Ukraine 3

[Kamaji]

On the road to victory? How clever Ukrainian counter-attacks have pinned down Russia's troops in the south and punched through their frontline in the north - leaving Putin's invasion at risk of collapse

By CHRIS PLEASANCE FOR MAILONLINE
8 September 2022

It is an outcome that few dared to hope for. But 10 days after Ukraine's generals announced the start of their first major counter-attack against Russian troops, the road to victory is starting to become clearer.

Clever tactics saw Ukraine's commanders draw Russian troops into the south of the country before pinning them down with a counter-attack around the city of Kherson.

Some of Putin's best men are now all-but trapped in the city, bullied by Ukrainian artillery and with no easy way to retreat back across the Dnipro River after HIMARS strikes destroyed the main bridges.

That gave Ukraine the chance to spring a second - surprise - counter-attack to the east of the city of Kharkiv, with a 'fist' of tanks and infantry punching through thinned-out defences there yesterday.

Those troops are now rapidly advancing, threatening key supply lines into Donbas. As Dr Mike Martin, an ex-British army officer now at King's College, put it on Twitter yesterday: 'If [Ukraine] pulls that off, it's serious rout time.'

Putin is once again staring an embarrassing defeat in the face. If his troops are forced to pull back from Kherson and abandon their assault in Donbas, it will be hard even for him to play off the invasion as a success.

Meanwhile Ukraine is hailing its successes. According to one commander who spoke out today, troops have now recaptured a total of 270 square miles of territory across both fronts - a long way from victory, but no small feat.

Here, MailOnline examines how Ukraine brought the war to this pivotal point...

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11193273/How-Ukrainian-counter-attacks-left-Russian-forces-risk-collapse.html

[Hoodat]

Sláva Ukrayíni!

[Elderberry]

U.S., UN Demand Access To Russian 'Filtration' Sites In Ukraine Amid War-Crimes Fears

https://www.rferl.org/a/us-un-demand-access-russian-filtration-camps-ukraine-/32023811.html

The United States has accused Russia of war crimes through the forcible transfer up to 1.6 million Ukrainians to Russian-controlled territory in the current conflict, prompting senior UN officials to demand international access to the so-called filtration camps.

Moscow denied the charge and said millions of Ukrainians had chosen to go to Russia or Russia-controlled areas and were "living freely and voluntarily" there.

The U.S. ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told a UN Security Council meeting late on September 7 that Russia and its proxies were inflicting "a series of horrors" in a process overseen by officials from President Vladimir Putin's office.

"The forcible transfer or deportation of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupier...constitutes a war crime," Thomas-Greenfield said.

The U.S. envoy said official Russian sources suggest that its authorities or allied Ukrainian separatists have "interrogated, detained, and forcibly deported" between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainians to Russia since the Russian invasion in late February.

She said more than 1,800 children had been transferred from Ukrainian territory to Russia in July alone.

More at link.

[bilo]

It looks like the Ukrainians have put the Russians on their heels. I hope and pray that the battles continue to go well for them.

I think the Ukrainians should hold hostage all the soldiers and collaborators that they take alive, until they are satisfied that all Ukrainians in Russia that want to return to Ukraine have done so.

[Hoodat]

Ukraine advances 50km near Kharkiv, liberates more than 20 villages

15h ago  |  08:28

Ukraine has advanced 50km into Russian-held territory near Kharkiv and liberated more than 20 villages, one of its generals has said.

With much of the attention on Ukraine's much-vaunted counteroffensive in the south towards Kherson, it may have surprised some to awake today to reports that defence forces had gained ground in the east.

Ukrainian troops in the northeastern region of Kharkiv have retaken portions of Russian-held territory after "likely exploiting Russian force reallocation", the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said.

Their military used the situation "to conduct an opportunistic yet highly effective counteroffensive" in the province, the think tank added.

A Ukrainian general also said Ukraine had recaptured more than 700 square kilometres of its territory in the Kharkiv region and in the south.

They said the country's military had advanced 50km into Russian lines in the region and recaptured more than 20 villages.

