This might be a little tougher than Putin thought...
- Thread starter Nole Lou
- Start date
Don't forget the rampant alcoholism.
Pretty much what I posted when it happened. A short term gain to forestall a Ukrainian offensive in that area, but long term they gave up a natural defense line and are going to turn it into an 8 lane highway to their soft underbelly. The Russians concentrated a lot more forces away from this area, counting on the inability of the Ukrainians to move large amounts of material across the river.
Warning: Graphic.
My take, these actions by the Russians are not the behavior of soldiers. They must have no training.
My take, these actions by the Russians are not the behavior of soldiers. They must have no training.
In that second clip I’m pretty sure the first Russian you see is trying to raise his hands and surrender. But, given the situation I’d have shot him, too.
These have to be the Russians who got 2 weeks of training and then dropped into those trenches to provide manpower.
These have to be the Russians who got 2 weeks of training and then dropped into those trenches to provide manpower.
Someone posted the 2nd one. I really expected to see more blood.
Sure we believe you shot them all down...
"Video of partisans blowing up the railroad in occupied Feodosia, Crimea, last night. The port their is used to supply Russia's war effort via the railway north into the occupied areas of Zaporizhia and Kherson."
"Video of partisans blowing up the railroad in occupied Feodosia, Crimea, last night. The port their is used to supply Russia's war effort via the railway north into the occupied areas of Zaporizhia and Kherson."
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"The Ukrainian Air Force released a photo of a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet with an unknown weapons rack and described it as: "New day - new challenges!". Does anyone have any idea what kind of weapon it might be?"
4K tanks and closing in on 4K artillery…
President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged battlefield progress has been "slower than desired", weeks into Ukraine's military offensive to recapture areas occupied by Russia.
"Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It's not," he told the BBC.
"What's at stake is people's lives."
Ukraine says its counter-offensive has reclaimed eight villages so far in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk to the east.
Mr Zelensky said the military push was not going easily because 200,000 sq km (77,220 sq miles) of Ukrainian territory had been mined by Russian forces.
"Whatever some might want, including attempts to pressure us, with all due respect, we will advance on the battlefield the way we deem best," Mr Zelensky added.
He reinforced the need for Ukraine to be given security guarantees from Nato but said ultimately the goal was membership of the defensive alliance.
Nato's secretary general made clear this week that no plan was on the table to issue an invitation to Ukraine at next month's summit in Lithuania.
"[Jens] Stoltenberg knows my position," the Ukrainian leader said "We've told them numerous times: 'Don't knock the ground from under our feet.'"
The Ukrainian leader again made the case for Ukraine to receive US-made F-16s and said he believed fighter pilots could start training as soon as August, and that the first jets could arrive in six or seven months' time.
Mr Zelensky was speaking to the BBC to mark a Ukraine Recovery Conference in London focusing on the role the private sector can play in rebuilding his country. He later spoke at the conference, along with UK PM Rishi Sunak.
Ukraine's economy shrank by 29.2% in 2022 and earlier this year the World Bank estimated the cost of reconstruction and recovery at $411bn (£339bn).
The Ukrainian leader told the BBC that the support he needed was not just for recovery but for transformation as well.
He said "quick steps" to be done immediately included finding places for people to live, rebuilding the destroyed Kakhovka dam and decentralising the energy network.
"But on the larger scale we are speaking about the transformation of Ukraine," he explained. "This is Ukraine not only with its energy and agriculture and industrial complexes, but with its reforms we can see."
He spoke of "the digitilisation of Ukraine" as well as judicial and anti-corruption reforms.
When I asked him what the endgame of the war looked like at this stage, he made clear that "victories on the battlefield are necessary" and that Ukraine would never sit down, whoever was president in Moscow, if Russia remained on Ukraine's territory.
"No matter how far we advance in our counter-offensive, we will not agree to a frozen conflict because that is war, that is a prospectless development for Ukraine."
Russia announced a few days ago that it had moved tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus and President Joe Biden has warned that the threat of Vladimir Putin using them is real.
So I asked Mr Zelensky if he was worried by that threat.
"Putin has been dangerous for us since 2014 when he occupied the first of our territories," he said.
"He will talk about the use of nuclear weapons, I don't think he is ready to do it because he is scared for his life, he loves it a lot. But there is no way I could say for sure, especially about a person with no ties to reality, who in the 21st Century, launched a full-scale war against their neighbour."
I also asked for his reaction to President Putin telling an international conference in St Petersburg last week that he was a disgrace to the Jewish people. Mr Zelensky lost many of his relatives in the Holocaust, including his grandfather, and it was clear that he was taken by surprise by the question.
He took a deep breath, put his head down and a few seconds later said he wasn't quite sure how to answer the question.
