What the hell?
ALERT RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE - Consolidated Thread
- Thread starter danielboon
- Start date
What the hell?
danielboon
TB Fanatic
INDEED
Ordinary Girl
Veteran Member
Sabotage?
jward
passin' thru
Samuel Ramani
@SamRamani2
2h
Britain is poised to emulate Canada by authorizing the seizure of Russian assets to aid Ukraine's reconstruction Given the concentration of Russian oligarch wealth in Britain, this is a major step forward for the sanctions regime
jward
passin' thru
Don't feel bad, iirc the media had to actually clear up that it was satire for folk too.
jward
passin' thru
Samuel Ramani
@SamRamani2
BREAKING: Slovakia is reportedly ready to supply MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine
The Czech Republic also announced it would help guard Slovakian airspace from September. Slovakia is trying to make sure its airspace is secure before releasing MiG-29 jets to Ukraine.
View: https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1543731837222125569?s=20&t=miVzr4DIZnPa-yH1I-KSiA
BREAKING: Australia announces $100 million in new aid to Ukraine and sanctions against 16 Russian officials
This continues Australia's trend of supporting Western sanctions and aiding Ukraine. Anthony Albanese's visits to Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel were noteworthy, as he is the first Australian Prime Minister to visit Ukraine.
@SamRamani2
BREAKING: Slovakia is reportedly ready to supply MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine
The Czech Republic also announced it would help guard Slovakian airspace from September. Slovakia is trying to make sure its airspace is secure before releasing MiG-29 jets to Ukraine.
View: https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1543731837222125569?s=20&t=miVzr4DIZnPa-yH1I-KSiA
BREAKING: Australia announces $100 million in new aid to Ukraine and sanctions against 16 Russian officials
This continues Australia's trend of supporting Western sanctions and aiding Ukraine. Anthony Albanese's visits to Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel were noteworthy, as he is the first Australian Prime Minister to visit Ukraine.
jward
passin' thru
Shashank Joshi
@shashj
4h
“A [Ukrainian] military-intelligence officer says that forward units are now within sniper range (a kilometre or so) of Kherson’s outer suburbs. “The next week or two will be even more interesting,” he promises.”
View: https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1543724663519559682?s=20&t=miVzr4DIZnPa-yH1I-KSiA
@shashj
4h
“A [Ukrainian] military-intelligence officer says that forward units are now within sniper range (a kilometre or so) of Kherson’s outer suburbs. “The next week or two will be even more interesting,” he promises.”
View: https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1543724663519559682?s=20&t=miVzr4DIZnPa-yH1I-KSiA
Doomer Doug
TB Fanatic
It is IMPOSSIBLE for an elevator to fall 1500 feet in a Western skyscrapper. For one thing they have physical hard brakes that will lock spikes in the shaft wall. Maybe Russja's version of Otis company has no idea what they are doing
Doomer Doug
TB Fanatic
Jward, the ukies are trapped in their own propaganda. They see snipers on the outer perimeter of Kherson as a good thing, and a sign of strength. I see it as a sign of reacting to a shattering and decisive ukie military defeat. The ukies just lost the entire eastern ukraine, except for a few scraps. Russia will be rolling up to this new Ukie sniper bastion atvkherson and shell it for a week and roll towards liev.
The war is over and the ukies are sending snipers to fight artillery brigades. Zippy will now get even more 15 year old kids killed off in his jihad. One maßacre of kherson coming up.
The war is over and the ukies are sending snipers to fight artillery brigades. Zippy will now get even more 15 year old kids killed off in his jihad. One maßacre of kherson coming up.
Doc1
Has No Life - Lives on TB
My only military service was as a rifleman (NCO qualified) in a foreign army, though I also did some work as a war correspondent. None of that qualifies me as any sort of military 'exspurt' though I've followed and studied these things for many decades. Maybe I know a little more than the average bear.
Having followed the Russo-Ukraine war rather closely - and trying desperately not to be partisan - I think Ukraine is losing rather badly. On the other hand, I think they've put up a much stronger showing than the Russians expected. The offensive on Kherson illustrates the major reason the Ukes are failing: Even if we are to assume that the Ukrainians will be successful, we then have to ask, "So what?"
