Ukraine 3

[Timber Rattler]

At U.S. Base in Germany, Ukraine’s Military Conducts War Games

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/world/europe/ukraine-us-wargames-germany.html

With winter almost behind them, senior American generals hosted Ukrainian military officials this week for a set of “tabletop” exercises designed to help Kyiv map out the next stage of its battle to reclaim territory from dug-in Russian troops.

During a war-game session at the headquarters of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, the military officials rehearsed a range of options for an offensive that Ukraine’s leader, President Volodymyr Zelensky, has been telegraphing for some time.

The sessions, attended on Thursday by President Biden’s most senior generals responsible for American efforts to help Ukraine, were meant to strategize, officials said, mapping out the risks and benefits of a variety of moves that Ukraine might make against Russian positions in the coming months.

Ukrainian officials will ultimately decide which course to follow, with the American military officials described as serving like a sounding board.

After one session on Thursday, Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, the supreme allied commander for Europe, praised the Ukrainian military’s “phenomenal” adaptability and said, “We’re going to help them adapt more.”

The United States and NATO, he said, “can keep going as long as necessary.”

The war games come as Ukraine is emerging from a winter that was expected to provide a lull in fighting. But both sides continue to take heavy casualties in the Russian onslaught against the eastern city of Bakhmut.

Earlier this week, Mr. Zelensky appeared to signal that Ukraine was preparing for a major offensive. He said in a speech that he had met with top officers in the military about preparations, as well as about shortages in weaponry and ammunition.

[Kamaji]

He was a brave soldier who died with honor and defiance!

[Kamaji]

This is what Russian "liberation" looks like:


Inside Russia’s harrowing ‘re-education’ camps — where they send kidnapped Ukrainian kids

By Snejana Farberov
March 6, 2023

Kidnapped Ukrainian children are being sent to Russian “re-education” camps — where they are kept in prison-like conditions, forced to watch Russian propaganda, beaten and subjected to sexual violence, according to parents and activists.

Inessa Vertash, 43, hasn’t seen her 15-year-old son, Vitaliy, in five months — ever since he left on what was supposed to be a two-week trip to a camp at the urging of his school teacher.

It was billed as a retreat to escape the fighting.

“I told her I wanted to think about it but she said there’s nothing to think about, they were leaving the next day and would get food five times a day and why would you keep him here where there are bombs and missiles?,” the distressed mother told the Sunday Times.

After the two weeks were up, the teen was moved to another camp, which he likened to a prison.

Vertash told the Times that her son called her crying and described his harrowing living conditions.

“There were no sheets on the beds, they were made to wear clothes of old people, given food only fit for pigs and beaten if they didn’t sing the Russian anthem,” the mom recounted.

Even more alarmingly, Vitaliy told his mother that Russian camp workers were forcing 13-year-old Ukrainian girls to have sex with them.

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/03/06/ukrainian-kids-kidnapped-by-russia-sent-to-re-education-camps/



People who support Russia disgust me.

[Elderberry]

Russian forces resort to welding war relics onto ‘tankenstein’ vehicles

https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/06/russian-forces-resort-welding-war-relics-tankenstein-vehicles//

Military expert says ‘a supposed first-world army’ cobbling together old parts reveals the ‘perilous state of the Russian army’

Russia is welding ageing naval turrets on to old armoured vehicles to make crude tanks as Vladimir Putin’s forces face worsening arms shortages.

The crudely engineered vehicles are being deployed in a likely attempt to shoot down Ukrainian drones as the armed forces grapple with crippling shortages of fighting machines and ammunition.

New footage from an undisclosed location appears to show a 25mm 2M-3 twin-barrelled naval anti-aircraft turret fitted to a Soviet-era MT-LB amphibious fighting vehicle to form a new hybrid weapon.

The amalgamation, which was constructed with parts manufactured as early as 1945, could be seen being transported by rail, potentially to Ukraine.

Its 25mm guns were likely procured from a naval patrol boat, an area where Russia has a rare surplus, while its tracks could date back to the 1950s.

Military experts said Russia is likely being forced to improvise from dwindling stockpiles to backfill for destroyed or lost hardware in Ukraine.

