More Ukrainian news - it's getting grim
As always, under a cut.
Ukraine Notes
The fight has begun for Kyiv. Russian forces are shelling the NW part of the city, including a frozen food warehouse that’s outside the city limits.
A Ukrainian maker of historical medieval armor and weapons has turned all their effort into making caltrops on chains to slow down troops and infantry. These are made with hollow cores, so if they puncture a tire, it will let out the air, and if it punctures a person....
The Ukrainians are also building large versions of caltrops known as Hedgehogs to slow down and stop tanks and large vehicles. These are only effective when backed by infantry for suppressive fire as they are easily moved, but they are great for choking up transit corridors. Especially when backed with mines! Choke the corridor, back it up with infantry for a while, fight for a bit then withdraw, let the Russians remove them, then let the vehicles move in and let the mines do their thing!
Russian forces kidnapped the mayor of one of the cities under attack. And what do you know, “he” was released a couple of days later. Except it wasn’t him. Apparently the Russians have some Potemkin government heads ready to go. A second mayor has been kidnapped.
A mosque in a port city that was serving as a refuge for a lot of people was shelled. Casualties were very high. In another city a cancer treatment hospital was shelled.
This is a Twitter thread by a guy who spent a lot of his military service in the U.S. Army in the Vehicle Exercise Program. His job was to exercise big trucks. Start them up, move them around, and exercise the Central Tire Inflation System (CTIS). This helps condition those monster tires and keep them supple, so when you go into combat with them they don’t fall apart on you. This was a major problem for the Russian Army in the mud fields, and a major cause of vehicle abandonment. Also a serious sign of the corruption therein. From the Twitter thread: “When you leave military truck tires in one place for months on end. The side walls get rotted/brittle such that using low tire pressure setting for any appreciable distance will cause the tires to fail catastrophically via rips.”
https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1499164245250002944?t=VSCCySmd1Fl7xrh1-7VBLw&s=19
A lot of Russians are fleeing RUSSIA. Lots are heading for Finland, which Russia is threatening for wanting to join NATO. They’re also fleeing for Georgia, a former Soviet-bloc county. This represents a big brain drain as a lot of these people are younger, entrepreneurial, and computer programmers. Many are unable to access their Russian bank accounts because of the sanctions and starting over from scratch, both financially and linguistically.
There is a WONDERFUL new Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FarmersStealingTanks/. I Highly recommend it! You will laugh and laugh and laugh. The Ukrainian gov’t has declared that people who have seized Russian equipment will not pay tax on it and can keep it. This will be a huge boon for farmers, we’ll see some very innovative bulldozers and tractors in the future.
Let’s talk bioweapons labs, shall we? First off, Ukraine has many such bio laps. Sorta. When the USSR fell apart in the early ‘90s, several were established there to research, neutralize, and destroy Soviet biological weapons. Many of those labs and bio agent samples still exist. The WHO (IIRC) last week issued a statement asking the Ukraine to destroy those samples lest they be released if the labs be damaged in combat and lest the Russians get ahold of them and revitalize their weapons programs. Now, the Russians are using this for propaganda purposes. From the Russian Defense Ministry: "The United States is training migratory birds to migrate from Ukraine to Russia and distribute bacteriological weapons."
As if the Russian bioweapons propaganda isn’t bad enough, the Russian shills at Fox News and all over the right wing blogosphere are running with it, claiming that the U.S. gov’t is funding bioweapon research in the Ukraine.
One of Wikipedia’s top Russian editors was arrested in Belarus and sentenced to 15 days arrest for “distributing fake anti-Russian information”. Belarus is run by a Russian puppet.
A Polish hacking group called Squad303 obtained some 20 million cell phone numbers and 140 million email addresses owned by Russian individuals and companies, and they are sending messages such as"Dear Russians, your media is being censored. The Kremlin is lying. Find out the truth about Ukraine on the free internet and in the Telegram app. Time to overthrow dictator Putin!"
While this is not Russia/Ukraine related, it shows the dangers of nuclear weapons. During routine missile maintenance, India accidentally fired a missile into Pakistan. Both countries have nukes. Both countries are in an uneasy state and could go to war with very little provocation. Fortunately there was no loss of life do to the incident.
