If comparable products are on the surplus disposal market in European countries, it could be more cost effective to buy them up and gift to Ukraine than the cost of shipping them from the other side of the world
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At the start of the 20th century, Tuzla Spit was part of the Taman Peninsula, where locals fished and grazed cattle.
A storm in 1925 washed away the thin isthmus, turning Tuzla into an island. Fishermen widened the waterway, and the gap between Tuzla and the mainland has since grown.
In 1941, the island was transferred from Krasnodar Territory to Crimea, and in 1954, it became part of the Ukrainian SSR. The final border with Krasnodar was settled in 1973.
On May 31, 1997, President Leonid Kuchma and Boris Yeltsin met in Kyiv and signed a major treaty on “Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership,” which established the principle of territorial integrity and inviolability of borders.
Another treaty that Russia threw into the trash.
In 2002, the Russians practiced the future Tuzla scenario on Kazakhstan, stealing the uninhabited islands of Ukatnyy, Zhestky and Malyy Zhemchuzhnyy in the Caspian Sea.
The islands have several rich oil and gas fields and sturgeon.
2002 was declared the Year of Ukraine in Russia. 2003 - Russia in Ukraine.
On September 19, 2003 in Yalta, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed an agreement on forming a single economic space.
Amid these events, the conflict over Tuzla Island began.
On September 2 and 3, 2003, Kuchma held talks with Putin in Moscow and presented the book “Ukraine is not Russia”.
As soon as Kuchma departed, Putin flew to Rostov-on-Don and declared that the Sea of Azov should be an inland sea of Russia and Ukraine without demarcation.
On September 16, Putin announced a plan to enhance Russia’s military and diplomatic presence in the Black Sea-Azov region.
Two days later, Krasnodar authorities approved the construction of a dam in the Kerch Strait.
Even before the work started, on September 27, a boat with Russian reporters approached the fishing pier on the island.
The reporters asked the locals if they wanted to become Russian citizens.
Doesn’t it remind you of anything?
On September 29, bulldozers and trucks arrived on the Taman Peninsula, and workers began building a dam toward Tuzla Island, advancing about 150 meters per day.
On September 30, 2003, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a protest note to Russia but received no response.
Ukraine sent border guards to Tuzla, and by mid-October, the garrison grew to 100. They established a border post, marked waters with buoys, and Ukrainian patrol boats appeared.
Military drills began in Crimea, and a National Guard brigade was deployed to Kerch.
Ihor Voronchenko, the commander of the 501st separate mechanized regiment from 2000 to 2003, recalled in an interview in 2016:
Mykhailo Koval, first deputy head of the State Border Guard Service from 2003 to 2011, said in an interview:
On October 6, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov assured Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko that Russia would not violate treaty obligations regarding the border.
By then, the dam had reached 15 kilometers in length.
On October 17, 2003, Krasnodar Governor Tkachev told officials and Cossack representatives that halting the dam’s construction was “inexpedient,” adding that “the people will not forgive us” with upcoming State Duma elections.
On October 19, Putin said that Russia “reserves the right to launch preventive strikes in case the principle of using force without the sanction of the international community prevails in the world.”
October 22, 2003 The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine holds hearings on Ukrainian-Russian relations, and Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma interrupts his visit to Latin America and heads to Tuzla to take part in the conflict resolution.
On October 22, the head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Dmitry Rogozin, said:
On October 22, a pro-Russian rally was held in Simferopol in front of the Crimean parliament building, where participants declared their readiness to hand over the entirety of Crimea to Russia, along with the island of Tuzla.
The rally was organized by the odious organizations “Russian community of Crimea”, “Russian bloc”, and the “Rescom of the Communist Party of Ukraine”.
On October 23, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted two resolutions supported by all parliamentarians except the Communists: “On Eliminating the Threat to the Territorial Integrity of Ukraine Arising from the Construction of a Dam in the Kerch Strait by the Russian Federation”
On October 23, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma visited Tuzla Island and later announced an agreement with Vladimir Putin to halt the dam’s construction.
At that point, only 100 meters remained between the Ukrainian border and the Russian builders.
I was able to find a lot of material on the Ukrainian channel History Without Myths. I strongly advise you to subscribe, as there are videos with English subtitles and even English voice acting.
The 2003 Tuzla Island incident highlights Russia’s long-standing imperialist attitudes.
The invasion of Ukraine was not provoked by NATO, the EU, or the U.S., but stemmed from Russia’s own ambitions.
Thank you for reading this important thread!
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Boooooomp
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After initially suspending Telegram in Russia, the Russian Government is now using Telegram as a platform to disseminate its version of events.