[240B]

Delusions of a megalomaniac

[DB]

Delusions of a megalomaniac

But, but, I was told with great intensity that this was just a border dispute to take out some Nazis...

When will the Russian people wake up and remove their tormentor?

[240B]

[Maj. Bill Martin]

Delusions of a megalomaniac

That is almost word for world what Col. Douglas MacGregor said a year ago -- that it would be over in days, and that NATO would fall apart.

Sometimes, telling dictators exactly what they want to hear to earn brownie points doesn't work out.  For anyone.

[240B]

That is almost word for world what Col. Douglas MacGregor said a year ago -- that it would be over in days, and that NATO would fall apart.

Sometimes, telling dictators exactly what they want to hear to earn brownie points doesn't work out.  For anyone.

But what this does, if true, is it exposes that Ukraine was intended to be a side mission. The real mission was much bigger and broader than just Ukraine. The primary goals were Poland, and disrupting NATO.

[berdie]

He was a brave soldier who died with honor and defiance!

Heart breaking.

[Kamaji]

But what this does, if true, is it exposes that Ukraine was intended to be a side mission. The real mission was much bigger and broader than just Ukraine. The primary goals were Poland, and disrupting NATO.

Of course.

[Hoodat]

The T-80B Was A Great Tank—In 1978. Now It’s The Latest Obsolete Vehicle To Join The Russian War Effort.

David Axe  |  Mar 6, 2023  |  06:52pm EST


A T-80B in its heyday.  WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

In 1978, Soviet tank-maker Omsktransmash took the basic T-80 tank, which had appeared just two years earlier, and added a new turret with a better autoloader and fire-controls plus tougher composite armor.

The Soviets called this tank the T-80B. And for seven years until the T-80BV appeared, it was the Soviet army’s best tank. A few years later, it began disappearing from front-line service.

Now the T-80B is back. Desperate to make good some of the 1,800 tanks it has lost in the first year of its wider war on Ukraine, Russia has been pulling 40-year-old T-80Bs from long-term storage.  .  .

.  .  .  Without new optics, a T-80B crew is at a serious disadvantage in a direct fight with a Ukrainian tank crew in an upgraded T-64BV.  .  .  .

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/03/06/the-t-80b-was-a-great-tank-in-1978-now-its-the-latest-obsolete-vehicle-to-join-the-russian-war-effort/

[Kamaji]

Mysterious deaths related to Russian gas giant Gazprom may have been linked to 'money-laundering scheme' benefiting top exec's family and his cronies from Putin's security services, report claims

Suspicious deaths of Gazprom execs may be linked to money laundering scheme
The scheme benefited a top gas executive's family and his close friends at FSB

By WILL STEWART FOR MAILONLINE
8 March 2023

Mysterious deaths among business executives at Russian energy giant Gazprom are allegedly linked to a complex 'money-laundering scheme' benefiting a top gas executive's family and his cronies at Vladimir Putin's security services.

Novaya Gazeta Europe, a leading investigative news outlet, and Transparency International Russia, claimed that the high-profile Russian businessmen who have died in suspicious circumstances were linked to a multi-million dollar money-laundering scheme.

The day after the war in Ukraine started, Alexander Tyulyakov, deputy head of corporate security at Gazprom's United Settlement Centre, the energy giant's 'treasury' allegedly committed suicide.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11835369/Mysterious-deaths-related-Russian-gas-giant-Gazprom-linked-money-laundering-scheme.html?ico=topics_pagination_desktop

[Hoodat]

Footage of a conversation between the mobilized of the 1004th regiment from Kaliningrad and their battalion commander. The mobilized talk about their conflicts with local "L/DPR" militias who don't consider them worthy of staying in the same positions. We will all die ----

from r/UkraineWarVideoReport

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/11m2m7n/footage_of_a_conversation_between_the_mobilized/

[Timber Rattler]

Update:

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1633548068774715392

The Ukrainian Army now confirms that the name of the Ukrainian POW brutally murdered on film by Russian troops after saying “Glory to Ukraine” is not Timofey Shadura after all.

The victim is Oleksandr Matsievsky of the 119th separate brigade, murdered in Soledar.

