Thread: Russia launches Ukraine invasion

^ yeah, interesting, but who knows what's true in the world of endless Russian lies???

The plane in which Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was on board was “shot down” in the sky over the Tver region by the Russian Defense Ministry, a Telegram channel affiliated with Wagner claimed on Wednesday.

The Telegram channel affiliated with Wagner Grey Zone claimed: “The plane was shot down in the sky over the Tver region by air defense forces of the Russian Defense Ministry.”

It added: “It is reported that one of the Embraer Legacy 600 private planes belonging to Yevgeny Prigozhin disappeared from the radar at 18:20, the dispatchers tried to contact the crew, but to no avail, after which the air traffic controllers notified the Russian Ministry of Defense and air defense units about the incident.”

Furthermore, the channel added that there’s a second plane also owned by Prigozhin: “The second private aircraft owned by Evgeny Prigozhin, Embraer ERJ-135BJ ‘Legacy 650’ with the number RA-02748, after shooting down another aircraft of Evgeny Prigozhin with the number RA-02795, is currently cruising in the sky over Moscow.”

Grey Zone also claimed: “The second Embraer 600 business jet with tail number RA-02795, which also belonged to the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, landed at the Ostafyevo airport near Moscow.”

It added: “Where Yevgeny Prigozhin himself was in the end - at the moment there is no exact data.”

The Federal Agency for Air Transport of Russia said it initiated an investigation of the crash of the Embraer plane that crashed in the Tver Region on Wednesday, the agency said in its statement, adding that the Prigozhin was included in the list of passengers of the crashed flight.

“An investigation of the Embraer plane crash that happened in the Tver Region this evening was initiated. According to the passenger list, first and last name of Yevgeny Prigozhin was included in this list,” state news agency TASS reported.

Wagner affiliated channel claims Prigozhin’s plane was shot down by defense ministry | Al Arabiya English

One has to wonder why Prigozhin would make himself so vulnerable. Surely he must've known not to trust Putin. There have been more high divers in Moscow than even Pattaya.

Ever since the abortive coup, speculation had been that Yevgeny Prigozhin could be living on borrowed time.

When the head of the notorious Wagner group launched his historic uprising, inflicting the biggest crisis of Vladimir Putin’s 23-year reign, many were left wondering how the Russian leader would respond.

During the mutiny, Prigozhin’s band of mercenaries shot down at least two helicopters and killed about 15 Russian service personnel, many of them airmen. More significantly for Putin, Prigozhin’s rebellion, which reached the outskirts of Moscow, exposed the fragility of a regime many deemed to be stable.

The cause of the crash on Wednesday, which killed all 10 people on board – Prigozhin listed among them, officials said – was not immediately clear, but the Wagner leader’s longstanding feud with the military and the armed uprising he led in June would give the Russian state ample motive for revenge.

Putin does not suffer betrayal gladly and is known to divide those who oppose him into two categories: enemies and traitors. Prigozhin’s uprising undoubtedly placed him in the second category.

But Putin’s initial response to the mutiny left many puzzled. Despite promising to “liquidate the traitor” in a televised address to the nation, Putin allowed Prigozhin to strike a deal with Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko and leave Russia for exile.

Unusually, weeks after the mutiny, the Kremlin said Putin had a three-hour meeting with Prigozhin and Wagner group commanders days after the rebellion.

Putin also remarkably admitted that he sought and failed during the meeting to have Prigozhin replaced as the leader of Wagner’s fighters in Ukraine.

Having initially left for Belarus, where his Wagner troops set up camp and trained local security forces, Prigozhin was seen moving freely back and forth between Moscow and his home town of St Petersburg, reportedly picking up stacks of cash and gold bars that he held at his opulent mansions.

Not much later, Prigozhin was spotted on the sidelines of a major Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, where he met African officials at a hotel that he owned.

