Russia Attacks Ukraine - 23 Feb 2022 **Media Thread** NO DISCUSSION #5

[PommyMommy]

These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of Dec. 9, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1733371660827312500

Starting on 1 January 2024, Ukrainians in Russian-occupied territories will be denied medical services unless they consent to accept Russian passports, Ukraine’s National Resistance Center reported. Ukrainians in occupied territories face healthcare denial without Russian passports - Euromaidan Press

https://twitter.com/x/status/1733464377813024805

“If the world gets tired, they will simply let us die,” Olena Zelenska, Ukraine's First Lady, said, highlighting the existential threat Ukraine could face without sustained international support.
"If the world gets tired, they will simply let us die," Zelenska says - Euromaidan Press

https://twitter.com/x/status/1733491263519821965

 

[PommyMommy]

DEC 6, 2023

4 Russian military soldiers charged with war crimes for torturing U.S. national​

 

[PommyMommy]

DEC 6, 2023

US files war crime charges against Russians accused of torturing an American in the Ukraine invasion

The Justice Department says four Russian men accused of torturing an American during the invasion of Ukraine have been charged with war crimes in a first-of-its-kind case.

apnews.com

[...]

It is the first prosecution against members of the Russian armed forces in connection with atrocities during Moscow’s war against Ukraine and it is the first time the Justice Department has brought charges under a nearly 30-year-old statute that makes it a crime to subject an American to torture or inhumane treatment during a war.

The charges are largely symbolic for now, given the unlikely prospects of the department bringing any of the four defendants, who are fugitives, into custody. ...

[...]

The American told federal agents who had traveled to Ukraine last year as part of an investigation that the Russian soldiers had abducted him, stripped him naked, pointed a gun at his head and badly beaten him, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.

He was also subjected to harsh interrogation methods, threatened with sexual assault and forced to participate in his own mock execution, according to a five-count indictment unsealed Wednesday in the Eastern District of Virginia.

[...]

“Cases like this one are among the most complex the FBI works, but bringing them is essential to deterring crimes like these and showing would-be perpetrators that no one is above the law and the war crimes will not go unpunished,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.

[...]

Independent human rights experts backed by the United Nations have said they have found continued evidence of war crimes committed by Russian forces, including torture that ended in the rape and death of women up to age 83.

[...]

The four defendants are identified as Suren Seiranovich Mkrtchyan and Dmitry Budnik, both of whom are described by prosecutors as commanding officers in Russia’s armed forces, as well as two lower-ranking officers identified only by their first names.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

Mothers reveal they let Russian soldiers rape them to protect girls​

10 December 2023

"It's a common tactic in the war for Russian soldiers to rape women in front of their husbands and children in order to traumatise entire families, Ukrainian case workers, lawyers and researchers have all told MailOnline.

READ MORE: I was raped and beaten by a Russian soldier beside a pile of used condoms... I felt dirty, like I was a disgrace and my boyfriend left me because of it. But this is how I turned my life around​

'Women have told me how the Russian soldiers would tell their children "You should remember us Russians, who we are, and you should remember this for all your life" as they raped their mothers in front of them,' Ms Orel says from her home near Kyiv.

One mother was raped in her home by Russian soldiers and they forced her teenage son to watch, leaving him traumatised and suicidal.

'The mother was suffering from severe shame and her son had tried to commit suicide before they came to our team of psychologists for help,' Ms Orel, who works with victims of rape and their families, says.

The reason why Russian soldiers rape women in front of their families is to instil as much fear and trauma as possible so that it passes through generations, Ms Orel says''

 

[PommyMommy]

General: Russia conducting fewer assault operations in southeast.Russian forces are conducting fewer assault operations in the southeast but intensifying their air attacks once again, General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, head of the Tavria group of Ukrainian forces, said on Dec. 10.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1733846227534381187

UK Defense Ministry: Russia's Dec. 7 strike likely start of campaign against energy infrastructure.