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-latest-updates-putin-threatens-to-cut-gas-supply-to-europe-for-good-12541713?postid=4427639#liveblog-body

[Hoodat]

Russian city 'left without electricity' after apparent Ukrainian attack

20h ago  |  03:31

Footage has emerged this morning that purports to show the Russian city of Belgorod without electricity after what is reported to be a Ukrainian attack.

The city is just over the border from Ukraine and has been the target of a series of previous attacks since the invasion.

It comes amid reports of Ukrainian advances in the east and significant Russian losses after a counteroffensive launched by Kyiv.

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-latest-updates-putin-threatens-to-cut-gas-supply-to-europe-for-good-12541713?postid=4426115#liveblog-body

[Hoodat]

Ukrainian Flag Raised Over Recaptured City of Balaklia

Thu, September 8, 2022 at 4:43 PM

Ukraine’s armed forces regained control of Balaklia, a city in Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast, on Thursday, September 8, according to the Balaklia City Council, after a counteroffensive was launched against Russian forces in the region.

Footage released on Thursday by the city council shows Ukrainian soldiers on top of the District Administration Building in the center of Balaklia with a Ukrainian flag raised behind them and a Russian flag under their feet.  .  .




https://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-flag-raised-over-recaptured-214302081.html?fr=sychp_catchall

[Kamaji]

Gleeful Ukrainians run into the arms of troops who stand on Russian flags in city reclaimed from invaders as Kyiv takes back dozens of settlements and videos show burnt out enemy tanks

By CHRIS JEWERS and WILL STEWART and CHRIS PLEASANCE FOR MAILONLINE
9 September 2022

Ukrainian soldiers are being welcomed as heroes by gleeful residents who have lived under Russian occupation for months, as Kyiv continues to retake dozens of settlements from the clutches of Vladimir Putin's forces.

Videos and pictures have emerged showing troops standing victoriously on top of Russian flags in the liberated city Balakliia, while others have been shown in footage discovering the burnt out wreckages of enemy tanks.

The images come as swiftly advancing Ukrainian troops were bearing down on the main railway supplying Moscow's forces in the east on Friday, after the sudden collapse of a section of the Russian front-line - caused the most dramatic shift in the war's momentum since its early weeks.

In a video address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian troops had 'liberated dozens of settlements' and reclaimed more than 385 square miles of territory in the east and south in the past week alone.

Zelensky posted a video in which Ukrainian soldiers said they had captured the eastern town of Balakliia, which lies along a stretch of front stretching south of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city.

In one clip from the city, a Ukrainian flag can be seen flying on a roof. At the foot of the flag pole, three Ukrainian soldiers - reportedly from the Kraken Special Branch - pose with their weapons, standing or crouching on top of a Russian flag that has been pulled down.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11196635/temp.html

[Kamaji]

Politicians who dared call for Putin to face treason charges are summoned for police interrogation

By WILL STEWART and CHRIS JEWERS FOR MAILONLINE
9 September 2022

Local politicians in Russia who dared call for Vladimir Putin to be charged with treason and forced out of office were today summoned for police interrogations.

The councillors in Smolninskoye, a district of St Petersburg, could face fines or even jail under draconian laws which punish criticism of the armed forces and the Russian authorities.

They had complained that Putin's war with Ukraine was leading to young soldiers dying or being maimed, and causing huge economic and political damage to Russia.

The politicians say they petitioned the Russia parliament to find Putin guilty of 'high treason' and to oust him.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11196927/Politicians-dared-call-Putin-face-treason-charges-summoned-police-interrogation.html

[Kamaji]

Must mean something if not even the orcs can keep it suppressed in orc-land.


Russian TV acknowledges ‘substantial victory’ for Kyiv after Ukrainian breakthrough

By Reuters
September 9, 2022

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian state television broadcast an interview Friday acknowledging that Kyiv had achieved a “substantial victory” after Ukrainian forces burst through the front line in a lightning advance.

The Ukrainian breakthrough near Kharkiv was the fastest advance reported by either side for months, and one of the biggest shifts in the war’s momentum since Russian forces abandoned a disastrous assault on Kyiv, the capital, in March.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said troops had “liberated dozens of settlements” and reclaimed more than 1,000 square km (385 square miles) of territory in the Kharkiv region in the east as well as Kherson in the south in the past week.

