Russia Ukraine Update Thread - part 3

Russia begins city evacuation as it swaps cross-border strikes with Ukraine

“Some 300 residents of Belgorod, who decided to temporarily evacuate, are at the moment being housed in temporary shelter centres in Stary Oskol, Gubkin and the Korochansky district,” which are further from the border, Gladkov said in a video posted on Telegram.

Source

I wonder if these shelters they are being evacuated to have heat. It has been reported elsewhere that Russians are suffering from the cold due to crumbling infrastructure.

Residents in Russian city of Rostov-on-Don lack electricity and heating

"The partial blackout was caused by several accidents at power substations. Donenergo promises to restore electricity in the affected buildings soon, but the specified timelines have been shifted several times, and repair work is ongoing," reported the channel.

Source

The official word is that the cause was due to "accidents" at the power stations. Of course, I doubt they would give credit to sabotage if that was the real reason.

originally posted by: Bishop2199
Russia begins city evacuation as it swaps cross-border strikes with Ukraine

“Some 300 residents of Belgorod, who decided to temporarily evacuate, are at the moment being housed in temporary shelter centres in Stary Oskol, Gubkin and the Korochansky district,” which are further from the border, Gladkov said in a video posted on Telegram.

Source

I wonder if these shelters they are being evacuated to have heat. It has been reported elsewhere that Russians are suffering from the cold due to crumbling infrastructure.

Also in that link:

In response, Kyiv has begun sending its own drones and missiles at targets in the occupied east, as well as inside Russia itself.

On December 30, 25 people were killed in Belgorod. It was the deadliest civilian toll in Russia since Moscow invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

a reply to: Imhere

How many civilians has Russia killed in Ukraine?

Or don't they count in your view?

8 January Update

Ukrainian military officials reported that Russian forces launched a total of 59 missiles and drones against Ukraine including: eight Shahed-136/-131 drones; seven S-300/400 missiles; four Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles; 24 Kh-101/555/55 and eight Kh-22 cruise missiles; six Iskander-M ballistic missiles; and two Kh-31P air guided missiles. Ukrainian military officials reported that the Russian strikes targeted critical and civilian infrastructure, and military facilities in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, and Khmelnytskyi oblasts and that Ukrainian forces downed all eight Shaheds and 18 Kh-101/555/55 cruise missiles.

Russian authorities found the editor-in-chief of the online editorial office of the Kuban branch of the Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK), Zoya Konovalova, and her husband dead in Krasnodar Krai on January 6, and the cause of death is reportedly poisoning. . . Vladimir Egorov, the deputy chairman of the Tobolsk City Duma and member of the United Russia party, died on December 27, 2023, after falling from a third-story window in his home.

Russian forces recently made confirmed advances near Donetsk City and Verbove, and positional engagements continued along the entire line of contact.

More at URL above.

Cheers

Freight train derailed in Russia's far east

In Russia's far east, 14 freight train cars were derailed on Jan. 8 on the Aleur-Bushuley section of the Transbaikal Railway, according to the Russian Railways' Telegram channel.

No casualties or environmental damage were reported. The causes of the derailment are being determined.

Source

This line connects with North Korea and China. In light of the recent discovery that Russia has been using North Korea munitions, I would not be surprised that this was an act of sabotage by the Ukrainian special forces. It won't stop the flow of weapons, but it will cause delays.

originally posted by: Oldcarpy2
a reply to: Imhere

How many civilians has Russia killed in Ukraine?

Or don't they count in your view?

No one’s comparing anything. Saw 25 Russian civilian deaths resulted from Ukraines missile strikes.

And like clockwork you lose your sh*t that it was pointed out.

Do you really care about Ukraine (especially pre 22’) or do you just have Russophobia?

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

Russian authorities found the editor-in-chief of the online editorial office of the Kuban branch of the Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK), Zoya Konovalova, and her husband dead in Krasnodar Krai on January 6, and the cause of death is reportedly poisoning. . . Vladimir Egorov, the deputy chairman of the Tobolsk City Duma and member of the United Russia party, died on December 27, 2023, after falling from a third-story window in his home.

another two who got some special seasoning in their stroganoff, and another contestant in the monthly kamikaze from the 100th floor swan dive to the street competition. has anybody been keepin count.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko publicly admitted to buying a lavish mansion in Hamburg (Germany) worth nearly a quarter of a billion hryvnias ($6 million), Strana.ua reported on Sunday, citing the politician’s official tax return.

pravda-en.com...

us.firenews.video...

