Russia Attacks Ukraine - 23 Feb 2022 **Media Thread** NO DISCUSSION #3

[PommyMommy]

Ukraine war: Putin has redrawn the world - but not the way he wanted

Pivotal moments in Europe's history

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
Storming of the Bastille,14 July 1789

• 1789: French Revolution. Monarchy overthrown, republic founded
• 1815: Congress of Vienna redraws map of Europe, restores balance of power and ushers in decades of peace after the upheaval of the Napoleonic wars
• 1848: A wave of liberal and democratic revolutions across Europe
• 1919: Treaty of Versailles. New independent sovereign nation states replace old multi-national empires
• 1945: Yalta - great powers agree to partition Europe into Western and Soviet "spheres of influence". Iron Curtain falls across the continent
• 1989: Democratic revolutions in Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe tear down the Iron Curtain. The Soviet Union collapses two years later. Vladimir Putin calls this the "greatest catastrophe of the 20th Century"

Quentin Sommerville, one of the BBC's most experienced war reporters walked through the wreckage in Kharkiv recently and said of the Russian bombardment: "If these tactics are unfamiliar to you, then you haven't been paying attention."

He should know, he spent enough time under Russian rockets in Syria to be paying very close attention. But the governments of the democratic world - how much attention have they been paying to the nature of the Putin regime?

The evidence has been building for years.

Two decades have passed since he sent troops into Georgia claiming he was supporting breakaway regions.

Later, he sent spies into British cities armed with nerve agents to murder exiled Russians.

In 2014, he invaded Eastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea.

 

[PommyMommy]

Hospitals Bombed and Apartments Destroyed: Mapping Incidents of Civilian Harm in Ukraine - bellingcat

Russian oligarch’s yacht stuck in Norway as suppliers refuse to refuel

'Part of the family': Ukrainians leave everything behind at the border, except their pets | Ottawa Citizen

 

[PommyMommy]

Retweeted by Alec Luhn @ASLuhn
Scripps environmental journalism fellow interested in the far north. Former Russia correspondent for @guardian& @telegraph
https://mobile.twitter.com/leonidragozin/status/1503795492374913027

Same adviser, two days ago, war over by May
Zelensky adviser: Conflict should end 'no later than in May'

 

[PommyMommy]

Russians are blocked at US border, Ukrainians are admitted | The Star
''About three dozen would-be asylum seekers from Russia found themselves blocked from entering the U.S. on Friday while a group of Ukrainians flashed passports and were escorted across the border.

The scene reflected a quiet but unmistakable shift in the differing treatment of Russians and Ukrainians who enter Mexico as tourists and fly to Tijuana, hoping to enter the U.S. for a chance at asylum.

The Russians — 34 as of Friday — had been camped several days at the busiest U.S border crossing with Mexico, two days after city of Tijuana officials gently urged them to leave.''

,,,
''Within hours of arriving, the migrant, who identified himself only as Mark because he feared for his family’s safety in Russia, saw three Russian migrants admitted to the United States. After six hours, U.S. authorities returned his passport and said only Ukrainians were being admitted.

“Ukrainians and Russians are suffering because of one man,” Mark said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He fled shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.''

 

[PommyMommy]

Ukraine war latest: Zelensky urges peace talks with Russia 'without delay' - BBC News
''22:26 18 Mar
'Strict police regime' in occupied areas - US think tank
Friday's daily intelligence assessment by the Institute for the Study of War - a US think tank - offers some interesting insights into how Russia is trying to stamp its authority on territory it has captured in Ukraine.

The analysis draws largely on reports from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

According to ISW, the invading forces may be attempting to establish "a strict administrative and police regime" in several areas, while also distributing food to civilians in order to maintain a positive image.

It adds that Russia continues to detain pro-Ukrainian civil servants, activists and others.

Those repressive measures come as Russia has "significantly exhausted its human resources" and is taking "extreme measures in matters of staffing", even allegedly dismissing a general for his performance.

Meanwhile, the think tank finds that Ukrainian forces have launched a successful counterattack near the encircled southern city of Mykolaiv, and halted the Russian advance into Kharkiv.''

 

[PommyMommy]

Zelenskiy calls for “Meaningful, fair” negotiations without delay
In the early hours of Saturday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy released a video address in which he told Moscow that now was the time for urgent peace talks, warning that Russian losses will otherwise be so huge it will take generations to recover.

