Thread: Russia launches Ukraine invasion

88 towns and villages in Kherson region recaptured by our military, claims Ukraine

The Ukrainian government said on Friday that its defence forces were able to recapture 88 towns and villages in the Kherson region. The announcement marked a huge achievement for Ukraine as Kherson was one of the four regions that Russia had “annexed” through the series of referendums.


"Kherson region: 88 settlements de-occupied," Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office, said on Telegram according to a report by Reuters.

The Ukrainian military was able to de-occupy 551 settlements in the Kharkiv region and as many as 1685 war crimes were registered against the Russian forces.


Tymoshenko took to social media to inform that the government was finally able to provide aid to the people in the Beryslav district and power was restored in several parts of the country.


Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Russian defence ministry said that a journalist was killed, and 10 others were injured as Ukraine attacked a bridge in the Kherson region on Friday.

"Out of the journalists 10 were injured, one was killed," the statement read according to AFP.


Meanwhile, the European Union will be providing Ukraine with $17.6 million in financial aid over the next year. The announcement was made after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the ongoing crisis can result in a massive economic crisis and refugee exodus in the country.


“Ukraine is telling us that they need approximately 3-4 billion euros per month to have enough resources for the basics,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

88 towns and villages in Kherson region recaptured by our military, claims Ukraine - World News

“We are categorically against this and we condemn the practice of these kinds of arrests of Russian citizens,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Perhaps they should educate them on how not to break the law then.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

Alexander Uss, has suggested the arrest is politically motivated, according to TASS.

Oh noes . . . Russians are not used to politically motivated anything

Anyone who considers TASS as a credible news source has their head up their ass.

The Russian army is retreating from Kherson. It’s poised to leave behind it a lot of destruction and dead bodies.

Kherson, a port at the mouth of the Dnipro River on the Black Sea, was one of Russia’s biggest prizes as its forces rolled into Ukraine in late February, widening a war that began eight years ago with Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

In March, disorganized Ukrainian forces gave up Kherson, with its strategic port and railyard and prewar population of 300,000, without much of a fight. For the next seven months, Kherson anchored Russian positions on the southern front.

As summer turned to fall, liberating Kherson was a top priority for Kyiv. Holding on to the city was one of Moscow’s top priorities. In May, the Ukrainian army—recently rearmed with new American-made howitzers and rocket-launchers—began striking Russian supply lines around Kherson, and even holed the Antonovskiy Bridge, the city’s main span across the Dnipro.

The 49th Combined Arms Army and other Russian forces in Kherson Oblast frayed. The Kremlin shifted from the east to the south to bolster the 49th CAA, but that left gaps in Russian lines in the east—gaps the Ukrainian army exploited with a counteroffensive starting in early September.

Ukrainian troops in the south counterattacked at the same time. The southern counteroffensive faced more resistance than the eastern counteroffensive did, but it still made swift progress east of Kherson.

A regiment of Russian coastal troops shattered. A Russian mountain brigade retreated as a Ukrainian mountain brigade advanced. A Russian airborne division briefly held off a Ukrainian marine brigade as desperate Russians fled south toward Beryslav, where a dam across the Dnipro offers a durable escape route out of Kherson Oblast north of the river.

Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the recently appointed commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, on Tuesday told Russian media “a difficult situation has emerged” in Kherson.

The escape began two weeks ago and accelerated this week. “Russian forces continue to reinforce crossing points over the Dnipro River, and have completed a barge bridge alongside the damaged Antonovskiy Bridge in Kherson,” the U.K. Defense Ministry said.

More and more Russian troops—and their civilian support personnel—crossed the Dnipro, sometimes under Ukrainian bombardment. Russian occupation authorities even ordered civilians in Kherson to cross the Dnipro. It’s not clear many will obey.

As Ukrainian brigades and the wet Ukrainian winter approach, the Kremlin is prepared to give up Kherson. On its way out, it’s going to inflict as much pain as possible—on its own forces and the Ukrainians. There are reports the Russian army is forcing recent draftees, who nearly to a man are unfit and untrained, to fight a rearguard action in order to buy time for better troops to reach Beryslav.

Meanwhile, Russian occupation officials are opening the dam, sending more water downriver toward Kherson and the river delta adjacent to the city. The flooding could complicate Ukrainian operations.

