Russia Ukraine Update Thread - part 3

a reply to: Imhere

"Desperate"? Hand wave away.

Putins grip on power is slipping.

It's obvious except for those who rely on slurping the Kremlin Kool Ade.

originally posted by: Oldcarpy2
a reply to: Imhere

"Desperate"? Hand wave away.

Putins grip on power is slipping.

It's obvious except for those who rely on slurping the Kremlin Kool Ade.

Desperate “Putin embarrassment” Kursk PR points

vs

The on going collapse on eastern/Donbass frontlines in key areas with constant RF advancements.

Again, to each their own.

a reply to: Imhere

Yep.

Desperate handwaving.

originally posted by: Oldcarpy2
a reply to: Imhere

Yep.

Desperate handwaving.

Apparently “Putin embarrassment” PR point feelers are more important to some than the actual on going collapses in the East/Donbass.

(shrugs)

a reply to: Imhere

Apparently, growing dissent and criticism of Putin and his leadership in Russia touches a bit of a nerve with some folk who would prefer to desperately hand wave it away?

a reply to: worldstarcountry
I don't see how you can say Kursk is a non-issue.
Do you even realize it sounds like you're repeating Putin's talking point?
I don't think anything could be further from the truth, see below.

originally posted by: Oldcarpy2
a reply to: worldstarcountry

Kursk is a huge embarrassment for Putin and may well destabilize his grip on power, which I think was the aim.

He's being openly criticized which is quite something.

Yes, but it goes beyond just criticism, since Zakrevsky seems to be calling for a coup for the military to overthrow Putin.

Georgy Zakrevsky, leader of a private military in Russia, should be an ally of Putin and apparently was in the past, but Ukraines special military operation in Kursk was apparently the trigger that caused Zakrevsky to call for the overthrow of Putin, not just because of Kursk, but that was the "straw that broke the camel's back" on top of all the other Putin actions that are completely destroying Russia:

Another Russian mercenary leader has turned against Putin

Given Zakrevsky’s past record and current credentials, the last thing one would expect such a cutthroat to do would be to turn against Russia’s cutthroat par excellence, the Great Putin. The pair should be, and presumably once were, natural allies. For someone like Zakrevsky to criticize Putin publicly is thus no small potatoes.

Zakrevsky must be mad as hell and, more important, he must know that he’s not the only Russian military man who agrees. And why shouldn’t their veins be throbbing? The Great Putin has come close to destroying Mother Russia.

Here’s Zakrevsky’s diatribe against Putin, in my translation:

“Our country is not just on the brink of disaster or already right next to it; our country is already in trouble. In big trouble. Drones are flying all over central Russia, right up to Moscow and St. Petersburg. They even attacked the Kremlin. Our Black Sea fleet is being pushed out. It’s being pushed out as if we were not a great power with a great fleet, but some third-rate country.

“Our air force is practically not working because it is also being pushed out. We are standing in the same positions that we took more than two years ago, and partly in those to which we retreated. The population is dying out, becoming impoverished, drinking itself to death: no one cares. All they have time to do is bring in migrants.”

Zakrevsky minces no words in assigning blame for this sad state of affairs: “And all this was done by the so-called ‘president.’ The ‘Great’ Putin.”

After accusing army officers of incompetence and worse, Zakrevsky concludes his screed with an appeal “to those who are in the trenches. You know very well what kind of indecency is happening there now….You know very well the faces that are mocking you and your relatives…. We call on everyone to join our union to save our country. The point of no return has already been passed.”
...
Zakrevsky’s outburst was obviously prompted by Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk Province and the shameful incompetence of the Russian army, the intelligence services and their leaders. And Zakrevsky is absolutely correct to realize that the buck stops with Putin. Having made himself the “great” leader, Putin bears responsibility for all that transpires inside Russia. That’s the price of being the dictator — you can’t pass the ruble.

Zakrevsky’s appeal, which has supposedly been distributed widely among Russia’s military and civilian elites, can’t be dismissed as the unrepresentative grumbling of a disgruntled mercenary. Zakrevsky, like Prigozhin before him, represents Russia’s military class. If he’s unhappy and willing to risk his career — and possibly his life — by going public with his call for Putin’s removal, there must be many others who share his discontent. That may be why he hasn’t been arrested or killed — yet.

8 September Update

Russian forces conducted counterattacks in Kursk Oblast amid continued Ukrainian offensive operations in the area on September 8.

Russian forces recently advanced near Toretsk and marginally advanced near Chasiv Yar.

More at URL above.

Cheers

www.reuters.com...

Ukraine strikes Moscow in biggest drone attack to date
By Reuters
September 10, 2024

MOSCOW, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Ukraine struck the Moscow region on Tuesday in its biggest drone attack so far on the Russian capital, killing at least one woman, wrecking dozens of homes and forcing around 50 flights to be diverted from airports around Moscow.
Russia, the world's biggest nuclear power, said it destroyed at least 20 Ukrainian attack drones as they swarmed over the Moscow region, which has a population of more than 21 million, and 124 more over eight other regions.
At least one person was killed near Moscow, Russian authorities said. Three of Moscow's four airports were closed for more than six hours and almost 50 flights were diverted.

9 September Update

Ukrainian officials continue to warn that Russian forces are increasingly using chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Russian forces recently regained lost positions in Kursk Oblast amid continued Ukrainian offensive operations in the area on September 9.

Russian forces recently advanced along the Kupyansk-Svatove line, near Siversk, near Pokrovsk, and southwest of Donetsk City, and Ukrainian forces recently regained positions near Siversk.

