Apr 25: E-Stories
Day 426: 9OblastsAttacked Sevastopol Budanov Patriot DroneMoscow Wagner Berdiansk Turkey RUTax PNGjournos EU RUpassports Peskov Jr A&Ps ISW UKDef Zelensky AP Maloletka Sauer TheInsider Sushko Nexta
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…
Just in - Reports that Ukrainian partisans have successfully destroyed a #Russia|n occupied checkpoint in #Oleshky, #Kherson, #Ukraine, paving the way for a counteroffensive.
Russian attacks hit 9 Ukrainian regions, kill 4 civilians over past day. At least 11 more people were injured in the Russian attacks on Ukraine's Donetsk, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, according to local authorities.
Suspilne has this roundup of news this morning on its Telegram channel:
At night, the Russian army shelled Kramatorsk in Donetsk region, and damaged an educational institution. They also hit Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk oblast with heavy artillery, and in the morning they attacked the border of Sumy oblast. There are no dead or injured.
Explosions rang out in occupied Sevastopol at night. The so-called “governor” Razvozhaev announced the “attack of two surface drones”: one allegedly exploded independently, and the other was destroyed.
Over the past day, two people were killed, six were injured, due to Russian shelling in Kherson region. Two were injured in Donetsk region.
Explosions heard in Zaporizhzhia. Explosions were heard in Zaporizhzhia overnight on April 24, Suspilne news outlet reported. An air alert went off at around 2:40 a.m.
Russian occupying authority claims drone attack on Sevastopol. Sevastopol came under attack by surface drones on April 24 at around 3:30 a.m., Mikhail Razvozhaev, the head of the illegal Russian occupation government in Ukraine’s Sevastopol, claimed.
Peter Beaumont from Kyiv: Ukrainian authorities say Russian troops are “forcibly evacuating” civilians in the area of Kherson region that they still occupy, a day after it was claimed that Ukrainian forces had established a bridgehead on the east bank of the Dnipro River.
“I have information that the evacuation starts today [Sunday] with an excuse of protecting civilians from the consequences of heavy fighting in the area,” said Oleksandr Samoylenko, the Ukrainian head of Kherson’s regional council. Russian troops were “trying to steal as much as they can” as they withdrew, he added.
ISW: 'Exhausted' troops, 'disorganized' deployment will likely hinder Russia's prospects of holding critical frontline areas in Ukraine. Most of Russia's available maneuver elements of all military districts, as well as the main surviving airborne troops, are already involved in offensive or defensive operations in Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported. Russia will have to transfer "significant reserves" to any single axis to carry out effective offensive operations, the ISW wrote in its April 23 update.
RBC Ukraine: Kyrylo Budanov, Head of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, has said that Ukraine is approaching a key battle in modern history. He added that this battle will take place this spring, as planned.
I have had no reason [to reassess my prediction]. Whether people like it or not, we are approaching a key battle in Ukraine’s modern history. This is a fact and everyone knows it. The date of its beginning is a secret. But everyone knows that we are approaching it.
As for the volume and pace of supplies – of course we would like to intensify and enlarge those volumes. This is totally understandable, given the circumstances we are in. But we will act based on what we have."
ISW: The Russian military command may involve ships of the Black Sea Fleet (Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation) to repel the counteroffensive of the Defense Forces of Ukraine in the south of Ukraine, especially with the advance of fighting to the coast. However, according to analysts, it is unlikely that the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation will be able to significantly influence the ground operations of the Russian army.
"Ukrainian forces damaged all three frigates of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation: Admiral Grigorovich, Admiral Essen and Admiral Makarov, and the immediate status of Essen and Grigorovich is unknown," the report says.
Air Force: First Patriot air defense system enters combat service in Ukraine. The U.S. built Patriot air defense system is already on combat service protecting the country from Russia’s attacks after recently arriving in Ukraine, Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said on April 23.
Vladimir Rogov, chair of the pro-Russian “We are together with Russia” organisation in occupied Zaporizhzhia has posted to his Telegram channel to say that Ukrainian armed forces are massing in the area. Tass cites Rogov claiming that 12,000 Ukrainian service personnel are now in the area of the city of Huliaipole, located directly on the line of contact in the region.
