Apr 23: Sunday Stories
Day 424: Kharkiv Mykolaiv ZNPP Wagner Belgorod Lubinets Iran Belarus DDoSAirports EUSanctions Albania AlliedSupport Ianborrisov Newsome A&P UKDef ISW NYT Eckel Scherba Vogel Scollick Reznikov Pugliese
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.
Stories we’re following…
Russia bombards Kharkiv with S-300 missiles. Russia attacked Kharkiv with S-300 surface-to-air missiles late on April 22, Governor Oleh Syniehubov and Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram. Both the city and neighboring areas came under attack.
Mine explosion injures 2 in Mykolaiv Oblast. Two civilians were injured in an explosion caused by an anti-personnel mine in Mykolaiv Oblast's Snihurivka on April 22, Ivan Kukhta, who heads the Snihurivka military administration, reported on Telegram.
IAEA: Shelling heard almost everyday near Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. IAEA experts currently at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant have heard shelling almost every day over the past week, the agency said on April 21.
The Times: Ukrainian soldiers say they lack air defense firepower to stop Russian airstrikes. Ukrainian soldiers told the Times they are running low on air defense ammunition, while Russian troops have recently started to send more helicopters and aircraft to attack Ukraine.
ISW: Wagner group financier advocates for Moscow to hold current front line. Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin has been advocating for Russia to focus on holding the current front lines rather than seeking more gains so that Russian forces can regain their combat effectiveness for later offensive operations, the Institute for the Study of War said.
More than 3,000 people in Belgorod were returning to their homes on Saturday after being evacuated while an explosive was disposed of, the local governor said.
Young Crimean Tatar sentenced to 7 years by Russian proxies, accused of giving $12 to volunteer battalion. A Russian-controlled court in occupied Crimea sentenced a Crimean Tatar to seven years in prison for allegedly transferring Hr 500 ($12) to a Ukrainian volunteer battalion also called Crimea, according to Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets. According to Lubinets, the accused, 21-year-old Appaz Kurtamet, lent the money to a friend, who joined the battalion.
ISW: Russia used new delivery of Iranian-made Shahed drones to attack Ukraine. Russian forces used a new batch of Iranian-made Shahed "kamikaze" drones to strike Ukraine for the third consecutive day, targeting Kyiv for the first time in 25 days, the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest update.
The authorities in several Russian regions are distributing digital summons to men of call-up age, according to media reports, less than a week after a radical overhaul of the country’s military draft system was signed into law by Putin. Previously summons had to be issued in person — making them relatively easy to evade. Military officials in Moscow and St.Petersburg admitted earlier this week that local residents eligible to be conscripted in Russia’s annual spring draft could expect to be summoned to recruitment offices via messages on online state portal Gosuslugi.
Units from Belarus returned home from Russia on Saturday after training on how to use the Iskander tactical missile system to launch nuclear weapons, the Belarusian defence ministry said. It made the announcement exactly four weeks after Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said Russia would station tactical nuclear weapons in neighbouring Belarus.
China's ambassador to France says former Soviet countries have ‘no status in international law.’ He also said Crimea was "Russian at the beginning," without specifying what he meant by beginning. “He denies the very existence of countries like Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, Kazakhstan, etc.,” Antoine Bondaz, a China expert at the Paris-based think-tank Foundation for Strategic Research, wrote on Twitter.
Ukrainian ambassador to France, Estonia FM outraged by Chinese ambassador's comment on former Soviet countries. Ukraine's ambassador to France, Vadym Omelchenko, called out the Chinese ambassador to France Lu Shaye's statement denying sovereignty to post-Soviet countries, including Ukraine.
CNN: Europe’s air traffic control authority says it has been battling an ongoing attack, claimed by pro-Russian hackers, since Wednesday. “The attack is causing interruptions to the website and web availability,” a Eurocontrol spokesperson said in a statement. “There has been no impact on European aviation.”
Distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks — which flood websites with phony traffic to knock them offline — have been a common tool, according to the Danish authority. Although DDoS attacks are disruptive and attract attention, they“leave no permanent of destructive consequences to the victims’ systems,” it said.
