Ukraine 4

[Kamaji]

'Ukraine drone' strike hits oil refinery just 80 miles from Putin's palace: Major explosion on tyrant's doorstep as Russia also loses another general amid surging Kyiv counteroffensive

Video emerged this morning of the oil refinery in Krasnodar, with thick smoke and flames rising above the site that is 80 miles from Putin's Black Sea palace
The attack came as Major-General Sergey Goryachev, 52, died in a missile blast

By CHRIS JEWERS and WILL STEWART
13 June 2023

Russia has suffered a major explosion at an oil refinery in a suspected drone or sabotage attack, just 80 miles from Vladimir Putin's Black Sea palace.

The blast came as yet another Russian general was killed in Moscow's on-going war against Ukraine, this time in a missile strike.

The double blow for Putin came as Ukraine stepped up its counteroffensive, with Kyiv's forces claiming they have liberated at least four front-line villages - amid reports that Russian troops are being killed fleeing through their own minefields.

*  *  *

The blast came as yet another Russian general was killed in Moscow's on-going war against Ukraine, this time in a missile strike. Major-General Sergey Goryachev (pictured), 52, died in a missile attack in Zaporizhzhia region - adding to Putin's war woes.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12188617/Ukraine-drone-strike-hits-oil-refinery-just-80-miles-Putins-palace.html

[PeteS in CA]

As click-tantalizing as "just 80 miles from Putin's palace" may be, the IRL importance of damaging this refinery's operational status is that it is close to and probably supplying orcish troops in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk.

[mystery-ak]

Biden Administration Set to Supply Depleted Uranium Rounds to Ukraine: Report

Kurt Zindulka 13 Jun 2023

The Biden administration is reportedly set to follow Britain’s lead in supplying Ukraine with depleted uranium rounds to arm a swath of American tanks planned to be delivered to Kyiv in the Autumn.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, citing American administration sources, the Biden government is planning on providing Ukraine with depleted uranium rounds to equip the Abrams tanks expected to be sent into the conflict in the coming months.

The decision, the paper reported, came after months of an internal debate within the White House, with the Pentagon, in particular, pushing for the ammunition to be sent to the Zelensky government.

The U.S. military first began using depleted uranium en masse during the first Iraq War in the early 1990s. Due to its high density, the material has been used for tank armour as well as for some bullets and anti-tank rounds, with it being highly effective in penetrating armoured vehicles and tanks.

Depleted uranium rounds are produced as a byproduct of the enrichment of the radioactive material, however, it does not generate a nuclear reaction. Yet, there are health and environmental concerns surrounding the rounds, with the U.S. government admitting that depleted uranium poses a “potential health hazard if it enters the body, such as through embedded fragments, contaminated wounds, and inhalation or ingestion.”

A review from Harvard University also said: “Depleted uranium may pose a risk to both soldiers and local civilian populations. When ammunition made from depleted uranium strikes a target, the uranium turns into dust that is inhaled by soldiers near the explosion site. The wind then carries dust to surrounding areas, polluting local water and agriculture.”

NATO nations that operate the rounds nevertheless insist the tank-busting rounds are ‘safe’ and claims by Russia that the use of depleted uranium tank-busting rounds in Ukraine is causing a “radioactive cloud” to spread over Europe have been fact-checked by Western intelligence agencies.

more
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/06/13/biden-administration-set-to-supply-depleted-uranium-rounds-to-ukraine-report/

[Timber Rattler]

Depleted uranium is just that...depleted, and barely radioactive, at a very low level.  It's a heavy metal like lead though and is used to penetrate heavy tank armor.

[Kamaji]

Depleted uranium is just that...depleted, and barely radioactive, at a very low level.  It's a heavy metal like lead though and is used to penetrate heavy tank armor.

Exactly.

[Kamaji]

Putin gives his Defence Minister the cold shoulder: Russian leader's blatant snub to sheepish-looking Shoigu at wounded soldier ceremony

Putin appeared to totally ignore Shoigu, turning his back on the defence minister
It came moments after the Russian president awkwardly greeted injured troops

By DAVID AVERRE
13 June 2023

Vladimir Putin has not openly criticised his long-suffering defence minister amid the war in Ukraine, but the Russian president appeared to make his feelings towards Sergei Shoigu very clear on a visit to a hospital for wounded soldiers.

