I don’t think there’s a shortage of people who think theirs is the best country in the world.
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Dam straight. Tasmania is by far the best country in the world!
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So is it true that Europe is dropping their sanctions on Russia in regard to aircraft maintenance e.g. spare parts and the like? If so, why the hell are they doing this when Russia basically stole fleets of leased commercial jets?
I like his explanation of the limited help from China and the Chinese exploitation of Russia’s vulnerability.
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Muslim and Jewish defenders of Ukraine sitting in the same trench fighting the common foe
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7.21.22 Update, day 148 of Russian invasion.
Belarus:
Belarus has again extended their military drills to July 31st, the 13th time it was extended/ It is unlikely they will physically participate in the war however.
There is an ongoing campaign in Belarus, with support of the Belarusian army and government, to recruit Belarusian nationals into PMC’s fighting in Ukraine.
Lukashenko stated that Belarus would provide humanitarian aid to the occupied territories, and then rapidly rejected any entrance of Belarus into the war stating “what would we add? We’re not needed right now, Russia has all the weapons and men they need”.
Kyiv/ West Ukraine (1):
UA and RU, sponsored by Turkey and the UN, have reportedly reached an agreement on the export of grain from Ukraine by sea, and the deal will be signed today in turkey, at 4:30 PM local time (about 12 hours from now). A communication center will be set up between all parties, and UA is reportedly involved with charting safe naval routes. The US stated that they will focus on forcing Russia to comply with the deal.
Per the UA government, RU has taken “significant but not critical losses” as they have covert mobilization ongoing. Reportedly, RU is no longer able to form BTG’s from its existing military units still garrisoned in Russia proper, due to previous deployments, losses, low morale, and issues with training and command integration. To this end, there are more lower-quality troops being trained and used to stopgap losses, as well as mercenaries.
A Cyberattack was carried out on a number of UA radio stations, broadcasting a propaganda report that Zelensky was seriously ill and in intensive care. This was debunked by Zelensky who recorded a video message saying “With respect to the elderly, 44 is not 70”, a reference to his age compared to Vladimir Putin’s upcoming birthday.
In Ukraine, only 11% of educational institutions currently have their own shelters. Today, only 23% of the country’s educational institutions are ready for the start of offline education.
The national bank of Ukraine raised the previous set exchange rate of Hryvnia to USD by 25%, from 29.25 HRY per USD to 36.6 USD. This will increase the inflow of capital into the country, using local currency. It is not expected to change inflation caused by the war.
731k UA citizens answered a survey on the Motherland statue in Kyiv, indicating that they wanted to either remove the soviet coat of arms or replace it with an Ukrainian trident. The 102 meter stainless steel statue is the largest in Europe, and the 29th largest in the world, a bit larger then the Statue of Liberty.
Sumy/Chernihiv (2):
RU forces continue to consolidate themselves along the border, and fired across the border with mortars near the border villages of Hlukhiv, Shalyhyne, Bilopillia, Khotin, Myropillia, and Esman for most of the day, with over 150 shelling’s reported of artillery and mortars. There appears to be no formation of RU assault groups as of yet, or preparations for a renewed ground assault.
Kharkiv (3):
RU forces stepped up their attacks in Kharkiv today, in an attempt to gain ground alongside the Northern M-20 highway near Pytomnyk. This attack was repelled.
Closer to the SE, near Chuhuiv, RU forces were apparently struck hard over the last day or so, causing them to evacuate some sensitive material at a targeted site by helicopter. UA units pressed the offensive, causing RU to retreat before a large RU QRF was brought into the area to stop the UA advance. This is the most direct and approachable axis for UA forces to move on RU supply lines in E Kharkiv oblast.
Izyum/Lyman (4):
The RU units SE of Izyum have actually carried out less offensives since the “operational pause” ended, then they did during it. There are increased reports of low morale and supplies, with the recent pressure on RU command positions therein having an effect, especially on some of the RU units who have advanced no more then 20km at maximum in the last 111 days.
RU and UA forces continue to skirmish around Borodychne to the NW of Slovyansk, with heavy shelling having turned much of the small riverside town into a no mans land, with both forces encamped outside the town proper. UA forces have the high ground, and reportedly have been able to repel most any RU assault past the town itself. The denial of this town to RU forces means that a bridgehead over the river to RU forces in Svyatohirsk is prevented.
