Ukraine 3

[libertybele]

Russian attacks on energy grid amount to genocide, says Ukraine

Russia's attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure amount to genocide, a top Ukrainian official says.

Strikes on key facilities targeted "the full Ukrainian nation" and were an effort to force Kyiv to surrender, the prosecutor-general told the BBC.

The term genocide refers to an effort to wipe out a group of people. Russia denies having any such aim.

Millions of people across Ukraine are facing power cuts in freezing weather, following sustained Russian attacks.

Efforts are ongoing to reconnect homes cut off from electricity. Officials say Kherson has now been fully resupplied, following the city's recapture by Ukrainian troops earlier this month.

But people in 14 regions and the capital Kyiv remain under usage restrictions, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Genocide involves "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group", according to a definition provided by the UN Genocide Convention.

Among the acts which may qualify are killing or causing serious harm to members of that group - or forcibly transferring its children elsewhere.

In his BBC interview, Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin said that, as well as the attacks on the energy grid, 11,000 Ukrainian children had been forcibly deported to Russia.

Mr Kostin said his office was investigating reports of more than 49,000 war crimes and crimes of aggression since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on 24 February.

The "same pattern of conduct" was being seen in every Ukrainian settlement occupied by Russian forces, he observed.

A war crime constitutes a violation of the so-called "rules" of war set out by international treaties including the Geneva Conventions. ..................

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63773654

[Kamaji]

Ukrainian medical staff are removing red crosses from their uniforms to avoid being deliberately targeted by Russian forces, charity says

By ELENA SALVONI FOR MAILONLINE
27 November 2022

Frontline medical staff in Ukraine are being targeted by enemy fire more than in any other war and are being treated as 'high-value targets' by Russian forces, according to a humanitarian charity.

Medics4Ukraine, which trains combat medical staff, claim they are being specifically targeted, forcing them to remove red crosses from their uniforms to avoid being identified and deliberately attacked by Putin's troops.

The World Health Organisation has recorded 703 attacks on hospitals and medical facilities since February.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11475029/Ukraine-medics-removing-red-crosses-uniforms-avoid-targeting-Russian-forces-charity-says.html

[Hoodat]

Russia’s Pointless Attacks In Bakhmut Are Running Into A Wall Of Ukrainian Artillery

David Axe  |  Nov 22, 2022  |  08:00am EST


A 152-millimeter howitzer belonging to the 40th Artillery Brigade.UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY PHOTO

When Ukrainian brigades launched twin counteroffensives in eastern and southern Ukraine back in late August and early September, most Russian regiments either had no choice but to retreat, or wisely chose to retreat in order to preserve their surviving forces.

There were weird exceptions. For reasons that defy military logic, Russian troops in a few eastern sectors not only stayed in place—they attacked.

These isolated Russian assaults—call them “countercounterattacks”—so far have not resulted in meaningful territorial gains for the Russians. They have however resulted in heavy casualties. Especially for the Russian side. “The Ukrainians are fighting a very, very successful mobile defense,” U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Wednesday.

Just one corps of the Ukrainian army is doing most of the killing. The artillery. In the eastern town of Bakhmut, where pro-Russian separatists and Russian mercenaries from The Wagner Group have been conducting perhaps the biggest of the isolated countercounterattacks, Russian and allied forces are under daily bombardment by one of Ukraine’s best artillery formations. The 40th Artillery Brigade.

The brigade is a new formation. The Ukrainian army stood up the 40th Artillery Brigade back in 2015 as part of its wider mobilization in response to the Russian occupation of Crimea and subsequent attack on eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. When Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February, the 40th Artillery Brigade was in the eastern city of Kharkiv, just 25 miles from the Russian border.

At that time, the brigade possessed only old Soviet artillery, including 2A36 and 2A65 152-millimeter towed howitzers and MT-12 100-millimeter anti-tank guns. After February, the brigade added American-made M777 155-millimeter towed howitzers—reportedly 21 of them—plus quadcopters for reconnaissance.