Those who knew Prigozhin were not surprised, believing that the warlord at some point would probably pick up the tab for his foray into revolutionary politics. A former restaurant tycoon turned mercenary leader, Prigozhin has always been a risk-taker, and was not one to sit in exile in Belarus while his mercenary army was dismantled.

Attempting to explain Putin’s timid behaviour, analysts argued that the Russian leader, who had not previously faced dissent from the ultra-nationalist flank, was looking to pacify rather than destroy his former ally.

But Prigozhin’s brazen conduct left many in the elite wondering whether Putin still held control over the country, according to western officials.

“For a lot of Russians watching this, used to this image of Putin as the arbiter of order, the question was, ‘Does the emperor have no clothes?’ Or at least, ‘Why is it taking so long for him to get dressed?’” CIA director William Burns said earlier this month.

Prigozhin was last seen earlier this week when he released a video in which he claimed to be in Africa, where his mercenaries have relocated since the abortive uprising. But it was unclear when it was taken and whether he had returned to Russia since it was shot.

As speculations swirl on the role of Putin in the crash, the warlord’s death will surely raise tensions within the Russian army. While his uprising was largely condemned by the armed forces, he remained a popular figure among some elements of the troops who sympathised with his critiques of the Russian military establishment and the faltering war.

“If he is really dead, [I will] grab my stuff, we don’t need this fucking war,” wrote Egor Guzenko, a Russian soldier who runs a blog under the callsign “Thirteenth” shortly after the news of Prigozhin’s death emerged.

“We should be killing our enemies, not our own,” wrote Sergei Markov, a popular blogger and former adviser to the Kremlin. “All our enemies are celebrating … The death of Priogzhin is Ukraine’s biggest achievement this year.”

The crash of Prigozhin’s jet also comes on the day that reports emerged indicating that Moscow had relieved Gen Sergei Surovikin of his command of the Russian aerospace forces, in the highest-level sacking yet of a military commander after Prigozhin’s mutiny.

Prigozhin’s public support for Surovikin, a veteran commander who was seen as an ally of the Wagner militia in the Russian defence ministry, had raised questions over whether he or other senior commanders aided the mutiny or at least had prior knowledge of Prigozhin’s plans.

While the dramatic crash footage was met with shock by his allies, some in the Russian establishment previously indicated that Putin would not let Prigozhin’s betrayal slide.

In an earlier interview with the Guardian, a Kremlin insider said that “in half a year or a year, novichok will catch up with Prigozhin,” a reference to the 2020 poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“I don’t think he will be easily forgiven … Maybe not immediately, but in some time, in the best traditions, novichok will come to visit him. He should probably watch out for his underpants,” the source added.

Putin, however, appears to have been working to a fast-track schedule.

It seems certain that those in the political elite will take onboard one crucial lesson from the turbulent summer of 2023: “You come at the king, you best not miss.”

Prigozhin’s death would leave lasting mark on Russian army and elite | Ukraine | The Guardian

Norway gives F-16 jets to Ukraine, joining Denmark, Netherlands

Norway will donate U.S.-made F-16 combat aircraft to Ukraine, the Norwegian prime minister announced during a visit to Kyiv on Thursday, joining an effort led by the Netherlands and Denmark.

F-16s have been on Ukraine's wish list for a long time because of their destructive power and global availability. The fighter jet is equipped with a 20mm cannon and can carry bombs, rockets and missiles.

"We are planning to donate Norwegian F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, and will provide further details about the donation, numbers and time frame for delivery, in due course," Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a statement.

Ukrainian forces have carried out their most complex and ambitious operations to date against Russian military facilities in the occupied region of Crimea, officials in Kyiv have said.

Special forces landed on the western shore of Crimea, near the settlements of Olenivka and Mayak, in a joint operation with the country’s Navy, according to Ukrainian Defense Intelligence.

“While performing the task, Ukrainian defenders clashed with the occupier’s units. As a result, the enemy suffered losses among its personnel and destroyed enemy equipment,” the intelligence agency said.

While they were there, the Ukrainian unit also raised the national flag, it added.