There’s an apocalyptic option. Once they’ve brought across the river all their best troops—and whatever loot they can grab—the Russians could blow the dam. Flood waters would inundate Kherson and even creep north toward the nearby free city of Mykolaiv, a major base of operations for Ukrainian forces in the south.

The clock is ticking. The weather is getting colder and wetter and the mud is getting deeper. Most units on both sides of the conflict aren’t ready to wage war in the mud. The Russian retreat, and the Ukrainian offensive, both are likely to slow in the coming weeks.

If the Russians are going to blow the dam, they’re probably going to do it soon. Ukrainian commanders know this, and they’re not without options to limit the damage.

They could land special operations forces on the dam. They could speed up the pace of their operations, aiming to liberate Beryslav and Kherson before the Russians do their worst. If the Ukrainians move faster, Russia’s retreat could turn into a rout. “Russian forces likely intend to continue that withdrawal over the next several weeks,” the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, D.C., said Friday, “but may struggle to withdraw in good order if Ukrainian forces choose to attack.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidax...h=5c0e5164790f

Millions without power across Ukraine Russia has been attacking Ukraine’s energy system for two weeks

On October 22, Russia again attacked a number of energy infrastructure targets throughout Ukraine, leaving at least 1.5 million without power. Ukrenergo, the state energy company, says today’s attacks caused damaged comparable to, and possibly exceeding, the damage from Russian attacks in the days after the explosion on the Crimean Bridge. Russian strikes on the Ukrainian energy system have been ongoing since the explosion

The Ukrainian energy system has again been subject to massive missile attacks from the Russian side. At least nine regions in the southern, central, and western parts of the country recorded projectile strikes or air defense operations. Volyn, Khmelnytsky, Odesa, Rivne, Kirovohrad, and Cherkasy regions reported explosions. Kyiv, Chernivtsi, and Lviv regions reported enemy missiles shot down.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of the President, said that following missile strikes 672,000 customers were without power in Khmelnytsky; in Mikolaiv – 188,000; in Volyn – 102,000; in Cherkasy – 242,000; in Rivne – almost 175,000; in Kirovohrad – almost 62,000; and in Odesa – 10,500.

The power was out in several cities because of the strikes. Five missiles were launched on Kyiv but they were shot down, said presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich. The Khmelnytsky city council reported that the city was without power, and it advised residents to conserve water, since it too will also be cut off. Ihor Polishchuk, the mayor of Lutsk, in the Volyn region, said that energy facilities were damaged. According to him, the city was partially without power. Polishchuk also called on residents to conserve water. Ihor Chaika, mayor of Kovel, also in the Volyn region, gave residents the same advice.

Residents of various settlements in the Odesa and Kirovohrad regions reported blackouts. Two parts of the Cherkasy region were partially or fully without electricity. Ihor Taburets, head of the region, said that kamikaze drones attacked the region and damaged a piece of critical infrastructure.

The wide-scale damage from today’s attacks “comparable or possibly exceeds” the damage from shelling in the days after the explosion on the Crimean Bridge, says Ukrainian energy utility Ukrenergo. “Repair crews will begin restoring power as soon as rescuers from emergency services deal with the consequences of the missile strikes,” the company announced, assuring Ukrainians that it would restore power in affected regions as soon as possible.

Ukrenergo added that it had to limit energy supply to a number of regions, in order to “reduce the load on the network and avoid repeated accidents.” Rolling blackouts began in Ukraine on October 20 to reduce the load on its damaged energy system.

Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine commented on the latest attack on the energy system with the words “never mind, we’ll survive.” “Russians’ dream of problems in the rear stopping the liberation of Ukrainian territory is infantile. We’re only becoming fiercer every day. And that means we’ll have an even stronger response,” he said. After the first wave of shelling on October 22, several cities announced air raids (Kyiv had three in a day) and explosions were heard.


Russia began regularly attacking Ukrainian energy facilities after the October 8 explosion on the Crimean Bridge. Russian authorities blamed Ukrainian intelligence agencies for organizing the explosion. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky denies that version of events, saying “we definitely didn’t order it, as far as I know.” He suggested that the explosion was the result of an internal power struggle between the Russian military and intelligence services.


