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

[PommyMommy]

Why Russia's Hypersonic Missiles Can't Be Seen on Radar | Military.com
[...]

... they are cause for concern because the United States' traditional early warning systems might not be able to see those weapons coming.

[...]

The missile flies with an advanced fuel that the Russians say gives it a range of up to 1,000 kilometers. And it's so fast that the air pressure in front of the weapon forms a plasma cloud as it moves, absorbing radio waves and making it practically invisible to active radar systems.

U.S. Aegis missile interceptor systems require 8-10 seconds of reaction time to intercept incoming attacks. In those 8-10 seconds, the Russian Zircon missiles will already have traveled 20 kilometers, and the interceptor missiles do not fly fast enough to catch up.

[...]

While at sea, any of Russia's 15 Buyan-class corvettes will be able to carry up to 25 Zircon hypersonic missiles. It would take fewer than a half-dozen of those missiles to sink even the most advanced American aircraft carrier, such as the USS Gerald R. Ford.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

Pavel Latushka on Twitter
Urgent 11 staff members of the #Belarusian embassy in Ukraine left the territory of #Ukraine today, led by the ambassador What could this mean in diplomacy?

russia: Denied easy victory, Russia presses reduced goals in Ukraine - Times of India
WASHINGTON: The signs are abundant of how Ukraine frustrated Vladimir Putin's hopes for a swift victory, and how Russia's military proved far from ready for the fight.

A truck carrying Russian troops crashes, its doors blown open by a rocket-propelled grenade. Foreign-supplied drones target Russian command posts. Orthodox priests in trailing vestments parade Ukraine's blue and yellow flag in defiance of their Russian captors in the occupied city of Berdyansk.

When it comes to the grinding job of capturing and holding cities, conventional military metrics suggest Russia needs a 5-to-1 advantage in urban fighting, analysts say. Meanwhile, the formula for ruling a restive territory in the face of armed opposition is 20 fighters for every 1,000 people - or 800,000 Russian troops for Ukraine's more than 40 million people, Clarke notes. That's almost as many as Russia's entire active-duty military of 900,000.

On the ground, that means controlling any substantial chunk of Ukrainian territory long-term would take more resources than Russia could foreseeably commit.

 

[PommyMommy]

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
Journalist: Russia mined commercial routes in Black Sea. Andriy Klymenko, the chief editor of news site BlackSeaNews, said on March 19, citing his sources, that Russia had deployed the naval mines in the northwestern part of the Black Sea.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
Meanwhile, Russia issued a warning to ships claiming that the mines have been deployed by Ukraine at its ports, and are now drifting.

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
Ukrainian soldiers near Popasna in Luhansk Oblast reported that Russian tactical missile OTR-21 Tochka is "quiet easily" shot down by Stingers, adding this photo. The upgraded Tochka-U version of this Soviet missile has the range of about 120 km.

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
Russian army transferred two of its units to Belarus to replenish the losses. These are 155th Separate Marine Brigade (Vladivostok) and 40th Separate Marine Brigade (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski),–General Staff of Ukraine, March 19 https://facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/276000071379745

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
Lethal defensive weapons Ukraine receives from the West exhaust Russia's offensive potential but do not allow to conduct serious counterattacks To counterattack, artillery is much needed,–Chief Military Consultant of Ukraine Strategic Studies National Institute https://chas.news/current/mir-za-bud-yaku-tsinu-chomu-ukraina-mae-vdostal-zahidnoi-zbroi-dlya-oboroni-ale-ne-otrimue-zasobi-dlya-kontrataki-rosiyan

NEXTA on Twitter
562 #Russian servicemen are now in #Ukrainian captivity This was stated by the Minister of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, Iryna Vereshchuk, on the TSN TV channel.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
Russia uses newest Kinzhal hypersonic missiles to bombard Ukraine. Russian Defense Ministry said Russia’s newest air-to-ground missile was used to destroy an arms depot in western Ivano Frankivsk Oblast. This is the first time this type of missile was used in Ukraine.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 19, 2022
Russians push deeper into Mariupol as locals plead for help | AP News
[...]

The fall of Mariupol, the scene of some of the war’s worst suffering, would mark a major battlefield advance for the Russians, who are largely bogged down outside major cities more than three weeks into the biggest land invasion in Europe since World War II.

