Running Newsticker for the War in Ukraine

Russian Airfield = Sitting Ducks

https://www.yahoo.com › news › ukraine-attacks-3-russian-airfields-123112702.html

Ukraine attacks 3 Russian airfields, damaging bomber, source says - Yahoo

Ukraine's military intelligence agency attacked three airfields deep inside Russia overnight, damaging a Russian supersonic bomber plane, a source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent on July 27.

 

If your best friends are Iran and North Korea then maybe you are the problem.

Ukraine Conflict Updates
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, July 27, 2024

Click here to read the full report with maps
Key Takeaways:

• Ukrainian forces reportedly conducted successful drone strikes against an oil refinery and Russian military airfields in Saratov, Ryazan, and Murmansk oblasts on the night of July 26 to 27.
• Russia continues to deepen bilateral relations with Iran and North Korea in exchange for the provision of lethal aid to the Russian military for use in Ukraine.
• Ukrainian forces recently regained positions near Toretsk, and Russian forces recently advanced west and southwest of Donetsk City, and Ukrainian forces recently advanced in Vovchansk.
• The Russian government continues efforts to use the "Time of Heroes" program to integrate Russian veterans into society. . . .

 

Russian occupiers of The Crimea are dismantling the last Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). Russians must have a military reason to dismantle a church. Right! ???

Russia begins demolishing of church building in occupied Crimea. The
Yevpatoria, Crimea. | (ya avtor, Creative Commons
Russian occupation forces began dismantling a worship building of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine is that branch of Ukrainian Orthodoxy that has finally rejected adherence to the Moskov Prelate and has been become politically independent from Moskov and has been recognized as a Church religiously linked to the Prelate of. Constantinople.

That is why Putin has ordered the destruction of the last OCU - Orthodox Church of Ukraine. So not totally military in purpose but one of the vestiges of Russian colonialism.

See this link for details.
“https://kyivindependent.com/russia-begins-dismantling-ukrainian-orthodox-church-in-occupied-crimea/”

 

If Ukraine was authorized to use American long range weapons and given more of them Ukraine could possibly make the war against Ukraine too costly for the Russians to conduct.

 

At this point military leaders might resist a direct order from JRB to do that. IMO, he may have to resign soon.
If that happens, Harris, once sworn in, will not be a wounded lame duck, and resistance to her orders would be a risky business for isolationists within the bureaucracy.

 

Russian air defense must really be on the ropes.



Explosions Rock Russian Oil Depot in Ukrainian Drone Strike

Newsweek

|8 hours ago [7/28/24]

An "explosive device was dropped from a Ukrainian 'copter onto a residential building" in Sudzha, a Russian settlement close to the border with Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region. One local resident was injured, Smirnov said.

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-oil-depot-kursk-1931174

 

Russian troops aren't safe in Mali, either.

Ukraine Conflict Updates
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, July 28, 2024

Click here to read the full report
Key Takeaways:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to use nuclear saber-rattling to target Western decision-making and promote Western self-deterrence.
• Russia used Navy Day celebrations to showcase Russia's relations with a number of non-Western states as part of efforts to create a supposed Russian-led group of states to rally against the West.
• Ukrainian forces conducted a drone strike against a Russian oil depot in Polevaya, Kursk Oblast on the night of July 27 to 28.
• A rebel coalition in Mali reportedly killed and wounded dozens of Russian servicemen and Wagner Group mercenaries as well as a prominent Wagner-affiliated milblogger on the Mali-Algeria border on July 27.
• Primorsky Krai Governor Oleg Kozhemyako recently announced the creation of an independent volunteer unit to police migrants as the Russian government continues efforts to expand its control over migrants in Russia.
• Russian forces recently advanced northwest of Avdiivka, west of Donetsk City, and in western Zaporizhia Oblast, and Ukrainian forces recently regained lost positions in the Siversk direction.
• Ukrainian military observer Kostyantyn Mashovets assessed that the Russian military may need to accumulate up to 320,000 additional personnel in Ukraine in order to achieve its reported plans to deploy 690,000 troops in Ukraine. . . .

Ukrainian aerial and naval drone strikes are reportedly affecting Russian naval and naval aviation operations. Ukrainian Naval Spokesperson Captain Third Rank Dmytro Pletenchuk stated on July 28 that there are no aircraft at two of the five airfields that Russian naval aviation use for operations presumably over the Black Sea due to the threat of Ukrainian aerial drone strikes.[67] Pletenchuk also stated that the Russian Navy has moved many Black Sea Fleet (BSF) ships from occupied Crimea to Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Krai to protect against Ukrainian naval drone strikes but that the port in Novorossiysk has insufficient space to moor and maneuver all the BSF ships.[68] . . . .

