Aug 11 Buonasera Mag
Day 169: Dolgoprudny blast, Zaporihzhia, Crimea, Nova Kakhovka Bridge, Wagner, RU embassies, Luhansk, RU agitprop. Arts & vids: Orban, Avdeeva, Nazaryan, CNN report UA children, Matviyishyn, NAFO
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.
Fire reported at Russian military base near Moscow. TASS reported on Aug. 11 that a fire broke out at a military base in Dolgoprudny, Moscow Oblast. According to another Russian media, Moscow 24, conscripts and other staff were evacuated.
Stories we’re following…
BREAKING: The United States calls for a demilitarized zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Radiation levels at the Zaporihzhia NPP are normal as reported by various sources.
Explosions were heard in Yeysk, Russia, opposite Russia-occupied Mariupol on August 10 morning. An oil storage facility on fire as confirmed by Andriushchenko, advisor to the mayor.
A Ukrainian strike has significantly damaged an important bridge in Nova Kakhovka, a Russian-occupied city in the Kherson region, according to the Ukrainian authorities. The Kakhovsky Bridge, which crosses over the dam at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, has been one of the Russian army's few remaining options for transporting supplies across the Dnipro river.
Asked by Politico whether the blasts [in Crimea] can be viewed as the start of Ukraine’s counterattack in the country’s south, a Ukrainian official... responded in the affirmative. “You can say this is it,” the official said."
According to the Defense Ministry's Intelligence Directorate, Russia created a new structure affiliated with the Russian special service, the main task of which is to ruin President Zelensky's image abroad.
The Wagner Group is reportedly trying to recruit forces from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to fight in Ukraine The salary is 240,000 rubles a month and Russian citizenship is the award for joining the Wagner Group.
On Aug. 10 the foreign ministers called on Russia to ‘immediately’ hand back full control of the Zaporhizhia NP plant to Ukraine amid heightened concerns over Russia’s shelling in the area.
During Aug 11 night, the towers holding the high voltage power lines going from Zaporizhzhya NPP to the occupied Crimea started falling.
G7 urges Russia to hand control of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant back to Ukraine. Foreign ministers of the G7 nations on Aug. 10 called on Russia to "immediately" hand back full control of the plant to Ukraine amid heightened nuclear concerns over Russia's shelling in the area.
Russian Embassy, UK: MFA spox Zakharova: Russia has long been calling on international community to strongly condemn Kiev regime’s incessant military strikes against ZaporozhyeNuclearPowerPlant. Situation is growing more dangerous by the hour.
Russian response via Russia at the UN: Russia's detractors among European countries did everything possible to make it easier for the US to withdraw from the INF Treaty. And therefore they are jointly & severally liable for both its collapse and the consequent weakening of European security.
“The head” of so-called Luhansk people republic said that they will probably not rebuild Popasna. Russians destroyed 96 percent of the city. Some people were waiting for Russia there.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said that Russians plan to hold a sham "trial" of Ukrainian prisoners of war at a local philharmonic in Russian-occupied Mariupol on Aug. 24, Ukraine’s Independence Day.
NewsGuard, a New York based watchdog group, says the number of sites spreading disinformation about Russian-Ukrainian relations has doubled since the full-scale Russian invasion.
The UK will send further multiple-launch rocket systems and precision guided M31A1 missiles to Ukraine to help the country defend itself against Russia’s illegal invasion, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has announced.
The EU has so far coordinated the delivery of 60,000 tonnes of life-saving assistance to Ukraine via the EUCivPro Mechanism. The assistance includes 180 ambulances, 125 fire-fighting vehicles, 300 power generators, 35 heavy machinery vehicles, among others.
Latvian MPs have adopted a statement declaring Russia a "state sponsor of terrorism" and said its actions in Ukraine constituted "targeted genocide against the Ukrainian people".
The Swedish branch of Amnesty International says it has lost more than 1000 members since the Ukrainian report-debacle.
As stated in the investigation carried out by “Navalny Live”, the daughters of Russian Deputy Defense Minister Oleksii Kryvoruchko turned out to be US citizens. The Deputy Minister of Defence, Kryvoruchko, has an apartment in the United States worth several million dollars.
Moscow Times, "Catastrophic collapse": the Ministry of Finance stated the collapse of budget revenues
The gas war with Europe, the fall of the economy and the ruble exchange rate that got out of control caused a serious injury to the Russian budget.
At the end of July, the federal treasury recorded a double-digit decline in receipts from all key taxes, and its overall revenues decreased by 26% yoy, follows from data released on Wednesday by the Ministry of Finance.
This was the highway to get out of Crimea yesterday
Max Boot, Opinion The GOP is Viktor Orban’s party now
All you need to know about the state of the Republican Party today is what happened at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas on Thursday. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been destroying his country’s democracy, received a standing ovation less than two weeks after he gave a speech in Romania in which he endorsed the white supremacist “replacement theory” and denounced a “mixed-race world.”
The Government of Belarus in Exile
Nazaryan, 'Bastards and scum': Ex-Russian President Medvedev broadcasts dark Kremlin ambitions
“If someone does not agree, he will be deprived of rations, crushed or sent to the slaughterhouse,” Medvedev wrote. In the same post, he accused Americans (and their British “lackeys”) of touting their exceptionalism with “Nazi delight.”
It has all amounted to what Russia scholar and podcaster Mark Galeotti calls “hysterical hawkishness” meant to raise Medvedev’s profile among the siloviki (loosely, “tough guys”) around President Vladimir Putin.
Maria Avdeeva reports…
CNN, Injured by war, the scars on Ukraine's wounded children are more than skin deep
"Absolutely every Ukrainian child is affected ... Every child has heard air raid warnings. Children see the suffering of their relatives and friends. Children are forced to say goodbye to parents who go to defend the country on the front line. There are those who are still under occupation. Those who are injured. In other words, absolutely every Ukrainian child has got quite serious psychological and physical injuries," Gerasimchuk said in an interview with CNN last week.
Donations for Ukraine
Iryna Matviyishyn, Russia’s war, the Pope and the difficult relationship of the Ukrainians with Vatican policies—La Stampa
Francis has repeatedly called for peace in Ukraine but his statements have aroused misunderstanding in a large part of the population. So the Greek-Catholic Church of Kyiv has become “a community of resistance” to emerge. This is the journey into the Catholic religious world of Kyiv shaken by Russia’s aggression.
A message from Saint Javelin
Programming Note
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