Since October 10, Russian attacks have damaged 30 to 40 percent of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, energy minister Herman Halushchenko said on October 21. According to him, Russian forces shelled a number of thermal power plants this week, damaging 50 percent of their capacity. One option for Ukraine is to import energy, and some traders have already entered discussions with providers, Halushchenko said.

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/10...across-ukraine

Administration of annexed Kherson requires residents to leave the city ‘immediately’

Russian-appointed authorities of the Kherson region called on residents the city of Kherson to leave “immediately” and relocate to the left (eastern) bank of the Dnipro “because of the tense situation at the front, the increased danger of massive strikes on the city, and the threat of terrorist attacks.”


“Kherson civilians and all divisions and ministries of the civil administration must cross to the left bank today,” read a post on the regional administration’s Telegram channel.


“We won’t force anyone, we won’t drag anyone anywhere. There is a group of ‘waiters.’ They’re waiting for Ukrainian Armed Forces. But I think the only thing awaiting them is UAF shells,” said Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the administration of the annexed Kherson region.


On October 18, Vladimir Saldo, the head of the annexed region, announced an “organized relocation” to the Dnipro’s left bank for residents of four municipalities. Kherson was not on that list of municipalities. But the next day, residents of the city received text messages urging them to leave. They were promised housing certificates on moving to Russia.


According to Saldo, Russian-appointed Kherson authorities plan to “relocate around 50 to 60 thousand people to the left bank and to other regions of Russia.” Stremousov has said that 25,000 people had already been transported from the right to the left bank of the Dnipro as of October 21.

https://meduza.io/en/news/2022/10/22...ty-immediately

Kherson resident describes a ghost town of exhausted people, with acute shortages of medicine


A resident of Kherson has described the situation in the Russian-occupied city as tense, with people “emotionally exhausted,” the streets empty from mid-afternoon onwards, and Russian soldiers often seen in civilian clothes.

The woman was reached by CNN through a third party, and was speaking shortly before the Russian-appointed administration in the city ordered civilians to leave.

The administration said Saturday that “due to the tense situation at the front, the increased danger of massive shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians must immediately leave the city and cross to the East bank of the Dnipro!”

Previously the authorities had recommended people leave; Saturday’s announcement appears to go beyond that.

Speaking on Friday, the female civilian in Kherson city said: “Unfortunately, many residents of Kherson had to consider leaving the city. Everyone had their own reasons, worries and fears. But I am 100% sure that no one wanted to go.”

CNN is not identifying the woman for security reasons.

She said Kherson had become a ghost town. Tens of thousands of its residents have left since the Russian occupation began in March.

“In the evening you can see a large number of high-rise buildings in which a maximum of two or three windows are lit. During the day, you can meet people mostly near the market. But at 3-4 p.m. the streets are empty and there is no one at all.”

On Saturday, one Ukrainian official, Yuriy Sobolevskyi, alleged on Telegram that the “miserable scum who terrorize Kherson” had ordered all elevators to be turned off in the city.

The woman said she was not considering leaving. “To be honest, this question infuriates me….This is my land, Kherson is my home. We took part in rallies against the occupiers from the first days of the war, we fought as hard as we could. This struggle is still going on.”

The woman said that over the past few days she had not heard of anyone being forced to leave. Some people were still trying to reach Vasylivka in neighboring Zaporizhia region, the only crossing point between Russian and Ukrainian-held territory that is still open.

It’s unclear whether that situation will now change after the latest instructions from the Russian-appointed authority.

The woman said the atmosphere in the city was tense. “People are emotionally exhausted, some simply do not leave their home to avoid contact with the military. It is impossible to relax here.

In the evening when I hear a car driving near the house, I start to get nervous, because a car at a late hour is not a good sign.”

She insisted that most of those left understood that the Ukrainian military “will never harm the population and there will be no shelling of civilians.”

The woman said that while utilities continued to function, people were worried about adequate power and heating during the winter. “Everyone is afraid of the coming winter.”

She said that there was enough basic food available. “Kherson has generally turned into one spontaneous market, people sell what they can. Someone bakes homemade bread, someone bakes cakes, someone sells their stuff simply in the middle of the street by putting it on a sheet.”

But as the Russians had taken people’s boats, she was unsure how food deliveries from the east bank would be sustained.

The woman said medical supplies and baby formula were in short supply and very expensive. “Everything being imported now is medicine from the Russian Federation. Medicines are sold simply on the street from the car or by some people privately.”