Taking Kherson - which they are certain to subsequently lose - offers absolutely no strategic benefits and will be achieved only with an extreme expenditure of blood and treasure. It would only be a temporary and quickly forgotten victory. Additionally, it will only play to Russia's strengths, as the inevitable manpower losses are more easily replaced by the Russians than the Ukrainians.
The Ukrainians often to seem to play more to the western press than they do to battlefield realities and an assault on Kherson would be yet another example of this.
Best
Doc
Perhaps a classic example of a rather Pyrrhic "victory" for the media. But the bleeding grunts and displaced citizens (who have finally been getting their lives put back together recently with functioning administrations despite assassinations) will most likely have a much different point of view.
The videos of the work being done further to the northeast to rebuild Mariupol are pretty impressive to see.
Just tossing this out - China plays a long game - would not be surprised if they are not indirectly influencing and pushing the West to keep this going. The US/UK/NATO are running through the bulk of their ammo and weapons reserves. When China makes its move the West will be hard pressed to engage them.
The West thinks they are weakening Russia - China knows that actually it is Russia that is draining the blood from the West.
The West thinks they are weakening Russia - China knows that actually it is Russia that is draining the blood from the West.
What do you consider the entire eastern Ukraine?
China is poking both sides. I believe Xi is the one that was whispering in Putins ear about NATO and the Ukraine. Played his ego. They use their agents in the West to push harder and spend more material and treasure. China wants Taiwan and needs resources. Cant take Taiwan without a significanr reduction of US air and naval power in the region. Easiest resources to take are to the north of China in the Russian Far East and Siberia.
I'll bet there are a lot of Russians happy to relive the "Good Old Days" of Communism.
CaryC
Has No Life - Lives on TB
IMHO the dividing line between east and west would be the Dniper River, everything east of that is....eastern Ukraine. It's also the dividing line between eastern and western Slavs. Who have fought each other for thousands of years.
In tracing my 2X G grandmother's line/genealogy it traces to rulers in Kiev, and Poland who married to form alliances and fight the eastern Slavs, on the other side of the river. Reading the history of that area from the 700's through to now is fascinating.
Biblical: "...nothing new under the sun...." comes to mind.
von Koehler
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Reminds me of the staged photograph of Soviet troops raising their flag on the Reichstag building in 1945. I am sure that connection wasn't lost on today's Russian propaganda.
Fits Putin's narrative that they are fighting neo-Nazi's. Notice the flag was not the current Russian flag.
northern watch
TB Fanatic
Europe | Heading south
Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive to retake Kherson province
Russia will provide fierce resistance
Jul 3rd 2022 (Updated Jul 4th 2022) | KRYVYI RIH AND ZELENODOLSK
The Economist
In the early days of the war in Ukraine, a rapid Russian advance plunged Kherson province into darkness. What little is known about life there comes from refugees who dare to escape, reaching relative safety in front-line towns like Zelenodolsk. They come any way they can: by foot, bike, boat, in wheelchairs. One woman was dragged by her son on a carpet. At one point, nearly 1,000 a day were arriving. Destroyed bridges and increased risks mean the daily count has dwindled to single digits. But a vast yard of abandoned bicycles, wheelchairs and baskets on the edge of Zelenodolsk stands as a memorial to the lives left behind—temporarily, so those who have fled hope.
The most recent arrivals talk of intense fighting as Ukraine readies itself to counter-attack from the west, near Mykolaiv, and the north, from towns like Zelenodolsk. Vlad Milin, 31, and Olha Shelemba, 26, said that shelling had become so relentless in their village, Dovhove, they decided to risk everything and travel with their five young children in a boat, then navigate country fields and mined roads to safety. There was little point in watching the battle unfold further, they said. “Neither side is going to give up.”