“Children, elderly people are dying. The city is destroyed and it is wiped off the face of the earth,” Mariupol police officer Michail Vershnin said from a rubble-strewn street in a video addressed to Western leaders that was authenticated by The Associated Press.

Russian forces have already cut the city off from the Sea of Azov, and its fall would link Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, to territories controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in the east. It would mark a rare advance in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance that has dashed Russia’s hopes for a quick victory and galvanized the West.

[...]

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, said the nearest forces that could assist Mariupol’s defenders were already struggling against “the overwhelming force of the enemy” or at least 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.

“There is currently no military solution to Mariupol,” he said late Friday. “That is not only my opinion, that is the opinion of the military.”

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

March 19 2022
A Chinese vlogger shared videos of war-torn Ukraine. He's been labeled a national traitor - CNN

Wang Jixian didn't set out to become the Chinese voice of resistance in Ukraine. The 36-year-old resident of Odesa, a key target in Russia's invasion of the country, simply wanted to show his parents he was fine.''

''But his mood darkened as the days passed and the Russian assault escalated. When he logged onto Douyin, he said he would see Chinese videos praising Russian troops or supporting the invasion.''
I was very angry, then I thought I would record videos for them, and I'll tell them what the real battlefield is," he told CNN.
His daily videos, posted across various platforms including YouTube and the Chinese messaging app WeChat, quickly gained traction as a rare voice offering Chinese audiences a glimpse into war-torn Ukraine -- a stark contrast from Chinese state media, which has promoted Russian disinformation such as unfounded claims Ukrainian soldiers are using "Nazi" tactics.''

''Wang had studied art in college, and enjoyed dance, music and painting -- so when he moved to Odesa four years ago for work, the city's "artistic atmosphere" immediately appealed to him. One video on his Douyin account last year showed a man playing piano in a colorful room filled with books and paintings.
His videos look very different now. Several are filmed late at night, with the sound of explosions and air raid sirens in the background. Other clips show snapshots of daily life -- quiet streets, Ukrainian flags hung outside buildings and painted onto walls.''

"I want to (provide) some voice for the people in Ukraine, for the heroes, for my neighbors. Because in my eyes they are all heroes," he said. "I see people being calm, I see people brave ... I want to remind you to see who is dying, who has been killed."

''When he isn't filming videos, Wang provides volunteer support in repairing people's cell phones and assisting the displaced.
"(If) I turned back and left, it would be enough to make me regret for the rest of my life," he said. "I have no interest or desire to leave Ukraine until the war is ended and Ukraine has won."

 

[PommyMommy]

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
Hromadske journalist Victoriya Roshchyna is probably taken prisoner by Russian invaders. On March 16, @HromadskeUA learned that she was detained by the Russian FSB. The last time Hromadske contacted Roshchyna was when she was on her way to Mariupol https://hromadske.ua/posts/zhurnalistka-hromadske-viktoriya-roshina-jmovirno-perebuvaye-v-poloni-v-rosijskih-okupantiv

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
"I went reporting on the ground to tell about people who have been living without communication all this time, under the barrel of guns, shelling, and the rumble of Russian tanks,"–a journalist wrote in her latest Facebook post before disappearing https://facebook.com/victoria.roschina/posts/4855373997893592

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
Ukraine hasn't been able to confirm the type of the missile. But unnamed U.S. officials told CNN that Russia had indeed launched hypersonic missiles against Ukraine, the first known use of such missiles in combat.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
A new satellite image shows the state of destruction of the Mariupol theater, used as a shelter for local residents, bombed by Russia on March 16. The Russian word for "children" painted in large letters on the ground is seen in front of the entrance. PHOTO CREDIT: Maxar Technologies

NEXTA on Twitter
There is no more railway communication between #Belarus and #Ukraine Oleksandr Kamyshin, head of the board of the Ukrainian Railways, announced this on the air of Current Time. He said thanks to the honest #Belarusian railway workers, refusing to disclose details.

NEXTA on Twitter
During the three weeks of the war, Ukrainian troops destroyed more than 10 top commanders of the #Russian army, including at least 6 generals from the Ministry of Defense of #Ukraine.

NEXTA on Twitter
The #Belarusian military began to use the same rapid recognition system (red tape) that the “LPR” and “DPR” forces used in the early days of the invasion of #Ukraine.