[Kamaji]

Here we go again, with Russian LGM:


Russian false-flag fears as pro-Putin separatists in Moldova claim they have foiled Ukrainian 'terror attack' in breakaway region

The comments from security officials were published by Russian state-run news

Comes as Moldova adopted a declaration condemning Russia's war in Ukraine

By DAVID AVERRE
9 March 2023

Pro-Moscow authorities in Moldova's separatist region of Transdniestria, which borders Ukraine, have claimed they prevented a terror attack organised by Kyiv against separatist officials.

Security officials said in a statement they had halted 'a terror attack... directed by Ukrainian security services, being prepared against a number of officials,' including Transdniestria's leader Vadim Krasnoselsky.

'The suspects have been detained. They have given confessions,' the report claimed, providing no further information.

The comments were published by Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti and come on the same day that the Moldovan parliament adopted a declaration condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine, prompting suspicions Moscow was orchestrating a false-flag operation as a pretext to increase its 1,700-strong troop presence in Transdniestria and justify further attacks on Ukraine.

Moldova, a pro-European republic of 2.6 million people located between Romania and Ukraine, has feared that it could be Putin's next target ever since the Kremlin launched its offensive on Kyiv a year ago.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11839207/Pro-Putin-separatists-Moldova-claim-foiled-Ukrainian-terror-attack.html?ico=topics_pagination_desktop

[Kamaji]

Interesting idea, but that essentially conflates, for example, 60 y.o. tanks that have been in mothballs for decades with anti-tank weapons like HIMARS.  I rather doubt that much of the reserved weapons would really be a serious threat, other than, perhaps, just blowing up and leaving craters in the ground.


Russia has enough weaponry to keep the Ukraine war going for another TWO YEARS – even without support from another nation

Russia's amount of weaponry stored in reserves to 'cause enormous damage'
Could last longer as China, Iran and North Korea rumoured to supply weapons
READ MORE: Russian missiles caused 'significant' risk of Chernobyl-like disaster

By MIRIAM KUEPPER
9 March 2023

Russia has enough weaponry to keep the Ukraine war going for another two years - even without support from another nation, Lithuania's military intelligence service said today.

'Russia had been accumulating weapons and equipment over the long years of the Cold War,' military intelligence chief Elegijus Paulavicius said and added: 'We estimate that (its) resources would last for another two years of a war of the same intensity as today.'

Russia has a large amount of weaponry stored in its reserves, which would allow them to 'cause enormous damage and increase the costs of restoration,' he said.

Mr Paulavicius noted that the assessment depended on the perspective that no foreign country would provide military aid to Moscow.

However, Russia's weaponry could last even longer than the estimated two years, as there have already been fears that China was supplying drones to Russia after the German magazine Der Spiegel reported in February that Russia was in talks with a Chinese manufacturer to buy 100 prototype ZT-180 drones, delivered by April.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11841115/Russia-weaponry-Ukraine-war-going-TWO-YEARS.html

[Kamaji]

Wagner Group boss moans he’s been ‘cut off’ by Putin for demanding ammo

By Snejana Farberov
March 10, 2023

The outspoken founder of the Wagner mercenary group complained that Vladimir Putin has cut off all contact with him following his constant demands for more ammunition for his fighters in Ukraine.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a catering mogul and Putin’s long-time ally, said in a message on his Telegram channel Thursday that he has been unable to get through to anyone at the Kremlin.

The apparent silent treatment came after Prigozhin publicly called on the Russian Ministry of Defense to supply ammunition to his mercenaries fighting to capture the key city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, which has seen some of the bloodiest battles since the start of the invasion.

“In order to stop me from asking for ammunition, they turned off all special [government] phone lines in all of the offices and [Wagner] units … and blocked all [my] passes to the agencies responsible for making decisions,” Prigozhin moaned.

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/03/10/wagners-yevgeny-prigozhin-says-hes-been-cut-off-by-putin/

[Smokin Joe]

Wagner Group boss moans he’s been ‘cut off’ by Putin for demanding ammo

By Snejana Farberov
March 10, 2023

The outspoken founder of the Wagner mercenary group complained that Vladimir Putin has cut off all contact with him following his constant demands for more ammunition for his fighters in Ukraine.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a catering mogul and Putin’s long-time ally, said in a message on his Telegram channel Thursday that he has been unable to get through to anyone at the Kremlin.

