Ukraine war mega thread

[bsnub]

The Ukrainian navy for months has been hunting the Russian navy frigate Admiral Makarov. It seems the Ukrainians finally got a shot at the 409-foot, missile-armed vessel in her home port of Sevastopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea.

The Ukrainian government on Saturday released dramatic videos apparently depicting a successful nighttime strike on Makarov or her sister ship Admiral Essen by at least one unmanned surface vessel.

The speedboat-size USV, possibly packing hundreds of pounds of explosives, dodged Russian helicopters and small boats and drove directly at the frigate, approaching to within a few feet before the video feed went dead.

There aren’t yet any photos or videos circulating online that can confirm whether the frigate suffered any damage. In the best case, her crew blew up the drone boat before the drone boat blew up them. In the worst case, Makarov or Essen suffered the kind of waterline damage that quickly can sink a ship. To say nothing of any fires that might have resulted from the blast.

The daring robotic raid is history repeating itself. Makarov became the flagship of the depleted Russian Black Sea Fleet in April after Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles and shore-based missile crews worked together to sink the previous flagship, the 612-foot cruiser Moskva.

Even if Makarov remains afloat—and that’s a distinct possibility—the Ukrainians still can count the nighttime strike as a win. There are reports of other Black Sea Fleet ships suffering damage in the raid. And to avoid future USV attacks, the Russians either will have to devote significantly more resources to protecting Sevastopol, or pull the Black Sea Fleet’s three dozen or so surviving vessels from Crimea.

The Ukrainian navy has been shockingly successful, considering it no longer has any big ships. In the early hours of the initial Russian bombardment on Feb. 23, the crew of Hetman Sahaidachny, the Ukrainian navy’s flagship and only large surface combatant, scuttled the frigate at its moorings in Odesa, Ukraine’s strategic port on the western Black Sea.

For the first two months of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, the Russians dominated the Black Sea. Sailing and flying with impunity, they captured tiny Snake Island, 80 miles south of Odesa, and—using the island plus some gas platforms they’d captured from Ukraine as bases for air-defenses and surveillance gear—enforced a blockade of Odesa that effectively cut off Ukraine’s vital grain exports.

The Black Sea Fleet was poised to attempt an amphibious landing around Odesa. Capturing the port would complete Russia’s conquest of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast and cut off the country from the sea, permanently strangling its economy.

Russian forces meanwhile captured or scattered the rest of the Ukrainian navy’s ships, including one landing ship and a clutch of armored patrol boats. When the Ukrainians struck back, they did so with land-based missiles, UAVs and USVs.

The tide began to turn on March 23, when a Ukrainian Tochka ballistic missile hit the Black Sea Fleet landing ship Saratov while she was pierside in the occupied port of Berdyansk. The explosion sank Saratov, damaged at least one other landing ship and underscored the danger Russian ships might face in a direct assault on Odesa.

Then, on April 13, a Ukrainian navy anti-ship battery put two Neptune missiles into the side of the Russian cruiser Moskva, eventually sinking the 612-foot vessel.

In a single strike, the Ukrainians deprived the Black Sea Fleet of its main air-defense ship with her S-300 long-range surface-to-air missiles. Desperate to preserve their surviving large warships—in particular, the two Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates including Makarov—fleet commanders pulled back the bigger ships 80 miles from the Ukrainian coast.

That exposed the rest of the Black Sea Fleet—in particular, support ships that can’t effectively defend themselves—to attack by Ukraine’s missiles and drones. “Russia’s resupply vessels have minimum protection in the western Black Sea,” the U.K. Defense Ministry stated.

Ukraine meanwhile reinforced its Neptune battery with U.S.-made Harpoon missiles, compounding the risk to Russian ships in the western Black Sea. The missileers coordinated with drone operators flying Turkish-made TB-2 drones to hunt down and sink several of the Black Sea Fleet’s Raptor patrol boats and landing craft.

In early May there were rumors a Ukrainian missile had struck Makarov. That turned out to be untrue. But a Harpoon did hit and sink the support ship Vsevolod Bobrov while she made a supply run to Snake Island on May 12.