As reported by Baza, Russian state media, a drone allegedly made in Ukraine with 17 kg of explosives was found in Moscow Oblast. The drone was discovered on 23 April by a local resident; it was allegedly lying 300 metres from her house in a forest near Noginsk.
UK Intelligence: The forced distribution of Russian passports to Ukrainians under occupation is an attempt to "tie" these territories to Russia and demonstrate the alleged success of the invasion.
Russia is using passports as a tool in the ‘Russification’ of the occupied areas, as it did in Donetsk and Luhansk before the February 2022 invasion. Russia is likely expediating the integration of the occupied areas of Ukraine into the bureaucracy of the Russian Federation to help paint the invasion as a success, especially in the run-up to the 2024 presidential elections.
General Staff reports shootout between Wagner and regular Russian soldiers in Luhansk Oblast. A fight that broke out between soldiers of the Russian army and the infamous Wagner mercenary group escalated into a shootout in the occupied town of Stanytsia Luhanska in Russian-controlled Luhansk Oblast the General Staff reported on April 23 in its daily evening briefing.
General Staff: Russia forces doctors in Berdiansk to register for military service. Russian forces in occupied Bediansk in Zaporizhzhia Oblast are forcing local doctors who have received Russian passports to register for military service, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported on April 24.
Russian companies are facing record staff shortages this year as the country grapples with population decline, a wartime exodus and military losses amid its offensive on Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday. The worker shortage for January-March 2023 was higher than that recorded in October-December 2022. According to the Central Bank survey cited by Kommersant, manufacturing, water supply, mining, storage and transportation industries were hardest hit by the workforce shortage. The report cites the loss of 1.3 million young workers.
Dóra Dúró, the deputy speaker of the Hungarian parliament, has stated that Ukraine's NATO membership is possible only if Russia approves such a step. Dúró, a representative of the far-right Hungarian party "Our Homeland Movement", said in an interview with Russian "Izvestia" that "we do not see any circumstances that would allow us to support NATO expansion at the expense of Ukraine. Without the risk of war, Ukraine's accession is possible only if Russia approves it as a certain agreement," said the Hungarian parliament representative.
Turkey’s defence minister said he planned to meet his Syrian, Russian and Iranian counterparts in Moscow on Tuesday. Reuters, citing the state-owned Anadolu news agency, reported that defence minister Hulusi Akar said the countries’ intelligence chiefs would also attend the meeting.
The Kremlin has submitted a bill to the Duma to hike the tax rate for Russian draft dodgers working from abroad. After they lose their Russian tax residency, they will be charged 30% personal income tax - instead of 13%.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has resumed support for Russian cards, including Visas and Mastercards issued by Russian banks, report online publication Kod Durova, economic news agency Prime, and the Telegram channel Mash. Kod Durova specifies that Russian cards are now allowed to make deposits in rubles, Turkish lira, British pounds, Euros, Kazakhstani tenge, and other currencies. The U.S. dollar is not on the list
More than 300 foreign correspondents who have worked in Moscow have written to the Russian government to call for the immediate release of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter being held on espionage charges, saying his arrest sends a “disturbing and dangerous signal” about the country’s attitude to independent media.
The Moscow Times reports that as many as 22 journalists are currently imprisoned in Russia for their work, according to data from international press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the highest figure since the group began collecting data. While many of the incarcerated reporters and editors are from regional cities in Russia and have seen little media attention on their cases, others like Gershkovich are well known.
Lavrov lashes out at West in UN Security Council speech in New York. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed during his address to the UN Security Council on April 24 that the United Nations and its charter pose "a threat to U.S. global ambitions."
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has said Moscow “will not forgive” Washington for denying US visas to Russian journalists who were meant to accompany him on a visit to UN headquarters.
Retired German general Erhard Bühler said that Ukraine requires not only air defence equipment, but also Western fighter jets. General Bühler, former commander of the Kosovo Force, a NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo. He said the Ukrainian forces lacked ammunition and armoured vehicles, battle tanks and armoured personnel carriers, adding that the "late" decision of the German federal government to supply military equipment to Ukraine was partly to blame.