 

[PommyMommy]

Kh-47M2 Kinzhal - Wikipedia
"The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal is a Russian nuclear-capable hypersonic aero-ballistic air-to-ground missile. It has a claimed range of more than 2,000 km, Mach 10 speed, and an ability to perform evasive maneuvers at every stage of its flight..."

'We still live here': Ukrainian Witness Project captures everyday life
Vitaliy Deynega of the Ukrainian Witness Project joins Morning Joe to discuss the media project capturing what's happening on the ground in Ukraine. March 18, 2022

 

[PommyMommy]

https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1505235827982585859?t=PHsUCM13OOMXMl15m6js-g&s=19
Russians support potential #Russian military aggression against another country and believe that it should be #Poland

Polish media Rzeczpospolita writes about this, referring to the results of a survey conducted by the #Ukrainian research company “Active Group”
1/2 https://t.co/Xc7CrBWZUd

86.6% of respondents expressed support for idea of a #Russian attack on the territory of EU. 75.5% of them are sure that #Poland would be next target, as this is a “logical continuation” of “special operation” that began in #Ukraine.

More than 1500 people were interviewed
2/2

 

[PommyMommy]

This article describes the hypersonic missile that Russia claims to have used against Ukraine, and what other countries are developing this technology.

What you need to know about Russia’s latest weapon in Ukraine, the Kinzhal hypersonic missile

This article describes the hypersonic missile that Russia is developing that could travel further and not be detected by the US as of right now, but ways the US is working on technology to detect the next generation of hypersonic missiles that are now under development.

Here's What We Know About Russia's Hypersonic Waverider Weapon

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 16, 2022
Ukrainian military successes force Belarus to rethink role in Putin’s war - Atlantic Council
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Ever since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, there has been persistent speculation about when or whether Belarusian forces would join the offensive. But recently, reports have surfaced that both rank-and-file soldiers and senior officers in Belarus are reluctant to cross the Ukrainian border.

[...]

“The Belarusian army has never fought anywhere, the army is not prepared for external conflicts,” Sakhashchyk commented. “Lukashenka is far from being a fool. He understands there is a large risk the Belarusian army will not succeed, that it will suffer heavy losses, and then his last supporters could very well turn away from him, and that would be a disaster” for the Belarusian dictator.

[...]

Ukraine’s performance on the battlefield has united the NATO alliance and moved the goalposts regarding the scale and scope of Western support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. It has given China pause and provoked concern over the extent it should support Moscow. And now it is leading Putin’s only ally, Belarus, to rethink its backing of Vladimir Putin’s war.

[...]

To be sure, Belarus is very much involved in the war despite its apparent reluctance to send troops. Lukashenka has provided a platform for Russia to invade Ukraine from the north as well as allowing missiles to be fired from Belarusian territory.

Belarusian trains are transporting Russian soldiers and hardware to the front. In this sense, Belarus is a combatant in Putin’s invasion and should be treated as such, as was the case when the United States announced fresh sanctions against Lukashenka on March 15.

[...]

The Ukrainian government accused Russia on March 11 of orchestrating what it called “false flag” air attacks on Belarus as a pretext to bring Belarusian forces into the war. Kyiv accused Russian aircraft of firing on Belarusian villages from Ukrainian air space, at a time when Putin and Lukashenka were meeting in Moscow, to draw Minsk directly into the fighting.

It didn’t work. At this moment, the only Belarusians known to be involved in Putin’s war are volunteers fighting on Ukraine’s side.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 19, 2022
Ukraine war: Buses carrying corpses of Russian soldiers are filmed heading to Belarus | Daily Mail Online
Putin's convoy of corpses: Trains are being loaded with dead Russian soldiers in the dead of night after their deaths in Ukraine to hide true death toll, claim Belarus locals who say they have seen 2,500 bodies in two weeks

• Corpses of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine are being moved from Belarus back to Russia in the dead of night
• Video shows military ambulances driving through the Belarusian city of Homel in early March
• Employees at the region’s clinical hospital claim more than 2,500 bodies have already been shipped back
• Ukraine’s military says that more than 14,000 Kremlin troops have been killed since the Russian invasion

Stalled Russian offensive increases pressure on Belarus to join invasion | Financial Times (ft.com)