There were always long lines at pharmacies and things like antibiotics were in short supply.

Shelling is welcomed

She was unsure whether the number of Russian soldiers in Kherson city had increased or decreased but had noticed a growing contingent of Chechen fighters in the city.

“I can’t say that there are less Russian soldiers, they simply took off their military uniforms and put on civilian clothes. Some walk the street wearing civilian clothes but with a machine gun.”
She said she welcomed the sound of shelling.

“Kherson residents are frightened by the silence. I remember, it was quiet for a couple of days in summer, and it seemed to everyone that Ukraine had forgotten about us.

“You can constantly hear how the Armed Forces of Ukraine are shelling the positions of the occupiers. You can’t even imagine how happy the locals are because of it,” she said.

“Periodically automatic weapons are heard in different parts of the city, but it is not known who is having a firefight.”

Ukrainian forces are still some distance from Kherson city but have made inroads in other parts of the region. Russian forces appear to be dug in and defending their positions, while launching missile attacks against the Ukrainian advance. Local Russian-appointed officials insist Moscow’s forces intend to defend the region, while Ukrainian officials say that as many as 45 Russian battalion tactical groups may now be on the west bank of the Dnipro.

But Ukrainian officials say that in some parts of Kherson, such as Beryslav, occupation authorities have ceased their activities in recent days. “Collaborators who cooperated with the Russian occupiers continue to leave the city with their families and property,” the Ukrainian military said Friday.

In the last few days, the Ukrainians have struck a newly erected pontoon beneath the Antonivskyi bridge, which is near Kherson city. Local authorities said four people were killed.

Kherson, Ukraine, resident describes a ghost town of exhausted people, with acute shortages of medicine | CNN

Finding it a bit hard to find some good �� news right now
Snubs? Oh well, keep trying.

ISW: Russian retreat from Kherson has begun

The Russian Army has started to withdraw its forces from the southern part of the Kherson region, writes the Institute for the Study of War in its October 21 assessment. The US think tank has been analyzing the situation at the front since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.


ISW analysts cite Ukrainian Army sources, who said the previous day that Russian forces were “fairly actively” transferring munitions, equipment, and several units from the western bank of the Dnipro to the eastern. Russia also apparently sent 2,000 mobilized soldiers to support the front line, presumably to cover the withdrawal of troops.


The ISW assessment notes that a detachment covering the withdrawal of other troops should be well-trained and professional. It cites Ukrainian sources saying Russia may have left newly mobilized soldiers on the eastern bank and transferred its most “combat-ready” units to the western bank. “Russia’s poorly trained, newly mobilized reservists are very unlikely to stand and resist a Ukrainian counterattack if Ukrainian forces choose to attack them and chase the withdrawing forces,” analysts write.


The ISW also repeats its prediction that Russia is likely planning to blow up the dam at the Kakhovska Hydropower Station in the Kherson region, in order to cover its retreat and prevent Ukrainian troops from following them deep into Kherson. Russia intends to lay the blame for blowing up the dam on Ukrainians.


“Ukraine has no material interest in blowing the dam, which could flood 80 Ukrainian cities and displace hundreds of thousands of people while damaging Ukraine’s already-tenuous electricity supply,” the assessment observes.

https://meduza.io/en/news/2022/10/22...rson-has-begun

Russia’s Shoigu informs British MoD that Kyiv is preparing a false flag “dirty bomb” detonation in Ukraine

RUSSIAN Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has reportedly held talks with his UK counterpart Ben Wallace after accusing Kyiv of preparing a “dirty bomb” for detonation in Ukraine as a false flag attack to blame on Russia.

Russian state-controlled media outlet TASS has reported that Russia’s Defence Minister Shoigu spoke to Britain’s Ben Wallace about Kyiv’s plans to detonate a “dirty bomb” in Ukraine as a false flag operation to “increase anti-Russian rhetoric.”

UPDATE: Russia's Shoigu informs British MoD that Kyiv is preparing a false flag "dirty bomb" detonation in Ukraine - Euro Weekly News

• Hungary to ratify NATO bids of Sweden, Finland by year end: Minister

Hungary’s government supports the NATO membership of Sweden and Finland and has submitted the ratification documents to the National Assembly, Minister Gergely Gulyás told reporters at a briefing on Saturday.

