Ukraine 2

[mystery-ak]

Giving this another try.

This thread will be heavily moderated...do not insult, name call or harass another member...those posts will be deleted without warning. It's sad that I have to post this warning here.

Please do not make me regret this.

Nancy

[mystery-ak]

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1521747435235815425

[mystery-ak]

Azovstal steel plant evacuees never arrived in Zaporizhzhia, Mariupol mayor says

The civilians who arrived in Zaporizhzhia Tuesday were not the ones who were evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol days earlier, according to its mayor.

The buses allegedly carrying Ukrainian civilians from the Azovstal steel plant were not actually from Mariupol but from "other cities," Mayor Vadym Boichenko said during a briefing at Media Center Ukraine.

"The previous evacuation, which took place yesterday, which was presented by a number of media outlets as information that those were the residents of Mariupol who left, is not true. These people who were evacuated had nothing to do with the residents of Mariupol, they are from other cities," Boichenko said.

For more on this story: https://www.foxnews.com/world/azovstal-steel-plant-evacuees-never-arrived-zaporizhzhia-mariupol-mayor

Posted by Lawrence Richard

[mystery-ak]

Russia reveals massive scope of May 9 military parades as war in Ukraine rages on

Russia has revealed Wednesday  that tens of thousands of people and hundreds of aircraft are set to participate in military parades on May 9 to celebrate its victory in World War II.

The scope of the demonstrations, which were outlined by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a meeting with Moscow’s armed forces, come as President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is in its 70th day.

In a Telegram post summarizing the meeting, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said "11,000 people, 131 pieces of weapons and military equipment and 77 aircraft will take part in the parade on Red Square, dedicated to the 77th anniversary of the Victory."

For more on this story: https://www.foxnews.com/world/russia-victory-day-may-9-parades-moscow-military
Posted by Greg Norman

[DB]

 

[mystery-ak]

AP evidence points to 600 dead in Mariupol theater airstrike

AP evidence points to 600 dead in Mariupol theater airstrike
By LORI HINNANT, MSTYSLAV CHERNOV and VASILISA STEPANENKO
today


LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — She stood in just her bathrobe in the freezing basement of the Mariupol theater, coated in white plaster dust shaken loose by the explosion. Her husband tugged at her to leave and begged her to cover her eyes.

But she couldn’t help it — Oksana Syomina looked. And to this day, she wishes she hadn’t. Bodies were strewn everywhere, including those of children. By the main exit, a little girl lay still on the floor.

Syomina had to step on the dead to escape the building that had served as the Ukrainian city’s main bomb shelter for more than a week. The wounded screamed, as did those trying to find loved ones. Syomina, her husband and about 30 others ran blindly toward the sea and up the shore for almost five miles (eight kilometers) without stopping, the theater in ruins behind them.

“All the people are still under the rubble, because the rubble is still there — no one dug them up,” Syomina said, weeping at the memory. “This is one big mass grave.”

more
https://apnews.com/article/Russia-ukraine-war-mariupol-theater-c321a196fbd568899841b506afcac7a1

[txradioguy]

Russian Troops Steal $5M in Farm Vehicles, Remotely Locked Out Via GPS

Russian troops stole $5 million in farm vehicles from a John Deere dealership in the occupied city of Melitopol, Ukraine, but were unable to use any of the equipment because it had been locked remotely, CNN reports. 

"When the invaders drove the stolen harvesters to Chechnya, they realized that they could not even turn them on, because the harvesters were locked remotely," a source familiar with the incident the news outlet.

The remote access of the equipment allows for GPS tracking and some of the vehicles to be remotely operated, preventing them from being used.

The equipment is currently lying idle in the Zakhan-Yurt village of Chechnya, about 700 miles away, according to the source.

Melitopol has been under Russian occupation since early March.

Russian troops are in contact with “consultants in Russia who are trying to bypass the protection,” according to the source who spoke with CNN.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/russia-troops-farm-loot/2022/05/02/id/1068170/


 

[Kamaji]

Russian Troops Steal $5M in Farm Vehicles, Remotely Locked Out Via GPS

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/russia-troops-farm-loot/2022/05/02/id/1068170/


 

[Kamaji]

'Putin's Holodomor': Russia steals 400,000 tonnes of grain from occupied Ukraine sparking fears of a devastating food crisis in the country in chilling echo of Stalin's famine

By CHRIS JEWERS FOR MAILONLINE
4 May 2022

Russia has stolen 400,000 tonnes of grain from occupied regions in Ukraine, an official has said, sparking fears of a devastating food crisis in the country.