Siversk/Lysychansk (5):
A long-overdue rotation of UA troops in the Donbas may be underway, with elements of the 1st tank Brigade, The 68th Jager Brigade (Mech), the 71st Jager Brigade (Mech), and the 115th Mechanized all reportedly incoming to replace a number of Mechanized, airborne, and air assault brigades that have been deployed to the Donbass since November of 2021.
RU forces again attacked towards Siversk, but their attack along the southern front towards Ivano-Darivka (the lowest of 3 possible routes towards the city) was repelled. Otherwise, RU artillery shelling and drone recon continues, with at least one EW unit deployed W of Lysychansk. The town of Spirne, right along the line of contact to the E of Ivano-Darivka, continues to change hands regularly and RU forces are reportedly unable to hold the actual settlement for longer then a day at a time. There has been precedence for UA forces encamping outside of towns and pre-sighting them, then firing whenever RU units attempt to advance. The RU forces then repeat the same procedure on their side, with both units skirmishing into the town and turning it into a no-mans land.
Popasna/Bakhmut:
RU forces attempted attacks along the NE highway from Bakhmut towards Berestove, Bilohorivka, and Yakovilvka, but were reportedly repelled. UA and RU artillery continue to duel and fire into each other’s backlines along this region.
RU stepped up the volume of air strikes towards Bakhmut, in the area along the E-40 highway to the NE. RU again attempted a 3-pronged attack into the SE pocket of UA troops between Zaitseve and Luhanske, near the local Vuhlehirsk coal power plant, but were again repelled. There are known to be at least 3 pre-war defensive lines in this area defending Bakhmut from the South and Southeast.
The powerplant and its industrial area has been targeted heavily by RU forces for several weeks now, as it sits along the N bank of the local reservoir and has been heavily entrenched by UA forces. By their presence, they essentially require all southern attacks towards Bakhmut to dislodge them first before risking advancing, a task RU has been unsuccessful in thus far.
Donetsk (6):
Forcibly conscripted UA citizens in the DPR and LPR armies are having their personnel documents confiscated in order to both try and stem desertion, as well as to semi-plausibly avoid paying out their family members in the event of being KIA, due to “no identification present”.
RU forces continue to attack towards Avdiivka, and continue to be repelled. RU forces have been unable to measurably advance in this area for over a month now.
Ru has reportedly mobilized more then 100k civilians from the Donbas region into the army since they began such efforts, and 23k of them have been killed or wounded thus far, including people of retirement age and final year students.
Mariupol (7):
The situation remains grim in Mariupol.
Zaporizhia/Southern Axis (8):
RU forces continue to leverage artillery and rocket fire across the southern front, but launched no major offensives.
There are occurrences at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, where reportedly a UA suicide drone hit a group of RU soldiers outside in the general area. While there are multiple accounts of what happened, it’s generally agreed that RU soldiers noticed the loitering munition and attempted to shoot it down with their rifles, at which point it actively dived towards them and detonated.
RU has deployed additional heavy equipment and ammo in the immediate proximity of the reactor’s hydrogen and oil tanks, which are used to cool the reactor. They also blocked access to firefighting equipment, with an implicit threat that an attack on this location could cause a meltdown or explosion in the reactor building.
Kherson (9):
RU and UA forces continue to fire artillery at each other along the front line, and RU MI-8 gunships (a transport helicopter which can also fire missiles, but not a dedicated gunship) continue attempts to strike UA positions with minimal effect. UA forces in Kherson carried out over 200 fire missions, eliminating over 100 RU soldiers, 2 command posts, and 6 warehouses.
RU forces carried out 2 airstrikes, and UA forces carried out 10- 7 with plane, and 3 with helicopters.
UA fired rockets into a portion of the Antonovsky bridge for the second day straight, the main one connecting Kherson city across the Dnipro river. At least one lane is still operational, but the strikes will limit RU supply capabilities and likely raise concerns about the prospect of RU getting cut off from crossing back over the river amidst a UA assault into the city. Civilian traffic is still available, but military traffic and heavy equipment cannot currently use the crossing.
Local companies were consulted to repair the damage in the bridge and refused. Specialists are being sought out in Crimea.
There is currently a blood shortage in Kherson for A+ and A- blood.
Resistance grows in Kherson. Keep an eye out. More kidnappings of UA citizens and officials continue by the day, with a number of them being held in the de-facto RU prison in the southern edge of the city, on the small island.
RU continues to have difficulty in finding new occupation government leaders, with one notable example being a local drug dealer/moonshiner who is widely hated by the Kahkovka suburb of Lyubimisvkva and was summarily ran out of town when the RU forces who brought him in left back for Kahkovka.