Kherson, a gateway to Crimea, is the only regional capital that Russia has managed to capture since the war began on February 24th. Just as important to Russia’s southern strategy is its occupation of neighbouring Kakhovka, on the left bank of the Dnipro, where a dam provides the annexed peninsula’s water. The whole region is an agricultural powerhouse, providing tomatoes, watermelons, sunflowers and soyabeans. For these reasons and more, Ukraine is prioritising efforts to retake it. The country’s forces can already boast tactical successes. A military-intelligence officer says that forward units are now within sniper range (a kilometre or so) of Kherson’s outer suburbs. “The next week or two will be even more interesting,” he promises.
Whatever is under way does not yet appear to be a full-fledged counter-offensive. Ukraine remains focussed on halting Russia’s steady advance in the east—on July 2nd, its troops retreated from Lysychansk in Luhansk province—and its southern grouping does not enjoy the three-to-one advantage strategists recommend for a successful offensive. Soldiers complain of a critical shortage of ammunition and infantry. “There is a tendency by our bosses to overstate success on the battlefield,” says Banderas, the nom de guerre of a Ukrainian reconnaissance commander. That could change only if more Western rocket systems are used in the southern theatre, he added. Currently only a handful of M777 howitzers are deployed there.
Where the Ukrainians are pushing, the Russians are fighting back hard. Serhiy, a Ukrainian territorial-defence soldier working behind Russian lines in Vysokopillya, just across from Zelenodolsk, says the enemy has built reinforced bunkers under the ground. When they try to push the Russians out, they return in greater numbers. “Their ten becomes a hundred,” he says. One village base has four air-defence units defending it. Ukraine’s task has been hindered, the soldier complains, by locals who did not flee the occupation and are being used by Russian troops as human shields: “We can’t shoot at our own people.”
A handful of locals are collaborating with the enemy, he says. Girls as young as 15 have been recruited by the Russians. In early June, Serhiy’s company discovered a 40-year-old artillery spotter during a random search. The man’s near-clean mobile phone gave him away. The phone had just one computer-game app installed. Closer inspection revealed the game was, in fact, a tool to record co-ordinates and receive cryptocurrency payments. “The bastard had mapped out our hardware movements over the last month,” he says.
The exposed lowlands of Kherson mean that any Ukrainian advance there feels the full force of Russian artillery. There is already talk of serious losses in the areas immediately south of Zelenodolsk. An attempt to cross the Inhulets river at the village of Davydiv Brid in May—essential for a second-prong attack on Kakhovka—was particularly costly. “They were baited into the line of fire,” says Victoria, a farmer who lived in Davydiv Brid until it became impossible in mid-May. “A lot of our men lost their lives.”
The 38-year-old fidgets as she recounts her own escape. The cue to leave came when Grad rockets landed in the farmyard. She jumped in a car and joined a convoy of a hundred vehicles that had been waiting to pass over the bridge, which has since been destroyed. Russian soldiers gave the go-ahead to cross, but as the convoy approached Ukrainian positions on the other side, it was shelled. To this day, it is unclear who fired. Ukrainian authorities say between 20 and 50 people died. Their bodies have not been recovered.
Lucky to be alive, Victoria has not moved far from danger. She is again living near the front line in Zelenodolsk, housed there by local volunteers. Like many of Kherson’s mostly poor refugees, she has no money for anything else. She left everything behind in the village: her house, her cows, her chickens.
But she insists that not all the Russian soldiers were villains, and she even felt sorry for the youngest ones. Some were fellow Ukrainians, conscripted “after going out to buy bread” in occupied Luhansk, in the east. Those boys paid for everything they took from the village shop, she says—first in hryvnia, later in roubles—and even said “thank you” in Ukrainian. But when Russian positions came under serious attack, the Luhansk units were fortified with angrier colleagues from Russia itself.