The coordinated Russian missile strike against Kyiv and central Ukraine on Dec. 7 was likely "the start of a more concerted campaign" aimed at degrading energy infrastructure, the U.K. Defense Ministry said in its Dec. 10 report. In its intelligence bulletin on X, the Defense Ministry said that Russian forces had likely used Tu-95 planes to fire Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles on Dec. 7 – the first time they were used since Sept. 21.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1733835427260289069

Amid challenging weather, Russian forces launch offensives to seize initiative before Russia's 2024 elections. Ukraine fortifies defenses, remaining open to future counteroffensives, maintaining strategic flexibility, ISW says.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1733864283094585762

 

[PommyMommy]

DEC 11, 2023

Allies of imprisoned Kremlin foe Navalny say they haven't heard from him in 6 days

Allies of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny are sounding the alarm and saying that neither they nor his lawyers have heard from him in six days

abcnews.go.com

Allies of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny sounded the alarm on Monday, saying that neither they nor the politician's lawyers have heard from him in six days.

Navalny, who is serving a 19-year term on charges of extremism, was due to appear in court Monday via video link but didn't, spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said. She said prison officials cited electricity problems. Lawyers in recent days also haven't been able to access Navalny, according to Yarmysh.

“It is already the sixth straight day that we don't know where Alexei is and what is happening to him,” Yarmysh wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Navalny, 47, has been behind bars since January 2021. As President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, he campaigned against official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests. His arrest came upon his return to Moscow from Germany, where he recuperated from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

DEC 10, 2023

Life in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine is grim. People are fleeing through a dangerous corridor

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, thousands of people have fled occupied regions of the country over myriad routes.

apnews.com

SUMY, Ukraine (AP) — Whenever 52-year-old Anna is agitated, she senses the chilling touch of a gun barrel between her brows — a haunting reminder of an encounter with a group of Russian soldiers on her street about a year ago.

On that day, amid tears and screams, the soldiers threatened to kill her and her husband, fired bullets on the ground between their feet and then dragged her brother-in-law to an unknown location, apparently furious that he couldn’t guide them to where they could find alcohol.

Two weeks later, Anna’s husband, who himself had been hospitalized previously because of heart problems, found his brother’s body in the forest, not far from the village where they lived, in a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region. Two weeks after that, he died.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

UK announces naval coalition with Norway to support Ukraine.

The U.K. announced on Dec. 11 a new Maritime Capability Coalition with Norway to support the Ukrainian Navy and the procurement of two British minehunters by Kyiv.

The coalition's goal is to deliver "ships and vehicles to strengthen Ukraine's ability to operate at sea" and provide "training, equipment, and infrastructure to bolster security in the Black Sea."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1734135524363763860

Our Kyiv screening of our War Crimes Investigations Unit's latest documentary "Faces of Torture" was a powerful experience.

Watch the full documentary for free on our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/watch?v=U_rWDBS9TTo&t=67s

It tells the story of survivors of the most notorious Ukrainian prisoners of war camp in Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast: Olenivka prison.This prison-turned-camp became infamous due to reports of abuse and torture inflicted upon its prisoners.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1734208746786615346

 

[PommyMommy]

Media: Zelensky to speak at US Senate on Dec. 12, meet House speaker.

President Volodymyr Zelensky will speak at the Senate in the morning of Dec. 12 during his visit to the U.S. and will also meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson, Bloomberg reported on Dec. 11, citing an unnamed Senate aide and Johnson's spokesman Raj Shah. The planned meetings come as the future of U.S. aid to Ukraine is in question and existing funds are almost depleted.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1734247342314807325

Zelensky arrives in US, speaks at National Defense University.

President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the U.S. on Dec. 11 and spoke at the National Defense University along with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. "Ukraine is the first front in the war against freedom," Zelensky said during the speech. His visit comes as the future of U.S. aid to Ukraine is in question and existing funds are almost depleted.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1734269678954967260

Navalny 'no longer on list' of prisoners at penal colony, whereabouts unknown.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been transferred to another location from his penal colony but the prison authorities are refusing to say where, Navalny's press secretary Kira Yarmysh posted on X on Dec. 11. The authorities have denied Navalny's lawyers access to the politician for six days, and his current whereabouts are unknown. The Kremlin has been trying to prevent Navalny from communicating with the outside world.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1734300791756767343