The M777 can fire Excalibur GPS-guided shells to a distance of 25 miles. The combination of drones, M777s and Excaliburs is a deadly one. The 40th helped to defend Kharkiv through the summer and, in the fall, joined the eastern counteroffensive. In September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded the brigade a citation for “courage and bravery.”

The 40th Artillery Brigade’s gunners, working in conjunction with spotters, gunners and mortarmen from the 53rd Mechanized Brigade, have scored some impressive hits on separatist and Wagner troops in Bakhmut.  .  .

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/11/22/russias-pointless-attacks-in-bakhmut-are-running-into-a-wall-of-ukrainian-artillery/

[Kamaji]

Russia’s Pointless Attacks In Bakhmut Are Running Into A Wall Of Ukrainian Artillery

David Axe  |  Nov 22, 2022  |  08:00am EST


A 152-millimeter howitzer belonging to the 40th Artillery Brigade.UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY PHOTO

When Ukrainian brigades launched twin counteroffensives in eastern and southern Ukraine back in late August and early September, most Russian regiments either had no choice but to retreat, or wisely chose to retreat in order to preserve their surviving forces.

There were weird exceptions. For reasons that defy military logic, Russian troops in a few eastern sectors not only stayed in place—they attacked.

These isolated Russian assaults—call them “countercounterattacks”—so far have not resulted in meaningful territorial gains for the Russians. They have however resulted in heavy casualties. Especially for the Russian side. “The Ukrainians are fighting a very, very successful mobile defense,” U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Wednesday.

Just one corps of the Ukrainian army is doing most of the killing. The artillery. In the eastern town of Bakhmut, where pro-Russian separatists and Russian mercenaries from The Wagner Group have been conducting perhaps the biggest of the isolated countercounterattacks, Russian and allied forces are under daily bombardment by one of Ukraine’s best artillery formations. The 40th Artillery Brigade.

The brigade is a new formation. The Ukrainian army stood up the 40th Artillery Brigade back in 2015 as part of its wider mobilization in response to the Russian occupation of Crimea and subsequent attack on eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. When Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February, the 40th Artillery Brigade was in the eastern city of Kharkiv, just 25 miles from the Russian border.

At that time, the brigade possessed only old Soviet artillery, including 2A36 and 2A65 152-millimeter towed howitzers and MT-12 100-millimeter anti-tank guns. After February, the brigade added American-made M777 155-millimeter towed howitzers—reportedly 21 of them—plus quadcopters for reconnaissance.

The M777 can fire Excalibur GPS-guided shells to a distance of 25 miles. The combination of drones, M777s and Excaliburs is a deadly one. The 40th helped to defend Kharkiv through the summer and, in the fall, joined the eastern counteroffensive. In September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded the brigade a citation for “courage and bravery.”

The 40th Artillery Brigade’s gunners, working in conjunction with spotters, gunners and mortarmen from the 53rd Mechanized Brigade, have scored some impressive hits on separatist and Wagner troops in Bakhmut.  .  .

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/11/22/russias-pointless-attacks-in-bakhmut-are-running-into-a-wall-of-ukrainian-artillery/

Methinks the number of war college studies and doctoral theses coming out of the Ukraine conflict will be substantial.

[Hoodat]

In Ukraine, Bakhmut Becomes a Bloody Vortex for 2 Militaries

Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Natalia Yermak  |  11/27/2022  |  8:15:00 PM

BAKHMUT, Ukraine — For almost an hour, the stream of Ukrainian casualties in the eastern city of Bakhmut seemed unending: Ambulances, an armored personnel carrier and private vehicles all screamed to a halt, one after another, and disgorged the wounded in front of the city’s only military hospital.

A soldier propped up by his comrades, his face a mass of mangled flesh, walked in the main gate. The dark green stretcher that awaited him was one of several still covered in blood.