The shifting attitudes in Davydiv Brid offer a warning of what may happen in Kherson if Ukraine’s counter-offensive gathers pace. “Anton”, the pseudonym of a former official who fled to Krivyi Rih in late May after being asked to head a collaborationist authority, says Russia has generally tried not to upset locals too much. This was a conscious decision to co-opt the population, he said. But if that changes and the occupiers are forced out of Kherson, there is little to hold them back. Things will turn nasty, and quickly. “The Russians will be angry as hell, and lash out, but the partisan resistance will be just as fierce,” he said. “The locals will simply tear the Russians apart.” ■
Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive to retake Kherson province | The Economist
Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive to retake Kherson province
Russia will provide fierce resistance
Jul 3rd 2022 (Updated Jul 4th 2022) | KRYVYI RIH AND ZELENODOLSK
The Economist
In the early days of the war in Ukraine, a rapid Russian advance plunged Kherson province into darkness. What little is known about life there comes from refugees who dare to escape, reaching relative safety in front-line towns like Zelenodolsk. They come any way they can: by foot, bike, boat, in wheelchairs. One woman was dragged by her son on a carpet. At one point, nearly 1,000 a day were arriving. Destroyed bridges and increased risks mean the daily count has dwindled to single digits. But a vast yard of abandoned bicycles, wheelchairs and baskets on the edge of Zelenodolsk stands as a memorial to the lives left behind—temporarily, so those who have fled hope.
The most recent arrivals talk of intense fighting as Ukraine readies itself to counter-attack from the west, near Mykolaiv, and the north, from towns like Zelenodolsk. Vlad Milin, 31, and Olha Shelemba, 26, said that shelling had become so relentless in their village, Dovhove, they decided to risk everything and travel with their five young children in a boat, then navigate country fields and mined roads to safety. There was little point in watching the battle unfold further, they said. “Neither side is going to give up.”
Kherson, a gateway to Crimea, is the only regional capital that Russia has managed to capture since the war began on February 24th. Just as important to Russia’s southern strategy is its occupation of neighbouring Kakhovka, on the left bank of the Dnipro, where a dam provides the annexed peninsula’s water. The whole region is an agricultural powerhouse, providing tomatoes, watermelons, sunflowers and soyabeans. For these reasons and more, Ukraine is prioritising efforts to retake it. The country’s forces can already boast tactical successes. A military-intelligence officer says that forward units are now within sniper range (a kilometre or so) of Kherson’s outer suburbs. “The next week or two will be even more interesting,” he promises.
Whatever is under way does not yet appear to be a full-fledged counter-offensive. Ukraine remains focussed on halting Russia’s steady advance in the east—on July 2nd, its troops retreated from Lysychansk in Luhansk province—and its southern grouping does not enjoy the three-to-one advantage strategists recommend for a successful offensive. Soldiers complain of a critical shortage of ammunition and infantry. “There is a tendency by our bosses to overstate success on the battlefield,” says Banderas, the nom de guerre of a Ukrainian reconnaissance commander. That could change only if more Western rocket systems are used in the southern theatre, he added. Currently only a handful of M777 howitzers are deployed there.
Where the Ukrainians are pushing, the Russians are fighting back hard. Serhiy, a Ukrainian territorial-defence soldier working behind Russian lines in Vysokopillya, just across from Zelenodolsk, says the enemy has built reinforced bunkers under the ground. When they try to push the Russians out, they return in greater numbers. “Their ten becomes a hundred,” he says. One village base has four air-defence units defending it. Ukraine’s task has been hindered, the soldier complains, by locals who did not flee the occupation and are being used by Russian troops as human shields: “We can’t shoot at our own people.”
A handful of locals are collaborating with the enemy, he says. Girls as young as 15 have been recruited by the Russians. In early June, Serhiy’s company discovered a 40-year-old artillery spotter during a random search. The man’s near-clean mobile phone gave him away. The phone had just one computer-game app installed. Closer inspection revealed the game was, in fact, a tool to record co-ordinates and receive cryptocurrency payments. “The bastard had mapped out our hardware movements over the last month,” he says.
The exposed lowlands of Kherson mean that any Ukrainian advance there feels the full force of Russian artillery. There is already talk of serious losses in the areas immediately south of Zelenodolsk. An attempt to cross the Inhulets river at the village of Davydiv Brid in May—essential for a second-prong attack on Kakhovka—was particularly costly. “They were baited into the line of fire,” says Victoria, a farmer who lived in Davydiv Brid until it became impossible in mid-May. “A lot of our men lost their lives.”