 

[PommyMommy]

Multiple Powerful Explosions and Air Raid Sirens heard within the Ukrainian Capital City of Kyiv in the last few minutes, following reports of possible Ballistic Missile launches from Western Russia.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1734743970024956109

At least 1 Apartment Building and several Cars are on Fire in the Dnipro District of Kyiv, as a result of Falling Debris from what is claimed to have been Intercepted Ballistic Missiles which were Shot Down over the City.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1734747420221653199

 

[PommyMommy]

DEC 12, 2023

Ukraine faces heavy attack from air and cyberspace while Zelenskyy in US presses for more funding​

[...]

“The war with Russia has many dimensions, and one of them is in cyberspace,” Kyivstar Director-General Oleksandr Komarov said in a statement.

The company didn’t estimate when services might be restored. It said its specialists were working with law enforcement agencies and special state services on solving the problem.

Kyivstar’s traffic began dropping at 9 a.m. local time and was nearly at zero by noon, Doug Madory, an analyst at the network integrity firm Kentic Inc., said in a tweet.

“Traffic was slow decline instead of being abruptly cut all at once,” Madory told The Associated Press. He said that was similar to what happened in a March 2022 cyberattack on Ukrtelecom, the country’s legacy telecom, which was then seventh among Ukrainian providers in internet traffic volume.

Kyivstar is Ukraine’s largest destination for internet traffic, Madory said.

But the attack had more far-reaching consequences. It disrupted the air raid warning system in part of the Kyiv region, according to the head of the Kyiv regional administration, Ruslan Kravchenko. Similar disruptions were also reported in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine, while some ATMs of state-owned Oschadbank stopped working as a result of the Kyivstar attack, the bank’s press office told local news outlet Suspilne.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

The Number of Civilians who were Injured tonight in the Ukrainian Capital City of Kyiv as a result of the Russian Ballistic Missiles Attack has now Risen to 34 with at least 12 of those requiring Hospitalization; Ukrainian Officials are claiming that all of the Missiles were Intercepted by Air Defense Batteries with the Damage and Casualties being caused by Falling Debris.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1734771623125753975

Air Force: Ukraine downs 10 drones, 10 missiles launched by Russia overnight. Ukrainian forces downed 10 Shahed "kamikaze" drones and 10 ballistic missiles launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force reported in the morning of Dec. 13.

The drones were launched from the occupied Crimea, almost all of them have been downed over Odesa Oblast.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1734815333545119969

 

[PommyMommy]

DEC 14, 2023

Jailed WSJ reporter, corporate exec from Michigan could be part of prisoner exchange​

Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan, has been jailed in Russia since his December 2018 arrest on espionage-related charges that both he and the U.S. government dispute. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was detained in March while on a reporting trip to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) east of Moscow. He was accused of espionage — Russia’s Federal Security Service alleged that the reporter, “acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.” He has been behind bars ever since.

The Lefortovo District Court in Moscow on Nov. 28 ruled to extend his detention until the end of January, and the appeal Gershkovich has filed against that ruling was rejected by the Moscow City Court at a hearing Thursday.

 

[PommyMommy]

At Putin's Dec. 14 press conference, no one asked about the disappearance of Navalny, about the thousands of Russians who died in the needless invasion, or about Russia's war crimes in Ukraine and illegal annexations of Ukrainian territories.
Putin flaunts alleged military successes, claims Russia is doing great

https://x.com/KyivIndependent/status/1735707289502507226?s=20

Ukraine's military said Putin exaggerated the number of Russian troops in Ukraine; According to the defense minister, Ukraine will focus on domestic arms production in 2024; Belarus launched a sudden readiness check of air defenses; and more.
Ukraine war latest: Putin exaggerates number of Russian troops in Ukraine, intelligence says

https://x.com/KyivIndependent/status/1735806372611055659?s=20

 

[PommyMommy]

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has placed Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow on its wanted list, according to the Interior Ministry's wanted persons database on Dec. 15.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1735965188568867095

Military: Russia committing more reserves in attempt to capture Kupiansk.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1735990223819911385

Russia is ramping up efforts to capture Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast, moving reserves of assault battalions to the area to compensate for heavy losses, Volodymyr Fito, the head of the Army's public relations service, said on air on Dec. 16.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1735990225665482930

 

[PommyMommy]

Putin officially nominated as presidential candidate in 2024 election.