Putin and Shoigu yesterday visited the Vishnevsky Central Military Clinical Hospital in Moscow to greet several servicemen who sustained all manner of gruesome injuries amid the Kremlin chief's war in Ukraine.

Upon their arrival at the medical facility, Putin quickly walked around the group, awkwardly shaking the hands - and in some cases bandaged stumps - of the medically discharged veterans, asking them how they were coping and thanking them for their service.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12190053/Putin-gives-Defence-Minister-cold-shoulder.html

[kevindavis007]

Putin gives his Defence Minister the cold shoulder: Russian leader's blatant snub to sheepish-looking Shoigu at wounded soldier ceremony

Putin appeared to totally ignore Shoigu, turning his back on the defence minister
It came moments after the Russian president awkwardly greeted injured troops

By DAVID AVERRE
13 June 2023

Vladimir Putin has not openly criticised his long-suffering defence minister amid the war in Ukraine, but the Russian president appeared to make his feelings towards Sergei Shoigu very clear on a visit to a hospital for wounded soldiers.

Putin and Shoigu yesterday visited the Vishnevsky Central Military Clinical Hospital in Moscow to greet several servicemen who sustained all manner of gruesome injuries amid the Kremlin chief's war in Ukraine.

Upon their arrival at the medical facility, Putin quickly walked around the group, awkwardly shaking the hands - and in some cases bandaged stumps - of the medically discharged veterans, asking them how they were coping and thanking them for their service.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12190053/Putin-gives-Defence-Minister-cold-shoulder.html

Shoigu better stay away from Windows and have a taster.

[Kamaji]

Shoigu better stay away from Windows and have a taster.

Yup.

[kevindavis007]

Warning Graphic Video:

from r/UkraineWarVideoReport

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/148bwsw/a_captured_russian_soldier_tells_how_the_russian/

[kevindavis007]

from r/UkraineWarVideoReport

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/148ekob/russian_t72b3_hiding_behind_the_trees_gets_hit_by/

[Kamaji]

Warning Graphic Video:

from r/UkraineWarVideoReport

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/148bwsw/a_captured_russian_soldier_tells_how_the_russian/

I wonder how much of that information is getting into Russia.

[kevindavis007]

Warning Graphic Video:

from r/UkraineWarVideoReport

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/148f9bq/for_every_48_cm_they_advanced_in_bakhmut_the/

[kevindavis007]

Warning Graphic Video:

from r/UkraineWarVideoReport

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/148gt1g/captured_russian_pows_under_ukrainian_guard_carry/

[kevindavis007]

from r/UkraineWarVideoReport

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/148f877/ukrainian_soldier_speeds_by_several_bradleys_on/

[kevindavis007]

from r/UkraineWarVideoReport

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/148kx8j/the_freedom_of_russia_legions_appeal_was_heard/

[kevindavis007]

Russia's Strongest Tanks Are No Match for Ukraine's New Weapons
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-tanks-ukraine-depleted-uranium-rounds-usa-abrams-challenger-leopard-1806240

[kevindavis007]

Russia lost another General:

https://twitter.com/officejjsmart/status/1668452102228647939

[kevindavis007]

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1668675936135401472

[Kamaji]

‘Best’ Russian general killed in Ukraine missile strike during counteroffensive

By Snejana Farberov
June 13, 2023

A top Russian general has been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike during Kyiv’s escalating counteroffensive, a report said Tuesday.

Prominent pro-Russian war correspondent Yury Kotyonok revealed on his Telegram channel that Major-General Sergei Goryachev, Chief of Staff of Russia’s 35th Army, had been killed Monday on the Zaporizhzhia front, where Ukrainian forces have been regaining territory in recent days.

“War claims the best,” Kotyonok wrote.

“The army has lost one of its brightest and most effective military commanders, who combined the highest professionalism with personal courage.”

“Deepest and most sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased!” the reporter added.

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/06/13/top-russian-general-sergei-goryachev-killed-in-ukraine/

[Timber Rattler]

Looks like they're identifying and hitting the Russian artillery now...

https://twitter.com/i/status/1668927873900576772

[Kamaji]

Looks like they're identifying and hitting the Russian artillery now...

https://twitter.com/i/status/1668927873900576772

https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1668927873900576772

[Timber Rattler]

Decent article on that first day ambush...