Ukrainian missiles also struck at least one of the gas platforms the Russians were using for observation. Ukrainian drones, fighters and artillery bombarded Snake Island, rendering the treeless rock uninhabitable.

In a single strike, the Ukrainians deprived the Black Sea Fleet of its main air-defense ship with her S-300 long-range surface-to-air missiles. Desperate to preserve their surviving large warships—in particular, the two Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates including Makarov—fleet commanders pulled back the bigger ships 80 miles from the Ukrainian coast.

That exposed the rest of the Black Sea Fleet—in particular, support ships that can’t effectively defend themselves—to attack by Ukraine’s missiles and drones. “Russia’s resupply vessels have minimum protection in the western Black Sea,” the U.K. Defense Ministry stated.

Ukraine meanwhile reinforced its Neptune battery with U.S.-made Harpoon missiles, compounding the risk to Russian ships in the western Black Sea. The missileers coordinated with drone operators flying Turkish-made TB-2 drones to hunt down and sink several of the Black Sea Fleet’s Raptor patrol boats and landing craft.

In early May there were rumors a Ukrainian missile had struck Makarov. That turned out to be untrue. But a Harpoon did hit and sink the support ship Vsevolod Bobrov while she made a supply run to Snake Island on May 12.

Ukrainian missiles also struck at least one of the gas platforms the Russians were using for observation. Ukrainian drones, fighters and artillery bombarded Snake Island, rendering the treeless rock uninhabitable.

The Russian garrison fled the island on May 31. A week later, Ukrainian commandos hoisted a Ukrainian flag. Snake Island’s liberation signaled to the Ukrainian merchant marine that the western Black Sea was safe for commerce.

Odesa was still under blockade—and would remain so until Turkey brokered an end to the port blockage in late July—but ships now could get grain out of Ukraine via canals connecting small river ports near the Romanian border to the western Black Sea.

The river route might regain its previous significance in the wake of last night’s Sevastopol raid. The Kremlin announced it was ending its agreement with Kyiv to allow big grain ships to sail from Odesa.

The Russians aren’t acting from a position of strength. Unable to replace the Black Sea Fleet’s losses as long as Turkey controls the Bosphorous Strait joining the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, Russian commanders have focused on protecting what remains of the fleet. Ships hug the Crimean coast, staying inside the range of land-based aircraft and S-400 surface-to-air missiles.

But the Ukrainian drone boats struck the Black Sea Fleet well inside that protective umbrella. Between the ballistic and anti-ship missiles and airborne and seaborne drones, the Ukrainian armed forces have plenty of ways of sinking Russian ships.

The Black Sea Fleet isn’t safe in the western Black Sea. It isn’t safe in Sevastopol. The only place it might be safe is the only place where it’s totally irrelevant to the wider war: in ports in Russia proper, tied up pierside and closely guarded around the clock.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidax...h=332d235f92e6

[sabang]

On October 30, Russia suspended its participation in the implementation of previously reached agreements on the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports. The U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal aimed at export of Ukrainian grain is halted.

The Russian Ministry of defence claimed that the decision was a response to the massive drone attack in Crimea. The Russian military ensured the safety of the passage of ships but Kiev and NATO used the maritime corridors to launch the attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

“Taking into account the terrorist attack carried out on October 29 by the Kiev regime with the participation of specialists from the UK against ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian vessels involved in ensuring the security of the grain corridor,” the Russian Defense Ministry explained in a statement.

Moscow has officially notified UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres of the suspension of participation in the Black Sea grain Initiative:

“Amid the attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russia cannot guarantee the safety of civilian vessels. Thus, from today, the Russian side suspends the initiative for an indefinite period,” the Russian letter says.

Russian representative to the UN also pointed out that drones attacked not only Russian ships, but also infrastructure in the waters of Sevastopol. The attack was carried out under the cover of security corridors intended for the execution of the so-called Black Sea initiative.