And the troll of the year (so far) goes to Ukrainian Hackers for this effort (webpage has since been taken down):
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Has there been any estimates on the number of weapons stored here. Surely this makes a decent sized dent in their available missle stocks. The place is huge and that explosion was epic.
Number of troop losses that would have been at that site managing it would be large as well. I would think a few hundred could have been based there for logistics.
If UKR have watched the rail convoys from NKR and traced it all there, then very very good intelligence work.
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13 x 240t armouries were visibly destroyed on recent satellite images. More are likely destroyed under the smoke cloud and many intact structures are likely to cook off over the coming days.
30,000t of ammo can be stored in total there, but we don’t know how full the base was. So currently a minimum of 3,000t of missiles have gone, but that number is likely to increase significantly over the coming days.
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Ukraine is the clear number one in information warfare. I frikken love their work.
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Don’t stop now I’m about to GUMB
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Very impressive set of humonguous blasts, started at night, still exploding in daylight.
Famous last words, apparently the depot was opened in 2018, and described at the time as so secure it was safe from ground and overhead attack.
Putin still wiping shakshouka off his face
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“Would survive a nuclear blast.”
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The BBC’s view on ‘The Great Toropets Bake-Off’.
Ukraine drone attack in Russia sparks fire
Smoke and flames rise following a Ukrainian drone attack in Toropets in the Tver region, Russia
- 18 September 2024 - Updated 6 hours ago
Thirteen people have been injured in Russia’s Tver region after a large Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire there, according to the Russian health ministry.
Unverified footage has emerged purportedly showing a massive blast in the town of Toropets. Video footage circulating on social media showed detonations and smoke covering a large stretch of sky.
A partial evacuation of the region was ordered after the strike in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The regional governor later encouraged residents to return, saying that all infrastructure in the town was working normally again.
AFP and Reuters news agencies have quoted Ukrainian sources as saying a major ammunitions depot had been struck.
The military site reportedly housed fuel tanks, as well as artillery shells, ballistic missiles, and explosives, in a series of warehouses. These are all weapons that have been used in Russia’s relentless full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This latest attack by Ukraine is the kind it has been wanting to carry out with missiles supplied by its western allies. However, in the absence of approval from the US and UK, it has once again hit Russian targets with drones it has made itself.
The target this time, though, is significant. A military arsenal, worth almost £30m ($39m), has seemingly gone up in a series of explosions. Nasa reported a series of heat sources from satellite imagery.
A light-magnitude earthquake was even reported in the surrounding Tver region.
The head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, said on Telegram that in addition to its own ammunition, including Grad rockets, Russia had also started to store North Korean missiles in Toropets.
None of these claims have been verified by the BBC.
Without naming any specific targets, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his video address late on Wednesday: "There is a significant outcome from last night on the territory of Russia, and this is the type of action that weakens the enemy.
“I thank all those involved. Such inspiring precision.”
Toropets lies about 380km (236 miles) north-west of Russia’s capital Moscow, and some 470km north of the border with Ukraine.
Over the past few months, Kyiv has grown in confidence and ambition as it has ramped up drone attacks inside Russia. It’s struck as far as 1,800km (1,118 miles) in the past, when a long-range radar was hit in the city of Orsk.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the authorities in Toropets said buses had already been prepared for the evacuation.
They also claimed the situation was “under control” in the town of about 13,000 residents.
The authorities did not say how many people were being evacuated.
Meanwhile, Russia’s state media reported that regional schools and kindergartens would be closed on Wednesday.
The level of destruction in Toropets will give Ukrainian forces a much-needed morale boost. It is also hoped it sends the West a political message - that targeting sites inside Russia helps Ukraine defend itself, and will not cause an escalation with Moscow.
Russia’s defence ministry reported on Wednesday that it had destroyed a total of 54 drones in overnight attacks across five Russian regions - Bryansk, Kursk, Oryol, Smolensk and Belgorod.
Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said four civilians were injured in a “drone attack on a minibus” in the city of Shebekino.
Ukraine has not commented on the reported attacks.
Also overnight, Ukrainian air defences were engaged against oncoming Russian drones near the capital Kyiv, city military administration head Serhiy Popko said.
There were also reports of blasts in Ukraine’s north-eastern city of Sumy, near the Russian border, and the regional authorities later 16 drones were shot down. However, the authorities were forced to use back-up power systems after energy infrastructure repeatedly come under fire.
In total, the Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 46 of 52 drones launched by Moscow over the country overnight. Local authorities said one person was killed in the central region of Kirovohrad, while a 90-year-old woman was wounded in Kropyvnytskyi.
The claims by both Russian and Ukrainian officials have not been independently verified.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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