Ukraine's minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Taras Vysotsky, said that 100,000 tonnes had been taken from the Zaporizhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The minister noted that the stolen grain was from each regions' supply set aside to be used before the next harvest, meaning there is a rising threat of famine amidst Russia's brutal invasion of the country.

Vysotsky's comments came after a video emerged from Ukraine that purportedly showed lorries carrying Ukrainian grain out of the country towards Russia.

The footage, filmed from inside a car driving along-side the lorries, showed a convoy of trucks with the pro-Russian war symbol 'Z' painted on the rear.

In addition to stealing grain, Russia has attacked grain silos, farming infrastructure and fertiliser stores, and has stolen millions of pounds worth of farming vehicles.

This has prompted accusations against Moscow that it is attempting to starve Ukraine's resistance by orchestrating a famine.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10781737/Putins-Holodomor-Russia-steals-400-000-tonnes-grain-occupied-Ukraine.html



No surprise here.  The Russians have always seen famine as a tool of war.

[Kamaji]

Moment Russia uses 'thermobaric warheads' to devastate Azovstal plant: Communications are lost with heroic last defenders of Mariupol a day after Russian troops began storming the steel works

By CHRIS PLEASANCE FOR MAILONLINE
4 May 2022

Communications have today been lost with the last heroic defenders of Mariupol holed up inside the Azovstal steel works, after Russian forces stormed the complex.

Vadym Boichenko, mayor of the besieged city, said there is 'heavy fighting' ongoing inside the plant today and that he had 'lost contact' with those inside.

There is no way of knowing 'what's going on, whether they are safe or not,' he said.

The grim news came as footage emerged showing Russian forces using what appeared to be lung-crushing thermobaric rockets to bombard Azovstal as tanks and troops moved into the sprawling industrial zone.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10782185/Ukraine-war-Communications-lost-Mariupol-defenders.html

[Kamaji]

Kremlin calls claims of Russian war declaration ‘nonsense’

By Evan Simko-Bednarski
May 4, 2022

Rumors that Russian President Vladimir Putin will declare a formal war against Ukraine on Victory Day next week are “nonsense,” Kremlin flack Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

“There is no chance of that. It’s nonsense,” Peskov said.

Victory Day, a celebration of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, is among Russia’s most important public holidays.

Putin has refused so far to call his massive invasion of neighboring Ukraine a war, despite his instigation of nonstop fighting, bombing and shelling across the country that has left thousands of civilians and soldiers dead.

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2022/05/04/kremlin-calls-claims-of-russian-war-declaration-nonsense/

[Cyber Liberty]

Thanks for posting this, @mystery-ak!

[Kamaji]

Russia taunts Finland by flying a military helicopter INTO its airspace as the Nordic country prepares to join NATO to the Kremlin’s fury

By AFP and ADAM SOLOMONS FOR MAILONLINE
4 May 2022

A Russian army helicopter violated Finland's airspace in an apparent attempt to frighten the country as it readies to join NATO.

The military Mi-17 transport chopper flew 2-3 miles inside the Finnish border after 10.30 this morning (7.30am GMT), according to the country's Ministry of Defence.

'The aircraft type is a Mi-17 helicopter and the depth of the suspected violation is about four to five kilometres', a ministry spokesman told AFP.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10782761/Russia-taunts-Finland-flying-military-helicopter-airspace-country-plans-NATO-entry.html

[Hoodat]

YAYZ NANCY, BEST ADMIN EVER !!!




@mystery-ak

[Kamaji]

YAYZ NANCY, BEST ADMIN EVER !!!




@mystery-ak

Obsequious flattery will get one everywhere, right?

[txradioguy]

Russia taunts Finland by flying a military helicopter INTO its airspace as the Nordic country prepares to join NATO to the Kremlin’s fury

By AFP and ADAM SOLOMONS FOR MAILONLINE
4 May 2022

A Russian army helicopter violated Finland's airspace in an apparent attempt to frighten the country as it readies to join NATO.