Over 14,000 people have been detained by police in over 100 cities for protesting inside Russia.
An American news journalist who formerly worked for the New York Times was killed in fighting near Kyiv, another American journalist was wounded.
Ukraine and Russia are still holding negotiations. From a Reuters report: “Russian and Ukrainian officials gave their most upbeat assessments yet on Sunday of progress in their talks on the war in Ukraine, suggesting there could be positive results within days. Separately, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Russia was showing signs of willingness to engage in substantive negotiations...”. Personally, I think Vlad has no intention of negotiating and is just posturing for the world cameras.
Russia attacked a Ukrainian military training base near Poland, killing at least 35. The base is about 15km from the Polish border and was targeted by up to 30 missiles, 134 injured. This is read as frustration with the slow progress of his war, but is also a very risky move because if one missile or bomb had strayed into Poland and killed a civilian, NATO Article V could have come into effect and he could have started World War 3.
And don’t forget Putin has already engaged in chemical warfare. In Salisbury, England. Multiple casualties.
The Russian Air Force is flying 200 sorties a day, despite losses. The Ukrainians? 5 to 10. Aside from sheer numbers, the Ukrainian AF was never in good enough shape to fight a war because of corruption and the size of the Ukrainian economy, it was never properly funded for a true war footing. The drones help, but they’ve never stood a chance in the air.
Russia has begun recruiting foreign mercenaries to fight in Ukraine. I'm not sure why Putin doesn't just move other army units to reinforce. I suspect it's a combination of not wanting to weaken other areas in case of sympathetic uprisings and fear of other units finding out what's going on and possibly defecting once they get there. You can't join the military if you have a criminal record or if you've traveled to certain countries, these are being waived if you join up. But you're not joining the military, you're joining the Wagner Group, a mercenary organization that Putin uses for dirty work in places like Syria, and they're frequently used to commit atrocities and war crimes, like rape of civilians and prisoners. They're also used as cannon fodder.
Ukraine Notes
The fight has begun for Kyiv. Russian forces are shelling the NW part of the city, including a frozen food warehouse that’s outside the city limits.
A Ukrainian maker of historical medieval armor and weapons has turned all their effort into making caltrops on chains to slow down troops and infantry. These are made with hollow cores, so if they puncture a tire, it will let out the air, and if it punctures a person....
The Ukrainians are also building large versions of caltrops known as Hedgehogs to slow down and stop tanks and large vehicles. These are only effective when backed by infantry for suppressive fire as they are easily moved, but they are great for choking up transit corridors. Especially when backed with mines! Choke the corridor, back it up with infantry for a while, fight for a bit then withdraw, let the Russians remove them, then let the vehicles move in and let the mines do their thing!
Russian forces kidnapped the mayor of one of the cities under attack. And what do you know, “he” was released a couple of days later. Except it wasn’t him. Apparently the Russians have some Potemkin government heads ready to go. A second mayor has been kidnapped.
A mosque in a port city that was serving as a refuge for a lot of people was shelled. Casualties were very high. In another city a cancer treatment hospital was shelled.
This is a Twitter thread by a guy who spent a lot of his military service in the U.S. Army in the Vehicle Exercise Program. His job was to exercise big trucks. Start them up, move them around, and exercise the Central Tire Inflation System (CTIS). This helps condition those monster tires and keep them supple, so when you go into combat with them they don’t fall apart on you. This was a major problem for the Russian Army in the mud fields, and a major cause of vehicle abandonment. Also a serious sign of the corruption therein. From the Twitter thread: “When you leave military truck tires in one place for months on end. The side walls get rotted/brittle such that using low tire pressure setting for any appreciable distance will cause the tires to fail catastrophically via rips.”
https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1499164245250002944?t=VSCCySmd1Fl7xrh1-7VBLw&s=19
A lot of Russians are fleeing RUSSIA. Lots are heading for Finland, which Russia is threatening for wanting to join NATO. They’re also fleeing for Georgia, a former Soviet-bloc county. This represents a big brain drain as a lot of these people are younger, entrepreneurial, and computer programmers. Many are unable to access their Russian bank accounts because of the sanctions and starting over from scratch, both financially and linguistically.