The 38-year-old fidgets as she recounts her own escape. The cue to leave came when Grad rockets landed in the farmyard. She jumped in a car and joined a convoy of a hundred vehicles that had been waiting to pass over the bridge, which has since been destroyed. Russian soldiers gave the go-ahead to cross, but as the convoy approached Ukrainian positions on the other side, it was shelled. To this day, it is unclear who fired. Ukrainian authorities say between 20 and 50 people died. Their bodies have not been recovered.
Lucky to be alive, Victoria has not moved far from danger. She is again living near the front line in Zelenodolsk, housed there by local volunteers. Like many of Kherson’s mostly poor refugees, she has no money for anything else. She left everything behind in the village: her house, her cows, her chickens.
But she insists that not all the Russian soldiers were villains, and she even felt sorry for the youngest ones. Some were fellow Ukrainians, conscripted “after going out to buy bread” in occupied Luhansk, in the east. Those boys paid for everything they took from the village shop, she says—first in hryvnia, later in roubles—and even said “thank you” in Ukrainian. But when Russian positions came under serious attack, the Luhansk units were fortified with angrier colleagues from Russia itself.
The shifting attitudes in Davydiv Brid offer a warning of what may happen in Kherson if Ukraine’s counter-offensive gathers pace. “Anton”, the pseudonym of a former official who fled to Krivyi Rih in late May after being asked to head a collaborationist authority, says Russia has generally tried not to upset locals too much. This was a conscious decision to co-opt the population, he said. But if that changes and the occupiers are forced out of Kherson, there is little to hold them back. Things will turn nasty, and quickly. “The Russians will be angry as hell, and lash out, but the partisan resistance will be just as fierce,” he said. “The locals will simply tear the Russians apart.” ■
Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive to retake Kherson province | The Economist
jward
passin' thru
The Kyiv Independent
@KyivIndependent
56m
Zelensky: Reconstruction of Ukraine is common task of democratic world. In his address to the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Switzerland, Zelensky said that Russia’s war “is not just an attempt to seize our land and destroy our state, but also a worldview confrontation.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AFP News Agency
@AFP
1h
#UPDATE Reconstructing Ukraine is expected to cost $750 billion, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Monday, insisting that seized Russian assets should be used pay for the recovery of his war-shattered country
View: https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1543959062034886658?s=20&t=xcn4ALw48mtWVZpkek8tEQ
@KyivIndependent
56m
Zelensky: Reconstruction of Ukraine is common task of democratic world. In his address to the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Switzerland, Zelensky said that Russia’s war “is not just an attempt to seize our land and destroy our state, but also a worldview confrontation.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AFP News Agency
@AFP
1h
#UPDATE Reconstructing Ukraine is expected to cost $750 billion, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Monday, insisting that seized Russian assets should be used pay for the recovery of his war-shattered country
View: https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1543959062034886658?s=20&t=xcn4ALw48mtWVZpkek8tEQ
jward
passin' thru
Russian forces shift target to Donetsk as Zelenskyy vows Ukraine will win back captured Luhansk
Published Mon, Jul 4 202210:21 AM EDT
Natasha Turak@NatashaTurak
Holly Ellyatt@HollyEllyatt
Share
Key Points
A grain silo destroyed by Russian airstrikes in the Donbas.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated troops for “liberating” Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk province after several weeks of brutal fighting. A huge proportion of the area’s infrastructure, including residential buildings, is destroyed, and numerous civilians have been killed, though the full death toll is not yet known.
Russian forces are now turning their attention to capturing more parts of the neighboring Donetsk region of the Donbas, with the province coming under heavy shelling on Sunday, according to local officials.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk province, said it was a “difficult Sunday in Donetsk region [with] rocket strikes and shelling throughout the region” and described multiple civilian casualties.
Luhansk’s regional governor Serhiy Haidai expects Russian forces to concentrate their attacks on Sloviansk, a city in Donetsk with a pre-war population of roughly 100,000 that was the first to be seized by Russian-backed forces in 2014. It was retaken by Ukrainian troops three months later.
Haidai also named the city of Bakhmut as a key target for Russia.