The military Mi-17 transport chopper flew 2-3 miles inside the Finnish border after 10.30 this morning (7.30am GMT), according to the country's Ministry of Defence.

'The aircraft type is a Mi-17 helicopter and the depth of the suspected violation is about four to five kilometres', a ministry spokesman told AFP.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10782761/Russia-taunts-Finland-flying-military-helicopter-airspace-country-plans-NATO-entry.html

Not surprising. Putin has said in the past that Finland's declaration of independence in 1918 was illegal. It's another piece of land he's hinted at retaking in the past.

[Elderberry]

Russian airstrike on Mariupol drama theater killed 600 - AP

https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3474955-russian-airstrike-on-mariupol-drama-theater-killed-600-ap.html

About 600 civilians were killed in a Russian airstrike on the Mariupol drama theater on March 16.

That's according to an investigation conducted by the AP news agency, Ukrinform reports.

"An Associated Press investigation has found evidence that the attack was in fact far deadlier than estimated, killing closer to 600 people inside and outside the building. That's almost double the death toll cited so far, and many survivors put the number even higher," the agency said.

According to the report, the AP investigation recreated what happened inside the theater on that day from the accounts of 23 survivors, rescuers, and people intimately familiar with its new life as a bomb shelter.

The AP also drew on two sets of floor plans of the theater, photos and video taken inside before, during and after that day and feedback from experts who reviewed the methodology.

All the witnesses said at least 100 people were at a field kitchen just outside, and none survived. They also said the rooms and hallways inside the building were packed, with about one person for every 3 square meters of free space.

Many survivors estimated around 1,000 people were inside at the time of the airstrike, but the most anyone saw escape, including rescuers, was around 200. The survivors primarily left through the main exit or one side entrance; the other side and the back were crushed.

The AP investigation also refutes Russian claims that the theater was demolished by Ukrainian forces or served as a Ukrainian military base. None of the witnesses saw Ukrainian soldiers operating inside the building. And not one person doubted that the theater was destroyed in a Russian air attack aimed with precision at a civilian target everyone knew was the city’s largest bomb shelter, with children in it.

[Elderberry]

Belarus Is the Other Loser in Putin’s War

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/05/04/belarus-ukraine-russia-war-putin/

Minsk enabled Moscow in its Ukraine war. Now, Belarusians are paying the price.

When Russia launched an attempted lightning assault on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in February, neighboring Belarus served as a staging area for Russian forces, making the country an accomplice in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

In the early phases of the war, thousands of Russian troops swarmed over Belarus’s border with Ukraine, just a few hundred miles from Kyiv. As the Russians quickly racked up deaths, their soldiers filled Belarus’s hospitals and morgues. When the Russians withdrew from the Kyiv region, having been beaten back by fierce Ukrainian resistance and their own operational shortcomings, they did so through Belarus.

Long a close ally of Moscow, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko was left wholly dependent on the Kremlin, which came to his rescue after mass protests in 2020 threatened his decadeslong grip on power. This dependence helped make Moscow’s assault on Kyiv possible. It has also indelibly tied Belarus’s fate to that of Ukraine.

​​“We see Belarus as deeply tied to the outcome in Ukraine. It is among the many reasons that what happens in Ukraine is going to reverberate well beyond its own borders,” said Julie Fisher, U.S. special envoy for Belarus. “It is an immediate and direct link when it comes to Belarus.”

Leaders of the Belarusian opposition movement in exile have argued that the war underscored the illegitimacy of Lukashenko, who began a fifth term in office in 2020 following elections widely regarded as having been falsified. Western countries imposed sanctions on Belarus and the Lukashenko regime for the violent crackdown that followed the elections and for facilitating the attack on Ukraine.

“He allowed our lands to be used as an aircraft carrier for Putin,” said Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. “It was a cold shower for Belarusian people, how our country could be used to launch missiles on Ukrainian territory,” she said in an interview in Washington last week.

More at link.

[Kamaji]

Putin's 'chef' who runs feared Wagner mercenaries calls the West 'pathetic endangered perverts' who consider Russians to be 'third world scum' and warns 'victory will be ours' in extraordinary rant

By DAVID AVERRE FOR MAILONLINE
4 May 2022

One of Putin's closest allies and suspected financer of the private military company Wagner Group has declared the West 'pathetic endangered perverts' and promised a Russian victory in Ukraine in his latest explosive interview.