"It's like he doesn't fully understand his words. Apologies, but it's like he is the second king of antisemitism after Hitler.
"This is a president speaking. A civilised world cannot speak that way. But it was important for me to hear the reaction of the world and I am grateful for the support."
www.bbc.com
"Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It's not," he told the BBC.
"What's at stake is people's lives."
Ukraine says its counter-offensive has reclaimed eight villages so far in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk to the east.
Mr Zelensky said the military push was not going easily because 200,000 sq km (77,220 sq miles) of Ukrainian territory had been mined by Russian forces.
"Whatever some might want, including attempts to pressure us, with all due respect, we will advance on the battlefield the way we deem best," Mr Zelensky added.
He reinforced the need for Ukraine to be given security guarantees from Nato but said ultimately the goal was membership of the defensive alliance.
Nato's secretary general made clear this week that no plan was on the table to issue an invitation to Ukraine at next month's summit in Lithuania.
"[Jens] Stoltenberg knows my position," the Ukrainian leader said "We've told them numerous times: 'Don't knock the ground from under our feet.'"
The Ukrainian leader again made the case for Ukraine to receive US-made F-16s and said he believed fighter pilots could start training as soon as August, and that the first jets could arrive in six or seven months' time.
Mr Zelensky was speaking to the BBC to mark a Ukraine Recovery Conference in London focusing on the role the private sector can play in rebuilding his country. He later spoke at the conference, along with UK PM Rishi Sunak.
Ukraine's economy shrank by 29.2% in 2022 and earlier this year the World Bank estimated the cost of reconstruction and recovery at $411bn (£339bn).
The Ukrainian leader told the BBC that the support he needed was not just for recovery but for transformation as well.
He said "quick steps" to be done immediately included finding places for people to live, rebuilding the destroyed Kakhovka dam and decentralising the energy network.
"But on the larger scale we are speaking about the transformation of Ukraine," he explained. "This is Ukraine not only with its energy and agriculture and industrial complexes, but with its reforms we can see."
He spoke of "the digitilisation of Ukraine" as well as judicial and anti-corruption reforms.
When I asked him what the endgame of the war looked like at this stage, he made clear that "victories on the battlefield are necessary" and that Ukraine would never sit down, whoever was president in Moscow, if Russia remained on Ukraine's territory.
"No matter how far we advance in our counter-offensive, we will not agree to a frozen conflict because that is war, that is a prospectless development for Ukraine."
Russia announced a few days ago that it had moved tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus and President Joe Biden has warned that the threat of Vladimir Putin using them is real.
So I asked Mr Zelensky if he was worried by that threat.
"Putin has been dangerous for us since 2014 when he occupied the first of our territories," he said.
"He will talk about the use of nuclear weapons, I don't think he is ready to do it because he is scared for his life, he loves it a lot. But there is no way I could say for sure, especially about a person with no ties to reality, who in the 21st Century, launched a full-scale war against their neighbour."
I also asked for his reaction to President Putin telling an international conference in St Petersburg last week that he was a disgrace to the Jewish people. Mr Zelensky lost many of his relatives in the Holocaust, including his grandfather, and it was clear that he was taken by surprise by the question.
He took a deep breath, put his head down and a few seconds later said he wasn't quite sure how to answer the question.
"It's like he doesn't fully understand his words. Apologies, but it's like he is the second king of antisemitism after Hitler.
"This is a president speaking. A civilised world cannot speak that way. But it was important for me to hear the reaction of the world and I am grateful for the support."
Ukraine war: Zelensky admits slow progress but says offensive is not a movie
Speaking to the BBC, Ukraine's leader stresses that the counter-offensive is not a Hollywood movie.
www.bbc.com
Dang. That blows my mind…President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged battlefield progress has been "slower than desired", weeks into Ukraine's military offensive to recapture areas occupied by Russia.
"Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It's not," he told the BBC.
"What's at stake is people's lives."
Ukraine says its counter-offensive has reclaimed eight villages so far in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk to the east.
Mr Zelensky said the military push was not going easily because 200,000 sq km (77,220 sq miles) of Ukrainian territory had been mined by Russian forces.
"Whatever some might want, including attempts to pressure us, with all due respect, we will advance on the battlefield the way we deem best," Mr Zelensky added.
He reinforced the need for Ukraine to be given security guarantees from Nato but said ultimately the goal was membership of the defensive alliance.
Nato's secretary general made clear this week that no plan was on the table to issue an invitation to Ukraine at next month's summit in Lithuania.
"[Jens] Stoltenberg knows my position," the Ukrainian leader said "We've told them numerous times: 'Don't knock the ground from under our feet.'"