Gulyás, chief of staff to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, said the expansion of NATO to include the two Nordic countries would be ratified by mid-December at the latest, according to media reports.

Asked by a reporter if NATO would be getting stronger with Finland and Sweden joining, Gulyás replied that he hoped so. He added that it could be debated whether the expansion is in Hungary’s national security interest, but said that this is irrelevant now, according to the reports.

Hungary and Turkey are the only NATO countries that have yet to ratify the accession of Sweden and Finland to the alliance — a process that started shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin told POLITICO on Thursday that she doesn’t expect Hungary and Turkey to block NATO expansion, but warned of the risks of delaying accession.

Russian Claim of Ukraine Dirty Bomb Plan ‘Transparently False’: U.S. Official

A senior U.S. official on Sunday dismissed Russian claims that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb as "transparently false," while the Pentagon chief "rejected any pretext for Russian escalation."


Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the allegation about a dirty bomb in a round of telephone conversations with Western defense chiefs.


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sharply denounced it, calling the allegation a Russian pretext for just such an attack. "The world should react as harshly as possible," he said.


A statement Sunday from US National Security Council spokeswoman, Adrienne Watson said, "We reject reports of Minister Shoigu’s transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory.


"The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation."


Shoigu conducted a round of telephone consultations with counterparts from Britain, France and Turkey, all NATO members, after first speaking Friday with Austin.


In those calls, Shoigu conveyed "concerns about possible provocations by Ukraine with the use of a 'dirty bomb,'" the Russian Defense Ministry said.


Shoigu and Austin spoke Sunday, in what the Pentagon said was a followup call requested by Russia to their call Friday.


"Secretary Austin rejected any pretext for Russian escalation and reaffirmed the value of continued communication amid Russia’s unlawful and unjustified war against Ukraine," said a statement afterward from Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder.


When Shoigu and Austin spoke on Friday, it was only their second call since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine on February 24.


Zelensky on Sunday sharply dismissed the claim that Kyiv was preparing to use a dirty bomb.


"If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this," Zelensky said in a video address on social media.


"I believe that now the world should react as harshly as possible."


"Even the very Russian threat of nuclear weapons -- and even more so against our country, which has given up its nuclear arsenal... is a reason for both sanctions and for even greater strengthening of support for Ukraine," said Zelensky.


A so-called dirty bomb is designed to contaminate a wide area with radioactive material, making it dangerous for civilians. It does not involve a nuclear explosion.

Russian Claim of Ukraine Dirty Bomb Plan 'Transparently False': U.S. Official - The Moscow Times

Ukraine war: Russian army will be 'annihilated' if it launches a nuclear attack, warns Josep Borrell | Euronews

A Russian nuclear strike against Ukraine would trigger "such a powerful answer" from the West that the Russian army would be "annihilated," said Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief.


His comments come in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's increasingly combative rhetoric.


After signing a partial mobilisation decree to boost the Russian army ranks on 21 September, Putin warned NATO that his country had "various means of destruction" at its disposal to defend its "territorial integrity."


"It's not a bluff," Putin said.


In blunt remarks on Thursday, Borrell directly replied to the Russian leader's threats.




"There is the nuclear threat, and Putin is saying he is not bluffing. Well, he cannot afford bluffing," Borrell said during a European Diplomatic Academy event in Bruges.


"It has to be clear that the people supporting Ukraine and the European Union and the member states, and the United States and NATO are not bluffing neither."


"And any nuclear attack against Ukraine will create an answer -- not a nuclear answer but such a powerful answer from the military side -- that the Russian army will be annihilated, and Putin should not be bluffing," he said.


Ukraine war: Very low chance Russia will use nuclear weapons - expert
Explained: Who has nuclear weapons in Europe and where are they?
Borrell spoke of a "serious moment of history" and painted a grim picture of profound uncertainty and instability for global politics as a result of Russia's invasion.


The diplomat said the current rules-based system was being "challenged like never before".


"We are definitely out of the Cold War and the post-Cold War. The post-Cold War has ended with the Ukrainian war, with the Russian aggression against Ukraine," he told the audience.


"This war is changing a lot of things, and certainly it is changing the European Union. This war will create a different European Union, from different perspectives."


Borrell also described Europe as a "garden" of political freedom and economic prosperity but added the rest of the world was mostly a "jungle."