The apparent silent treatment came after Prigozhin publicly called on the Russian Ministry of Defense to supply ammunition to his mercenaries fighting to capture the key city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, which has seen some of the bloodiest battles since the start of the invasion.

“In order to stop me from asking for ammunition, they turned off all special [government] phone lines in all of the offices and [Wagner] units … and blocked all [my] passes to the agencies responsible for making decisions,” Prigozhin moaned.

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/03/10/wagners-yevgeny-prigozhin-says-hes-been-cut-off-by-putin/

Is Putin setting up a 'fall guy' for the failure of his little invasion?

[Kamaji]

Is Putin setting up a 'fall guy' for the failure of his little invasion?

Quite possibly.  The Wagner guy has already complained about being set up to take the blame.

[Smokin Joe]

Quite possibly.  The Wagner guy has already complained about being set up to take the blame.

Considering the ruthless nature (as described) of that group, that could eventually backfire.

[240B]

[Timber Rattler]

Moldova police say they foiled Russia-backed unrest plot

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/moldova-police-say-foiled-russia-backed-unrest-plot-rcna74617

Police in Moldova said they foiled a plot by groups of Russia-backed actors who were trained to cause mass unrest during a Sunday protest against the country’s new pro-Western government.

The head of Moldova’s police, Viorel Cernauteanu, said in a news conference that an undercover agent had infiltrated groups of “diversionists,” some Russian citizens, who allegedly were promised $10,000 to organize “mass disorder” during the protest in the capital, Chisinau. Seven people were detained, he said.

Separately, police said they arrested 54 protesters, including 21 minors, who exhibited “questionable behavior” or were found to be carrying prohibited items, including at least one knife.

The protest Sunday is one of several held in recent weeks organized by a group calling itself Movement for the People, which is backed by Moldova’s Russia-friendly Shor Party, which holds six seats in the country’s 101-seat legislature.

The demonstrators are demanding that the government fully cover the costs of winter energy bills and to “not involve the country in war.” They have repeatedly called on President Maia Sandu to step down.

Police said that four bomb threats on Sunday, including one at the capital’s international airport, had been registered, which they called “an ongoing part of the destabilization measures” against Moldova, a former Soviet republic with a population of about 2.6 million.

Moldova’s border police also said Sunday that 182 foreign nationals in the last week have been denied entry into Moldova, including a “possible representative” of Russia’s Wagner Group, the private military company that is fighting in Ukraine, Moldova’s war-torn neighbor.

Excerpt

[Kamaji]

Moldova police say they foiled Russia-backed unrest plot

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/moldova-police-say-foiled-russia-backed-unrest-plot-rcna74617

Excerpt

Russian LGM.

[Kamaji]

Moment Ukrainian troops storm across no man's land firing assault rifles as Kyiv inflicts 'significant losses' on Russian forces with hundreds more killed in battle of Bakhmut

Russia and Ukraine remain locked in a battle for the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk
Wagner Group mercenaries struggling to break tide of Ukrainian resistance

By JAMES REYNOLDS FOR MAILONLINE and AFP
13 March 2023

Body camera footage shows the moment Ukrainian soldiers burst forward in a charge across no man's land, pinning down enemies before breaching a position near Bakhmut.

Gunfire is heard as members of the 24th Assault Battalion Aidar move across open ground, suppressing opposing forces with a spray of automatic fire as they push towards cover.

The men take brief respite, stacking up against a wall as another soldier looks to breach one of the buildings.

The Battalion is on the frontline of the city, fighting for control of the region which has been the longest-running and bloodiest battle of Moscow's invasion.

Ukraine said today that Russia's Wagner mercenary group, which has claimed to be leading Moscow's charge for the industrial city, was pushing forward into the industrial city.

'Wagner assault units are advancing from several directions, trying to break through our troops' defensive positions and move to the centre of the city,' the Ukrainian military said in a morning briefing. 'In fierce battles, our defenders are inflicting significant losses on the enemy.'

Russia suffered its deadliest day of the war over the weekend with 1,090 claimed to have died on Saturday amid the desperate push for control of the city.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11853481/Moment-Ukrainian-troops-storm-no-mans-land-Kyiv-inflicts-losses-Russian-forces-Bakhmut.html