A group of celebrities on Dec. 16 nominated Russian dictator Vladimir Putin as a presidential candidate in the March 15-17, 2024 election. In 2020, Russia held a rigged vote to remove the constitutional ban for Putin to run for president in 2024. According to Russian-born election specialist Alexander Kireyev, the 2020 vote was the most falsified one in Russia's modern history, with 20 million votes being rigged.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1736036458413134281

CNN: Western officials are estimating how long Ukraine will last without US aid

Defeat by summer is worst-case scenario. Diplomat warns Ukraine's fall would mean "horrible things: ethnic cleansing & total destruction of Ukraine; that's why we must carry on”

What's at stake if Ukraine falls without US aid? It would devastating for Ukrainians, but the consequences will extend far wider. Global security may spiral, with dictators embracing nukes while Americans question wasted aid and credibility. https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/12/05/whats-at-stake-if-ukraine-loses/

https://twitter.com/x/status/1736053956323815678

 

[PommyMommy]

The Netherlands will deliver 18 F-16 aircraft to Ukraine, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte confirmed during a phone call to President Volodymyr Zelensky on Dec. 22.
Netherlands to deliver 18 F-16s to Ukraine (kyivindependent.com)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1738211117443211332

Air Force: Ukraine downs 3 Russian Su-34 supersonic aircraft.Ukraine downed three Russian Su-34 supersonic fighter-bomber aircraft on the southern front, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk announced on Dec. 22.
Air Force: Ukraine downs 3 Russian Su-34 supersonic aircraft (kyivindependent.com)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1738224841755623460

 

[PommyMommy]

Germany to deploy troops near Lithuania's border with Russia and Belarus in its first permanent overseas troop deployment since World War II; Leaked documents indicate a safety incident occurred at a Russian-built nuclear power plant in Belarus; and more.
Germany permanently deploys troops in Lithuania near border (kyivindependent.com)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1738203044133609582

Ukraine closer to NATO and EU than ever, despite Russia’s war, Jens Stoltenberg says

According to NATO Chief, Russia’s attempt to stop Ukraine from joining NATO and the EU has backfired, as Ukraine is now closer to the West than ever. Stoltenberg: Ukraine closer to NATO and EU than ever, despite Russia’s war (euromaidanpress.com)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1738227143082123274

 

[PommyMommy]

Ukraine retrieves bodies of 66 fallen soldiers.The bodies of 66 fallen Ukrainian soldiers were returned to Ukraine, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of the Prisoners of War reported on Dec. 22.
Ukraine retrieves bodies of 66 fallen soldiers (kyivindependent.com)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1738258776547844391

Ukraine & Poland reach agreement to unblock border amid protests

Ukrainian & Polish officials have met to agree on a plan that could end the blockade of four border checkpoints by Polish haulers by Christmas. Ukraine and Poland reach agreement to unblock border amid protests (euromaidanpress.com)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1738333846251217114

 

[PommyMommy]

DEC 24, 2023
ISW: Russia confirms use of prohibited chemical weapons in Kherson Oblast (kyivindependent.com)
[...]

According to the ISW, Russia's 810th Naval Infantry Brigade seemingly confirmed on Telegram that it intentionally uses chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces, in direct violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, of which Russia is a party to. The marine unit detailed its "radical change in tactics," confirming it is dropping K-51 grenades from drones onto Ukrainian positions to smoke Ukrainian soldiers out of their position, exposing them to fire from various arms.

K-51 aerosol grenades are filled with the Riot Control Agent gas CS (2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile), a tear gas used for crowd control. Riot Control Agents are prohibited from being used in modern warfare under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Infantry Brigade posted a video of it dropping what appears to be prohibited K-51 presumably in Krynky, and the ISW had previously observed Russian forces using K-51 grenades against Ukrainian positions in Donetsk Oblast in November 2022.

[...]