As a result of the NATO and Ukrainian attack which resulted in some damage to the Russian vessels, the world will face again the problem of the supply of food and fertilizers to global markets. In turn, Ukrainian media are glorifying the actions of the Ukrainian military, sharing the video showing the British UAV approaching the Russian vessels in the Sevastopol Bay. The published video demonstrates that the British USVs hit at least some of the assigned targets.

Moscow Suspended Grain Deal After Attack On Black Sea Fleet In SevastopolSouth Front

[david44]

The old Armada upgrade tale suggests the replacement Russian Black Sea fleet will have glass bottomed boats so they may inspect the Old Black Sea Fleet on the sea bed.

[bsnub]

Taking into account the terrorist attack

Bombing playgrounds and other civilian targets is terrorism. Attacking a military base and ships after your country was illegally invaded is fair play. The Russians had it coming, and the Kremlin has been melting down all day.

The old Armada upgrade tale suggests the replacement Russian Black Sea fleet will have glass bottomed boats so they may inspect the Old Black Sea Fleet on the sea bed.

[sabang]

The only countries officially NOT believing Kiev could use a dirty bomb

[misskit]

Thousands of Russian Collaborators in Ukraine Have Made One Hell of a Fuck-Up

The Russians fled quickly from Cherneshchyna, abandoning their positions in a panic and disappearing into the night to escape the Ukrainian advance. “On the morning of October 2nd, they were just gone,” says Oleksiy, a resident of this small village on the eastern edge of the Kharkiv region, where a sudden Ukrainian counter-offensive saw Russian soldiers flee without a fight, leaving behind ammunition boxes, propaganda newspapers, and empty vodka bottles in their trenches and foxholes.


But in Cherneshchyna—as in many other towns and villages across the region—it wasn’t just the Russians who fled as Ukrainian forces secured bridgeheads on the west bank of the Oskil river and liberated a string of settlements in a lightning-fast advance. Dozens of villagers—who had either sympathized or openly collaborated with the invaders—joined the flight too.

Three weeks on, the fighting is not yet over in the area. Artillery fire still booms out as Ukrainian troops push on into the neighboring Luhansk oblast. But whatever happens on the battlefield, life here, and in other liberated towns and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine, will never return to normal until there has been a reckoning—between those who collaborated with the Russians and those who resisted them.


According to Oleksiy, a former mechanic who had fled the fighting in Izyum, as many as one-third of the 700 residents of Cherneshchyna were either collaborators or Russian sympathizers. The priest officiating at the local St. Nicholas Church—affiliated with the Moscow patriarchate—was reportedly among those who fled the advancing Ukrainian troops. “He scampered to Russia, and stole some of the icons from the church,” laughs 35-year-old Olena, Oleksiy’s wife.


As Russian troops and armored vehicles poured into towns and villages across the country, many, like Oleksiy and his family bided their time, waiting for the moment they could come out and greet advancing Ukrainian soldiers with the blue and yellow flag they had kept hanging on the clothes-line—despite being ordered to take it down by Russian soldiers. “We never doubted, we knew that Ukraine would take back Cherneshchyna, and we waited,” says Olena. Her husband chimes in: “The Ukrainian soldiers told us ‘You guys are fearless’ when they saw that we had kept the flag outside.”


Yet, others chose to collaborate with the Russians, out of greed, fear, or ideological conviction.


While Oleksiy tells us that Ukraine’s security service has not yet made it to the village, local police have already been hard at work to identify and detain suspected collaborators. Twenty miles east of Cherneshchyna, in the village of Horokhovatka, a 30-year-old resident was arrested on Wednesday by local police. The man is suspected of having provided food to the Russians and of having denounced his neighbors harboring pro-Ukrainian views to the occupiers—a move with potentially deadly consequences, as Russian soldiers routinely abducted, tortured, and murdered pro-Ukrainian activists, residents, and local officials.

The man—who faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted—is among the hundreds of Ukrainian citizens currently facing criminal proceedings for having provided help to Russian forces. As of Sept. 16, 1,358 similar cases had already been opened against individuals and local officials throughout the country, according to the head of Ukraine’s National Police, Ihor Klymenko.