The document reveals that Klitschko received the 750 square meter villa on December 20, 2023 as a debt settlement from Maximum I LLC, a US-based company originally owned by his brother Volodymyr. However, the ownership of the company was transferred to Vitalij in May 2023, according to the newspaper. The house, the exact cost of which is 227 million hryvnias, was then transferred to the mayor of Kyiv as a unique form of debt repayment.

In September 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law a law requiring electronic declarations by officials, which was suspended in 2022 after the start of the Russian military operation.

Last August, Zelensky launched a sweeping military purge and fired all regional military officials in the wake of a massive corruption scandal in which 112 recruitment center managers were prosecuted.
Last month, Ukrainian law enforcement officers searched a €4 million Spanish villa owned by former military commander Yevhen Borisov. According to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, he bought several properties in the city of Marbella in 2022 and 2023.

According to a survey last year by the International Institute of Sociology in Kyiv, Ukrainians consider corruption to be the country’s second most serious problem after the military conflict.

Same people telling Americans to drop their Starbucks grande cups and send more money to Ukraine. Because “they can afford it”

originally posted by: Imhere
No one’s comparing anything.

Saw 25 Russian civilian deaths resulted from Ukraines missile strikes.

Let's fix that lack of comparison and look at Russia killing over 10,000 civilians in Mariupol (the mayor of Mariupol estimated more than 20,000 civilians were killed).
Putin’s Mariupol Massacre is one of the 21st century’s worst war crimes

I doubt Ukraine is targeting civilians unless they happen to be employees in a weapons factory who get killed when the weapons factory is attacked, do we know that's not the case with the Belgorod civilians? Other things can happen too; if a drone or missile malfunctions, or if air defenses or EW cause it to be diverted from its intended target, it can strike anywhere, and hit residential areas that weren't being targeted. Even in that accidental case, I would blame Putin for such civilian casualties, because they wouldn't have occurred even by accident if Putin hadn't invaded Ukraine.

And like clockwork you lose your sh*t that it was pointed out.

I didn't see anybody lose their sh*t, just asked about a comparison.

Do you really care about Ukraine (especially pre 22’) or do you just have Russophobia?

Is this a serious question? I wasn't paying much attention to Ukraine after they lost Crimea in 2014, until the invasion by Russia in 2022.

Russophobia implies an unjustified fear of Russia, which is what I thought was happening when people were saying on 20 Feb 2022 that Russia was about to invade Ukraine, because I thought Russia wouldn't do it.

But on 24 Feb 2022 I think the term "Russophobia" became irrelevant, since the invasion showed neighboring countries no longer just feared what Russia might do, but realized Russia is being aggressive. That's why Sweden and Finland who were not previously NATO members, suddenly wanted to become NATO members, because there was no longer just fear of Russian aggression, but actually experiencing real Russian aggression.

originally posted by: Arbitrageur

originally posted by: Imhere
No one’s comparing anything.

Saw 25 Russian civilian deaths resulted from Ukraines missile strikes.

Let's fix that lack of comparison and look at Russia killing over 10,000 civilians in Mariupol (the mayor of Mariupol estimated more than 20,000 civilians were killed).
Putin’s Mariupol Massacre is one of the 21st century’s worst war crimes

I doubt Ukraine is targeting civilians unless they happen to be employees in a weapons factory who get killed when the weapons factory is attacked, do we know that's not the case with the Belgorod civilians? Other things can happen too; if a drone or missile malfunctions, or if air defenses or EW cause it to be diverted from its intended target, it can strike anywhere, and hit residential areas that weren't being targeted. Even in that accidental case, I would blame Putin for such civilian casualties, because they wouldn't have occurred even by accident if Putin hadn't invaded Ukraine.

And like clockwork you lose your sh*t that it was pointed out.

I didn't see anybody lose their sh*t, just asked about a comparison.

Do you really care about Ukraine (especially pre 22’) or do you just have Russophobia?

Is this a serious question? I wasn't paying much attention to Ukraine after they lost Crimea in 2014, until the invasion by Russia in 2022.

Russophobia implies an unjustified fear of Russia, which is what I thought was happening when people were saying on 20 Feb 2022 that Russia was about to invade Ukraine, because I thought Russia wouldn't do it.