Luhansk and Donetsk, known collectively as the Donbas, have been the site of sporadic fighting between Ukrainian and pro-Russian troops for many years. Moscow has called capturing the Donbas an “unconditional priority.”
A destroyed Community Art Center in the wake of a strike in the city of Lysychansk in the Donbas on June 17, 2022.
Aris Messinis | Afp | Getty Images
Russia has said its main aim in the war is to “liberate” the Donbas region in east Ukraine where two breakaway pro-Russian, self-styled “republics” are located.
‘We will return’
Ukrainian soldiers defending this eastern territory say they are outmatched by Russian firepower. The past several weeks have seen Russia gain a significant advantage in the Donbas, as Ukraine gradually conceded key cities and towns.
Still, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed that his country will reclaim its lost land.
“If the commanders of our army withdraw people from certain points at the front, where the enemy has the greatest advantage in fire power, and this also applies to Lysychansk, it means only one thing,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday.
“That we will return thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons.”
Soldiers ride on a tank as it is hauled down the highway on June 20, 2022 near Bakhmut, Ukraine.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
Zelenskyy said Russia had enough multiple rocket launch systems to destroy “city after city in Ukraine” and that the reality is that “they have gathered most of their firepower in Donbas.”
The president defended the decision to prioritize lives over land, noting: “The fact that we protect the lives of our soldiers, our people, plays an equally important role. We will rebuild the walls, we will win back the land, and people must be protected above all else.”
A ‘Marshall Plan’
Several international government, private sector and NGO leaders met in Switzerland on Monday to discuss the creation of a “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine’s reconstruction.
The embattled country will need a massive $750 billion for its recovery following Russia’s invasion, the county’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said while speaking to international leaders in Switzerland gathered for the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Shmyhal also said that Russia’s invasion has so far resulted in more than $100 billion in damage to Ukrainian infrastructure. The war has been going on for five months; the longer it continues, the more likely that figure will rise.
Zelenskyy, who spoke to the conference attendees via video call, warned that there was “really colossal” work needed to reconstruct the areas that have already been taken back from Russian troops. In addition to that, “we will have to free over 2,000 villages and towns in the east and south of Ukraine,” he said.
Punch It
www.cnbc.com
Published Mon, Jul 4 202210:21 AM EDT
Natasha Turak@NatashaTurak
Holly Ellyatt@HollyEllyatt
Share
Key Points
- President Vladimir Putin congratulated Russian troops Monday for “liberating” Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk.
- Russian forces are now turning their attention to capturing more parts of the neighboring Donetsk region of the Donbas, with the province coming under heavy shelling on Sunday.
- “We will return thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons,” said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A grain silo destroyed by Russian airstrikes in the Donbas.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated troops for “liberating” Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk province after several weeks of brutal fighting. A huge proportion of the area’s infrastructure, including residential buildings, is destroyed, and numerous civilians have been killed, though the full death toll is not yet known.
Russian forces are now turning their attention to capturing more parts of the neighboring Donetsk region of the Donbas, with the province coming under heavy shelling on Sunday, according to local officials.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk province, said it was a “difficult Sunday in Donetsk region [with] rocket strikes and shelling throughout the region” and described multiple civilian casualties.
Luhansk’s regional governor Serhiy Haidai expects Russian forces to concentrate their attacks on Sloviansk, a city in Donetsk with a pre-war population of roughly 100,000 that was the first to be seized by Russian-backed forces in 2014. It was retaken by Ukrainian troops three months later.
Haidai also named the city of Bakhmut as a key target for Russia.
Luhansk and Donetsk, known collectively as the Donbas, have been the site of sporadic fighting between Ukrainian and pro-Russian troops for many years. Moscow has called capturing the Donbas an “unconditional priority.”
A destroyed Community Art Center in the wake of a strike in the city of Lysychansk in the Donbas on June 17, 2022.
Aris Messinis | Afp | Getty Images
Russia has said its main aim in the war is to “liberate” the Donbas region in east Ukraine where two breakaway pro-Russian, self-styled “republics” are located.