Here are some of the key points from his speech:

Russia has continued to block the supply of aid to besieged cities “in most areas”
Zelenskiy said that on Friday there were seven humanitarian corridors in Ukraine. Six in the Sumy region, one in the Donetsk region.

More than 9,000 people were evacuated from the besieged Mariupol, he said, and hundreds of tons of essential products were delivered. But he added: “The occupiers continue to block the supply of humanitarian aid to the besieged cities in most areas. This is a totally deliberate tactic. They have a clear order to do absolutely everything to make the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities an ‘argument’ for Ukrainians to cooperate with the occupiers. This is a war crime.”

No new information on fatalities following a Russian airstrike on a theatre in Mariupol
Zelenskiy said people were being rescued from the rubble, and that more than 130 people had been rescued so far. “Some of them are seriously wounded. But at the moment there is no information about the dead,” he said. Hundreds of civilians were sheltering in the theatre.

He thanked those defending Mariupol, saying the city was experiencing “the greatest ordeal in its history, in the history of Ukraine.”

Russian forces had been stopped “in almost all directions”
Zelenskiy said Russian forces were halted across many areas of the country. He said there was heavy fighting in the Kharkiv region, especially near Izyum, but that Russian troops were unprepared.

“Meaningful, fair” negotiations were urgently needed
Zelenskiy told Moscow: “It’s time to meet. Time to talk. It is time to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise Russia’s losses will be so huge that several generations will not be enough to rebound.”

He said: “Negotiations on peace, on security for us, for Ukraine - meaningful, fair and without delay - are the only chance for Russia to reduce the damage from its own mistakes.”

On the international response
Zelenskiy said he would continue to appeal to world leaders to call for peace in Ukraine, with plans to address Switzerland, Italy, Israel and Japan. He has spoken with Ukrainian ambassadors around the world “to intensify the supply of humanitarian goods” for displaced people in Ukraine. A coordination headquarters has also been set up to oversee the delivery of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, he said.

Russia-Ukraine war latest: Russia says it has used hypersonic missile; Zelenskiy urges ‘honest’ peace talks – live

 

[PommyMommy]

As it happened: Ukraine war latest: Gun battles as Russian troops reach Mariupol city centre, says mayor - BBC News

21:11 18 Mar
'Dozens have been killed' - Ukrainian MP on Mykolaiv attack
Many have reportedly been killed in a Russian missile attack on Ukrainian army barracks in the strategic southern city of Mykolaiv.

A Ukrainian MP in Odesa, Oleksiy Honcharenko, returned from Mykolaiv in the last 24 hours and has been speaking to the BBC.

"Unfortunately we had a big attack, missile attack on Mykolaiv. Dozens of people have been killed," he said.

"Dozens are wounded and we're speaking about missiles, ballistic missiles."

Ukrainians are reportedly continuing to defend the city, with Russian forces grouped outside, to the northeast.

The city of Mykolaiv, which is crucial to Russia's plans to take Ukraine's third city, Odesa, has been holding back a Russian offensive along the Black Sea coast.

"Mykolaiv is fighting fiercely on the ground and holding the ground and Russia just couldn't take it so they started terror against local people, civilians," Honcharenko added.

 

[PommyMommy]

Three Russian cosmonauts wear Ukrainian colours during space mission | Daily Mail Online

 

[PommyMommy]

"The choice is simple: We can confront Putin either now or later.

This is why the fastest and most effective support that NATO can offer Ukraine is a no-fly zone to keep Russian airpower out of play. Yes, Ukrainian resistance has been extraordinary so far. Frustrated by his military’s lack of progress, Putin is now bombarding cities and counting on terror to break the will of the Ukrainian people—whose fierce resistance has inspired the world. Sadly, though, despite the material assistance provided to Ukraine, Russia may well eventually prevail unless the West intervenes.... "

A no-fly zone over Ukraine? The case for NATO doing it.

 

[PommyMommy]

A no-fly zone over Ukraine? The case against NATO doing it.

In the Gulf War, US and coalition forces hunted Iraq’s truck-mounted Scud missiles, but they failed to achieve a single confirmed kill. A few years later, in Kosovo, NATO failed to gain air superiority against the dispersed and mobile air-defense systems of the Serbian-led rump Yugoslav state. At a NATO defense ministers’ meeting held after that war, a European defense official offered that the most fundamental lesson of the war was that “we never want to do this again.” No one laughed in response.