There is a WONDERFUL new Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FarmersStealingTanks/. I Highly recommend it! You will laugh and laugh and laugh. The Ukrainian gov’t has declared that people who have seized Russian equipment will not pay tax on it and can keep it. This will be a huge boon for farmers, we’ll see some very innovative bulldozers and tractors in the future.
Let’s talk bioweapons labs, shall we? First off, Ukraine has many such bio laps. Sorta. When the USSR fell apart in the early ‘90s, several were established there to research, neutralize, and destroy Soviet biological weapons. Many of those labs and bio agent samples still exist. The WHO (IIRC) last week issued a statement asking the Ukraine to destroy those samples lest they be released if the labs be damaged in combat and lest the Russians get ahold of them and revitalize their weapons programs. Now, the Russians are using this for propaganda purposes. From the Russian Defense Ministry: "The United States is training migratory birds to migrate from Ukraine to Russia and distribute bacteriological weapons."
As if the Russian bioweapons propaganda isn’t bad enough, the Russian shills at Fox News and all over the right wing blogosphere are running with it, claiming that the U.S. gov’t is funding bioweapon research in the Ukraine.
One of Wikipedia’s top Russian editors was arrested in Belarus and sentenced to 15 days arrest for “distributing fake anti-Russian information”. Belarus is run by a Russian puppet.
A Polish hacking group called Squad303 obtained some 20 million cell phone numbers and 140 million email addresses owned by Russian individuals and companies, and they are sending messages such as"Dear Russians, your media is being censored. The Kremlin is lying. Find out the truth about Ukraine on the free internet and in the Telegram app. Time to overthrow dictator Putin!"
While this is not Russia/Ukraine related, it shows the dangers of nuclear weapons. During routine missile maintenance, India accidentally fired a missile into Pakistan. Both countries have nukes. Both countries are in an uneasy state and could go to war with very little provocation. Fortunately there was no loss of life do to the incident.
Over 14,000 people have been detained by police in over 100 cities for protesting inside Russia.
An American news journalist who formerly worked for the New York Times was killed in fighting near Kyiv, another American journalist was wounded.
Ukraine and Russia are still holding negotiations. From a Reuters report: “Russian and Ukrainian officials gave their most upbeat assessments yet on Sunday of progress in their talks on the war in Ukraine, suggesting there could be positive results within days. Separately, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Russia was showing signs of willingness to engage in substantive negotiations...”. Personally, I think Vlad has no intention of negotiating and is just posturing for the world cameras.
Russia attacked a Ukrainian military training base near Poland, killing at least 35. The base is about 15km from the Polish border and was targeted by up to 30 missiles, 134 injured. This is read as frustration with the slow progress of his war, but is also a very risky move because if one missile or bomb had strayed into Poland and killed a civilian, NATO Article V could have come into effect and he could have started World War 3.
And don’t forget Putin has already engaged in chemical warfare. In Salisbury, England. Multiple casualties.
The Russian Air Force is flying 200 sorties a day, despite losses. The Ukrainians? 5 to 10. Aside from sheer numbers, the Ukrainian AF was never in good enough shape to fight a war because of corruption and the size of the Ukrainian economy, it was never properly funded for a true war footing. The drones help, but they’ve never stood a chance in the air.
Russia has begun recruiting foreign mercenaries to fight in Ukraine. I'm not sure why Putin doesn't just move other army units to reinforce. I suspect it's a combination of not wanting to weaken other areas in case of sympathetic uprisings and fear of other units finding out what's going on and possibly defecting once they get there. You can't join the military if you have a criminal record or if you've traveled to certain countries, these are being waived if you join up. But you're not joining the military, you're joining the Wagner Group, a mercenary organization that Putin uses for dirty work in places like Syria, and they're frequently used to commit atrocities and war crimes, like rape of civilians and prisoners. They're also used as cannon fodder.