By around noon on Friday, doctors had counted 50 wounded, many of them soldiers. The day before was even worse: 240 people had come through the hospital’s doors with everything from gunshot wounds to shrapnel injuries and concussions.

“They came in batches — 10, 10, five, 10,” said Parus, one of the Ukrainian medics at the hospital, as artillery screeched overhead and the chatter of machine-gun fire echoed off the surrounding buildings. “In the last couple of days the Russians have tried to advance more intensely.”

In the nine months since Russia invaded, Ukraine has celebrated major victories, breaking the siege of its capital, Kyiv, and pushing Russian forces out of the Kharkiv region and the port city of Kherson. But Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s Donbas region, has become a destructive vortex for both countries’ militaries. For months, they have thrown masses of troops and matériel into battle here as the Russians mount desperate attempts to capture the city and the Ukrainians to hold it.  .  .  .

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/27/world/europe/ukraine-war-bakhmut.html

[Timber Rattler]

Sounds a lot like Verdun.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Sounds a lot like Verdun.

Or Stalingrad. War is shit.

[libertybele]

 

Exclusive: U.S. weighs sending 100-mile strike weapon to Ukraine

WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The Pentagon is considering a Boeing proposal to supply Ukraine with cheap, small precision bombs fitted onto abundantly available rockets, allowing Kyiv to strike far behind Russian lines as the West struggles to meet demand for more arms.

U.S. and allied military inventories are shrinking, and Ukraine faces an increasing need for more sophisticated weapons as the war drags on. Boeing's proposed system, dubbed Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), is one of about a half-dozen plans for getting new munitions into production for Ukraine and America's Eastern European allies, industry sources said.

Although the United States has rebuffed requests for the 185-mile (297km) range ATACMS missile, the GLSDB's 94-mile (150km) range would allow Ukraine to hit valuable military targets that have been out of reach and help it continue pressing its counterattacks by disrupting Russian rear areas...............

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/100-mile-strike-weapon-weighed-ukraine-arms-makers-wrestle-with-demand-sources-2022-11-28/

[Elderberry]

'We're Dying Like Flies': Remote Russian Village Grapples With Shortage Of Men Amid Putin's War In Ukraine

Radio Free Europe 11/27/2022

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-village-mobilization-ukraine-impact-far-east/32151036.html

BUKACHACHA, Russia – Andrei Epov ferries passengers to the small Siberian village of Bukachacha by bus from the nearest major city, the regional capital, Chita.

Set deep in the taiga, the village of 1,200 in Zabaikalsky Krai, in Russia’s Far East, is difficult to reach – and, according to locals, an even more difficult place to live. And Russia’s war on Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin launched in February and rages on with no end in sight, has only exacerbated the problems for Bukachacha’s residents.



A significant percentage of the village’s military-age men were swept up in the Kremlin's nationwide mobilization that Putin announced in September, including one man who ran the local bakery and another who delivers water to elderly residents, locals say.

“The authorities forgot about Bukachacha. They remembered it only now, during the mobilization,” Epov says in between calls he fields from people seeking to book a seat on his bus.

RFE/RL’s Siberia.Realities traveled to see firsthand the impact of Putin’s war and mobilization on remote villages like Bukachacha, where Soviet-era factories have long since closed and career prospects for young people lie mostly in coal mining.



Epov drew a comparison between Bukachacha and the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which was captured by Russian forces following a brutal siege that left the city in ruins.

“[Life] in Bukachacha is like after a war,” Epov says. “There’s just one difference: They’ll rebuild Mariupol, whereas we lived in ruins and will continue to do so.”

'Taken Away'

In the weeks following Putin’s military mobilization, news emerged from Bukachacha that a local man who had delivered water to village residents, including the elderly, had been enlisted for Russia’s war on Ukraine.

That was confirmed by a local official, Viktor Nadelyayev, who told the news portal Chita.ru that “the drivers we had have been taken away” in the mobilization.

