Apr 21: E-Stories
Day 422: Bakhmut RUshakeup RUtextbooks Avakyants EU NATO Armenia Ruslan FsbSurveillance RUweaponstock Discord A&Ps ISW UKDef VOA Mongelli Jabara WomenToFollow Avdeeva Latushka Browder
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
I’ll be travelling until April 24, so E-Stories will be published in a limited format.
Stories we’re following…
Commander on Bakhmut: 'Dynamic' fighting continues, city still stands. Russia is concentrating "the largest number of forces" in Donetsk Oblast's Bakhmut, but Ukrainian defenders "hold back the enemy onslaught," Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine's Land Forces, said on April 19.
Air Force: Ukraine downs 21 Shahed drones. Ukrainian forces destroyed ten out of 11 Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 drones on April 19, according to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Military intelligence: Russia moving to strategic defense after 'failed' offensive. Russian forces are moving to an overall strategic defense posture following a failed winter offensive, Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence agency HUR, said on national television on April 20.
ISW: Russian Federal Security Service appears to overhaul domestic security organs. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted mass checks as a part of a data leakage investigation, according to The Institute for the Study of War.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) appears to be conducting a large-scale overhaul of domestic security organs. Russian state-controlled outlet TASS reported on 19 April that the FSB and the Main Directorate of the Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) have been conducting mass checks at the Moscow Central District Internal Affairs Directorate and several Moscow district police offices for the past several weeks due to “the leakage of data from Russian security forces at the request of Ukrainian citizens.”
The Zaporizhzhia NPP which Russia captured last year will stop using US-produced nuclear fuel as quickly as possible, the Interfax news agency quoted a Russian official as saying on Thursday. Reuters reports Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the general director of Russian nuclear energy firm Rosenergoatom told Interfax that it had about four years’ worth of US-made fuel in reserves.
Russian propaganda entrenched in eastern Ukraine. Many residents in Ukrainian towns on the frontline still believe Russian propaganda about the war, according to a New York Times article.
Mediazona reporting that some Russian school textbooks have removed references to Kyiv in paragraphs about Kyivan Rus. The Russian authorities are also preparing teaching materials that "clarify the role of Kyiv" in Russian history. According to a source at the publishing house Prosveshchenie (Enlightenment), these materials will be delivered to schools by the end of spring and will be used in the next school year.
The commander of the Russian Navy’s Pacific Fleet has been removed from his post, President Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the Russian Far East said Thursday. The reshuffle was announced a week after the Pacific Fleet was ordered to stage surprise combat drills to repel a theoretical enemy landing. Admiral Sergei Avakyants, who has commanded the Pacific Fleet since 2012, will now head a new organization.
Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense spokesman, Andrey Yusov, believes that the statements of the leader of the PMC "Wagner" Yevgeny Prigozhin reflect the mood of the military-political elite of Russia and now there are "many microcracks" in the Kremlin, which will only expand.
Russian propaganda in the domestic market remains effective and, in principle, Solovyov and Skabeeva, indeed, can tell ordinary Vanyusha tomorrow that we have won, and even the day before yesterday.
After all, Prigozhin speaks not only for himself, but also for his partners and patrons within the Kremlin. And yes, the mood among the military-political elite, among the business elite in Russia is becoming more and more depressive, because Russia has already suffered a strategic defeat. None of the set goals has been achieved, which means that both for Russia itself and the Russian elite, the end should be as soon as possible.
Let's just say that there (in the Kremlin - ed.) there are now a lot of microcracks and they will develop.
Russia's Bolshoi Theater has permanently dropped a ballet about Russian dance legend Rudolf Nureyev following the toughening of "gay propaganda" legislation, its director said on Wednesday. An amendment approved in December 2022 widened a ban on "the propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations," which initially applied to children, to adults. Urin said in comments carried by Russian news agencies that the Bolshoi pulled the plug on "Nureev" as soon as Putin signed the bill into law.
Ukraine’s agricultural sector has suffered more than $8 billion from war damage. The damages to Ukraine’s agricultural sector and land resources have cost $8.7 billion since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, according to a report from the Kyiv School of Economics.
Official: Soils in Crimea deemed unsuitable for agriculture. Soils in northern Crimea are unsuitable for agriculture due to Russia’s water extraction methods, according to the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in Crimea Tamila Tasheva.
The European Commission will inform the EU ambassadors this Friday about the content of the new package of sanctions against Russia. According to Politico, the European Commission and the EU countries this week are preparing the next package of sanctions against Russia. Germany has already asked to include nuclear power in it. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier that the next package of sanctions will focus on combating sanctions circumvention and loopholes.