Russian-appointed authorities in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula which has been illegally occupied by Moscow’s forces since 2014, have not responded to the claims.

The operation would constitute one of the most daring moves by Kyiv since launching its cagey counter-offensive against Russian troops, which has so far made only limited progress.

Kyiv has recently ramped up drone strikes on Crimea in a push to disrupt Russian logistics and resupply efforts, a shift in focus that has been met with skepticism in parts of the West.

The area contains extensive air defenses and missile sites, including advanced systems. The Ukrainians said Wednesday they had destroyed an S-400 missile defense battery in the area.

Mayak is said to be home to a Russian radio engineering regiment and sophisticated radar systems.

Unofficial Russian social media accounts have spoken of firing near a campsite at Cape Tarkhankut – the westernmost point in Crimea – before dawn on Thursday. One channel said the first shooting broke out shortly before 4 a.m.

“When people woke up and came out of the houses and tents to the beach, they saw two rubber boats not far from the shore. There were 10 unidentified men in them. One of them fired at the camping site,” according to the Telegram channel SHOT.

A prominent Russian military blog, Wargonzo, reported that “According to some sources, a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group landed in the area of Cape Tarkhankut, shelled the camping on the seashore and fled in the direction of Odesa.”

A Telegram channel associated with a military unit of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic also reported the clashes.

The 105th Regiment of the DPR militia said four light-engine boats with Ukrainian saboteurs were destroyed near Cape Tarkhankut. “Russian security forces liquidated the sabotage and reconnaissance in the sea at about four in the morning. According to preliminary data, about 15-20 people were liquidated,” it claimed.

Ukrainian Defense Intelligence released several videos purporting to show Ukrainian inflatables close to the Crimean coast in the darkness.

Video has also emerged of Ukrainian inflatable boats firing an anti-aircraft missile at a Russian jet. The Russian Defense Ministry released cockpit video showing a jet fighter using cannon fire against the boats.

Ukraine has meanwhile claimed some gains on the southern front in Zaporizhzhia region, and are still on the offensive around Bakhmut, as Kyiv’s counter-offensive gradually progresses in the east of the country.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces said Thursday that units had succeeded “in the direction of Novodanylivka and Novoprokopivka, consolidating their positions, inflicting artillery fire on the identified enemy targets, and conducting counter-battery operations.”

“The enemy is suffering significant losses in personnel, weapons and equipment, is moving units and troops and actively using reserves,” the General Staff said.

Ukrainian defenders were also holding back Russian attempts to advance further north around Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, as well as efforts to break through west of Svatove in neighboring Luhansk. In this area, the Ukrainians say that the Russians have poured more forces into the battlefield.

Crimea: Ukraine says it landed troops on the shores of Russian-occupied peninsula | CNN

Wow. Godspeed.

Originally Posted by misskit

Wow. Godspeed.

These are the guys that recently returned from the UK after being trained by the SBS, which is the British equivalent to US NAVY SEALS. The ruzzians are as usual lying about what happened there, the Ukrainians were able to successfully conduct the operation and left without losses.

Ukraine Makes Amphibious Raid on Crimea -- Raiding Tarkhankut - YouTube

https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1694663958215705062

bsnub seems to have an unhealthy overly keen interest in this affair. I'm still questioning if it's actually real.

US to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s this October in Arizona

U.S. military personnel will train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s at Morris Air National Guard Base in Tucson, Ariz., in October, according to the Pentagon’s top spokesperson.

Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said the pilots will first receive English instruction at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, next month in an effort to boost their fluency to the level needed to fly the planes.

The announcement is the biggest step forward yet in the international effort to train Ukrainian pilots on Western-supplied fifth-generation fighters.

It also comes a day after President Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Ukraine’s Independence Day to assure his counterpart of continued support from Washington in Kyiv’s fight against Moscow.

In a statement from the White House, Biden told Zelensky that the U.S. had sped up approval for other countries to transfer their F-16s to Ukraine at the end of the pilot training.