"The jungle could invade the garden. The gardeners should take care of it, but they will not protect the garden by building walls. A nice small garden surrounded by high walls in order to prevent the jungle from coming in is not going to be a solution. Because the jungle has a strong growth capacity, and the wall will never be high enough in order to protect the garden," he said.


"The gardeners have to go to the jungle. Europeans have to be much more engaged with the rest of the world."


Asked about Borrell's comments on nuclear annihilation, a European Commission spokesperson said a Russian nuclear strike against Ukraine would be a "total game-changer" and that EU countries were preparing for any possible scenario.


'I should be the best-informed guy in the world'
This is not the first time this week that Borrell delivers a surprisingly candid message.


On Monday, the diplomat declared the EU's era of dependencies, including on cheap Russian gas, to be over and said the bloc's soft power was dwindling.


"The United States took care of our security [...] China and Russia provided the basis of our prosperity. This is a world that is no longer there," he told the annual conference of EU ambassadors.


Borrell spoke of a world under a "messy multipolarity" structured around US-China competition which co-exists within a broader divide between democracies and authoritarian regimes.


"On our side, there are a lot of authoritarian regimes. We cannot say 'we are the democracies,' and the ones which follow us are also democracies -- that is not true," he said.


The EU's foreign policy chief confessed that European countries did not believe Russia was going to launch the full-scale invasion, despite repeated warnings from US officials.


"We did not believe that this was going to happen, and we did not foresee that Ukraine was ready to resist as fiercely and as successfully as they are doing," he said.


Ukraine war: Von der Leyen and Borrell en route to Kyiv to show EU's 'unwavering support'
"This is one person's war" and "We are not fighting against Russia" says EU's top diplomat Borrell
In what was arguably the most shocking moment of the speech, Borrell publicly berated the EU ambassadors present at the event for not reporting fast enough about developments in their respective countries.


"Sometimes, I knew more of what was happening somewhere by reading the newspapers than reading your reports. Your reports come sometimes too late," he told the ambassadors.


"Having all of you around the world, I should be the best informed person in the world -- at least as much as any Foreign Affairs Minister. I am 'Foreign Affairs Minister of Europe'. Behave as you would behave if you were an embassy."


Speaking at the same conference, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised the ambassadors for doing "excellent work" on the ground.

One country . . . Putin is ok with that. He knows he can bat it - hopefully.

NATO? He knows he can't.


A very interesting and sombre video, definitely worth watching. It is not propaganda for either side, just shows what is happening on the ground in Russia.

Makes more sense than anything Putin has said, to be fair.

Scotty cannot help you. He is fictitious character.

A Fierce Ukrainian Mechanized Brigade Is Routing Russian Mercenaries In One Symbolic Eastern Town

When Ukrainian forces launched twin counteroffensives in eastern and southern Ukraine starting in late August and early September, Russian and separatist troops across the country surrendered, retreated or died in place.

There was one major exception. Russian fighters from notorious mercenary firm The Wagner Group defied the odds, and befuddled observers, when they not only held their ground around the free town of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine 25 miles southwest of Russian-occupied Severodonetsk, they kept attacking.

Analysts concluded that the Wagner assaults on Bakhmut—which failed to gain much ground, despite Russian claims to the contrary—were the company’s way of creating a narrative. That it was the only Russian force still capable of beating the Ukrainians.

The idea, apparently, was for Wagner to trade its battlefield reputation for political influence in Moscow. Wagner financier Yevgeny Prigozhin “continues to accrue power and is setting up a military structure parallel to the Russian armed forces,” explained the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, D.C.

That narrative now has become a farce. The mercenaries last week made one last, forceful attempt to seize Bakhmut, and finally gained a few square miles of the shell-pocked landscape. The enemy “does not stop trying to conduct offensive actions in the Bakhmut,” the Ukrainian general staff noted.

But a battle-hardened Ukrainian brigade intervened. Now Wagner is retreating, leaving behind piles of dead bodies. A pitched fight over a cement plant on the eastern outskirts of Bakhmut was a turning point. Ukrainian troops took control of the plant on or before Monday.

To be clear, Wagner isn’t alone in the Bakhmut sector. Russian regulars and pro-Russian separatists from the Donetsk People’s Republic, just south of Bakhmut, also claimed credit for what little terrain the Kremlin’s forces seized around the town starting in August.