That has left the elderly in Bukachacha, like Natalya, to haul buckets of water from a well up to several kilometers back home by foot.

“It’s still winter, and we have no street cleaners, so it is icy. It’s not easy to haul buckets,” says Natalya, who spoke on condition that only her first name be used.

[Timber Rattler]

NATO chief says ‘door is open’ to Ukraine

https://thehill.com/policy/international/3754149-nato-chief-says-door-is-open-to-ukraine/

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday said the “door is open” to admitting Ukraine into the security alliance and that the country would one day be a member.

Stoltenberg reaffirmed the commitment to bringing Ukraine into the western alliance and said Russian President Vladimir Putin would also have to contend with Finland and Sweden soon joining NATO after both countries applied in the wake of Russia’s late February invasion of Ukraine.

“President Putin cannot deny sovereign nations to make their own sovereign decisions that are not a threat to Russia,” Stoltenberg said in comments ahead of a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Bucharest, Romania. “I think what he’s afraid of is democracy and freedom, and that’s the main challenge for him.”

Excerpt.

[Timber Rattler]

Russia largely abandons battalion tactical groups in Ukraine as weaknesses revealed

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/11/29/russia-largely-abandons-battalion-tactical-groups-ukraine-weaknesses/

Russian forces have largely stopped deploying as battalion tactical groups because the formations have proved ineffective, the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

In its latest intelligence update on Tuesday, the ministry said that while “the BTG concept has played a major part in Russian military doctrine for the last ten years” it has proven unsuccessful in the kind of high-intensity fighting seen in Ukraine.

A battalion tactical group (BTG) is a temporary formation bringing together troops and equipment from different units to complete particular operational objectives.

The Russian army is believed to have deployed about 115 battalion tactical groups to Ukraine, with each comprising hundreds of troops supported by tanks and artillery.

According to the MoD, the formations are “integrated with a full range of supporting sub-units, including armour, reconnaissance and (in a departure from usual Western practice) artillery”.

But several weaknesses in the concept have been revealed during the “high intensity, large-scale combat” of the war in Ukraine, the ministry said.

They criticised Russia’s distribution of its artillery, saying a lack of concentrated firepower has become a hindrance to the army.

“Decentralised distribution of artillery has not allowed Russia to fully leverage its advantage in numbers of guns; and few BTG commanders have been empowered to flexibly exploit opportunities in the way the BTG model was designed to promote,” the MoD said.

The MoD also singled out the “relatively small allocation of combat infantry” in the system, which “has often proved insufficient".

Excerpt.

[240B]

[Elderberry]

Ukraine’s forces strike power plant in Russia’s Kursk region

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2022/11/30/ukraines-forces-strike-power-plant-in-russias-kursk-region/

KYIV: Ukrainian forces struck a power plant in multiple attacks on Russia’s Kursk region on Tuesday, causing some electricity outages, a local governor said.

“In total, there were about 11 launches. A power plant was hit,” Roman Starovoyt, the governor of the Kursk region, said on the Telegram messaging app.

“Because of this, there are partial power outages in the Sudzha and Korenevo districts.” The districts are part of Russia’s Kursk region and sit over Ukraine’s northeast border.

Russian authorities in regions bordering Ukraine have repeatedly accused Kyiv of attacking targets such as power lines, fuel, and ammunition stores.

[Kamaji]

'Ukraine drone attack' sparks inferno at Russian oil depot: Giant blaze hits critical resupply route for Putin's invading forces

By WILL STEWART and CHRIS PLEASANCE FOR MAILONLINE
30 November 2022

An oil depot in Russia exploded in a towering inferno this morning after a drone attack thought to have been orchestrated by Ukraine.

Three tanks containing thousands of tonnes of diesel fuel caught fire around 6am local time at a site in Bryansk, a Russian region that borders Ukraine to the north.