 

How Ukraine broke Putin’s Black Sea grain blockade – and what it means for Africa

Russia tried to bring Europe’s breadbasket to its knees until an unnoticed victory beat one of the world’s most powerful fleets into retreat

By

Ben Farmer,

IN ODESA

23 July 2024 • 7:00am




The Telegraph

How Ukraine broke Putin’s Black Sea grain blockade – and what it means for AfricaRussia tried to bring Europe's breadbasket to its knees until an unnoticed victory beat one of the world's most powerful fleets into retreat.

.

5 days ago
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-...raine-broke-russias-black-sea-grain-blockade/

 

Related News:


World Grain

Ukraine’s grain exports jump 67% in new seasonKYIV, UKRAINE — Ukraine's grain exports so far in the 2024-25 July-June season increased 67% to nearly 2.78 million tonnes, up from 1.67 million tonnes at...

.

3 days ago

 

Russians have no business trying to fight Tuaregs in the desert. Meanwhile, Ukraine is getting stronger.

Ukraine Conflict Updates
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, July 29, 2024

Click here to read the full report.
Key Takeaways:

• The US Department of Defense (DoD) announced on July 29 the provision of security assistance to Ukraine worth $200 million from the authorization of a Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) package and an additional package worth $1.5 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds.
• The Kremlin is intensifying its efforts to codify desired behavioral norms within Russia by cracking down against undesirable behavior in the Russian information space and within migrant communities.
• The Kremlin is likely attempting to establish prominent standards of acceptable and unacceptable behavior among populations within Russia whose behavior has recently threatened the Kremlin.
• Much of the Russian information space response to the recent Tuareg insurgent ambush of a Wagner Group in northern Mali coalesced around the suggestion that the Russian MoD will seek to benefit from Wagner losses, highlighting the continued distrust between the Russian MoD and both the Wagner Group in the Sahel and pro-Wagner commentators.
• Ukrainian drones struck Russian energy and utility infrastructure in Oryol, Voronezh, and Belgorod oblasts on the night of July 28 to 29.
• Russian forces recently made confirmed advances northeast of Kharkiv City, in Vovchansk, near Avdiivka, and southwest of Donetsk City.
• The Russian government continues to take legislative steps to use migrants and newly naturalized citizens to fulfill Russian military personnel needs. . . .

Ukraine continues to expand its domestic defense industrial base (DIB) independently and with the assistance of Western partners. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the development of Ukraine's domestic missile program on July 23 and noted that Ukraine is gradually approaching the possibility of deploying domestically produced missiles to avoid solely relying on missile supplies from Ukraine's allies.[59] US company Boeing announced on July 23 that it signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukrainian defense enterprise Antonov for cooperation in defense-related projects including those related to drones.[60]

Western countries continue to provide Ukraine with military assistance. German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall announced on July 23 that the Ukrainian government issued an order for Rheinmetall's construction of an ammunition factory in Ukraine, which Rheinmetall and Ukraine first announced in February 2024.[61] Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala stated on July 24 that Ukraine will receive roughly 500,000 155mm artillery shells through the Czech-led artillery initiative by the end of 2024.[62] Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochova announced on July 24 that Czechia is starting a second project to purchase ammunition for Ukraine called "Initiative-2025."[63] The United Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced on July 24 that it will provide 176 million pounds (about $226 million) worth of military equipment to Ukraine, including a significant number of Lightweight Multirole Missiles (LMM).[64] The Spanish MoD stated on July 24 that Spain will provide Ukraine with a Hawk air defense battery in September 2024.[65] The Dutch MoD announced on July 25 that the Netherlands and Denmark will jointly send 14 Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine in Summer 2024.[66] The Dutch MoD stated that the last two Leopard tanks were undergoing tests on July 23 and 24 and the rest are ready for delivery to Ukraine. The German MoD announced on July 29 that Germany and Denmark will jointly supply Ukraine with eight Leopard 1A5 tanks.[67] Germany will also provide Ukraine with 21,000 rounds of ammunition for Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and 10 unmanned surface vessels.[68] . . .

 

The wheels are coming off the Muscovite war effort.