But on 24 Feb 2022 I think the term "Russophobia" became irrelevant, since the invasion showed neighboring countries no longer just feared what Russia might do, but realized Russia is being aggressive. That's why Sweden and Finland who were not previously NATO members, suddenly wanted to become NATO members, because there was no longer just fear of Russian aggression, but actually experiencing real Russian aggression.

lol nice try

So you did the same as Oldcarpy.

Someone points out in the article that 25 Russian civilian deaths also resulted in the Ukrainian missile strikes, and it gets pounced on lol

Automatically turning into whataboutism and try brushing it under the rug.

I always stated that any civilian loss is a tragedy regardless of sides. Who are caught in between.

Do you honestly think Ukraine has a reputation of being one of the most corrupted countries in Europe for nothing?

You need to YouTube more very recent Ukrainian nationalist videos from the Stephan Bandera Nazi rally’s recently. It was his birthday on January 1st apparently. That got “disrupted”

It’s akin to someone seeing these Ukrainian Nazi SS Stephan Bandera fests (that’s propped there as a national holiday by the current regime) and about the corrupted gov in Ukraine, yet disregard it covering their ears screaming “russah, russah, russah lalala”

originally posted by: Bishop2199
Freight train derailed in Russia's far east

In Russia's far east, 14 freight train cars were derailed on Jan. 8 on the Aleur-Bushuley section of the Transbaikal Railway, according to the Russian Railways' Telegram channel.

No casualties or environmental damage were reported. The causes of the derailment are being determined.

Source

This line connects with North Korea and China. In light of the recent discovery that Russia has been using North Korea munitions, I would not be surprised that this was an act of sabotage by the Ukrainian special forces. It won't stop the flow of weapons, but it will cause delays.

Or an act of those who also oppose the policies of Putin's regime. I expect the Ukrainians don't have to cast too wide of a net to find people willing to commit acts of sabotage.

Cheers

9 January Update

Ukrainian Air Force Spokesperson Colonel Yuriy Ihnat reported that Ukraine has a shortage of anti-aircraft guided missiles after several recent large Russian missile and drone strikes against Ukraine.

Russian forces made confirmed advances southwest of Donetsk City, and positional engagements continued along the entire frontline.

More at URL above.

Cheers

originally posted by: Imhere
Do you honestly think Ukraine has a reputation of being one of the most corrupted countries in Europe for nothing?

Of course Ukraine has corruption problems. As far as I know, all the countries previously part of the soviet union have that problem. Are there any that don't? Corruption was part of the soviet culture, and it didn't go away overnight when the soviet union broke up.

What is your point in bringing that up though?

There were some corruption scandals involving Ukraine's former defense minister Reznikov, but Zelensky fired him or asked him to resign, so at least Ukraine appears to be taking some action on corruption, though they still have a long way to go.

Removal of defense minister shows wartime Ukraine is changing

there was widespread awareness that Ukraine couldn’t afford any corruption scandals if it wanted vital Western military and financial aid to continue uninterrupted...

President Zelenskyy is under intense pressure to root out corruption, both large and small. Ultimately, Reznikov was asked to resign.

This article claims Ukraine has made some progress in fighting corruption but still has a long way to go:

Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Front

Executive Summary

Remarkably, while fighting for their lives against Russian invasion, Ukrainians continue to wage their long internal battle against oligarchy and corruption. Ukraine is midway through this generational struggle, which began on the streets of the Maidan in Kyiv nearly a decade ago. In 2014, after deposing a kleptocratic president whose campaigns were bankrolled by agents of the Kremlin, Ukrainians got to work transforming this post-Soviet oligarchy into a modern European state under the rule of law.

Despite the steepness of that climb, they have never turned back. Ukrainian reformers innovated world-leading transparency systems, established an independent suite of specialized anticorruption agencies, restructured entire economic sectors, and decentralized governance. Voters renewed the anti-corruption mandate through democratic transitions. And when implementation flagged, civil society and foreign partners pressured the government to stay on track. While there remains much work to be done, the progress made in the past decade has been unprecedented. Indeed, it is our view that Kyiv’s momentum against oligarchy motivated Vladimir Putin to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. That, in turn, cemented Ukrainians’ resolve to free themselves of Russian influence and oligarchic capture as they chart a European future.

I don't know if I agree with that assessment that Ukraine's fight against corruption was part of Putin's motiviation to invade Ukraine, but that's not exactly opposed to ISW's article saying that what Putin really wanted was to have a puppet government in Kyiv for Ukraine, sort of like he has a puppet government in his pocket for Belarus, and I would agree with that.

