — or Russia is pulling a “Weekend at Bernie’s.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday an attack on their heavily fortified base in Crimea caused damage, but didn’t address claims Sokolov was dead, according to NBC News. Footage of a military meeting on Russian state television clearly featured a small image of the admiral on a large screen. He was motionless and didn’t speak.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/russian-admiral-reportedly-killed-ukrainian-001000045.html

[Larry]

Part of me assuming that the Uke special forces have been training with the Green Berets for a year or two. 

[China]

Russia’s obsolete Be-12s employed in counter-USV role

 

Moscow is turning to naval aviation to help restore its diminished position against Ukraine in the Black Sea, including the use of 1950s-era amphibians.

 

One focus area is maritime patrols conducted by Beriev Be-12 amphibious aircraft, says the UK government’s Defence Intelligence body in a regular update on the war in Ukraine.

 

 

“[Russian] Naval Aviation is emphasising maritime air patrol operations, highly likely with a primary mission of the early identification of uncrewed surface vessels [USVs],” says the agency.

 

“A key asset in these operations is the Be-12 ‘Mail’ amphibious aircraft, designed in the 1950s, flying out of bases in occupied Crimea.”

 

Ukraine has proven adept at building cheap, explosive-packed USVs. The vessels have been used to attack Russian warships, oil tankers, and naval bases. The improvised vessels have complicated Russia’s maritime position.

 

Cirium fleets data suggests that Russia has seven in-service Be-12s, with three in storage. The average age of the fleet is 51.1 years.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

Very believable

[China]

Putin says West has lost touch with reality, Russia had to push back

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the United States was seeking to impose its crumbling hegemony across the world and that the war in Ukraine showed how far the West had lost touch with reality.

 

"We did not start the so-called war in Ukraine. On the contrary - we are trying to finish it," Putin told a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

 

The West had caused the war because the United States was a "hegemon" which considered itself the only arbiter of truth on the planet, said the Kremlin chief.

 

Putin said the leaders of the West had lost "a sense of reality" because of what he cast as Washington's "colonial thinking". He questioned what right the United States had to lecture any other country.

 

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 unleashed a war that has devastated swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine, killed or injured hundreds of thousands of men and triggered the biggest rupture in Russia's ties with the West for six decades.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[Gurgeh]

A few bits from reading the ISW daily updates ( https://www.understandingwar.org/ )

 

After Ukraine took out some key missile defenses and managed to strike their naval HQ, Russia has withdrawn most of its surface fleet from Sevastopol in Crimea. The Russians are now talking about building a new naval base in a breakway region of Georgia, which says something about how the Russians view the long term security of Crimea.

 

When the Ukrainians finally breached the first line of Russian defenses, it was expected that the Russians would follow standard military tactics and withdraw to their second line of prepared defenses. After all, that's why they built a second (and a third) line, so they had a secure position to fall back to, where they would once more have the advantage of hard cover in combat.

 

Instead the Russians have launched attack after attack to try and throw the Ukrainians back, or at least halt their progress. And to a degree, they have been successful, in that the Ukrainians haven't advanced much further because they are too busy fighting off the Russians. The cost, however, has been very high, far higher than if the Russians had simply fallen back. There are reports that many commanders want to withdraw because of the high casualties, but have been refused permission to do so.

 

The best explanation for the counter-attacks is that Putin is determined that no ground be given to the Ukrainians, so he can stick to the line that the offensive has completely failed. This is reminiscent of the fight over Kherson last year, where the logical thing for the Russians to have done was to withdraw to the river as it is easy to defend. Instead, Putin insisted that they keep fighting on the other side of the river for months, wasting thousands of lives before inevitably having to withdraw anyway.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Gurgeh
typo

[Larry]

3 hours ago, China said:

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the United States was seeking to impose its crumbling hegemony across the world and that the war in Ukraine showed how far the West had lost touch with reality.

 

Now I see where the Republicans got the idea for accusing everybody else of being them.  

 

[China]

The bruising artillery battle in Ukraine has left a scar that is visible from space

 

The war in Ukraine has gouged a scar in the landscape so vast, that it's easily visible from space.

 

A new analysis by NASA's Harvest program and shared exclusively with NPR shows that between 5.2 and 6.9 million acres (2.1-2.8 million hectares) of prime farmland have been abandoned as a result of the war since 2021. The abandoned fields represent between 6.5 and 8.5% of Ukraine's total cropland.

 

The losses represent "a massive amount of land," says Inbal Becker-Reshef, the program director for NASA Harvest and a research professor at the University of Maryland and the University of Strasbourg in France. Much of the fallow land lies in a vast swath along the front line of the war, while other fields are in areas recently retaken by Ukrainian forces, she says.

 

The scar left by the fighting is easily visible in satellite imagery from the commercial company Planet. Paradoxically, the untended farmland is still green because it has filled with weeds and other plants. Harvested plots mostly appear brown in the autumn.