The Ukrainian leader again made the case for Ukraine to receive US-made F-16s and said he believed fighter pilots could start training as soon as August, and that the first jets could arrive in six or seven months' time.
Mr Zelensky was speaking to the BBC to mark a Ukraine Recovery Conference in London focusing on the role the private sector can play in rebuilding his country. He later spoke at the conference, along with UK PM Rishi Sunak.
Ukraine's economy shrank by 29.2% in 2022 and earlier this year the World Bank estimated the cost of reconstruction and recovery at $411bn (£339bn).
The Ukrainian leader told the BBC that the support he needed was not just for recovery but for transformation as well.
He said "quick steps" to be done immediately included finding places for people to live, rebuilding the destroyed Kakhovka dam and decentralising the energy network.
"But on the larger scale we are speaking about the transformation of Ukraine," he explained. "This is Ukraine not only with its energy and agriculture and industrial complexes, but with its reforms we can see."
He spoke of "the digitilisation of Ukraine" as well as judicial and anti-corruption reforms.
When I asked him what the endgame of the war looked like at this stage, he made clear that "victories on the battlefield are necessary" and that Ukraine would never sit down, whoever was president in Moscow, if Russia remained on Ukraine's territory.
"No matter how far we advance in our counter-offensive, we will not agree to a frozen conflict because that is war, that is a prospectless development for Ukraine."
Russia announced a few days ago that it had moved tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus and President Joe Biden has warned that the threat of Vladimir Putin using them is real.
So I asked Mr Zelensky if he was worried by that threat.
"Putin has been dangerous for us since 2014 when he occupied the first of our territories," he said.
"He will talk about the use of nuclear weapons, I don't think he is ready to do it because he is scared for his life, he loves it a lot. But there is no way I could say for sure, especially about a person with no ties to reality, who in the 21st Century, launched a full-scale war against their neighbour."
I also asked for his reaction to President Putin telling an international conference in St Petersburg last week that he was a disgrace to the Jewish people. Mr Zelensky lost many of his relatives in the Holocaust, including his grandfather, and it was clear that he was taken by surprise by the question.
He took a deep breath, put his head down and a few seconds later said he wasn't quite sure how to answer the question.
"It's like he doesn't fully understand his words. Apologies, but it's like he is the second king of antisemitism after Hitler.
"This is a president speaking. A civilised world cannot speak that way. But it was important for me to hear the reaction of the world and I am grateful for the support."
Ukraine war: Zelensky admits slow progress but says offensive is not a movie
Speaking to the BBC, Ukraine's leader stresses that the counter-offensive is not a Hollywood movie.
Mr Zelensky said the military push was not going easily because 200,000 sq km (77,220 sq miles) of Ukrainian territory had been mined by Russian forces.
"Whatever some might want, including attempts to pressure us, with all due respect, we will advance on the battlefield the way we deem best," Mr Zelensky
Yep...it sucks. The Russians basically had from the end of November to the beginning of June to prepare defenses.
Say what we want about the Russians but they seem to have made good use of the time....from their prospective.
Seems the Ukrainians are being patient and not "shooting their bolt" too soon which overall is a smart move. Can't waste the offensive capabilities they've built up.
Pretty tough to take prisoners when his buddies might still be shooting at you. Can’t risk it. I’m sure this is a scenario that has played out many, many times in the annals of close combat.
Per Wiki it looks like this would 2-4 MI8s headed to Ukraine.
“With the delivery of AMPS, we are ensuring an increase in the defense capability of the Ukrainian helicopters. By integrating onto this platform for the first time, we are protecting crews from a wide range of threats, especially surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles,” says Tanya Altmann, Division Manager Optronics & Land Solutions and Managing Director of HENSOLDT Optronics GmbH.
It is reported that the supplied self-protection sensor technology will be integrated into Ukrainian helicopters by the Czech system integrator LOM PRAHA.
It is reported that the supplied self-protection sensor technology will be integrated into Ukrainian helicopters by the Czech system integrator LOM PRAHA.
Time: 14.00 Time for the front update 18.06.2023 with interesting information. - We are advancing in a new place, namely south of novodanylivka. We have reclaimed an area 6 km wide and 1 km deep. Also, our operation is still going on. - At Makarivka, as I said in the morning update, de-mining is underway and the tourists have replaced their 80th brigade with the 60th. At Vuhledar, north of Mykilske, we have a shrink infected area, which means we have started to move. By far the most pleasing news comes from Avdiivka. We have advanced on a line 4 km wide and 1.5 km deep. this has happened at Vesele and it is the Chechens who get banked. Next let's go north of Soledar where we also attack with success, the tourists crowd towards Soledar. This is happening at Rozdolivka and is ongoing. Further north it is quieter. - The tourists are now using their artillery all along the front line but no major hits on our mobile positions have been reported. Our strategy right now seems to be to advance along a broad line and quickly go 1-1.5 km deep. Then we stabilize the taken area, or mao clear out every tourist. This provides a stable base for the next attack. Since it takes place on several front sections simultaneously, it places even greater demands on the attention span of the tourists, it is a tactic that eats heavily at the tourists' scarce resources. In addition, internal disputes within the tourist troops have been noted. SLAVE UKRAINE
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- It’s becoming increasingly clear that Ukraine could have a long and likely bloody slog ahead of it when it comes to its counteroffensive.