‘We will return’
Ukrainian soldiers defending this eastern territory say they are outmatched by Russian firepower. The past several weeks have seen Russia gain a significant advantage in the Donbas, as Ukraine gradually conceded key cities and towns.
Still, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed that his country will reclaim its lost land.
“If the commanders of our army withdraw people from certain points at the front, where the enemy has the greatest advantage in fire power, and this also applies to Lysychansk, it means only one thing,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday.
“That we will return thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons.”
Soldiers ride on a tank as it is hauled down the highway on June 20, 2022 near Bakhmut, Ukraine.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
Zelenskyy said Russia had enough multiple rocket launch systems to destroy “city after city in Ukraine” and that the reality is that “they have gathered most of their firepower in Donbas.”
The president defended the decision to prioritize lives over land, noting: “The fact that we protect the lives of our soldiers, our people, plays an equally important role. We will rebuild the walls, we will win back the land, and people must be protected above all else.”
A ‘Marshall Plan’
Several international government, private sector and NGO leaders met in Switzerland on Monday to discuss the creation of a “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine’s reconstruction.
The embattled country will need a massive $750 billion for its recovery following Russia’s invasion, the county’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said while speaking to international leaders in Switzerland gathered for the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Shmyhal also said that Russia’s invasion has so far resulted in more than $100 billion in damage to Ukrainian infrastructure. The war has been going on for five months; the longer it continues, the more likely that figure will rise.
Zelenskyy, who spoke to the conference attendees via video call, warned that there was “really colossal” work needed to reconstruct the areas that have already been taken back from Russian troops. In addition to that, “we will have to free over 2,000 villages and towns in the east and south of Ukraine,” he said.
Punch It
Russian forces shift target to Donetsk as Zelenskyy vows Ukraine will win back captured Luhansk
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated troops for "liberating" Ukraine's eastern Luhansk.
WTSR
Veteran Member
Or the Elevators were used to start the fire?!
db cooper
Resident Secret Squirrel
You have a very interesting point. Keep in mind I am no expert in any sense of the word, but the grid consists of power plants and the host of high voltage power transmission lines that string this electricity to cities, farms, businesses and homes.
Natural storms take down small and large sections of the grid all the time. Crews are typically out there repairing the damage within hours or days. My point is, for the grid to be taken out completely would take either multiple (as in hundreds or thousands) of attacks with conventional weapons, or the EMP.
The Uke's have obviously suffered hundreds of attacks on their various electrical grid components either by purposeful targeting or unintended consequence of Russian attacks. And they still have much of their grid alive as well as cell towers depending on the grid so they can use their phones.
Old Greek
Veteran Member
Putin is purposely not targeting the grid, etc. He could have shut the country down in a week if he wanted too.
db cooper
Resident Secret Squirrel
I went to your quoted tweet, then scrolled down to view the comments.
Low and behold, shortly under the Bai Den video under "More Tweets" was this:
And below that appeared to be a real tweet by DJT.
Twitter has changed!
Has anyone heard about the dozen or so bioweapons labs (owned by US and NATO) in Ukraine, and that the Ukrainian soldiers (actually Khazarians) are doing the damage? I've seen several on the ground videos about this. It makes sense that Russia has given up on NATO; it's NATO forces that are breaking their own treaties to stay out of Ukraine. Interested to get your take on this.
danielboon
TB Fanatic
danielboon
TB Fanatic
The Kyiv Independent
@KyivIndependent
·
1h
General Staff: Ukrainian military repels Russia’s offensive in several directions in Donbas. Ukrainian troops repelled Russian attacks on the village of Bilohorivka in Luhansk Oblast and on the Vuglehirsk thermal power plant in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine's General Staff said.