Pentagon officials have said it would take years before Ukrainian pilots would be able to fly advanced fighters in defense of their country against Russia, a sentiment Ryder expressed Thursday.

“This is about the long-term support to Ukraine,“ Ryder told reporters. “This is not about the counteroffensive that they’re conducting right now.”

Newly declassified US intel claims Russia is laundering propaganda through unwitting Westerners

Sabang used to propogate the lies about the Syrian white hats...

Russian intelligence is operating a systematic program to launder pro-Kremlin propaganda through private relationships between Russian operatives and unwitting US and western targets, according to newly declassified US intelligence.

US intelligence agencies believe that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) is attempting to influence public policy and public opinion in the West by directing Russian civilians to build relationships with influential US and Western individuals and then disseminate narratives that support Kremlin objectives, obscuring the FSB’s role through layers of ostensibly independent actors.

“These influence operations are designed to be deliberately small scale, the overall goal being US [and] Western persons presenting these ideas, seemingly organic,” a US official authorized to discuss the material told CNN. “The co-optee influence operations are built primarily on personal relationships … they build trust with them and then they can leverage that to covertly push the FSB’s agenda.”

The campaigns have sometimes been effective at planting Russian narratives in the Western press, according to the intelligence. Maxim Grigoriev, who heads a Russian NGO, made multiple speeches to the UN presenting a false study that claimed the humanitarian group the White Helmets – which operates in Syria – was running a black market for human organs and had faked chemical attacks by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with whom Russia is allied. Those claims eventually found their way into a television report on the far-right OANN in the United States, according to open-source materials provided by the official.

CNN has reached out to Grigoriev and OANN.

But the official stressed that the Western voices that eventually became mouthpieces for Russian propaganda were almost certainly unaware of the role they were playing.

“At the end of the day, this unwitting target is disseminating Russian influence operation, Russian propaganda to their target public,” the US official said. “Ultimately, a lot of these are unwitting people — they remain unaware who is essentially seeding these narratives.”

The intelligence provides several examples of Russian civilian “co-optees” doing the bidding of the FSB.

One man, Andrey Stepanenko, founded a media project in 2014 that sponsored journalists from the US and the West to visit eastern Ukraine and learn “the alleged truth” about what was happening in the region. In fact, the FSB directed his efforts and “almost certainly financed the project,” according to the declassified intelligence.

CNN was not able to locate Stepanenko to ask for comment.

The US official also cited Natalia Burlinova, the founder of a Russian NGO who routinely coordinated FSB-funded public diplomacy efforts aimed at influencing Western views. In 2018, she visited, had meetings and hosted events at multiple US think tanks and universities in New York, Boston and Washington – work that was funded by the FSB, according to the intelligence. Her conduct was already public: She was indicted earlier this year on charges of conspiring with an FSB officer to act as an illegal agent of Russia inside the United States, although she remains at liberty in Russia.
CNN has reached out to Burlinova.

The official declined to offer specifics to back up the intelligence community’s assertions that the FSB is funding this kind of operation but noted that once officials were able establish FSB backing, it is easy to trace the narratives they are pushing in open-source materials.

“Once you’re aware of who these people are and their association with the FSB, by nature of what they’re doing, they have very, very public personas,” the official said. “And so I would just say it’s not really difficult to kind of follow the strings.”

The US official declined to say whether Russia has used these same tactics to try to influence US elections.

The FSB does use similar tactics to influence political opinion within Russia, according to the intelligence. In one instance, a Russian media figure named Anton Tsvetkov organized protests outside of embassies in Moscow — including the US Embassy — at the FSB’s behest. The protests pushed Russia’s narrative of the war in Ukraine, “promoting the ‘Ukrainian Nazi’ narrative and blaming the U.S. and its allies for the deaths of children in the Donbass,” while hiding the Russian government’s role, according to the declassified intelligence.

“The purpose of those protests really was … designed to sell it to the Russian people,” the US official said.