Western military analysts say the advance puts the Ukrainians within striking distance of the main railway Moscow has relied on to sustain its forces in eastern Ukraine and could leave thousands of Russian troops at risk of being cut off.

After a day of providing little or no response, Russia’s defense ministry released a video of its troops being rushed to reinforce the area.

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2022/09/09/russian-tv-acknowledges-substantial-victory-for-kyiv/

[libertybele]

Nearly $3 Billion in U.S. Humanitarian Aid to Ukraine Remains Unspent

The Biden administration has yet to deliver more than $2.8 billion in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, fueling concerns in Congress that the administration is undermining its own relief efforts as Russia pummels the country.

Congress fast-tracked some $7 billion dollars in recent months to help the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spearhead humanitarian projects in Ukraine. But as of this month, nearly $3 billion of that money remains unspent. A group of Republican senators are demanding an explanation from USAID as to why a substantial portion of the money they appropriated is sitting in limbo, according to a letter sent to the agency on Friday and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The seven Republican lawmakers, led by Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa), say they are worried "the American people’s generosity is not being properly and swiftly used to help Ukraine," according to the letter. "These extraordinary congressional appropriations must be quickly and effectively mobilized to address the unfolding crisis."

The administration’s "over reliance" on United Nations agencies involved in humanitarian relief efforts has "been compounded by the fact that USAID only has the equivalent of four and a half full-time contracting officers overseeing billions of taxpayer dollars through the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance." This has led to bureaucratic delays and prevented the full tranche of aid dollars from reaching Ukraine.

The senators are demanding USAID and the State Department, both of which oversee aid projects, provide them with a "detailed strategy" to quickly offload the remaining aid dollars to those Ukrainians who need it. They also want USAID’s Humanitarian Assistance Bureau to explain why so few workers are tasked with handling these time-sensitive matters.

Congress, at the administration's request, suspended normal procedures to allocate the $7 billion in humanitarian aid via two separate packages. Information obtained by the lawmakers shows that USAID has only obligated 73.78 percent of the funds made available in the first package, and just 50.03 percent of the funds made available in the second. This accounts for the $2.8 billion that remains unspent.

"While USAID has made positive progress in recent months on the speed of committing and obligating these aid dollars, more needs to be done," Ernst and her colleagues write.

Both USAID and the State Department have ignored congressional calls for the aid money to be more quickly distributed.

"Repeated, bipartisan calls for the Department of State and USAID to onboard new nongovernmental organization partners, fast-track the delivery of food aid, and augment [USAID’s] contracting capacity have remained unanswered," the lawmakers say.

While Congress has done its part by giving the Biden administration all of the money it requested, the delay in offloading these funds threatens to interrupt on-the-ground humanitarian efforts..............

https://www.conservativereview.com/nearly-3-billion-in-u-s-humanitarian-aid-to-ukraine-remains-unspent-2658172659.html

[Hoodat]

Ukraine troops reach railway hub as breakthrough threatens to turn into rout

Max Hunder and Vitalii Hnidyi  |  September 10, 2022  |  7:41 AM EDT

KYIV/HRAKOVE, Ukraine, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Ukrainian officials shared photos on Saturday showing troops raising the nation's flag over the main railway city that has supplied Russian forces in northeastern Ukraine, as a collapse in Russia's frontline threatened to turn into a rout.

A Reuters journalist inside a vast area recaptured in recent days by the advancing Ukrainian forces saw Ukrainian police patrolling towns and boxes of ammunition lying in heaps at positions abandoned by fleeing Russian soldiers.

With Ukrainians now having reached the city of Kupiansk, where rail lines linking Russia to eastern Ukraine converge, the advance had penetrated all the way to Moscow's main logistics route, potentially trapping thousands of Russian troops.  .  .  .

.  .  .  The capture of at least part of Kupiansk, if confirmed, potentially leaves thousands of Russian soldiers trapped at the frontline and cut off from supplies, including in Izium, Russia's main stronghold and logistics hub in the northeast.  .  .  .