More at URL above.

Cheers

originally posted by: Kurokage
www.reuters.com...
"Ukraine strikes Moscow in biggest drone attack to date"

Putin would like to pretend Kursk doesn't exist, which he can almost get away with in Moscow since it's far enough from Kursk.

He can't pretend the drones hitting Moscow don't exist, and residents of Moscow videoed some drones hitting Moscow. This shows some of the 140 drones causing explosions/fires, filmed by Russian citizens:

Ukraine unleashes massive kamikaze drone barrage on Russia as Moscow airports close & buildings burn


DRAMATIC footage shows the moment Ukraine launched over 140 drones into Russia hitting Moscow in its biggest ever UAV attack on the capital.

I hear the aviation industry in Russia is in shambles anyway, so I'm not sure how big of a deal it is to suspend flights to Moscow for 7 hours, for travelers, but the most important things is that it's bad publicity for Putin, again showing he's weak, and not defending the motherland from the war he started.

Ukraine's fire spitting Dragon Drones.

Wouldn't like being on the receiving end!

www.aljazeera.com...

a reply to: Oldcarpy2
That drone spews out thermite, a terrible substance.

I think Russia was using their 9M22S incendiary rockets against Ukraine, which would rain down droplets of thermite over a large area, but relatively few of those droplets actually hit the trenches the Ukrainian soldiers were in. The advantage of a thermite-spewing drone should be that it can aim at the trenches specifically, in fact I've heard Ukraine has used those drones to clear Russian trenches.

But now that Ukraine has given Russia the idea, I would expect Russia to develop their own thermite drones. For now, I haven't seen any Russian drones like that, so they might give Ukraine an advantage in trench-clearing capabilities at the moment.

10 September Update

Ukrainian forces conducted a large series of drone strikes in Russia on the night of September 9 to 10.

Ukrainian forces recently advanced in Kursk Oblast amid continued Ukrainian offensive operations in the area on September 10.

Russian forces recently advanced near Kreminna, Siversk, Toretsk, Pokrovsk, and Donetsk City.

More at URL above.

Cheers

When Boris was suggesting that Zelensky should be evacuated and stage a resistance in exile he made this video.

To all you Zelensky haters. True grit:

m.youtube.com...

11 September Update

Russian forces began counterattacks along the western edge of the Ukrainian salient in Kursk Oblast and reportedly seized several settlements northeast and south of Korenevo on September 10 and 11.

Russian forces recently advanced southeast of Kupyansk, near Toretsk, and near Pokrovsk.

More at URL above.

Cheers

metro.co.uk...

Sep 12, 2024
Rattled Putin’s threats of a response if Ukraine uses western missiles ‘are empty’

Discussions have intensified surrounding Ukraine’s potential use of Western supplied long-range missiles against Russia.

Ukraine has long been asking for permission to use the western drones to help in their fight against Russia, but the US and UK have held back for fear of escalation.

That soon may change, after David Lammy and Antony Blinken visited Ukraine this week, where they were urged again to lift restrictions on the use of weapons against Russia.

‘The standard Russian reaction to anything that upsets the Kremlin or surprises them is an intensification of campaigns to target the most vulnerable in Ukrainian society.

a reply to: Kurokage
Now that we know Iran has shipped over 200 ballistic missiles to Russia, it's completely ridiculous for Russia to use missiles from its ally, and claim its enemy is not allowed to do the same thing. In fact that's just the reason Ukraine's allies need to relax the restrictions on how Ukraine can use the missiles supplied by its allies.

Russia Just Got 200 Ballistic Missiles From Iran. It’s An Escalation Of The War In Ukraine—And It Might Backfire On Russia.

there’s a good chance the Fath-360 deal backfires on Russia. It could be the final straw for Ukraine’s allies, who have so far barred the Ukrainians from firing their best American and European munitions at targets inside Russia. With the arrival of Iranian missiles in Russia, there are signs this could change.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

Now that we know Iran has shipped over 200 ballistic missiles to Russia, it's completely ridiculous for Russia to use missiles from its ally, and claim it's enemy is not allowed to do the same thing.

Totally agree, Ukraine has had it's hands tied by some NATO members on use of certain weapons. I think North Korea and Iran supplied weapons being used aggressively by Russia should be taken as a need to untie Ukraines hands in defending itself.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

It would be a different story if Russia was using Chinese missiles in Ukraine.
It’s pretty obvious why they aren’t.

a reply to: Vermilion
Why would that be different?

I can't assume when anybody calls something "obvious" in this thread that they know what they are talking about, maybe they do and maybe they don't. There are some people who think it's obvious that Putin's propaganda reasons for starting the war with Ukraine are fictitious, like "de-nazification", and there are other people who have been brainwashed to think that Putin's propaganda is true, so they think it's obvious that Putin really is trying to de-nazify Ukraine because there used to be a guy called Bandera who is now dead, or else they know it's propaganda and are being paid by the Kremlin to promote propaganda.

Some western youtubers were getting paid $100,000 a week to make Russian propaganda videos. I wonder how much the Russian propagandists posting here are getting paid, or do they really believe the propaganda and don't need to be paid anything because they are brainwashed?

How Russian operatives covertly hired U.S. influencers to create viral videos The Russian sponsored propaganda videos resulting in election interference are ultimately about the war in Ukraine, among other things:

"While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the Government of Russia's interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Government of Russia interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine," the indictment says.