The fire began after a drone dropped explosives into one of the fuel tanks, according to Russian media. Nobody was injured in the attack.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11484797/Ukraine-drone-attack-sparks-inferno-Russian-oil-depot-Bryansk.html

[Kamaji]

Revelling in rape, torture and brutal executions: How Putin's Wagner mercenaries' terrifying brutality echoes another group of criminals-turned-soldiers... Hitler's reviled Dirlewanger brigade

By DAVID AVERRE FOR MAILONLINE
29 November 2022

Summary executions. Torture. Rape. Recruitment of violent prisoners.

These are the hallmarks of the infamous Wagner Group – a Russian private military company (PMC) led by a close ally of Putin whose fingerprints are all over the invasion of Ukraine.

Wagner mercenaries are deployed to further Russian interests abroad by doing the jobs that no official military branch could be associated with and have earned a reputation for using sheer force and brutality to achieve their goals.

The chief financier and founder of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin claims his contractors are deployed across the border to help achieve the Russian president's goal – the so-called 'denazification' of Ukraine.

But ironically, the methods employed by Wagner mercs bare a stark resemblance to those of the Dirlewanger brigade – a notorious division of the Nazis' SS paramilitary organisation who raped, murdered and pillaged their way through Europe as they executed Adolf Hitler's dark designs.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11390513/How-brutality-Russias-Wagner-mercenaries-echoes-reviled-Nazi-SS-battalion.html

[Kamaji]

Just one in four Russians support Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, leaked Kremlin study shows

By JAMES FRANEY IN BUCHAREST FOR THE DAILY MAIL
30 November 2022

Russian support for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has plummeted to new lows – with just one in four supporting the war, it emerged last night.

A leaked study, conducted by the Kremlin’s Federal Protective Service, showed just 25 per cent of the public supported a continuation of Putin’s so-called ‘special military operation’.

It comes as British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly called for the Russian leader to face trial for war crimes.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11487855/Just-one-four-Russians-support-Vladimir-Putins-invasion-Ukraine-leaked-Kremlin-study-shows.html

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Revelling in rape, torture and brutal executions: How Putin's Wagner mercenaries' terrifying brutality echoes another group of criminals-turned-soldiers... Hitler's reviled Dirlewanger brigade

By DAVID AVERRE FOR MAILONLINE
29 November 2022

Summary executions. Torture. Rape. Recruitment of violent prisoners.

These are the hallmarks of the infamous Wagner Group – a Russian private military company (PMC) led by a close ally of Putin whose fingerprints are all over the invasion of Ukraine.

Wagner mercenaries are deployed to further Russian interests abroad by doing the jobs that no official military branch could be associated with and have earned a reputation for using sheer force and brutality to achieve their goals.

The chief financier and founder of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin claims his contractors are deployed across the border to help achieve the Russian president's goal – the so-called 'denazification' of Ukraine.

But ironically, the methods employed by Wagner mercs bare a stark resemblance to those of the Dirlewanger brigade – a notorious division of the Nazis' SS paramilitary organisation who raped, murdered and pillaged their way through Europe as they executed Adolf Hitler's dark designs.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11390513/How-brutality-Russias-Wagner-mercenaries-echoes-reviled-Nazi-SS-battalion.html

I heard they executed someone who was a "traitor" (supposedly, he surrendered) by hitting his head with a sledgehammer. And it's on social media.

[Kamaji]

I heard they executed someone who was a "traitor" (supposedly, he surrendered) by hitting his head with a sledgehammer. And it's on social media.

They did.  Here's one of the articles about it:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11429279/Putins-leading-female-propagandist-defends-sickening-sledgehammer-execution.html

[bilo]

NATO chief says ‘door is open’ to Ukraine

https://thehill.com/policy/international/3754149-nato-chief-says-door-is-open-to-ukraine/

Excerpt.

I think this would be a big mistake. I think the first thing that needs to be done is to find out where all the money has been going. I do want to see weaponry sent, but a lot of money has been flowing to Ukraine, or NGO's, lets find out what has been going on.