 

Click on the link for the full article and images

 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/10/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-putin-biden-kyiv-zelensky/

 

Finland-Estonia gas pipeline may have been 'deliberately damaged' by Russia

 

 

A gas pipeline connecting Finland and Estonia may have been attacked by Russia, according to Finnish media reports.

Finnish security sources told Finnish daily Iltalehti that they suspect Russia hit the pipeline.

 The leak “does not appear to be an accident,” sources told Yle, adding that the press conference is believed to be related to “a worrying change in Finland’s security situation”.

The Finnish government plans to hold a news conference later on Tuesday regarding the sudden outage of the “Baltic Connector,” public broadcaster YLE and daily Helsingin Sanomat reported.

 

 

would be bigger news if not for Israel…

 

 

[Gurgeh]

7 hours ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/10/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-putin-biden-kyiv-zelensky/

 

Finland-Estonia gas pipeline may have been 'deliberately damaged' by Russia

...

 

 

 

A couple of days ago the Russians started the process of reorganising it's forces facing Finland and the Baltic states. Over the last few years the army and navy elements in the region were split up, but now they are to be brought back together... whatever is left of them after the war in Ukraine.

 

https://t.me/agentstvonews/4306

 

"The district is intended to conduct war in a specific theater of operations. The Leningrad Military District has two theaters - the Baltic countries and Finland. In order for the district to have enough connections, it needs to be saturated with troops. Accordingly, troops stationed in these regions are transferred to [it],” Fedorov clarified.

 

He noted that this restructuring is designed for the period after the war in Ukraine, since now all the forces that will be transferred to the Leningrad District are occupied there. “Probably 20 percent remain in place, and they are not combat-ready,” Fedorov added."

[Gurgeh]

More from reading the ISW daily updates ( https://www.understandingwar.org/ ) 

 

The Russians have launched a big offensive against the town of Avdiivka, which has been a thorn in their side since 2014 as it sits right next to the occupied city of Donetsk. They have gained ground to the north and south of the town, but the town itself is heavily fortified, and the Ukrainians were apparently warned in advance that an attack was to be made. Russian casualties are reported to be heavy (over 100 tanks lost and 3,000 casualties) and the number of assaults being made has dropped significantly. The Russian leadership has now switched from calling it a new "offensive" to an "active defense".

 

For their part the Ukrainians continue to slowly gain ground further south through the Russian defenses breached weeks ago. The Ukrainians estimate that half the Russian units facing them there have taken 30% casualties, and some of them have taken over 50%, as they are still not being allowed to fall back. One Russian commander in Bakhmut was dismissed for "incompetence" after his troops suffered 1,500 casualties in the last month.

 

The number of critical posts of military operations by Russian bloggers has dropped significantly. One stated that he'd gone from self-censoring 20% of what he'd heard to 80 to 90%. The Russian leadership is trying hard to control the narrative.

 

The weather has turned now, but in practice the mud is making little difference to much of the fighting as neither side can concentrate armor anyway without it becoming a target for artillery and drone strikes.

 

At sea, a couple of smaller Russian ships were hit by sea drones. It might be one of the bigger lessons of this war that a nation almost entirely lacking surface ships has been able to force back a fleet of over 40 warships using relatively cheap sea drones and a small number of land based missiles.

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Gurgeh]

The range of the ATACMS is only a few miles further than the cruise missiles the Ukrainians have been using, although it has the advantage (in this combat environment) of being ground launched. The reason for using ATACMS against the airfields was that the warheads were cluster munitions and so could destroy and damage the helicopters that the Russians had dispersed over the airstrip. A cruise missile could also reach the airfield, but they are precision weapons for destroying reinforced targets and would only have destroyed one helicopter at best.

 

Post-strike footage shows seven helicopters definitely destroyed, while the rest were moved and very likely damaged. They also struck at least one munition dump and an AA system. A Russian blogger called it one of the heaviest blows struck since the invasion began, so the damage may be even more widespread.

 

The downside? Apparently we only gave them 20 ATACMS missiles, including however many they fired the other night. The Russians can't really ignore the fact that some remain to be used so they will have to move their helicopters further from the front lines, and do something about their ammunition stores.

 

In other news, the Ukrainians have crossed the Dnipro river upstream of Kherson in larger numbers, at one point taking over a town some 4km inland from the river before the Russians responded. Exactly how many remain across the river and whether they want to hold a beachhead or if it's just a raid is unknown. The Russians are definitely concerned about it.

 

 

[MrSilverMaC]

Didn’t know if this should go in the Israel/hamas thread or here. Forgive me if its already there.

 

It’s interesting if it’s true:

 

Newsweek via MSN

 

Israeli Official Issues Warning to Putin on Russian State TV

 

An Israeli politician issued a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the ongoing wars in Israel and Ukraine.