Why Putin Invaded Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t invade Ukraine in 2022 because he feared NATO. He invaded because he believed that NATO was weak, that his efforts to regain control of Ukraine by other means had failed, and that installing a pro-Russian government in Kyiv would be safe and easy. His aim was not to defend Russia against some non-existent threat but rather to expand Russia’s power, eradicate Ukraine’s statehood, and destroy NATO, goals he still pursues.

As for Nazis in Ukraine, yes there are some, but what country doesn't have Nazis? Russia has them too, as does the US and other NATO countries.
The Facts on ‘De-Nazifying’ Ukraine

“Neo-Nazi, far right and xenophobic groups do exist in Ukraine, like in pretty much any other country, including Russia,” Finkel said. “They are vocal and can be prone to violence but they are numerically small, marginal and their political influence at the state level is non-existent. That is not to say that Ukraine doesn’t have a far-right problem. It does. But I would consider the KKK in the US and skinheads and neo-Nazi groups in Russia a much bigger problem and threat than the Ukrainian far right.”

Anyway the nazis in Ukraine are a red herring that give Putin some false "denazification" propaganda to try to justify his invasion, and have nothing to do with why Putin really invaded Ukraine. Please tell me you don't believe Putin's ridiculous "denazification" propaganda. Russia has a worse neo-nazi problem than Ukraine.

“The claim that neo-Nazi or far-right groups hold any significant power in Ukraine is absurd,” Jared McBride, an adjunct history professor at UCLA whose work specializes in nationalist movements and mass violence and genocide in Russia and Ukraine, told us via email. “The most well-known far-right wing party, Svoboda (similar to say [Marine] Le Pen’s party or other corollaries in Europe) won 2.15 percent of the vote in 2019 election and holds one seat in the Rada – meaning they are politically irrelevant.”

a reply to: Imhere

"It’s akin to someone seeing these Ukrainian Nazi SS Stephan Bandera fests (that’s propped there as a national holiday by the current regime) and about the corrupted gov in Ukraine, yet disregard it covering their ears screaming “russah, russah, russah lalala”

Yet here you are screaming at Ukraine as if they are all Nazis.

I think you will find that the likes of Russia and Belarus for whom you incessantly and tediously chearlead for are de facto dictatorships that are massively corrupt.

Do tell me, can you show me on the doll where those horrid beastly Ukrainian "Nazis" did hurted you?

a reply to: Imhere

"Automatically turning into whataboutism and try brushing it under the rug."

Which you do.

Pot. Kettle.

Russia has launched thousands of missiles, glide bombs and drones at civilian targets in Ukraine.

All under your rug.

10 January Update

Lithuania announced a new long-term military aid package to Ukraine worth 200 million euros (about $220 million) on January 10.

European Union (EU) Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton stated that the EU will be able to supply Ukraine with one million shells by spring 2024.

Russian forces advanced southwest of Bakhmut and Donetsk City and in the east (left) bank of Kherson Oblast amid continued positional engagements along the entire front.

Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov stated on January 10 that the Russian military plans to reorganize the five existing naval infantry brigades of Russia’s fleets into naval infantry divisions and the Caspian Flotilla’s naval infantry regiment into a naval infantry brigade in the medium-term. (Me: gotta do something with the sailors when their ships are unable to leave port, or, sunk.)

More at URL above.

Cheers

Large-scale fires occurred in Moscow and Moscow region

On the night of January 11, two large fires occurred in Moscow and the Moscow region. A production workshop and an administrative-production building were ablaze, according to the Russian Emergencies Ministry.

Source

Sabotage or just the good Russian citizens trying to stay warm in the sub-zero temperatures while the power has failed?

"Let's light a fire to stay warm...Whoops!...That got out of control."

11 January Update

Freezing temperatures in Ukraine are likely constraining operations along the front but will likely create more favorable terrain for mechanized maneuver warfare as the ground freezes in the coming weeks.

Latvia and Estonia announced new military aid packages to Ukraine on January 11.

Ukrainian and Russian forces continued positional engagements along the entire front.

More at URL above.

Cheers

Russian Army HQ Burns Down in Chechnya, Saboteurs Claim

Rospartizan, an anti-war, anti-Putin Russian network that has claimed several incidents of sabotage against Moscow since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, said the headquarters of the country's 70th motorized rifle regiment burnt down in a fire on Thursday.

Source

This is Russians fighting back against the Russians in power.

A house divided cannot stand.