Yevgeny Prigozhin - often referred to as 'Putin's chef' because of his past catering contracts with the Kremlin - launched a venomous rant at The Guardian this week in which he hit out at the perceived Western attitude towards Russians.

'You are a dying-out western civilisation that considers Russians, Malians, Central Africans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and many other peoples and countries to be third world scum,' the businessman announced.

'You are a pathetic endangered bunch of perverts, and there are many of us, billions of us. And victory will be ours!'

Prigozhin's fury came after The Guardian contacted him for a response to the discovery of evidence which appears to connect the Wagner Group to the massacre of around 300 civilians in Mali.

The shadowy group of mercenaries has been linked to a string of conflicts and brutal killings around the world and is widely thought to operate as Putin's private army, carrying out his dirty work at arms' length with no official ties to Moscow.

Wagner fighters are known to have deployed in Mali, assisting the junta that toppled the country's government in a 2020 military coup - and the 60-year-old Prigozhin is believed to be the group's main financial backer.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10782799/Putins-chef-runs-feared-Wagner-mercenaries-calls-West-pathetic-endangered-perverts.html

[Elderberry]

VLAD TO WORSE ‘Cancer-stricken’ Putin HUMILIATED as planned ‘victory over Ukraine’ parade is gutted by a third after massive losses

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/18462359/victory-over-ukraine-parade-cut-back-over-losses/

MAD VLAD's so-called "victory over Ukraine parade" is set to be a sorry sight after the Russian tyrant is forced to scale it down by a THIRD, figures show.

The Russian president - who is rumoured to be "Cancer stricken" - will face public humiliation as he rolls out his massively depleted military stock on May 9 following horrendous losses in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin is set for a humiliating day on May 9 with a drastically cut back parade

The parade - held every year to commemorate the surrender of Nazi Germany in World War II - has been used by Russian leaders to flaunt their strength and demonstrate Russia’s military prowess.

But this year the show is 35-percent smaller, forcing Mad Vlad to dust down creaky equipment from the 1960s in a desperate effort to save face on Moscow's Red Square.

This will come as a massive blow to the tyrant who is understood to have set the May 9 date to declare some form of victory over Ukraine - whatever that may be.

But the invasion has been far from successful after facing massive resistance from hero Ukrainian fighters - forcing Putin's butchers to retreat and focus their operations in the eastern Donbas region.

The parade is therefore set to be a major humiliation, as it is revealed that the number of Russian Infantry Fighting Vehicles participating in the parade has been slashed by a whopping 50-percent.

More at link.

[Cyber Liberty]

VLAD TO WORSE ‘Cancer-stricken’ Putin HUMILIATED as planned ‘victory over Ukraine’ parade is gutted by a third after massive losses

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/18462359/victory-over-ukraine-parade-cut-back-over-losses/

Is Russia's rolling stock that depleted???

[Kamaji]

Russia strikes Ukrainian railroads in effort to disrupt Western aid

By Evan Simko-Bednarski
May 4, 2022

Russian missiles struck Ukrainian railroad infrastructure and supply depots Wednesday, as the Kremlin called NATO vehicles and supplies “legitimate military targets.”

The strikes — by both sea- and air-borne missiles — took out electric power plants at five railway stations throughout Ukraine, and hit stores of fuel and ammunition.

The strikes were meant to disrupt the delivery of Western weapons to Ukraine, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

The coordinated effort to disrupt Ukrainian supply lines came as Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared NATO shipments — and any NATO vehicles carrying such shipments within Ukraine — legitimate targets.

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2022/05/04/russia-strikes-ukrainian-railroads-in-effort-to-disrupt-western-aid/

[Kamaji]

Is Russia's rolling stock that depleted???

Apparently so.

[Cyber Liberty]

Apparently so.

Sounds to me, if I were so inclined, "Parade Day" in Red Square would be an optimal time to strike Mother Russia.

[DB]

Russia has become dependent on Western technology/components to produce their toys. I can easily believe that as they deplete their stock they can't easily replace much of it. Russia produces very little beyond oil/gas, food and weapons. The other thing is as they deplete their stock the weapons used are going to become less and less sophisticated and more haphazard.

It takes economic strength to have military strength that can sustain a war. Russia does not have the economic strength to do it and is committing suicide by trying.