But it was apparent that Wagner’s for-hire fighters were instrumental to whatever modest gains the Russians made around Bakhmut. Wagner has the advantage of experience in a Russian military enterprise increasingly bereft of it.

The mercenary firm has hired thousands of Russian veterans, even recruiting one daredevil pilot who got drummed out of the Russian air force for stealing and crashing an Su-27 in 2012.

Meanwhile, the Russian military by last month was so desperate for manpower that it began drafting unfit, middle-age men, sometimes grabbing them off the street.

Wagner’s relatively high level of experience compared with other Russian forces couldn’t save it when the Ukrainian army’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade rolled into Bakhmut from Izium, 50 miles to the northwest. The 93rd MB isn’t the flashiest of Ukraine’s dozens of front-line brigades, but it is one of the most brutally effective.

The 93rd MB with its five tank and infantry battalions—altogether, several thousand troops and a hundred or more armored vehicles including tanks—has fought in, and endured, some of the bloodiest battles of Russia’s eight-month-old wider war on Ukraine.




In late March, the 93rd MB led one of the first major counterattacks around Kharkiv, the most vulnerable of Ukraine’s major cities. In the process, the 93rd MB met the Russian 4th Guards Tank Division in the town of Trostianets, 50 miles north of Kharkiv.

The 93rd MB’s troopers in their BMP and BTR fighting vehicles, packing Javelin anti-tank missiles and supported by T-64 and T-80 tanks and off-the-shelf drones, mauled the Russian division.
Five months later, in early August, the 93rd MB launched another counterattack, this time around Mazanivka southwest of Izium. The brigade liberated a few settlements, effectively previewing the wider Ukrainian counteroffensive that would begin three weeks later.

In early September, a dozen eager Ukrainian brigades punched through Russian lines around Kharkiv, routing exhausted Russian forces and swiftly liberating a thousand square miles of northeastern Ukraine. The 93rd MB helped to free Izium then pivoted south toward Bakhmut. By October, the brigade held the northern half of the sector, while the Ukrainian 58th Motorized Brigade held the southern half.

The 58th MB is a lighter formation than the 93rd MB. It’s not totally clear how the two brigades—the heavier one and the lighter one—coordinated their operations. It’s possible the 58th MB deflected repeated Wagner assaults, helping to exhaust the mercenaries ahead of their final, and ultimately doomed, attack last week.

In any event, it seems the 93rd MB is the decisive force in the ongoing battle. On or around Friday, the 93rd MB counterattacked with its tanks, including one famous T-80 that the brigade captured from the Russian army.

Wagner collapsed. It had taken the mercenaries months to seize the intersection of the M03 and M06 highways just east of Bakhmut. The Ukrainians recaptured the intersection in just two days of fighting. Graphic videos from the battle depict heaps of dead mercenaries.

“Near Bakhmut, fighting remains heavy and dynamic,” an unnamed U.S. defense official told reporters Monday. How far east the 93rd MB can advance as Wagner retreats might depend more on the weather than on whatever resistance Russian forces can offer up.

The early winter in Ukraine is wet and muddy. The mud is evident in recent photos of the Bakhmut battle.

That mud tends to slow, if not halt, military operations in Ukraine in November and December. Operations can resume once the ground freezes after the new year. The weather could slow the 93rd MB’s advance—and spare Wagner further humiliation.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidax...h=43d69e0f10b7

I'm pretty sure Puffy has been made aware that no-one with even half a brain cell believes his stupid fucking "dirty bomb" story and the consequences for any nuclear terrorism on his part would be severe.

A senior Ukrainian official predicted “the heaviest of battles” to come for the partially Russian occupied strategic southern province of Kherson and said Moscow’s military is digging in to face advancing Ukrainian forces.

The region’s capital city and river port Kherson, which had a pre-war population of about 280,000, is the largest urban centre Russia still holds since capturing it early in the invasion of Ukraine eight months ago.

Ukrainian forces do not appear to have gained much ground in their counter-offensive in Kherson since early October, when Russia claimed to have annexed the province and three others, a move condemned by 143 countries at the United Nations as an “attempted illegal annexation”.

“With Kherson everything is clear. The Russians are replenishing, strengthening their grouping there,” Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in an online video on Tuesday evening (25 October).

