Aug 24: E-Stories
Day 546: UASitRep ZelenskyyIndependence Mi8 Robotyne CrimeaPlatform Finland Lithuania A&P Zelensky DickinsonAC Sikorski KremlinFileKramer UKDef RoyalScotsBand
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.
Less than ten percent of Ukrainians speak primarily Russian at home. About 9% of Ukrainians communicate primarily in the Russian language at home, according to a survey published by the Sociological Group Rating on Aug. 23.
Happy Independence Day Ukraine!
Today we celebrate the 32nd anniversary of our independence - the independence of Ukraine. The holiday of free people. The holiday of strong people. Feast of the worthy. A holiday of equals. Ukrainian men and women. Everyone in our country. This is a value for each of us, and we fight for it. And everyone is important in this struggle, because this struggle is for what is important to everyone. This is independent Ukraine.
Happy Independence Day, Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!
A tribute to Ukrainian Independence Day celebrations from the The Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland
Stories we’re following…
The Ukrainian military is advancing south of the city of Bakhmut. As the spokesman of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Andriy Kovalev, said, in that area they are entrenched at the achieved boundaries.
On the southern front, the Ukrainian forces are conducting an offensive operation in the direction of Melitopol, and were successful in the direction of Novoprokopivka.
Wednesday was a huge day for the Ukrainian armed forces: a Russian S-400 "Triumph" anti-aircraft missile complex was destroyed in Crimea, and 3 more Russian S-300 launchers were destroyed or damaged in the Kherson, spokeswoman of the Southern Defense Forces Nataliya Humenyuk said.
The Ukrainian armed forces declared Robotyne officially liberated!
"We have the ability to hit any part of temporarily occupied Crimea as of now. We can reach the enemy at absolutely any point. Those who have done stupid things, it is better for them to leave," head of the GUR Kyrylo Budanov said in a statement.
Russian helicopter pilot surrenders to Ukraine. A Russian pilot landed his Mi-8 helicopter at an airfield in Ukraine to give himself up to the authorities, Ukrainian media reported on Aug. 23. The landing was part of a long-term Ukrainian operation, according to Ukrainska Pravda media outlet.
Zelenskyy at Crimean Platform: Ukraine has clear plan for restoring democracy in Crimea. Ukraine has a clear vision for how to restore "democratic life" in Crimea upon its liberation from Russian occupation, President Zelenskyy said in his address at the Crimean Platform on Aug. 23.
Intelligence chief: Russia has 27 operable Tu-22M3 bombers left following recent strikes. Following recent strikes against Russian military airports in Soltsy and Shaykovka, the Russian Air Force currently fields 27 operable Tu-22M3 strategic bombers, military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said on Aug. 23.
Ukraine's partners pledge new aid at Crimean Platform. Ukraine's partners attending the Crimea Platform on Aug. 23 have pledged new assistance to Kyiv, including military aid, reconstruction support, and fresh sanctions against Russia.
President Erdogan spoke during the third summit of the Crimean platform and stated that Türkiye doesn’t recognize the annexation of Crimea and will continue to support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. “Crimea is part of Ukraine,” he added
Finnish PM arrives in Kyiv, 18th military aid package to be announced. Finland's Prime Minister Petteri Orpo arrived in Kyiv on Aug. 23 ahead of Ukraine's Independence Day. At a joint press conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Orpo said that his government is preparing to send its 18th defense package to Ukraine, and details will be announced this week.
Lithuania to deliver NASAMS launchers to Ukraine in September. Lithuania will deliver the previously pledged NASAMS launchers to Ukraine already in September, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said during his visit to Kyiv on Aug. 23.
Peter Dickinson, Ukraine’s fight against Russian imperialism is Europe’s longest independence struggle
There are few more meaningful public holidays on the 2023 calendar than Ukrainian Independence Day. However, with the country locked in a brutal fight for national survival, few are in the mood to celebrate. Instead, this week’s thirty-second anniversary of the 1991 declaration of independence is an opportunity to reflect on the deep historical roots of the war that is currently raging on Europe’s eastern frontier.
Russia’s February 2022 invasion shocked the watching world, but it was actually anything but unprecedented. On the contrary, the war unleashed by Vladimir Putin eighteen months ago is merely the latest chapter in a dark saga of Russian imperial aggression against Ukraine that stretches back centuries. The Ukrainian people may have officially achieved statehood more than three decades ago, but they are still battling to defend their country against a far larger and more powerful neighbor who refuses to accept the reality of an independent Ukraine.