Ukraine's General Staff: Putin transfers troops from Far East to Belarus. (kyivindependent.com)

Ukrainian activists block trucks at Poland-Belarus border, demand halting EU trade with Russia (kyivindependent.com)

Putin 'In Better Shape Than Ever', Belarus Leader Says | World News | US News

 

[PommyMommy]

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
Shells that went down by parachute were first recorded in Kyiv yday. "The Russians are using the most brutal weapons,"–advisor to Defense Ministry said today, stressing that all war crimes will be investigated https://facebook.com/100379789287364/videos/507310474114279

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
In the temporarily occupied Crimea, some Russian marine units have lost up to 90% of their personnel, and there are no reserves to recover,–General Staff's of UA reports in its operational information, 18:00 EET https://facebook.com/MinistryofDefence.UA/posts/278997237746069

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
Zelensky: "We now have a chance to show not only to Russia, but also to any aggressor in the world, any terrorist state that war will destroy not the victim, but the one who unleashed it." President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the citizens of Switzerland on March 19.

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
Russian units, manned by forced mobilization in the so-called DNR,massively refuse to take part in hostilities after suffering irreparable losses of >200 troops in the last 2 days They accuse Russian command of using them for "combat reconnaissance"to identify Ukraine army positions–Gen.Staff

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 11, 2022
Under New Scrutiny: China’s Nuclear Pledge to Ukraine - WSJ
An unusual and mostly forgotten pledge Chinese President Xi Jinping signed eight years ago that China would protect Ukraine in the event of a nuclear attack is getting fresh attention following Russia’s invasion of its Eastern European neighbor.

China’s 2013 promise to Ukraine of unspecified security guarantees echoed the kind of commitment nuclear-armed states—including China—have long made to nonnuclear ones, assurances that the U.S., U.K. and Russia had earlier also extended directly to Ukraine for relinquishing Soviet-era weapons. Yet Beijing appeared to be promising more than it had in past commitments, and why it singled out Ukraine for such an arrangement has confounded nuclear experts ever since.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

Americans Want a No-Fly Zone—Until They Learn What That Actually Means

"It’s fully understandable that Zelenskyy would endorse any measure that would help Ukraine beat back Russia’s assault. What’s startling, though, is that his favored policy seems to enjoy the broad support of the American public. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, 74 percent of Americans across the political spectrum said they supported a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine. But there’s a problem here: most people don’t seem to know what a no-fly zone actually is and what it would entail.

A no-fly zone is essentially a commitment to ensure that no enemy aircraft can enter a designated area. In order to make good on this pledge, the U.S. and NATO would have to patrol the skies above Ukraine with thousands of flights and shoot down any Russian planes that violated the banned airspace. Given that Putin has already ignored America’s warnings not to invade Ukraine and not to target Ukrainian civilians, it’s exceptionally unlikely that he would suddenly heed threats to stop sending planes into Ukraine. And destroying Russian aircraft would trigger all-out war between Russia and the West."

 

[PommyMommy]

After fleeing Kyiv, 15-year-old twins cram to catch up at school in Paris

Ukrainian teenagers Sasha and Masha Litkovska at Jean de la Fontaine High School, after fleeing from Ukraine to France, following Russia's war in Ukraine, in Paris, France, March 17, 2022.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 27, 2014
7 parts of Russia that other countries could call theirs | Salon.com
If Crimea "historically" belongs to Russia, these other regions "historically" don’t

 

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“These people have never even held a machine gun in their hands,” said Oleksii, a 24-year-old resident of Russian-occupied Khrestivka in Donetsk, speaking of friends, classmates and former colleagues that he knows have been conscripted.

One Donbas resident named Anastasia told the news outlet that these civilians from Donbas are forced to serve in frontline positions, with Russian forces threatening to shoot them if they don’t comply.

(Edited to add the next story in the live feed, below)

Journalist Neil Hauer, a freelancer journalist reporting in Kyiv, has an interesting Tweet thread about the intensifying anti-Russian sentiment among Ukrainians that is directed at the average Russian, not just Vladamir Putin.

Neil Hauer(@NeilPHauer)
Something I've noticed over the past week or so here: almost every Ukrainian I spoke to has made it clear that they blame not only Putin, but the average Russian as much (or more) for this war. The view is: we overthrew our corrupt government, and they accept their murderous one.