The airspace over Ukraine would be even more heavily contested than in Kosovo or Iraq. Russian air defenses would kill or capture some US and NATO pilots. The mission would also require an immense investment of resources and would involve continuous combat air patrols, supported by command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets; aerial refueling planes; search-and-rescue helicopters; and maintenance and logistics. To enforce NFZs over Iraq between 1991 and 2003, American and coalition forces flew an average of 34,000 sorties per year, or the equivalent of fighting the Gulf War every three years. The enforcement of a no-fly zone is not war lite. It is war.

(...)

A no-fly zone over Ukraine? The case for NATO helping in other ways.

 

[PommyMommy]

NEXTA on Twitter
Some of the footage from yesterday's TV broadcast of the #Luzhniki concert strikingly matched a video from a year ago. https://t.co/VQnJNsqVU1

 

[PommyMommy]

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 4 hrs ago
NATO to send air defense systems to Slovakia. Germany and the Netherlands will deliver MIM-104 Patriot PAC-3 air defense systems to Slovakia. Prior, Slovak Defense Minister said that his country would transfer the Soviet-made S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine.

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
Special detention camps for Russian prisoners of war are already established in Ukraine, as required by Geneva Convention, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said in her interview. However, she disclosed no additional details yet https://bbc.com/ukrainian/features-60794447.amp

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 3 hrs ago
Armed Forces report another Russian general dead. According to Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Russian Lieutenant-General Andrei Mordvichev, who commanded the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army, was killed in action in southern Ukraine.

Euromaidan Press on Twitter - 2 hrs ago
The blockade of trucks on the Polish-Belarus Kukuryki border crossing started today at 9:00 a.m. Protesters demand to halt trade between the EU and Russia. "Every euro that powers the Russian economy kills Ukrainians. We can stop it!" protesters say https://facebook.com/events/5442639549099044/

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 1 hr ago
10 humanitarian corridors to open on March 19. This will include evacuation from the besieged port city of Mariupol, cities in Luhansk and Kherson oblasts, and several cities northwest of Kyiv. Delivery of humanitarian aid to various war-torn cities will also take place.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
Ukraine's General Staff: Putin transfers troops from Far East to Belarus. The troops are being moved from Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in order to make up for casualties in Ukraine, the General Staff said.

 

[PommyMommy]

Live updates: Russia invades Ukraine (cnn.com)
''6 min ago
Curfew in Zaporizhzhia begins Saturday afternoon and will last until Monday, local official says
Oleksandr Starukh, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional council, announced that a curfew in Zaporizhzhia will begin Saturday at 1600 local time (10 a.m. ET) and end on Monday at 0600 local time (midnight ET). ''
Zaporizhzhia has been the destination for thousands of people leaving Mariupol, the besieged city on Ukraine's southern coast. The nearby nuclear power station in Enerhodar was captured by Russian soldiers earlier in the month.''

''Russia says it has destroyed Ukrainian radio and electronic intelligence centers in south of country
Russia's Ministry of Defence said Saturday that the "Bastion" coastal missile system destroyed the centers of radio and electronic intelligence of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the settlements of Veliky Dalnyk and Velikodolinskoe of the Odesa region along the Black Sea.
CNN is unable to independently verify Russia’s claims.
"On the night of March 19, Russian operational-tactical, army and unmanned aircraft hit 69 military facilities in Ukraine," the ministry said.''

 

[PommyMommy]

NEXTA on Twitter - 4 hrs ago
There are so many #Russian prisoners of war in #Ukraine that full-fledged camps had to be set up for them. The first of them have already begun their work. Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova noted that these camps work within the framework of international humanitarian law.

NEXTA on Twitter - 2 hrs ago
The #UN openly denies information spread by #Russia about the "development of biological weapons" The organization believes that there is no evidence and signals of this.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 19, 2022
Russian strategy of attrition in Ukraine requires firm stance from the West | Euromaidan Press
[...]

Situation
According to information from the General Staff as of 06.00 19.03.2022, supplemented by its [noon assessment]:

[...]

[During Friday 18 March the enemy fired 4 missiles strikes (14 missiles) and carried out more than 40 air raids.]

Ukraine’s anti-aircraft missile forces and fighter jets hit 12 enemy air targets – 2 planes, 3 helicopters, 3 UAVs and 4 cruise missiles.