Ukraine Conflict Updates
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, July 30, 2024

Click here to read the full report.
Key Takeaways:

• Russian forces conducted five platoon- to battalion-sized mechanized assaults in western Donetsk Oblast on July 29 and 30. Such localized mechanized pushes are likely the manifestation of Russia's forecasted summer offensive—Russian forces likely lack the wider operational capacity to mount a separate renewed offensive operation in Donetsk Oblast or elsewhere on the front this summer.
• The Russian military command's willingness to accept costly armored vehicle losses without conducting a large-scale, multi-directional offensive operation or making operationally significant advances in western Donetsk Oblast will likely burden the Russian military in the long-term. The ongoing Russian offensive operations are also costly for Ukrainian defenders and are likely meant to degrade Ukrainian capabilities through attrition whether or not they gain much ground.
• North Korea may be expanding the volume and variety of weapons it is providing to Russia.
• The Kremlin is likely attempting to corral Russian information space actors onto social media sites that the Kremlin can more directly influence to directly control their rhetoric, prompting some backlash from Russian ultranationalist milbloggers and opposition journalists.
• Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil depot in Vozy, Kursk Oblast on the night of July 29 to 30.
• The Russian government continues to support educational programs on "information and hybrid warfare" aimed at training Russians to conduct and counter information operations, use open-source research methodology, and to effectively analyze and counter hybrid threats for the Kremlin.
• Russian officials and Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) representatives are advocating for the Kremlin to codify a state ideology premised on the idea that the sovereign Ukrainian state should not exist, into Russian federal law.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Chasiv Yar and southwest of Donetsk City.
• Authorities in St. Petersburg have joined other Russian regional authorities in increasing financial incentives for recruits to sign military service contracts.
• UK newspaper The Times published a story on July 29 detailing how Russian authorities are indoctrinating deported Ukrainian children through military-patriotic education programs. . . .

 

Sending weapons and ammo to Ukraine's fighters is very cost effective compared to the having to send troops to fight the next world war against aggressive imperialism.

//www.newsweek.com › ukraine-military-aid-nato-us-germany-1932067

Ukraine Gets Double Weapons Boost From NATO Allies

The U.S. and Germany have announced fresh tranches of military aid for Ukraine as Western governments try to bat away concerns over sustained backing for Kyiv's now years-long fight against Moscow ...
https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-military-aid-nato-us-germany-1932067

 

Putin: Desperado.

REUTERS, Europe, Putin doubles signing bonuses for volunteers to fight in Ukraine, By Reuters, Reporting by Gleb Bryanski; editing by Guy Faulconbridge, July 31, 20246:27 AM EDTUpdated 2 hours ago



Putin doubles signing bonuses for volunteers to fight in Ukraine

Reuters on MSN.com

|3 hours ago

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin doubled upfront payments for volunteers to fight in Ukraine on Wednesday, a move aimed at facilitating military recruitment but likely to create imbalances in the overheated economy.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-doubles-signing-bonuses-volunteers-fight-ukraine-2024-07-31/

DESPERADO
Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
You been out ridin' fences for so long now
Oh, you're a hard one
But I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin' you

Can hurt you somehow
Don't you draw the Queen of Diamonds, boy
She'll beat you if she's able
You know the Queen of Hearts is always your best bet

Now, it seems to me some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can't get
Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home

And freedom, oh freedom, well that's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walking through this world all alone
Don't your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine
It's hard to tell the night time from the day
You're losin' all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you (let somebody love you)
You better let somebody love you
Before it's too late
https://www.lyrics.com/track/35505285/Eagles/Desperado

 

Russian commo gear is so poor they have to let their troops use their cellphones.

Ukraine Conflict Updates
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, July 31, 2024

Click here to read the full report
Key Takeaways:

• Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that Israel conducted an airstrike killing Hamas Political Bureau Chairperson Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran to derail attempts to establish peace in the Middle East.
• The Russian State Duma revised some aspects of a recent bill criminalizing Russian soldiers' use of personal devices on the battlefield following outcry in the Russian ultranationalist community.
• Russian officials may be taking steps to address domestic security issues following the March 2024 Crocus City Hall terrorist attack and June 2024 shootings in the Republic of Dagestan.
• Ukrainian forces struck a weapons and equipment warehouse in Kursk City on the night of July 30 to 31.
• Russian border guards withdrew from Armenia’s main international airport.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Kupyansk, Svatove, Chasiv Yar, Torestsk, and Donetsk City and in western Zaporizhia Oblast.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on July 31 increasing financial incentives for signing a Russian military service contract, likely to support ongoing crypto-mobilization efforts. . . . .

 

Ukrainian Soldiers Ambush Russians After Capturing Enemy Radio
Newsweek on MSN.com|4 hours ago
Video footage of the incident was published by Ukraine's 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, a Ground Forces brigade formed in 2022.

 

Newsweek
Ukrainian Soldiers Ambush Russians After Capturing Enemy Radio
Story by Isabel van Brugen
• 4h [8/1/24]
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...sians-after-capturing-enemy-radio/ar-BB1r1jhm

 

Regarding the big prisoner swap:
Reporting is that Putin was not involved.
Near the end of WW2 some German camp guards became markedly nicer to Allied prisoners, hoping for favorable treatment after the war. Just sayin'.