Some hacking campaigns targeting European entities are believed to have ties to Russia’s military.
Bloomberg: EU to propose banning certain goods from transiting through Russia. The ban would apply to "numerous technologies and other goods, including several types of vehicles," however not all items would be banned from traveling through Russia to third countries, unnamed sources told Bloomberg.
Albania cancels visa-free travel for Russian citizens. Russian citizens will now have to apply for a visa to travel to Albania, according to the Albanian Embassy in Russia. Previously, Russian citizens could visit visa-free from May until September and stay for up to 90 days. Now, citizens of the Russian Federation will have to apply for a visa all year round.
Zelensky imposes sanctions against 40 individuals, 382 legal entities. President Zelensky signed two decrees on April 22, approving a proposal by the National Security and Defense Council to impose sanctions on 400 individuals and legal entities.
Security Service identifies 12 collaborators in Kherson Oblast. The Security Service of Ukraine reported on April 22 that it had identified 12 collaborators who helped Russian occupiers prosecute Ukrainians through fabricated cases in Kherson Oblast.
Russia has confirmed that 20 German diplomats will be expelled. The move had originally been announced on Saturday lunchtime without details being provided. However Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has now confirmed the number to RIA Novosti news agency, Reuters reports.
Finland approves 15th military aid package to Ukraine. The package is set to include defense training equipment for the 30,000 Ukrainian troops taking part in the European Union Military Assistance Mission in Support of Ukraine (EUMAM), Finnish national broadcaster Yle reported.
Spain to deliver Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine in coming days. Six tanks are to be delivered "in the coming days," and four more will be sent later, when they are repaired.
Portugal to send 5 military vehicles to Ukraine. Portugal will send five armored rescue and medical vehicles to Ukraine, Portuguese Defense Minister Helena Carreiras said at a meeting of the Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany on April 21.
France to aid Ukraine in restoring the rail network. Ukraine and France on April 22 signed a memorandum that will see France help restore Ukraine’s railway system. France is set to assist with bridge construction, shipment of rails and locomotives to railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia, as well as light rail systems in cities, according to the Ministry of Infrastructure.
Jack Teixeira shared secret intelligence earlier and to a much larger audience, NYT reports
The US air national guardsman accused of leaking classified defence documents to a small group of gamers, posted sensitive information months earlier than previously known and to a much larger chat group, according to online postings reviewed by The New York Times.
In February 2022, soon after the invasion of Ukraine, a user profile matching that of Jack Teixeira began posting secret intelligence on the Russian war effort to a previously undisclosed chat group of about 600 members on the social platform Discord.
Mike Eckel, Burlinova- passing intel to FSB
A totally fascinating story of a Russian NGO, public diplomacy, and a woman who -- the FBI alleges -- was secretly sending to the FSB photographs, passports, and other info about Americans and Europeans who participated in events she organized.
Since 2010, Natalia Burlinova ran a NGO called PICREADI/Creative Diplomacy which promoted public diplomacy as well as Russia’s views on the world. The FBI alleged she worked closely with the FSB, which identified people she should target, and also helped fund her efforts.
In 2018, she traveled to the US, to meet academics and students at US universities. On Nov. 15, 2018, she met with faculty and students at Tufts University's @FletcherSchool. Later that same day, she sent photos and other info about meetings back to the FSB, according the FBI.
She also organized an annual conference in Moscow for young policymakers, journalists, graduate students. Some attendees say Burlinova was upfront about her pro-Kremlin/pro-Putin views. Others say they’re totally not surprised that she’s been accused of being an FSB informant.
The @TheJusticeDept charged Burlinova with conspiracy & FARA violations on Apr. 17. The FBI clearly accessed her phone or computer; affidavit is detailed in describing what she went to the FSB and when. FBI questioned participants in the Moscow meetings, and some US academics.
She denied the charges, and accused the US of turning her into Maria Butina Part II (the Russian woman who was convicted of similar charges, served prison time and was deported in 2019). Burlinova posted this photo today on her Telegram account. That's Butina on the right.