Also, during the day, Ukrainian defenders destroyed several columns of equipment of the occupiers in Mykolaiv and Sumy regions, the losses of the enemy are currently being clarified. In addition, as a result of fire on the enemy by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Commander of the 8th All-Military Army of the Southern Military District of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Andrei Mordvichev, was killed.

[The occupiers partially succeeded in the Donetsk operational area – temporarily deprived Ukraine of access to the Sea of Azov. On approaches to Mykolaiv the enemy was stopped by joint actions of divisions of defence forces.]

[...]

The enemy continues to suffer significant losses. It has problems with the logistics of units. The low level of the moral and psychological condition of the personnel leads to an increase in the number of cases of desertion and refusals of servicemen of the armed forces of the Russian Federation to take part in the war against Ukraine.”

[...]

Humanitarian
The world is only starting to grapple with the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Russian assault, the Washington Post reports. The United Nations said Friday that roughly 9.8 million people have either fled Ukraine or are internally displaced as a result of the fighting, while 12 million are stranded or otherwise face dangerous living conditions.

According to UNHCR 3,270,662 refugees has been registered as of 18 March.

The UN says that so far Poland has taken in 1,975,449 refugees, Romania 508,692, Moldova 355,426, Hungary 291,230, Slovakia 234,738, Russia 184,563 and Belarus 2,127.

[...]

80-90% of Mariupol is today destroyed.

[...]

Legal
Gordon Brown and Sir John Major want a new international tribunal to be set up and investigate Vladimir Putin for his actions in Ukraine, BBC reports.

“The former PMs are among 140 academics, lawyers and politicians to sign a petition calling for a legal system modelled on the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals after World War Two.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is already investigating Mr Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. But some say its powers are limited. The ICC cannot pursue the crime of aggression without a referral from the UN security council, which Russia could veto.

[...]

Support
EU transfers another EUR 300M in emergency aid to Ukraine, Ukrinform reports. ... For the first time, the EU will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons to a country under attack.

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that giving Ukraine air defence systems, as requested by Ukraine’s president in the U.S. Congress a day earlier, would be a destabilising factor that would not bring peace to the country, Euronews reports. President Zelensky urged American lawmakers on Wednesday to do more to protect his country from Russia’s invasion, pushing for the imposition of a no-fly zone and asking for aircraft and defensive systems.

[...]

New developments

1. On Friday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia made his first public appearance since ordering the invasion on Feb. 24. He told a crowd in the country’s largest stadium that Russians “have not had such unity for a long time”, the New York Times reports.

[...]

Assessment

On the War and Russian strategy of attrition
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the Commander of the 8th All-Military Army of the Southern Military District of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Andrei Mordvichev, has been killed. That makes him the fifth Russian general killed since 24 February.

[...]

Col. John Barranco, a U.S. Marine Corps fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, said targeting Russian generals may prove to be an effective strategy for the Ukrainians. “I do think it hurts Russian morale, and I think it helps Ukrainian morale,” Barranco told Military.com. “I think it has an impact tactically. These guys are up front for a reason.”

Notably, Ukrainian special forces have been targeting Russian officers and military leaders with remotely piloted drones and special weapons such as high-powered sniper rifles provided by NATO allies.

Even as officers in the field face heavy fire, there are reports that those back in Moscow have their own problems. Last week, Ukraine Defence Secretary Oleksiy Danilov claimed Putin had fired as many as eight generals over his country’s military losses during the invasion.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

NEXTA on Twitter
A border guard, on the order of the Head of the #Ukrainian Border Guard Service, gave 30 pieces of silver through #Belarusian Ambassador Igor Sokol to the Chairman of the State Border Committee of #Belarus Anatoly Lappo. https://t.co/YcehIb3yah

 

[PommyMommy]

NEXTA on Twitter
A little bit of #Ukrainian army cats in your feed

 

[PommyMommy]

NATO ships in the southern Aegean sea

At least two NATO naval units are in the southern Aegean at this time:

• USNavy destroyer USS Mitscher (DDG-57) left the Turkish naval base of Aksaz yesterday.

• Norwegian Navy frigate HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen (F310) arrived in Souda yesterday. The unit is part of Truman’s CSG which is now in the Ionian Sea.

 

[PommyMommy]

[URL='https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/mar/19/russia-ukraine-war-latest-zelenskiy-urges-honest-peace-talks-without-delay-russian-forces-tighten-grip-around-mariupol-live']Russia-Ukraine war latest: Poland calls for EU-Russia trade ban; Boris Johnson warns of ‘new age of intimidation’ – live | World news | The Guardian[/URL]

3h ago 08:05
Aid agencies are been prevented from reaching people trapped in Ukrainian cities surrounded by Russian forces, the World Food Programme has said.

