Aug 29: E-Stories
Day 551/2: Kherson Poltava Robotyne UASitRep RUSitRep RUdomestic Wagner Erdogan India BehindtheLines CH Iran PopeF HUNA&P EuroMaidan Hromadske BBT CNN Kokcharov Soldatov UNWatch Sumlenny Monastyrskyi
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…
Prosecutor General's Office: Russian forces shell Kherson, killing 1, injuring 1. The Prosecutor General's Office reported that Russian forces shelled the city of Kherson on Aug. 27, killing a woman and injuring a man.
Ukraine’s ministry of defence has provided information on the reported missile attack on Ukraine’s Poltava region:
On the night of 28 August, Russian terrorists attacked Ukraine with 4 Kalibr cruise missiles and two Kh-59 guided aviation missiles. The air defence systems destroyed 4 out of 6 targets.
Unfortunately, there was a direct hit on an oil refinery in the town of Hoholeve in the Poltava region, which was operating during the night shift. Currently, there are reports of 2 casualties and 5 injured.
Good news: Naftogaz ends summer with 14 billion cubic meters of gas reserves ahead of heating season. Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas giant, has accumulated the 14 billion cubic meters of gas reserves needed by the end of summer, Naftogaz CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov told the Kyiv Independent in an interview published on Aug. 28.
A drone was reportedly downed in Korenevo, just 5 kilometers from the Moscow Helicopter Plant in Lyubertsy. Moscow's Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports again temporarily halted departures and arrivals 10 flights diverted to other airfields.
Ukraine continues its drone attack on Russian occupied Crimea: Russian air defences downed 2 Ukrainian drones over Russian-annexed Crimea on Monday, Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed head of the region, wrote on Telegram.
The Ukrainian Army is now 50 miles from the Sea of Azov, having officially liberated and moved beyond the town of Robotyne.
The liberation of Robotyne opens the way to Tokmak, a powerful logistics hub of the Russian army, 20 kilometres away, and if everything goes according to plan, the battle for Melitopol will begin after our forces take Tokmak.
The SBU, Ukrainian domestic intelligence service, says it attacked an airbase in Kursk, Russia, yesterday using 16 kamikaze drones. According to UP sources four Su-30 aircraft and one MIG-29 were destroyed. A S-300 complex radars and two Pantsir systems were hit.
Ukrainian Situation Report: Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, has described the battlefield situation in the east of the country as “very hot” in the past week.
Ukrainian forces had continued to advance south of Bakhmut,.
In the past week Ukrainian forces had retaken 1 square km around Bakhmut, and Russian troops had not made any advances.
Eastern Grouping: Russia ramps up offensive towards Lyman, Kupiansk with over 110,000 troops. Russia has concentrated over 110,000 troops in the Kupiansk-Lyman direction of the front in Kharkiv Oblast and Luhansk Oblast, Eastern Force Grouping press officer Illia Yevlash said on Aug. 27. These troops have significantly intensified their rate of shelling and aistrikes against Ukrainian positions, according to Yevlash, as confirmed by Hanna Malyar, the Deputy Defence Minister.
Podolyak: The intensity of attacks on Crimea will increase, - adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak. The operations of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in Crimea are the key to the depletion of the Russian occupation group.
Behind the Lines: Propagandists are being recruited for the local "Union of Journalists of the Russian Federation" in the temporarily occupied part of the Kherson region. The pseudo-organization includes 40 "participants," their task is to spread false information from the position of allegedly local residents.
Via Sergej Sumlenny: an interview with Yevhenii Monastyrskyi on how first the Soviets and now the Russians installed signs of their cultural and ideological control in occupied cities, how it helped Moscow promoting its narratives, and is being used now for mobilising pro-Russian groups.
In the occupied territories, Russians settle their families in occupied housing - the Central Committee the Russian forces are actually illegally appropriating the residential premises of Ukrainians and moving their families there from Russia They primarily occupy apartments and houses whose owners left the captured territories or were repressed for their pro-Ukrainian position.
Russia state TV Host Evgeny Popov said on his show on Friday that they're hoping to see Ramaswamy as the Republican nominee if their favorite candidate Trump won't make it: "We should take a closer look at this Mr. Ramaswamy. The last time, we had installed President Trump for Americans...Why not try again? Let’s give it another try and see how Ramaswamy will perform, in case Trump doesn’t manage to win the post of the President.”
The Russian occupying authorities in the occupied towns and villages of Zaporizhzhia region make it impossible to pay for utilities, internet and mobile phones without Russian citizenship, the General Staff of Ukraine reports. In yesterday’s post, I mentioned the case of Andrea Lucidi. It seems like the Russian called in all their little helpers to spin the tale of a ‘happy and serene’ Mariupol.
Ruslan Trad: “It is unclear what will happen to Wagner's command. Andrei Troshev, a veteran close to Utkin, will likely take over operations. Troshev's name is whispered in the Kremlin, but people in Syria and Chechnya, where he built a career, know him best.”
“The Wagner Group is ceasing its existence,” State Duma deputy and head of the State Duma Defense Committee Viktor Sobolev said.
The military registration and enlistment offices do not have time to switch to “digital” by the autumn draft. The authorities planned to launch separate parts of the electronic registers of military conscripts by the fall of 2023, but, as Nestka found out, the military registration and enlistment offices continue to work manually with paper documents, and the transition to digital document management is “in pilot mode ” was held in only one commissariat.