Amir Weitmann, the head of the libertarian caucus in Israel's Likud Party, appeared on Russia's state-run RT News network this week and spoke about fighting between Israel and Hamas militants, as well as Russia's war with Ukraine.

 

While speaking about recent claims relating to al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, Weitmann criticized Russia, saying that "we're gonna finish this war, we're going to win because we're stronger. After this, Russia will pay the price, believe me, Russia will pay the price."

"Russia is supporting the enemies of Israel. Russia is supporting Nazi people who want to commit genocide on us and Russia will pay the price," Weitmann said. "We're gonna win this war. Afterwards, we're not forgetting what you're doing, we're not forgetting, we will come, we will make sure Ukraine wins. We will make sure that you pay the price for what you have done, you as Russia."

 

…

 

 

more at link.

 

 

[Gurgeh]

More from the ISW the past few days (Institute for the Study of War (understandingwar.org)

 

After making early advances around Avdiivka the Russians ground to halt after taking heavy losses, estimated at over 200 armored vehicles. They have since regrouped and did what they always do, which is to bring up more artillery and try to level the town so there's no cover left to defend. The situation is reminiscent of Bakhmut, where the Russians were absolutely determined to take a position no matter the cost, and just keep throwing men and equipment forward.

 

The Ukrainians are launching counterattacks in the north and west, retaking some of the ground lost to the Russians. They've also advanced again near Bakhmut and claim to "hold positions on all the dominant heights" around the town, and have crossed the rail lines south of the town.  Controlling rail lines is significant because the Russian army relies on them for supply and movement, being relatively ill-equipped with trucks.

 

Fighting continues around the breach in the Russian lines at Robotyne. Sometimes the Ukrainians advance up to the outskirts of what's left of the surrounding towns and villages, or even enter them, then the Russians push them back. The poor weather and the fact that neither side can make much use of armor means in this area it's an ugly WW1 trench by trench fight.

 

Further south, the Ukrainians are holding their ground on the eastern side of the Dnipro river after more than a week. They control a small area some 2km deep and are raiding further inland. There are reports that more Ukrainian forces are crossing the river in small groups. The Russians have been relying mainly on air strikes and artillery to hold them back, perhaps indicating they are short of troops, having transferred units to Avdiivka and Robotyne.

 

The Russians have started receiving tens of thousands of rounds of artillery shells from North Korea. This will allow the Russians to maintain their current level of firing, enough to severely limit the use of tanks by Ukraine, although still far below the amount of shells that were being fired by the Russians at the start of the war. They have also started using their own version of the Iranian Shahed drones. These new drones are lighter, allowing the Russians to strike deeper inside Ukraine, at the cost of a smaller payload, and seem designed to strike non-military targets like electricity substations.

Edited October 26, 2023 by Gurgeh
missed out the link

[China]

How a baseless claim about Putin’s health spread from an unreliable Telegram account to TV news

 

An explosive claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin had suffered a heart attack spread across the globe this week, amplified by news outlets and social media users.

 

The news didn’t come from the Kremlin, which dismissed it as a “hoax,” nor verified reporting in Russia. It came from a single anonymous account on the messaging service Telegram that provided no evidence, yet was viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

 

Misinformation researchers warn the account isn’t credible and has spread baseless claims about Putin’s health in the past. But the case highlights the dangers of seeking information on the loosely moderated messaging platform that has surged in popularity amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

 

Here is a closer look at the facts.

 

CLAIM: Russian President Vladimir Putin suffered a serious heart attack on Sunday and needed to be resuscitated.

 

THE FACTS: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday called the claim “just another hoax,” telling reporters that “everything is fine.”

 

Photos released by Russian media that day showed Putin at a meeting at the Kremlin. On Wednesday, he was seen on state television directing a simulated nuclear strike drill via video call.

 

The denial came after news of the supposed cardiac arrest was picked up earlier that day by multiple online and television news outlets around the world, including in Australia, the United Kingdom and India. It was also widely shared across social media.

 

The source of all of these reports was a popular Telegram account, General SVR, which claims to have insider information from the Kremlin. But misinformation researchers warn it’s not reliable.

 

“Its mocking and dismissive attitude toward the Kremlin also appeals to English-speaking audiences. Yet this channel lacks credibility, having made (most likely) false claims about Putin’s health before,” Scott Radnitz, a professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the University of Washington, told the AP in an email. “Many posts describe Putin’s body double giving speeches at international summits. And the late Yevgeny Prigozhin is supposedly alive and well in Venezuela.”

 

Indeed, in the post Monday, the account not only alleged that Putin was found in his bedroom on Sunday convulsing on the floor, it also claimed that a body double has recently been appearing in his place at all official meetings and events.

 

The Telegram post in Russian has nevertheless been viewed more than 400,000 times and has been forwarded to other channels around 22,000 times, according to data from Telegram analysis tool TGStat. The channel also gained at least 5,000 subscribers between Monday and Tuesday.

 

Click on the link for the full article