Newly declassified US intel claims Russia is laundering propaganda through unwitting Westerners | CNN Politics

U.S. colonel Douglas MacGregor is about the most pro Russian US Ex military that I have seen.

Originally Posted by Hugh Cow

U.S. colonel Douglas MacGregor is about the most pro Russian US Ex military that I have seen.

He is a paid shill who pushes kremlin propaganda, plain and simple.

Putin ordered the hit...he gave order on plane.

The Ukrainians got 4 IL-76 transport aircraft.

A drone attack on the city of Pskov in northwestern Russia has damaged four heavy transport planes, state media reported early on Wednesday, amid reports of explosions in regions south of Moscow.

“The defence ministry is repelling a drone attack in Pskov’s airport,” regional governor Mikhail Vedernikov said on social media, posting a video of a massive fire, with the sounds of explosions and sirens in the background.

Pskov is located about 800km (nearly 500 miles) from Ukraine’s border and the surrounding region borders EU member states Latvia and Estonia.

Separately, Russia’s military said early on Wednesday that one of its aircraft had destroyed four Ukrainian rapid vessels carrying up to 50 paratroops in an operation on the Black Sea.

In Moscow, news agency Tass reported that airspace above Vnukovo airport closed briefly in response to the attacks on Pskov, before reopening to air traffic.

There were also reportedly explosions in Russia’s Bryansk and Tula regions, according to the investigative news outlet Bellingcat.

There was no immediate comment from the defence ministry on the Pskov attack, but four transport planes were damaged, Tass news agency reported, citing emergency services.

Vedernikov said he was at the scene of the attack. “According to preliminary information, there are no victims,” he said, adding that the scale of the damage was being assessed.

Russia’s military said on Telegram early on Wednesday it had downed three Ukrainian drones over southern Bryansk region and one over central Orlov region.

There were reports of explosions in Bryansk, as well as the Tula region.

Bellingcat researcher Aric Toyler said online: “About every local Bryansk channel just now wrote, almost simultaneously, that they heard a loud explosion. Similar reports in Tula with reports of drones being fired at.”

Drone strike in Russian city of Pskov reportedly damages heavy transport planes | Russia | The Guardian

Two Ukrainian Air Assault Brigades Are Flanking Russia’s Next Strongpoint On The Road To Melitopol


A week after liberating Robotyne, a key strongpoint on the road to Melitopol in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, Ukrainian brigades are shifting their attention to the next town along the same axis: Novoprokopivka.

But every indication is that the lead brigades for the assault—the 46th Air Mobile and 82nd Air Assault Brigades—aren’t going to try directly assaulting Russian positions in Novoprokopivka, a town with a pre-war population of 800 that sits astride the T0408/0401 road threading south through Tokmak to Melitopol, 50 miles away.

No, the brigades are pivoting east, toward the town of Verbove. Their goal, apparently, is to liberate Verbove in order to flank Novoprokopivka.

It’s a sound strategy. After all, it’s worked before for the Ukrainians in several key engagements since they launched a sweeping counteroffensive starting in early June.

The month-long battle for Robotyne was a turning point in the Ukrainian counteroffensive. In slowly grinding through Russian minefields and trenches around the town, Ukrainian brigades eroded the Russian 58th Combined Arms Army and other Russian formations, destroying a Russian vehicle for every Ukrainian vehicle the Russians destroyed.

This one-to-one ratio in heavy equipment losses defies history. Traditionally, an attacking army must mass three times as many troops as a defending army in order to have any chance of success—and should expect to suffer three times as many casualties as the defender, even in victory.

Ukraine’s growing advantage in front-line artillery—hundreds of Western-made howitzers and rocket-launchers firing cluster shells and guided munitions—helps to explain the overall even losses. Critically, Ukrainian gunners have been knocking out three or four Russian howitzers and launchers for every one Ukrainian howitzer or launcher Russian gunners knock out.