Odessa/Black Sea/Crimea(10):
Reportedly in the black sea, there are 2 missile ships and 2 submarines, as well as 1 transport ship equipped with up to 16 Kaliber cruise missiles.
Moldova has confirmed that it is not allowing any RU military personnel in Transnistria to enter or transit through Moldova.
General:
Yesterday, Ukrainian forces eliminated:
100 x soldiers (Total 38,850)
4x tanks
7x APC
4x Artillery (1x MLRS)
6x vehicles
7x UAV
Russia continues to have manpower shortages. MI6 reported that RU will have to take a pause to replenish manpower in the coming weeks, and take an involuntary operational pause. Additionally, they reported that over 400 RU intel officers have been expelled from European citizens, in effect halving RU’s espionage capabilities.
There is reported arms trafficking going on surrounding the war in Ukraine, but not to the extent RU agitprop would suggest. According to Europol, the European Police Department, stated that heavy weapons were being transferred out of the country. There have been issues with war profiteering and corruption all war, but those instances tend to do more with extracting payment for delivery of goods to frontline units, or sending them to more favored units, rather then wholesale export out of the country.
The RU agitprop on this topic is designed to repeat concerns about US weaponry falling into the hands of terrorist groups, and the objective is to cause the US to cease sending lethal aid. The UA government has expressed there are a number of measures taken to ensure that weaponry supplied is recorded and managed properly, with 3 explicit regulatory pathways already established.
Following RU seizure of Luhansk oblast, as well as RU military bloggers increasingly loud demands for further war goals/mobilization, RU yesterday stated that they had aims beyond the Luhansk and Donestk regions. This comes as no surprise, as they explicitly stated their goals for occupation of Southern Ukraine. This is believed to be in reference to the sham referendums being planned in the occupied territories.
The UK will send 50k rounds of soviet-style artillery ammo and counter battery radars, along with hundreds of suicide drones/loitering munitions and 1600 anti tank weapons. They will also send 20 M109 NATO SPG systems, and 36 L119 towed artillery guns
The governments of creditor countries to Ukraine agreed to postpone the payment of foreign debt and interest from August 1 until the end of 2023, with the possibility of extending the postponement for another year until 2024. This will save $5 billion.
The United States estimates Russian losses in Ukraine at approximately 15,000 dead and possibly 45,000 wounded, writes Reuters citing CIA Director William Burns. Ukraine also was stated to have taken significant losses. Additionally, there is no information to suggest that Putins health is unstable or poor.
More than 30% of Ukrainians have lost their jobs since the beginning of the war.
Looking forward:
RU artillery strikes have continued to diminish in effectiveness, as a result of UA strikes on ammo depots.
RU forces near Kherson are increasingly on edge for potential UA strikes, and the movement of ammo depots further behind the lines indicate the concern applied.
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Russia will struggle to maintain its military campaign and Ukraine may be able to hit back, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service says.
MI6 chief Richard Moore said Russia had seen “epic fails” in its initial goals; removing Ukraine’s president, capturing Kyiv and owing disunity in the West.
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No reports of EU lifting sanctions on aircraft parts, some media reports of China agreeing to supply parts. Zelensky has initiated discussions with some Latin Americans who have purchased equipment from Russia and who have not imposed sanctions ( could be connected to sourcing of parts)
The latest EU Council statement referred to extending sanctions to more financial institutions and individuals. In addition, in light of Syrian statements that it would assist Russia in its war with UA, the EU has imposed sanctions on some Syrians, including one involved in the recruitment of Syrian mercenaries for the Russian army.
Meanwhile, reports that Google is being banned in the breakaway regions.That could invoke protests.
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This seems to be today’s movements around Kherson. Russia is getting into an increasingly uncomfortable position. The villages along the coast and up the river don’t give them much tactical value, but require supply. If Ukraine can take the handful of villages in sight of the yellow highlighted supply route, the Russians would be completely cut off and unable to supply the city.
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A lot of US citizens think the USA is the only country in the world.
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“Oh Australia has Californian eucalypts too?”
“Iraq has our oil under their sand”
etc
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Ukraine stated that it would not sign any agreement with Russia, but with Turkey and UN ( UN Secretary General in Istanbul), Russia to sign a mirror agreement with Turkey and UN.
No Russians allowed in UA waters or on land, UA convoys, inspections of cargoes as necessary to be carried out jointly in Turkish waters.
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interesting views and descriptions
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