“It means that nobody is preparing to withdraw. On the contrary, the heaviest of battles is going to take place for Kherson,” according to Arestovych, who did not say when the battle might happen.

Of the four provinces Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed to have annexed, Kherson is arguably the most strategically important. It controls both the only land route to the Crimea peninsula Russia seized in 2014 and the mouth of the Dnipro, the vast river that bisects Ukraine.

For weeks, officials in the Russian-backed administration of Kherson have broadcast warnings of Ukrainian forces about to attack the city and have evacuated thousands of civilians by boat to the eastern bank of the Dnipro from the west bank.

In Mykolaiv region north and west of Kherson city, artillery duels raged throughout Tuesday, according to a post from the frontline on Rybar, a pro-Russian channel on the Telegram messaging app.

In Ishchenka district north of Kherson, Ukrainian forces tried to consolidate their positions, but were forced back to earlier lines, the post said. It said the Ukrainian military was preparing for an advance along the entire length of the frontline.

A defeat for Russia in Kherson would be one of its biggest setbacks in the conflict.

A Reuters reporter in a remote hamlet near part of the Kherson frontline heard neither artillery nor shooting.

Residents in the village, which cannot be identified under Ukrainian military regulations, said they hoped Russian forces who had shelled them in the past would soon withdraw.

“You fall asleep at night and you don’t know if you will wake up,” said Mikola Nizinets, 39, as dozens of villagers waited to collect water, food packets and simple wood-burning stoves delivered by aid volunteers.

With no power or gas and little food or potable water in the area, many residents have fled, abandoning cattle to roam among expended munitions poking from the soil.

‘Dirty bomb’ allegation

On Tuesday Russia took its case to the UN Security Council that Ukraine is preparing to use a “dirty bomb” on its own territory, an assertion dismissed by Western and Ukrainian officials as misinformation and a pretext for intensifying the war.

“We’re quite satisfied because we raised the awareness,” Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters. “I don’t mind people saying that Russia is crying wolf if this doesn’t happen because this is a terrible, terrible disaster that threatens potentially the whole of the Earth.”

He said the evidence was in intelligence information that had been shared with Western counterparts with the “necessary level of clearance.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday repeated Russia’s allegations and said the West was foolish to dismiss them.

They follow hints from Moscow that it might be forced to use a tactical nuclear weapon against Ukraine. Zelenskyy said the dirty bomb allegation showed Moscow was planning such an attack and seeking to blame Kyiv.

Russia accused the Kyiv government of ordering two organisations to create a dirty bomb, an explosive device laced with radioactive material, without giving any evidence.

France, Britain and the United States said the allegations were “transparently false” and Washington warned Russia there would be “severe consequences” for any nuclear use.

“Russia would be making an incredibly serious mistake for it (to) use a tactical nuclear weapon,” US President Joe Biden said. “I’m not guaranteeing you that it’s a false flag operation yet, we don’t know. But it would be a serious mistake.”

Russia’s defence ministry said the aim of a dirty bomb attack by Ukraine would be to blame Moscow for the radioactive contamination, which it said Russia had begun preparing for.

In an apparent response to Moscow’s allegation, the UN nuclear watchdog said it was preparing to send inspectors to two unidentified Ukrainian sites at Kyiv’s request, both already subject to its inspections.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters the inspectors would receive full access, and he called on Moscow to demonstrate the same transparency as Ukraine.

Russia’s state news agency RIA has identified what it said were the two sites involved – the Eastern Mineral Enrichment Plant in the central Dnipropetrovsk region and the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv.

Since Russian forces suffered major defeats in September, Putin has doubled down, calling up hundreds of thousands of reservists, announcing the annexation of occupied territory and repeatedly threatening to use nuclear weapons.

Russia, Ukraine to fight ‘heaviest of battles’ in Kherson – EURACTIV.com

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I'm pretty sure Puffy has been made aware that no-one with even half a brain cell believes his stupid fucking "dirty bomb" story

It is just an attempt to create a distraction because Russia is getting its ass kicked in just about every theater of the war right now. Kherson is about to collapse, After weeks and weeks of pouring Wagner mercenaries into wall in Bakhmut the Ukrainian army’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade shows up and kicks their ass out of the outskirts of the town itself and more loses in Luhansk as well.

Plenty of humiliation for TD's Three Stooges to swallow.