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-troops-raise-flag-over-railway-hub-advance-threatens-turn-into-rout-2022-09-10/

[libertybele]

Nearly $3 Billion in U.S. Humanitarian Aid to Ukraine Remains Unspent


https://www.conservativereview.com/nearly-3-billion-in-u-s-humanitarian-aid-to-ukraine-remains-unspent-2658172659.html

Where's all the money going? How much is going into Joe & Company's pockets??

[libertybele]

Kharkiv offensive: Russian forces retreat as Ukraine takes key towns

Russian forces have withdrawn from key eastern towns, as a rapid Ukrainian counter-attack makes further gains.

Ukrainian officials said troops entered Kupiansk, a vital eastern supply hub for Russian forces, on Saturday.

Russia's defence ministry then said its troops have retreated from nearby Izyum to allow them "to regroup".

The ministry also confirmed the withdrawal of troops from a third key town, Balaklyia, in order to "bolster efforts" on the Donetsk front.

The Ukrainian advances - if held - would be the most significant since Russia withdrew from areas around Kyiv in April.

Izyum was a major military hub for the Russians, and was subject to intense fighting in the early stages of the invasion.

"A three-day operation was carried out on the drawdown and organised transfer of the Izyum-Balakliya group of troops to the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic," the Russian statement said.

"In order to prevent damage to the Russian troops, a powerful fire defeat was inflicted on the enemy."

Shortly afterwards, the chief administrator of Russian-controlled parts of the Kharkiv region recommended that its residents evacuate to Russia "to save lives", according to the Russian state-run TASS news agency.

And the governor of the neighbouring Belgorod region, in Russia, said mobile catering, heating, and medical assistance would be available to people queuing to cross the border.

The advances will be used as a sign that Ukraine's army can take back Russian-occupied territory, while the country continues to ask for military support from the West.

For Russia, the Ukrainian gains - if secured - would mark a humiliating setback, as its forces invaded captured the area in the first week of the war. ................

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62860774

[Elderberry]

Russia announces troop pullback from Ukraine’s Kharkiv area

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-world-news-kharkiv-e06b2aa723e826ed4105b5f32827f577

Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Saturday that it was pulling back troops from two areas in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region where a Ukrainian counteroffensive has made significant advances in the past week.

The news came after days of apparent advances by Ukraine south of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, in what could become the biggest battlefield success for Ukrainian forces since they thwarted a Russian attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, at the start of the nearly seven-month war.

“The Russian army in these days is demonstrating the best that it can do — showing its back,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video released by his office Saturday night. “And, of course, it’s a good decision for them to run.”

More at link.

[Hoodat]

Where's all the money going? How much is going into Joe & Company's pockets??

Probably all of it.  Joe Biden isn't interested in helping Ukraine drive the Russian army out of Ukraine.  The longer this war continues, the more graft Biden gets to pocket.

[Hoodat]

Russia's defence ministry then said its troops have retreated from nearby Izyum to allow them "to regroup".

Retaking Izyum will be huge for Ukraine.  I can't imagine the Russians giving it up without a fight.

[Hoodat]

Ukrainian forces enter key city of Izium in a sign Kyiv's new offensive is working

Ivana Kottasová, Tim Lister, Yulia Kesaieva, Denis Lapin, Josh Pennington and Victoria Butenko, CNN  |  8:03 PM ET, Sat September 10, 2022

When Ukrainian forces entered the city of Izium Saturday, it was more than a major military victory. It was a sign the war in Ukraine might be entering a new phase, one in which Russian troops are scrambling to hold onto the territory they captured over the past six months.

Russian forces were forced to flee the strategic eastern city just five days after Ukrainian forces began a new offensive eastward through the Kharkiv region.
"Russians escaped and left weapons and ammo behind. City center is free," a spokesperson for the Bohun Brigade of the Land Forces of Ukraine said in a statement Saturday afternoon.
The last five days have seen the most ambitious ground assaults by the Ukrainians since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in late February. Video and satellite images geolocated by CNN show the advances have involved sustained attacks on command posts, ammunition stores, and fuel reserves far behind the front lines.  .  .