In liberated settlements, retribution is at hand for those suspected of having collaborated with the enemy. On a Facebook post celebrating the liberation of the town and the surrounding villages, the city council of Borova claimed that a number of Russian sympathizers had already been detained by law enforcement agencies, adding that in the nearby village of Izyumske, the house of the collaborator and self-appointed “elder” (mayor) had burned down “as a result of spontaneous combustion.” According to the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center, this local gym teacher and member of the local soccer federation had called a community meeting in April, during which he proclaimed himself mayor of the village and had set to work on preparations for a “referendum” on annexing the region to Russia.


While the self-proclaimed mayor’s current whereabouts are unknown, his name and information have already been published on the Myrotvorets website, a database of people deemed to be “enemies of Ukraine” by the secretive team behind the project.


Meanwhile, a local Telegram channel titled “TRAITORS” has been busy publishing the identities of civilians and local officials suspected of having helped the occupiers in Borova and the surrounding region. Among them, a husband and wife from the nearby village of Pisky-Rad’kivs’ki, who are accused of having worn the St George’s ribbon—a Russian military symbol now associated with support for the invasion of Ukraine—and of having allowed Russian forces to station their vehicles in their backyard. A slew of similar channels—some of them with tens of thousands of subscribers—have popped up during the first weeks and months of the occupation, documenting the identities and alleged offenses of suspected collaborators, and posting them online.


In Cherneshchyna, locals say, the Russian sympathizers all left in a hurry. “Had they stayed, well, they wouldn’t be here anymore,” says Mikhail with a grin. The young man in his twenties tells us how Russian soldiers had searched him and other residents for nationalist tattoos, as part of a systematic effort to root out “Nazis” and “Banderites” in the area. Mikhail says Vladimir Putin’s soldiers detained and tortured people in the basement of the local school, hoping to extort information from them on the positions and movements of Ukrainian forces.


In the occupied territories of Ukraine, dozens of collaborators have already met their end at the hands of local partisans, sometimes acting in concert with Ukrainian special services, as military officials have confirmed. And as the Ukrainian Armed Forces liberate towns and villages across the eastern and southern regions of the country, some of their brutalized residents could be tempted to dish out swift, extrajudicial retribution of their own. Already, experts warn that vigilante groups may try to seek revenge for Russia’s war crimes—and against the people who abetted them.


For a Frenchman, who now lives in Ukraine, there is a clear historical precedent. As a student in France, I learned about the brief but violent episode of the épuration sauvage—the “unofficial purge”—when in the immediate aftermath of the country’s liberation from German occupation in 1944, the people of France settled their scores with those who had collaborated with the Nazis. Members of the Milice—Vichy France’s vicious paramilitary organization that had helped to round up Jews and résistants—were summarily executed, while women who had slept with German soldiers had their heads shaved and were paraded in front of jeering crowds. While some of the initial estimates were vastly overblown—sometimes in an attempt to rehabilitate collaborators and Nazi sympathisers—the most recent put the number of extrajudicial executions during the épuration at roughly 9,000.


Perhaps the onus should not fall on Ukraine alone to ensure that Russian war criminals and the people who helped and enabled them are held accountable. There should be a process that is thorough, transparent, and internationally accountable. Lest the people take the matter into their own hands, once again.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/thousa...ck-up?ref=home

[bsnub]

The only countries officially NOT believing Kiev could use a dirty bomb

More crap off Quora. As usual, scraping the bottom of the barrel for you utter shit.

[Takeovers]

The Russian military ensured the safety of the passage of ships but Kiev and NATO used the maritime corridors to launch the attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

The Russian military is the ONLY threat to safety of grain ships.

[sabang]

It is not the Russians that mined the waters off Odessa. But now the deal has been cancelled, they are indeed a threat.

[bsnub]

[pickel]

It is not the Russians that mined the waters off Odessa. But now the deal has been cancelled, they are indeed a threat.

So it's OK for Russia to fire missiles from their Black Sea fleet, but not okay for Ukraine to target the fleet?

[sabang]

All is fair in love and war.