"The leaders of the EU Foreign Ministries have not yet agreed on a new sanction package against Russia," High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Joseph Borrell said. The FT report suggested that any further measures will likely be limited to closing loopholes in existing measures and expanding the list of 1,500 people and 200 entities subject to asset freezes and travel bans. We are done,” the FT quoted one EU official as saying ahead of informal talks on more rounds of sanctions that are due to begin this week. “If we do more sanctions, there will be more exemptions than measures,” the official added.
EU leaders will discuss the bloc’s stance towards China and its future relations with the country during their next summit in June, EU Council President Charles Michel said on Monday. “EU-China policy will be on the agenda of our European council in June,” Reuters reports Michel said in a post on Twitter. Several EU foreign affairs ministers, speaking before a joint meeting on Monday, expressed their dismay over recent remarks by China’s ambassador to France, who questioned the sovereignty of former Soviet states such as Ukraine, and EU member states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
China says it respects sovereignty of ex-Soviet states after controversial comment from its ambassador to France. Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Mao Ning said on April 24, as cited by Bloomberg, that Beijing "respects the status of the former Soviet republics as sovereign countries after the Soviet Union's dissolution," adding that the country's position remains "unchanged."
Media: No agreement between EU Commission and 5 EU countries on banned agrarian import from Ukraine. Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria failed to reach agreement with the European Commission on their respective bans on agrarian import from Ukraine, Polish Radio RMF24 reported on April 23.
CNN: Tucker is out
Fox News and Tucker Carlson, the right-wing extremist who hosted the network’s highly rated 8 p.m. hour, have severed ties, the network said in a stunning announcement Monday.
The announcement came one week after Fox News settled a monster defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million over the network’s dissemination of election lies.
Why are Russia’s sanctioned elite still living in the West?
Demonstrators hold placards near the Paris residence of Russian deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov’s ex-wife, Svetlana Maniovich, during a rally organised by supporters of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images
Murder, ‘alcohol and prostitutes’: Wagner convicts pardoned by Putin return to terrorise home towns
By Peter Sauer, The Guardian, April 22, 2023
He strode up and down the central street of Tskhinvali on Monday, like he did most days, occasionally stopping to chat with passersby.
Locals knew the man, Soslan Valiyev, 38, as an idiosyncratic but popular fixture in Tskhinvali, the tiny capital of the Russian-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia in Georgia.
Tsugri, as Valiyev was affectionately nicknamed by everyone in town, had a developmental disability. “As long as I could remember Tskhinvali, Tsugri was always there, greeting cars as they entered the city with his big smile,” said Alik Puhati, a journalist and South Ossetian native.
“He was loved by everyone in our tight community. A welcomed guest at weddings and dinners, people really took care of and protected him,” Puhati added.
The shock was therefore palpable in Tskhinvali when the news broke out that Tsugri had been killed that evening. A harrowing video published on Telegram channels showed a man chasing and kicking Tsugri moments before he reportedly stabbed him to death.
“Everyone is in shock,” Puhati said, “people ask themselves, ‘How could this have happened?’” [continue reading]
As per Meduza, fines were issued on a Tesla car belonging to Nikolai Choles, son of Dmitry Peskov, the Russian president’s press secretary, at a time when he was allegedly fighting in Ukraine.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group, claimed that Peskov's son had fought in Ukraine. Prigozhin did not name the person, but specified that he had spent part of his life in the United States or England. Dmitry Peskov's eldest son, 33-year-old Nikolai Choles, who lived in the UK for 10 years and returned to Russia in 2011-2012, fits this description, Meduza writes.
Prigozhin said he had admitted Peskov's son to the private military company "using forged documents, changing his last name, first name and patronymic". He was trained, served six months under a contract, and went on leave.
In an interview he gave to Komsomolskaya Pravda, Nikolai Choles said that his father had helped him join the Wagner Group at the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine.
Several media outlets doubted that Peskov's son went to war, due to the fact that fines continued to be issued on his Tesla in Moscow.
Current and former gunners from the Wagner Group have commented on the VCHK-OGPU Telegram channel that Choles had not been seen "either on the Soledar or Bakhmut fronts". Friends of Peskov's son told VCHK-OGPU that he had not disappeared for a prolonged period of time. Other sources did not confirm this information.