 

Interesting.

 

Nice work. This below is an example of what needs to happen more and more often in the war against Ukraine in order it too costly for the Moskva Monsters. The 1370 casualty rate of Russian military needs to be the daily average.

“
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-at...ore-soldiers-in-ukraine-in-past-24-hours.html

“Russia lost about 579,490 troops in Ukraine between February 24, 2022 and August 1, 2024, including 1,370 soldiers killed or wounded in action in the past 24 hours.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said this in a post on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

In addition, Ukraine's defense forces destroyed 8,399 (+9) Russian tanks, 16,203 (+42) armored fighting vehicles, 16,119 (+33) artillery systems, 1,132 (+1) multiple rocket launchers, 907 anti-aircraft warfare systems, and 2,407 cruise missiles. The Russian army also lost 363 warplanes, 326 helicopters, 12,958 (+115) tactical unmanned aerial systems, 28 warships/cutters, 1 submarine, 21,816 (+77) vehicles and fuel tankers, and 2,713 (+16) pieces of special equipment.”

 

...the continuation of the internal turf war in the Kremlin.....

...so the FSB (the second most corrupt organisation in the CIS) is continuing it's turf against the Ministry of Defense (the most corrupt organisation).....I would imagine Putin is sitting watching with interest as I would think he's probably backing the FSB for the moment as he need's the Min of Def under the heel whilst the power struggle within the FSB plays out....

https://fakti.bg/en/world/901524-ru...-voentorg-for-the-theft-of-400-million-rubles

 

....more woe descending upon Gazprom despite America's Paddington hard stare at Big Z....y'all don't be attacking them oil refineries in Russia now!!!!.....anyway fire engulfs one of the petrol/diesel refining units at Gazprom's refinery after a drone attack in the Omsk Region...



I assume Gazprom's extensive upgrade to the facilities may need another upgrade....anyway.....the dildo of consequences and all that....

 

Russians have inflated their contract recruitment numbers.

Ukraine Conflict Updates
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 1, 2024

Click here to read the full report.
Key Takeaways:

• Russian forces continue to make slow, steady advances in the Pokrovsk direction (west of Avdiivka), largely enabled by Ukrainian manpower shortages and the terrain in the area immediately northwest of Avdiivka. Russian advances will likely slow further as Russian forces advance into a line of larger and more urban settlements.
• Russia's current rate of tactical advance towards Pokrovsk will likely not continue indefinitely, however, as Russian forces are approaching a line of larger and more urban settlements.
• Russia's Central Grouping of Forces appears to be more rapidly redeploying and committing forces between different sectors of its recently expanded area of responsibility (AOR) in Donetsk Oblast than has been the norm in most of the theater recently.
• The Central Grouping of Forces may have established a more flexible command and control (C2) structure and may be responding more quickly to potential Ukrainian tactical vulnerabilities than other Russian groupings of forces in Ukraine.
• A limited number of F-16 fighter jets have reportedly arrived in Ukraine, but it will likely be several months before Ukraine will be able to field the jets at scale.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine will not compromise its sovereignty and territorial integrity in exchange for a diplomatic resolution to Russia's invasion.
• Russia, Belarus, the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Turkey, and Norway conducted a high-profile prisoner exchange involving 26 prisoners from multiple countries on August 1.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Svatove, Chasiv Yar, and Donetsk City.
• Russian opposition outlet Vazhnye Istorii reported on August 1 that the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) may have significantly overstated the number of contract soldiers it claims to have recruited between Fall 2022 and April 2024. . . .

 

...I was reading the other day that the number of soldiers paying bribes to "buy out of their contracts" has more than quadrupled in the past year....

I suppose someone must be making good money over-inflating the numbers then....pocketing payments from selling uniforms and weapons and rations...collecting pay and bonuses...I'd bet some of these "soldiers" will have destroyed tanks and aircraft to pocket the "bonuses" offered...I suppose that's why Russian MOD thinks it's destroyed about 1,000 HIMARS....you gotta love em.....

 

It is old (very old) wisdom that a profound weakness of authoritarian regimes is the inability to collect honest feedback and accurate operational information.

 

Russia doesn't seem to have any effective defense against Ukraine's cheap long range styrofoam drones.

Ukraine has been flying shockingly deep inside Russia because Russian air defenses are so degraded, expert says

Business Insider on MSN.com

|5 hours ago [8/2/24]

Ukraine's drone attacks have been hitting deep into Russia. A warfare expert said Russia's air defenses have been stretched, giving Ukraine chances.