When battered Russian regiments fled Robotyne on Aug. 23 and the Ukrainian army’s 47th Mechanized Brigade hoisted the Ukrainian flag over the town’s ruins, it was obvious what would happen next. The next target, Novoprokopivka, is visible from the high ground in Robotyne, a mile away.

But how the Ukrainians are moving on Novoprokopivka speaks to their growing battlefield experience, 19 months into Russia’s wider war on Ukraine. Borrowing a plan from the Ukrainian marine corps—which liberated the town of Urozhaine, 60 miles east of Robotyne, by flanking it and starving its Russian garrison—the Ukrainian air-assault forces 46th and 82nd Brigades turned east instead of rolling south.

Now the two brigades are probing the Russian trenches around Verbove—and making steady gains.

The Russian garrison in Verbove—a motor-rifle regiment, a special forces brigade and a trio of reserve battalions—is much smaller than is the seven-regiment Russian garrison in Novoprokopivka.

The Russians could shift forces to Verbove in order to try blocking the 46th and 82nd Brigades’ assault. They also could assign to Verbove elements of the elite 76th Guard Air Assault Division, which the Kremlin apparently is rushing from eastern Ukraine to the south in a desperate bid to stabilize the front line.

But the 76th GAAD is the Kremlin’s last uncommitted division. So if commanders further reinforce Verbove, they must do so at the expense of other strongpoints along the southern front line.

If the Kremlin does the expedient thing and bolsters the Verbove garrison with the elements of the Novoprokopivka garrison, it could create an opportunity for the other Ukrainian brigades in and around Robotyne—including the battle-hardened 47th and 65th Mechanized—to do what the 46th and 82nd Brigades opted not to do: directly assault Novoprokopivka from north to south.

In that sense, the air-assault forces’ effort around Verbove could be the Ukrainians’ main effort in their Melitipol thrust, or it could be a diversion supporting the real main effort farther to the west. It all depends on what the Russians choose to do: sit tight in Novoprokopivka and hope the Verbove line holds, or reinforce Verbove and hope the Novoprokopivka line holds.

It’s an unhappy position for Russian troops to be in: choosing between two bad options that the Ukrainians presented them by virtue of the Ukrainians’ own clever deployments.

Ukrainians Are Flanking The Next Strongpoint On The Road To Melitopol

The Russian ministry of defense on the recent Ukrainian attacks.
It was just a flesh wound"

Blinken announces $1 billion Ukraine aid package in surprise visit

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new aid package for Ukraine worth more than $1 billion during a surprise visit Wednesday to the war-weary country.

The upcoming package, which includes $175 million for weapons, brings U.S. security assistance to more than $43.2 billion since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of its ex-Soviet neighbor. The Pentagon said the latest security assistance package will include depleted uranium tank ammunition for use with the stalwart Abrams tanks.

The Biden administration has also authorized $2.9 billion in humanitarian assistance and $20.5 billion in World Bank efforts for Ukraine.

Blinken’s two-day trip, which marks his fourth visit to the country since the war began last year, included meetings with key Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and his diplomatic counterpart Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Blinken’s trip comes amid a burst of battlefield gains recently by Ukrainian forces, who are carrying out a counteroffensive in the south and east of the country.

Last week, the White House said Ukrainian forces have made “notable progress” in southern Zaporizhzhia.

“Where they go from here, and how they exploit that success, I’ll leave it to them to discuss,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a Sept. 1. conference call.

Kirby declined to provide additional details, citing operational security risks.

This is one of the best clips I have found. He was spot on.

There's still a long way to go for Ukraine to regain all the territory currently not under their control.

Assessed Control of Terrain in Ukraine as of September 6, 2023, 3:00 PM ET





Ukraine | Story Stream | Critical Threats

Interactive Map: Russia'''s Invasion of Ukraine

Originally Posted by Neverna

There's still a long way to go for Ukraine to regain all the territory currently not under their control.

That front line is where all the ruzzian troops are. Once Ukraine finally pushes through it, they will cover a lot of ground very quickly.