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/10/europe/ukraine-kharkiv-advances-intl-hnk/index.html

[Hoodat]

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1568654019865755654

Vovchansk is 25 miles from Belgorod.

[Hoodat]

Here is Russia's response to the Ukrainian counter-attacks:  Kill more civilians in Donbas

Eastern Ukraine towns hit in overnight strikes

ELENA BECATOROS  |  2 hours ago



POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP) — Through the debris-strewn rooms of the bomb-blasted house, the incessant ringing of a phone punctuates the crunch of broken glass splintering underfoot as police lay out a body bag.

But the call will never be answered. The phone’s owner crouches lifeless on the floor of his home, in a front room where the explosion from a missile — one of several to hit this eastern Ukrainian town — found him.

The missiles that rained down on Pokrovsk Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday were part of a barrage of attacks on towns in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region that left at least 10 people dead Saturday, according to Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. They came as Ukraine pressed forward with a counteroffensive just to the north in the Kharkiv region, pushing Russian forces into a retreat from key areas.

Six of the dead were in Pokrovsk, mayor Ruslan Trebushkin said in a message posted on Telegram. The industrial town about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the front line had been hit twice before by missiles, in May and July, but never before by so many in one night. A flash illuminated the night sky as a detonation sounded out across the town in the second of six explosions. An ambulance raced through the darkened streets, and flames rose from a fire triggered by the missile strikes.  .  .  .

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-donetsk-government-and-politics-b2db1d3c3932e5bb3977a43c476d7c6d

[bilo]

Here is Russia's response to the Ukrainian counter-attacks:  Kill more civilians in Donbas

@Hoodat

Is it any surprise? Everywhere they've gone atrocities have followed. What surprises me is the restraint of the Ukrainians so far. It may be we just aren't getting reports, but we aren't seeing civilian Russian sympathizers indiscriminately being shot in the back of their head, or pulled from their homes and shot in the street by the Ukrainians. The only reports I've seen are of known collaborators being assassinated. 

[Cyber Liberty]

Here is Russia's response to the Ukrainian counter-attacks:  Kill more civilians in Donbas

@Hoodat

Is it any surprise? Everywhere they've gone atrocities have followed. What surprises me is the restraint of the Ukrainians so far. It may be we just aren't getting reports, but we aren't seeing civilian Russian sympathizers indiscriminately being shot in the back of their head, or pulled from their homes and shot in the street by the Ukrainians. The only reports I've seen are of known collaborators being assassinated.

I haven't seen much pro-Russian press recently.  Has a towel been thrown in recently?

[bilo]

I haven't seen much pro-Russian press recently.  Has a towel been thrown in recently?

I think when things started to turn in Ukraine's favor they lost interest.

[Elderberry]

Russian nationalists rage after stunning setback in Ukraine

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-nationalists-rage-after-stunning-setback-ukraine-2022-09-11/

LONDON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Russian nationalists called angrily on Sunday for President Vladimir Putin to make immediate changes to ensure ultimate victory in the Ukraine war, a day after Moscow was forced to abandon its main bastion in northeastern Ukraine.

The swift fall of Izium in Kharkiv province was Russia's worst military defeat since its troops were forced back from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in March.

As Russian forces abandoned town after town on Saturday, Putin was opening Europe's largest ferris wheel in a Moscow park, while fireworks lit up the sky over Red Square to celebrate the city's founding in 1147.

In an 11-minute-long voice message posted to the Telegram messaging app, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a Putin ally whose troops have been at the forefront of the campaign in Ukraine, dismissed the loss of Izium, a critical supply hub.

But he conceded the campaign was not going to plan.

"If today or tomorrow changes are not made in the conduct of the special military operation, I will be forced to go to the country's leadership to explain to them the situation on the ground," said Kadyrov.

Moscow's almost total silence on the defeat - or any explanation for what had taken place in northeastern Ukraine - provoked significant anger among some pro-war commentators and Russian nationalists on social media.

More at link.

[Hoodat]

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1568863858260836353