Many international observers appear unable to grasp the colonial context underpinning today’s Russian invasion of Ukraine. This reflects an even more fundamental failure to recognize that modern Russia remains an almost entirely unreconstructed imperial entity. Unlike the great European empires of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Russia never experienced a decisive break with the imperial past; nor did it fully relinquish its claims to neighboring nations. In terms of both domestic and foreign policy, today’s Russian Federation is still guided primarily by the politics of empire. [continue]
Prigozhin & Wagner heads’s plane explodes over Tver
What is known about the crash of Prigozhin's flight so far from Russian media:
The Embraer Legacy 600 flew from Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport to St Petersburg at 17:54 the day before. There were 10 people on board. Before the flight, flight attendant Kristina Raspopova informed her relatives that their flight was delayed for some reason.
At 18:10, the aircraft climbed to an altitude of 8.5 km above Tver. Then, according to flightradar, it flew horizontally for 9 minutes and gained altitude to 9.1 kilometres. At 18:19 Embraer Legacy 600 began to fall. It abruptly lost altitude in 22 seconds at 2.5 kilometres.
At 18:20 the flight disappears from radar (26 minutes after departure).
The aircraft crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver region. Before the crash, local residents heard several loud pops. According to eyewitnesses, parts of the plane were scattered in different directions for about five kilometres.
At 19:10, four dead bodies were reported. An ambulance from Bologovo was dispatched to the scene.
An eyewitness near Kuzhenkino, reports Shot, said that parts of the plane were scattered in different directions for about five kilometres.
"There were two pops so loud. Even my dog barked. The piece flew further away, towards Kuzhenkino, a village. It fell in that neighbourhood. And the second piece flew, a fragment, so fan-shaped, so noisy, great. I was frightened, I thought, how could it not fall here on our house".
The Rosich and CHEKA-OGPU channels reported that Prigozhin was on the passenger list and that the bodies of 10 victims have been found at the crash site, emergency services said. As Baza reports, almost all the bodies were badly burnt, and DNA examination is likely to be required to establish their identities. Search and rescue operations continue.
The FSB and Ivan Subol, the Investigative Committee, began gathering evidence at the crash site early Thursday morning. A law enforcement official said from the crash site:
"The identification of Prigozhin and Utkin is nothing but fiction. It is known that they were on board. However, it is too early to talk about identification. WMD and identification have not been carried out at all yet.”
Rosaviatsia announced the list of passengers of Embraer - 135 (EBM-135BJ) aircraft:
Propustin Sergey- a scout-grenade launcher, a member of Prigozhin's personal security detail.
Makaryan Evgeniy- Wagner soldier, a member of Prigozhin's security guard.
Totmin Aleksandr- Wagner soldier in Sudan and Ukraine, a member of Prigozhin's security detail.
Chekalov Valeriy- former businessman. In July he fell under US sanctions for his ties with Prigozhin.
Utkin Dmitriy- former GRU special forces officer, where he had the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Matuseev Nikolay- a former fighter of an assault unit that fought in Syria.
Prigozhin Evgeniy- Wagner head
Crew members:
Levshin Aleksei, commander
Karimov Rustam, co-pilot
Raspopova Kristina, flight attendant
To note, among the dead is Prigozhin's deputy Valery Chekalov, who was responsible for Wagner’s security service. Dmitry Utkin, Prigozhin's "right-hand man", was also killed. The bodies of those who were on board the plane have started to arrive at the Tver Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination according to local Russian media.
An unknown person set fire to a mobile phone tower in the Tver region, our source reports. The fire occurred the day before around noon at the base station of one of the operators in the village of Ryabeevo (located about an hour and a half drive from the crash site of Prigozhin's plane). The tower was partially burnt out and out of service. Investigators at the scene have determined that it was arson.
Prigozhin's phone has been found at the crash site of the Embraer ERJ 135 aircraft, a source in the VKP Vaginer told Al Jazeera. The body has not yet been identified among the remains found at the crash site.
According to FlightRadar24, the flights were on their way to St Petersburg from Moscow, and they had recently all returned from bases in Africa. The second Embraer 600 business jet with the flight number RA-02795, which is also attributed to the fleet of businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, landed at Ostafievo airport.
The Russian aligned Shot channel reported on the moral of Wagner supporters on Wednesday night:
"Just had a chat with prominent "musicians". They confirm the fact of the deaths of Evgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin. Heavenly Kingdom to the newly deceased servants of God Yevgeny and Dmitry", - chairman of the movement "We are together with Russia" Vladimir Rogov.
ВЧК-ОГПУ channel: “Presumably Prigozhin's aircraft was shot down by two C300 missiles. A C300PS is standing nearby.
23 June mutiny. 24 August is over. The Kremlin loves numbers.”
Monique: I personally don’t believe the airframe was shot down by missiles. The information now being released points to bombs that may have been on the aircraft.
Programming note
Kremlin File (that’s Olga and me!) kicked off Season 3 on Thursday. You can find the full podcast on Megaphone where you can choose your preferred podcast platform, and if you like our short videos, please subscribe to our YouTube channel.
This evening we’ll be doing a live to talk about the most recent events.