- In this latest phase of the war, Ukraine is aiming at recapturing a swathe of Russian-occupied land in southern and eastern Ukraine.
- While still in its infancy, the counteroffensive has produced only limited gains so far with eight settlements captured in the last two weeks.
While still in its infancy, Ukraine’s counteroffensive has produced only limited gains so far, with eight settlements reclaimed in the last two weeks. Ukrainian officials are the first to admit that the country’s armed forces face a “tough duel” with Russia in the weeks and months ahead.
“We knew from before we started [the counteroffensive] that this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park,” Yuriy Sak, a senior advisor in Ukraine’s defense ministry, told CNBC Tuesday.
“We knew that Russians had months to prepare for it, we knew that they have built very, very strongly-fortified defense lines, that they have laid millions of mines along the front line. They’re dug in so deep, that we already had a very good idea that this will be not an easy task,” he added.
Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces has intensified over recent weeks as Kyiv launched counteroffensive operations in at least three areas of the frontline spanning southern to eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar announced Monday that over the past week, Ukrainian troops in the Zaporizhia direction in southern Ukraine had advanced up to seven kilometers (4.3 miles) and liberated 113 square kilometers (43.6 square miles) of territory, including eight settlements.
But in later comments last night, Maliar conceded that it “is quite difficult for our defenders to advance, because the enemy threw all their forces to stop the offensive,” adding that the fighting “is hot both in the east and in the south” of the country.
“Despite the fact that our troops are advancing in several directions of the south, the enemy is concentrating a lot of his efforts in the east and continues to advance there,” she noted in comments translated by Google.
“The enemy will not give up positions easily and we must prepare for the fact that it will be a tough duel. [that’s] exactly what is happening now.”
Russians ‘not running away’ this time
Defense analysts have said they expect Ukraine to launch bigger counterattacks on Russian forces in the months to come, and suggest its early phase has been used to probe for weaknesses in Russia’s defensive lines.Maliar appeared to endorse that view, stating: “The ongoing operation has several tasks and the military is carrying out these tasks. They move as they were supposed to move. And the biggest blow is yet to come.” She did not elaborate further.
'Tough duel' ahead for Ukraine as Russia mounts fierce resistance to counteroffensive
It's becoming increasingly clear that Ukraine could have a long and likely bloody slog ahead of it when it comes to its counteroffensive.
That's actually better than I thought it would be. I was thinking rats and rancid food.
They are being lied and deceived every step of the way. Families are being given either no information or “missing in action” so Kremlin doesn’t have to pay death benefits. Russia is a cruel society. Putin is a monster.
Wonder if it could reach the point where their pilots refuse to fly...
SEVASTOPOL — A year after its sinking near Snake Island, a monument to the crew of the sunken rescue tug Vasily Bekh was unveiled at the Russian Navy's Black Sea base of Sevastopol, according to independent Russian news sites agents.media (Agenstvo). For the past year, the Russian Ministry of Defense has never publicly reported the ship’s loss.
The photos of the monument were taken by Dmitry Shkrebets, father a sailor killed on another sunken vessel, the Russian Moskva cruiser, which Ukrainian forces sank on April 14, 2022.
He said that only the Navy's press service was allowed to take photos of the monument, and all guests had their phones confiscated. Military police allegedly ensured that no one took any pictures.
Despite this, Shkrebets claimed that he was provided with a photo of the monument before the unveiling. In the picture, the names on the plaque are covered.
https://worldcrunch.com/focus/sevastopol-ship-vasily-bekh-sinking
The photos of the monument were taken by Dmitry Shkrebets, father a sailor killed on another sunken vessel, the Russian Moskva cruiser, which Ukrainian forces sank on April 14, 2022.
He said that only the Navy's press service was allowed to take photos of the monument, and all guests had their phones confiscated. Military police allegedly ensured that no one took any pictures.
Despite this, Shkrebets claimed that he was provided with a photo of the monument before the unveiling. In the picture, the names on the plaque are covered.
https://worldcrunch.com/focus/sevastopol-ship-vasily-bekh-sinking