March 19, 2022
Neil Hauer(@NeilPHauer)
The amount of animosity from the average Ukrainian towards the average Russian is already huge and growing more with every single new airstrike, every new civilian death. The effects of this war will last for generations.

March 19, 2022
Neil Hauer(@NeilPHauer)
And I'm saying this from Kharkiv. I think I saw more virulently anti-Russian views here than anywhere else in the country. The sense of betrayal here, of 'how could they possibly do this to *us*', is incredible.

March 19, 2022
Neil Hauer(@NeilPHauer)
The people we watched crawl out of the rubble today told us their relatives in Moscow didn't believe them. Videos of their destroyed home were met with 'it's a fake' or 'Nazis did it.' *Every* bond between Ukrainians & Russians - familial, cultural, historical - is being broken.

March 19, 2022
Russia-Ukraine war latest: Boris Johnson criticised for comparing conflict with Brexit, as 190,000 civilians ‘evacuated from frontline’ – live

 

[PommyMommy]

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter

️Over 6,600 people evacuated from hot spots on March 19.

Some 4,128 people, including more than 1,100 children, were evacuated from Mariupol to Zaporizhia. Nearly 1,820 people were evacuated from Kyiv Oblast. In total, eight of the planned 10 humanitarian corridors worked out.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 19, 2022
Russia throws untrained civilians from occupied Donbas into hot spots of its war in Ukraine (kyivindependent.com)
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Russia’s proxies wrongfully accused Ukraine’s Armed Forces of escalation, announced a demonstrative evacuation of women and children from Donbas to Russia and launched a mobilization campaign conscripting all men under 55.

[...]

His former colleagues from the Komsomolets Donbasu coal mine, however, have faced a different fate. Oleksii says that they were abducted by Russian-backed militants right from their workplaces and deployed to the southern front in Mariupol, a city in Donetsk Oblast that has seen some of the heaviest fighting since Feb. 24.

[...]

“They (militants) walk around, knock on all the apartments’ doors, looking for men,” Ivan said.

They send conscripts to what they assure is a 3-7-day military exercise but when they arrive they are deployed to fight Ukraine, according to Ivan.

[...]

Several women in the closed Komsomolets Donbasu coal mine VK group said that someone they know has already been notified that their sons, about 18-years-old, were killed in combat.

[...]

According to the intelligence unit of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, the vast majority of mobilized Donbas residents are sent to the hottest spots without special training “to clear obstacles and dig trenches.” The losses among new recruits reach 70-80%, the ministry said.

It also reported that Russia uses the Donetsk Metallurgical Plant to burn the corpses of Donbas residents killed in battle to hide the actual number of casualties.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 2 hrs ago
Mariupol council: Russian occupiers forcibly move thousands of Mariupol residents to Russia. The civilians were allegedly taken to camps where Russians checked their phones and documents and then forcibly moved some of them to remote cities in Russia.

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
Several thousand Mariupol residents were illegally deported to Russia over the past week Acc to Oblast Council, they were taken to filtration camps. After their phones and docs inspection, some were driven to remote Russian cities; others' fate is unknown https://t.me/mariupolrada/8913

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
The deported Mariupol residents are mostly women and kids who were hiding in shelters in the Left Bank district. Fightings took place there. To save people's lives, Ukraine's army withdrew from these places of mass gathering. Russian army made use of it illegally deporting locals

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 1 hr ago
Chinese senior official calls sanctions against Russia 'outrageous.' According to Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng, the measures will only worsen the global economy and hurt ordinary people. He said during a security forum in Beijing that “sanctions cannot solve problems.”

NEXTA on Twitter - Video
The dog of #Chernihiv pyrotechnicians named Patron continues to serve Since the beginning of the war, together with sappers,he has neutralized about 90 explosive objects, according to the State Emergency Service of #Ukraine.

NEXTA on Twitter - 43 min ago
Buses with wounded invaders in #Gomel. It is also reported that more than 2,500 dead were taken to #Russia from there.

Euromaidan Press on Twitter - 38 min ago
Despite the EU sanctions, a Russian cargo plane flew from Moscow to Slovakia and returned to Russia, Ukrayinska pravda reports referring to public online radar data. The purpose of the flight is unknown.