Nato’s chief, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Thursday during his first visit to Ukraine since Russia’s second invasion.
“Let me be clear: Ukraine’s rightful place is in the Euro-Atlantic family. Ukraine’s rightful place is in Nato. And over time, our support will help you to make this possible,” Stoltenberg told reporters during a joint press conference with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, Reuters reports.
“Nato stands with you today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes,” Stoltenberg stated, before inviting Zelenskiy to the Nato summit in Vilnius in July.
FT: US intelligence report suggests China refused Wagner's request for arms. A leaked U.S. intelligence report shows that China refused the Russian Wagner mercenary group's request for weapons, the Financial Times reported on April 20.
Deputy Director-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Commission Katarina Mathernova has confirmed that she will become the new EU ambassador to Ukraine.
Cyprus to set up national sanctions implementation unit. The Cypriot government on April 19 announced that it will set up a national sanctions implementation unit, according to a Cyprus Mail report.
Air Force Speaker Yuri Ignat said that “during the flash in the sky on the evening of April 19, air defense in the Kyiv region wasn’t activated. I think that special services will deal with this, but perhaps this body in general "burned up in the atmosphere. But the Air Force cannot comment on such things - experts are needed here." With their verve for humour, Ukrainians took to social media with creative explanations, including the hypothesis that the object was a NATO satellite or an alien spaceship, jokingly. NATO has confirmed it is not one of their satellites. A moment of levity amidst the horrors of war.
Switzerland has no plans to join REPO task force on basis of neutrality. Switzerland refused a request from the G7 countries to join the Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs (REPO) multilateral task force on April 19.
NYT: 'Surge' in electronic components sent to Russia via Armenia, Kazakhstan. According to the New York Times, senior tax and trade officials from the U.S. and the European Union noticed a "surge" in chips and other electronic components sent to Russia that were "deemed as critical to the development of weapons, including Russian cruise missiles that have struck Ukraine."
FSB investigates Moscow police for selling law-enforcement data on dark web, Meduza
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Interior Ministry’s internal security division are conducting a joint inquiry into the data leaks allegedly enabled by the Moscow police. The news outlets Baza, TASS, and RBC all report on the inspections now taking place across police departments in Moscow’s Central Administrative District.
A TASS source explains that police operatives with access to internal information systems had allegedly sold confidential data about members of Russia’s law enforcement to various clients, including some Ukrainian nationals. According to RBC, sign-in credentials and passwords may also have been compromised.
The Telegram news outlet Baza reports that the leak had been detected mid-spring. The investigators then found some dark-web advertisements for similar information. When they responded to the ads, they received the data they’d requested, along with a confirmation that it had come directly from the Central District police.
According to Baza, several members of the Moscow police force have been arrested, and two high-ranking officers have chosen to resign.
Joe Jabara, What is Discord? Clearance Jobs
Discord is a messaging application in which you may join or start a “server”, kind of a clubroom where you can hang out and talk via text, voice, or video channel about whatever the server channel subject is.
However, to enter the server you must have a specific invite only from a member who has permission to do so. You can make the server private as to eliminate viewing of channels by outsiders.
Moving to a voice channel from a text channel or to a video channel is easy, and Discord users often do that swiftly when they want to keep a conversation separate or rapidly express their emotions in a formidable manner. It works on all operating systems, to include IOS, has file transfer capability, and the voice chat feature operates independently of your cell phone number.
How many weapons does Russia have left? VOA
A CSIS report explains how Russia is managing to overcome the impact of sanctions on its defense industry
Experts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) analyzed the impact of sanctions on the Russian defense industry and the Kremlin's military ability to continue the war in the analytical report "Out of stock? Assessing the impact of sanctions on the Russian defense industry."
The report focuses on Russia's attempts to circumvent sanctions and the steps that have been taken to this end. We are talking about the supply and production of weapons and systems, including tanks, missiles, aircraft, aircraft and electronic warfare systems.
The director of CSIS says that in his opinion Russia has demonstrated extraordinary skill and resilience when it comes to acquiring officially banned components. In addition, it still has significant reserves. And countries are coming to the rescue that want to supply Moscow with dual-use goods and technologies (whose components can be repurposed in favor of the defense industry) through a network of illegal supply chains. [continue reading]
Programming note…
At the Women to Follow Summit organised by Rose Horowitz. Andrea Chalupa, screenwriter and chief researcher for the film, Mr Jones, and historian, and so many other women who share their life experiences.