[bilo]

Ukraine’s forces strike power plant in Russia’s Kursk region

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2022/11/30/ukraines-forces-strike-power-plant-in-russias-kursk-region/

KYIV: Ukrainian forces struck a power plant in multiple attacks on Russia’s Kursk region on Tuesday, causing some electricity outages, a local governor said.

“In total, there were about 11 launches. A power plant was hit,” Roman Starovoyt, the governor of the Kursk region, said on the Telegram messaging app.

“Because of this, there are partial power outages in the Sudzha and Korenevo districts.” The districts are part of Russia’s Kursk region and sit over Ukraine’s northeast border.

Russian authorities in regions bordering Ukraine have repeatedly accused Kyiv of attacking targets such as power lines, fuel, and ammunition stores.

Good!

Let the Orcs find out how it is to be without power.

[Timber Rattler]

Trenches, mud and death: One Ukrainian battlefield looks like something out of World War I

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/30/trenches-endless-mud-and-death-the-battle-of-bakhmut.html

The sight of trenches, endless mud and mass destruction — with just the stumps of trees emerging from a boggy, churned up landscape — is rightly associated with World War I.

But in Ukraine today, one ongoing and intense battle has descended into the same fierce trench warfare seen a century ago in northern Europe.

For several months now, Russian and Ukrainian forces have been fighting for control of the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine — in what is essentially a key part of a larger battle for control of the Donbas. The Donbas is a region in eastern Ukraine that contains two pro-Russian, so-called “republics” that Russia says it wants to “liberate.”

As the “Battle of Bakhmut” drags on, however, the area has been likened to a “vortex” for both the Ukrainian and Russian forces (of regular units and the state-sanctioned paramilitary organization, the Wagner Group) with both sides suffering what’s believed to be heavy casualties with few territorial gains. Both sides have frequently reported the deaths of over 100 of each others’ soldiers per day.

Meanwhile, fighting there has turned the landscape into a mass of mud, trenches and charred trees. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense tweeted a video of trenches in the area, saying the Ukrainian infantry had been holding the line for several months under heavy fire from Russian forces.

Some analysts have posted images comparing the destruction of the area to the “Battle of Verdun” in World War I, a bloody and intense battle between French and German forces that lasted from February to December 1916.

One of the longest and fiercest battles during the war, it is also seen as one of the most costly in terms of life; both France and Germany are estimated to have seen hundreds of thousands of casualties each. In the end, the French forces won the battle but it came to symbolize the immense destructiveness and human cost of war.

[240B]

[sneakypete]

Looks like they are "losing the war at home",too.

The next step is public protests,with the police ordered to arrest the protestors and shoot any that resist.

This whole thing is going to blow up in Putin's face when that happens.

Can you say "Russian Revolution,Part 2"?

[Kamaji]

Putin fell down stairs, soiled himself as speculation over worsening health grows: report

By Olivia Land and Snejana Farberov
December 2, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin fell down the stairs and soiled himself this week amid mounting speculation that his health is declining, an anti-Kremlin Telegram channel with apparent links to his security team reported.

Putin, 70, suffered the unfortunate fall at his Moscow official residence on Wednesday evening, according to the Telegram channel “General SVR,” which purports to be run by a former Russian spy.

The ailing Russian leader allegedly fell down five steps before landing on his coccyx, or tailbone.

Although his security guards immediately rushed to his aid, the impact of the fall caused Putin to “involuntarily defecate” due to “cancer affecting his stomach and bowels,” according to the channel.   

The incident is the latest health scare for Putin, who is rumored to suffering from worsening cancer and Parkinson’s disease amid the ongoing war with Ukraine.

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2022/12/02/putin-fell-down-stairs-soiled-himself-amid-health-woes-report/

[240B]

This is NOT good. If Putin is really 'terminally ill', then there is nothing to stop him from pushing the nuclear button.
They say, 'Go out with a bang.'