On front lines of Ukraine counteroffensive, soldiers pay heavy price

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/06/13/ukraine-counteroffensive-kryvyi-rih-donetsk/

The men of Ukraine’s 37th Brigade were freshly trained and armed with Western-supplied weapons, tasked with an initial push through Russian-occupied territory in the early days of a long-awaited counteroffensive.

They would pay a heavy price.

Within 20 minutes of their June 5 advance south of Velyka Novosilka, in the southeast Donetsk region, mortars exploded all around them, soldiers said. A 30-year-old soldier known as Lumberjack saw two of the men in his vehicle bleeding heavily; one lost an arm as he cried out for his family. Lumberjack crawled into a crater, but the shrapnel from a mortar went through the soil and pierced his shoulder.

“We were left there in the field, without tanks or heavy armor,” said Lumberjack, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition that he be identified only by his call sign because he was not authorized to discuss the battle. “We were shelled with mortars from three sides. We couldn’t do anything.”

There were fewer than 50 men in the unit, he said, and 30 did not return — they were killed, wounded or captured by the enemy. Five of the unit’s armored vehicles were destroyed within the first hour.

The 37th’s reconnaissance push would eventually help other Ukrainian brigades liberate four villages in Donetsk, one of the counteroffensive’s key starting points, securing an early triumph for Kyiv during the most widely anticipated operation of the war.

Survivors from the 37th, which included some American volunteer fighters and soldiers trained in Europe, described their ordeal as the tip of the spear in Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

Their accounts offered one of the first real glimpses into the brutal fighting on a new front this month, far removed from the antiseptic claims of advances and retreats by officials on both sides of the conflict. And the battalion’s heavy losses foreshadow the terrible cost that Ukraine’s leaders are prepared to pay — and believe they must pay — to oust the Russian invaders and reclaim their lost territory.

EXCERPT

[Kamaji]

https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1668931812456792064

[Kamaji]

Putin lets slip that Russia has lost 54 tanks in a week

President claims Ukraine suffered ‘catastrophic’ losses during counter-offensive and teases idea of a second assault on Kyiv

By Nataliya Vasilyeva,
RUSSIA CORRESPONDENT, IN ISTANBUL
13 June 2023

Vladimir Putin has said his forces lost 54 tanks in under two weeks of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in a rare admission of battlefield casualties.

He refused to reveal more details but insisted the losses were much lower than Ukraine’s, claiming Kyiv had suffered “catastrophic” defeats, including swathes of Western-donated arms.

His comments at the Kremlin came as Russian sources reported that a British Storm Shadow missile had killed a top Russian general, the first to die for more than a year

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Ukraine showed reporters newly recaptured villages in the first independent verification of its gains. Reuters said the bodies of Russian soldiers had been left abandoned near destroyed armoured vehicles.

Ukraine also claimed its forces were moving forward, just after Putin said the long-expected counter-offensive was failing.

*  *  *

Ukraine, according to Putin, has lost 160 tanks and 360 armoured vehicles, which he claimed accounts for 30 per cent of all weapon supplies to Ukraine by Western allies.

Oryx, an independent analyst of battlefield losses, counted less than 10 Ukrainian vehicles destroyed so far.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/06/13/vladimir-putin-russia-lost-tanks-counter-offensive-ukraine/

[Timber Rattler]

Biden rushes replacement armored vehicles to Ukraine after battlefield losses

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/13/biden-armored-vehicles-ukraine-00101763

The Biden administration is rushing more armored vehicles to Ukraine as the country’s forces suffer some early losses in the early thrusts of its counteroffensive against Russia.

The $325 million drawdown of U.S. military stocks announced Tuesday will also pump artillery shells and air defense missiles into the fight, in addition to sending 15 Bradley fighting vehicles to Ukraine after a similar number was lost recently in heavy fighting.

The latest package — the 40th since the start of the war — also includes 10 Stryker infantry carriers to add to the 90 already sent. The Army has supplied over 100 Bradleys to Ukraine, and has trained Ukrainians to use both vehicles.

By attacking through minefields while under Russian artillery fire, the Ukrainian army has already lost at least 16 Bradleys and four Leopard tanks, open source intelligence project Oryx has reported. Kyiv does not provide official numbers for battlefield losses.

EXCERPT