@KyivIndependent
·
1h
General Staff: Ukrainian military repels Russia’s offensive in several directions in Donbas. Ukrainian troops repelled Russian attacks on the village of Bilohorivka in Luhansk Oblast and on the Vuglehirsk thermal power plant in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine's General Staff said.
danielboon
TB Fanatic
Rob Lee
@RALee85
"The exposed lowlands of Kherson mean that any Ukrainian advance there feels the full force of Russian artillery...An attempt to cross the Inhulets river at the village of Davydiv Brid in May...was particularly costly. https://economist.com/europe/2022/07/03/ukraine-prepares-a-counter-offensive-to-retake-kherson-province…
4:00 PM · Jul 4, 2022·Twitter
@RALee85
"The exposed lowlands of Kherson mean that any Ukrainian advance there feels the full force of Russian artillery...An attempt to cross the Inhulets river at the village of Davydiv Brid in May...was particularly costly. https://economist.com/europe/2022/07/03/ukraine-prepares-a-counter-offensive-to-retake-kherson-province…
4:00 PM · Jul 4, 2022·Twitter
danielboon
TB Fanatic
Roland Oliphant
@RolandOliphant
·
3h
Apocalyptic scenes out of Donetsk this pm
View: https://twitter.com/leonidragozin/status/1544008370528653313
@RolandOliphant
·
3h
Apocalyptic scenes out of Donetsk this pm
View: https://twitter.com/leonidragozin/status/1544008370528653313
Doc1
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I bolded the second paragraph only to illustrate that it's part of CaryC's ongoing efforts to get the board to refer to him as "Your Majesty."
Best
Doc
blueinterceptor
Veteran Member
The west should take heed. Our cities will look worse should R/C etc start attacking.
except we will have no power.
Everyone should prepare themselves accordingly
physically mentally spiritually and food
except we will have no power.
Everyone should prepare themselves accordingly
physically mentally spiritually and food
Doc1
Has No Life - Lives on TB
The Russians have intentionally allowed the Ukrainian grid to remain standing. The same is also true of the cell networks and other utilities.
Despite the refusal of some on this board to credit Mr. Putin with any humanitarian inclinations, he has in fact attempted to minimize civilian casualties. This is difficult to do in any war, not matter how benevolent its leaders might be. Members of this board should recall that all of our military adventures - Korea, Vietnam, various Middle East wars, etc. - resulted in huge civilian casualties. This post is in no way an effort to either justify or vilify civilian casualties, but only to illustrate that they are a sad reality of warfare, irrespective of who's pulling the strings..
The Russians' restraint - thus far - in taking out public utilities, indicates to my mind a genuine desire not to create mayhem and a (greater) humanitarian crisis. They certainly aren't being given any credit for it. Imagine if the remaining large Ukrainian cities, such as Kiev, Lviv, Kharkov and Odessa suddenly went dark. It's not totally selfless. The Russians gain valuable intel by allowing the communications networks to stand, but this advantage is more than outweighed by the disadvantages the Russian military suffers by allowing a functioning electrical grid to remain to the Ukrainians.
There would be almost instantaneous hunger and medical emergencies, followed immediately by true starvation and an indescribable refugee crisis. Such a scenario would cause the Ukrainian military effort to be even more of a mess than it currently is. Can you imagine the Ukrainian authorities attempting to manage the war effort while simultaneously trying to feed and accommodate millions of starving and ill civilians?
As difficult as it is to believe, there are many in Russian leadership circles who believe that Putin is too soft and that he should target the civilian infrastructure! The hardliners believe, quite correctly, that dropping the electrical grid would play havoc with Ukraine's military efforts and would save Russian soldier's lives.
The idea that Russia is incapable of dropping the Ukrainian grid is ridiculous. It could be done in twenty minutes or so without breaking a sweat.
Best
Doc
Well said, Doc. It's pretty amazing that there are any functioning utilities happening in the battle zones, but there it is for anyone who cares to see. It speaks of tremendous restraint, yet everyone likes to say how the Russkies are just incompetent and couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag. I commend the restraint; we also see the other side when restraint fails and it's wartime typical ravaging.
To me, one other noteworthy thing is how quickly both combatants have adapted the usage of drones, and how incredibly effective they've been both for scouting and artillery fire control. A video on bitchute was actually showing a new Russian tool which was a drone jammer. Not that I understood the Russian but I'm sure they didn't give lots of technical details away. Someone commented that the apparent range was 15 km or so, which seems astounding to me.