[misskit]

Conscripts held in basements and a dilapidated jail after refusing to return to the front


Publication Astra reported on October 22 that around 20 mobilized Russians were imprisoned in the annexed Luhansk region for refusing to return to the front lines. Astra cites close contacts of several of the conscripts.


According to the publication, the group includes residents of Bryansk and other regions of Russia. At least two of them did not sign their summonses, which is a violation of draft rules. The men received minimal training, after which they were sent to the Belgorod region.


The sister of one of the mobilized men said, “On the morning of October 1, he had already arrived at a military unit in Belgorod, and by evening of the same day he was sent to the front lines on Ukrainian territory. From October 1 to October 2 he and his fellow service members were under mortar fire, after which they returned to the unit and discovered that absolutely all of their personal belongings were missing.”


A friend of the same conscript said, “They were ordered back to the front, but they realized they were being sent there without a clearly defined task, and without any of the things they needed to complete incomprehensible assignments, so they refused.”


Astra published two videos, filmed by the conscripts, of the premises where they were held. In one of them, the man filming says the date – October 2. Astra reports that they had been ordered back to the front under threat of 10 years in prison.


The men were held first in a basement in Kreminna, then in a basement in Rubizhne, and according the latest information, they are currently on territory that has been partially destroyed by shelling, in a non-functioning prison in the Perevalsk region of formally annexed Luhansk. On October 28, Astra contacted the Red Cross, which has a branch in the area. The Red Cross said they currently do not have access to “such establishments.”

https://meduza.io/en/news/2022/10/30...n-to-the-front

[harrybarracuda]

The Russians said it, so it has to be true.

It's a bit like the chinkies trying to blame country after country for the Wuhan 'flu.

The chinkies and russians are just pathological liars.

[russellsimpson]

Crimea is a very sore spot for Russia and for Putin. Crimea has been Russian for long stretches and is 'historically' Russian. I predict another round of nastiness from the Russians after this attack. An attack on Crimea is tantamount to a direct attack on the motherland. I am led to believe that there was some NATO intelligence involvement in the attach in Crimea. Putin seriously has got to be pissed. Big time.

[harrybarracuda]

Crimea is a very sore spot for Russia and for Putin. Crimea has been Russian for long stretches and is 'historically' Russian. I predict another round of nastiness from the Russians after this attack. An attack on Crimea is tantamount to a direct attack on the motherland. I am led to believe that there was some NATO intelligence involvement in the attach in Crimea. Putin seriously has got to be pissed. Big time.

The only reason it's a "sore spot" is because it's embarrassing for Putin having stolen it to find that he can't defend it.

It has fuck all to do with Crimea's history, and NATO intelligence is probably involved in all offensive and defensive measures being taken by Ukraine.

You're just talking shit as usual.

[panama hat]

It is not the Russians that mined the waters off Odessa. But now the deal has been cancelled, they are indeed a threat.

Why do you lie with such ease and consistency?

[panama hat]

All is fair in love and war.

Except that it isn't ... as you'd know if you'd have an inkling of knowledge

[harrybarracuda]

Except that it isn't ... as you'd know if you'd have an inkling of knowledge

Another feeble attempt to downplay Putin's war crimes.

[Takeovers]

It is not the Russians that mined the waters off Odessa.

It is not the Russians who provide a safe course through those mine fields.

[bsnub]

I think it is time that a convoy of ships was sent to break the Russian blockade.

[HermantheGerman]

The only countries officially NOT believing Kiev could use a dirty bomb

You forgot to add this



Quote: “Not a single Russian politician, not a single public figure, not a single person said that we are planning to attack Ukraine.”


Speaker: Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations


Russian politics is so easy to figure out these days. Just believe the opposite that they say

[HermantheGerman]

All is fair in love and war.

Fixed it for you. Please pay attention and keep up your sense of humor Sabang.

All is fair in love and Special Operations


...and you might want to add this next time:

Special operations going as planned, says Vladimir Putin | World News

[David48atTD]

Russians .... They hate Europe

I'll believe that.

FTFU

[David48atTD]

Or in this case

SUB contractors surely?

Tish Boom