The UN agency’s emergency coordinator, Jakob Kern, told AFP that “the challenge is to get to the cities that are encircled or about to be encircled”, describing the situation as dire. He said it has been almost impossible to deliver emergency supplies to the besieged port city of Mariupol or the north-eastern cities of Kharkiv and Sumy. He said it was a tactic that was unacceptable in the 21st century.

[...]

2h ago 08:38
Vladimir Putin made a “catastrophic mistake” in invading Ukraine, Boris Johnson has said.

Speaking at the Conservative party conference in Blackpool, the UK prime minister said the country stood with the people of Ukraine. “With every day that Ukraine’s heroic resistance continues, it is clear that Putin has made a catastrophic mistake,” he said.

Johnson questioned why Putin had launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, rejecting the idea that it was over concerns about the country joining Nato. “He was frightened of Ukraine, because in Ukraine, they have a free press. And in Ukraine, they had free elections and with every year Ukraine has progressed, not always easily, towards freedom and democracy and open markets, he feared the Ukrainian example, and he feared the implicit reproach to himself,” Johnson said.

The prime minister contrasted this with the situation in Russia. “In Putin’s Russia, you get jailed for 15 years just for calling an invasion an invasion. And if you stand against Putin in an election, you get poisoned or shot.”

[...]

1h ago 09:13
[...]

He [Boris Johnson] described Putin as a “a backstreet pusher, feeding addiction, creating dependence” on Russia’s gas and oil.

“Putin’s war is intended to cause economic damage to the west and to benefit him,” he told the conference.

He knows that with every dollar increase in the price of a barrel of oil, he gets billions more in revenues from the sales of either oil and gas, and that’s the tragedy of the situation.

Now he wants to weaken the collective will to resist by pushing up the cost of living, hitting us at the pumps and in our fuel bills, so we must respond.

[...]

9m ago 10:36
Russia deployed hypersonic missiles to warn Ukraine and the west that it “has the means to escalate” the conflict further, a defence expert has said.

Dr James Bosbotinis, a specialist in defence and international affairs, told the BBC it is not possible for the Ukrainian army to defend itself against attacks by these missiles. “The speed of the Kinzhal puts it beyond the reach of any Ukrainian air defence system and the launch platforms can launch from ranges beyond the reach of Ukraine.” He said the hypersonic missile was likely launched from southern Russia.

Bosbotinis said hitting the “high value target” of an underground military depot “is sending the message to Ukraine that Russia has the means to escalate this conflict further ... It’s also a warning to the west that Russia can of course, up the ante in Ukraine and the Kinzhal could also be deployed if the war escalated and drew in external powers.” He said it was “messaging” that Russia could hit targets in other parts of Europe.

 

[PommyMommy]

Young Ukrainian cancer patients get medical help in Poland | AP News

Twenty-two-month-old Yeva Vakulenko had been through four rounds of chemotherapy for leukemia at a hospital in Ukraine, and then suffered a relapse. As she began returning again for more treatment, Russia invaded, disrupting doctors’ efforts to cure her.

[...]

“We were told that she was in stable condition and we should try to go. Otherwise, she is simply doomed to death,” the grandmother said.

The little girl, who her grandmother says understands everything, is one of more than 400 Ukrainian children with cancer who have been evacuated to a clinic in Poland. Doctors then place them in one of some 200 hospitals in 28 countries.

[...]

Decisions have to be made fast because time is critical for the young oncology patients.

[...]

Dr. Marta Salek, another pediatric hematologist oncologist with St. Jude who is staffing the Polish clinic, said the center receives large numbers of patients and convoys that arrive from Lviv through humanitarian corridors.

“At times we can have convoys with only 20-something patients but we can have up to 70 patients at a time and even more,” she said.

[...]

“Cancer itself is a problem, but treatment interruptions, stress and risk of infection mean that hundreds of children might die prematurely,” said Dr. Roman Kizyma, head of the Western Ukrainian Specialized Children’s Medical Centre in Lviv, where the pediatric oncology patients are first stabilized before they are sent across the border into Poland.

“We believe that these are the indirect victims of this war,” Kizyma said in a WHO statement.

[...]