ISW: Russian nationalists reject Moscow's attempts to silence war criticism. Right-wing Russian bloggers dismissed the state's attempts to quell critique by publishing videos of well-equipped front-line soldiers, the ISW wrote on Aug. 28.
Putin’s administration is choosing opponents for Putin in the 2024 presidential election and has decided that it will not register candidates under 50 so that Putin does not look like an old man, reports Meduza.
"The political bloc of the Russian presidential administration, headed by Sergei Kirienko, has decided on ‘sparring partners’ who will ‘compete’ with Vladimir Putin in the 2024 presidential election.
As two media sources close to the Kremlin said, one of the main criteria for their selection was age. There should be no politicians under the age of 50 among the registered candidates.
According to Russian presidential administration officials, the presence of such candidates on the ballot may make Russians think that 70-year-old Putin is ‘no longer the man who came to power with a firm hand’."
The co-founder of Russian tech giant Yandex made a formal request to have the EU sanctions which he is under be lifted, in a potential litmus test for whether the bloc will take a more sympathetic view with figures who distance themselves from the Kremlin. The Financial Times reports that Arkady Volozh, who has lived in Israel since 2014, became the second high-profile Russian billionaire to condemn the Ukraine war this month and his lawyers have subsequently petitioned the EU.
The Russian authorities have announced a drive to boost production of films glorifying Moscow’s war in Ukraine, AP reports. Putin has ordered the culture ministry to ensure theatres screen documentaries about the “special military operation,” as the Kremlin calls its invasion of Ukraine. The ministry also has prioritised certain themes when allocating state funding for films. These include “heroism and selflessness of Russian warriors” in Ukraine and “battling modern manifestations of the Nazi and fascist ideology” – a false accusation Putin makes about Kyiv’s leaders.
TASS: Robert Shonov, an ex-employee of the US Consulate in Vladivostok, pleaded guilty to passing information on how Russia's conscription was affecting the political mood ahead of the 2024 election.
Andrei Soldatov, a journalist and expert on the Russian security services, comments on Prigozhin’s death: “I did not believe all this language about black vengeance and treason.”
If you look at the whole situation more carefully, Prigozhin didn’t betray Putin, he was not a real traitor because he didn’t go to the Ukrainians and Nato. He was not a real traitor, he was a [political] problem.
I thought Prigozhin and Putin might have made a new deal and that Prigozhin might last for some time because he found some new usefulness for Putin. But what it seems to me is that Putin was taking his time to assess the damage and assess everything.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, will hold talks in Moscow “in the nearest future”, the TASS news agency reported on Monday, citing Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. The most recent information from TASS reports that Erdogan will be meeting Putin in Sochi. Turkey is trying to persuade Russia to return to a deal that allows for the export of grain via Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
Putin had a phone call with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi where they discussed bilateral ties including space cooperation, the expansion of the BRICS group and an upcoming summit of the G20, Reuters reports citing the Kremlin. Putin will not be attending the G20 in person. In a statement, the Indian government said:
“While expressing an understanding for Russia’s decision, PM thanked President Putin for Russia’s consistent support to all initiatives under India’s G20 Presidency.”
Zelensky proposes equating corruption with treason during wartime. In a televised interview on Aug. 27, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has submitted a proposal to equate corruption with treason while martial law is in effect in Ukraine.
Romania is waiting for the signing of documents to start training Ukrainian pilots on the F-16.
"I expect the signing of the protocols (for the pilots) in the next few days, which is the last hurdle. As far as we can tell, the logistics have already been arranged," said the Prime Minister of Romania, Ion-Marcel Ciolacu.
Expert group: 67% of foreign components in Russian drones originate in China. The Yermak-McFaul Expert Group on Russian Sanctions examined 174 foreign components from three drone models used by Russia to attack Ukraine — Shahed-136/131, Lancet, and Orlan-10.
Szabolcs Panyi: “Just an average day in Hungary: Soviet WW2 monument was inaugurated with the participation of Russian and Belarusian diplomats. The renovation of the Soviet monument in the town of Nagybajom was financially supported by Gazprom. Of course, wreaths with Russian ribbons were laid.”
U.S. says it will train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s in Arizona. The United States will begin instructing Ukrainian pilots in flying F-16 aircraft in Arizona this fall, the Pentagon said Thursday, as the Biden administration moves to expand the U.S. role in the fighter jet training program amid intensified pleas from Kyiv.
The EU must be ready to admit new member states by 2030, the European Council president, Charles Michel, told a forum in the Slovenian lake resort Bled on Monday, Reuters reports.
“I believe we must be ready by 2030 to enlarge,” Michel said. “This is ambitious, but necessary. It shows that we are serious.”
Poland and the Baltic states will close their borders with Belarus entirely if a “critical incident” involving Wagner mercenaries takes place, the Polish interior minister, Mariusz Kamiński, said on Monday.
Turkey's latest massive interest rate hike has caught the attention of long-skeptical foreign investors who say they could return to Turkish assets if authorities continue to demonstrate that a return to orthodox monetary policy is underway.
CNN: Trump’s federal election subversion trial to begin one day before Super Tuesday primary. The federal criminal trial of Donald Trump on charges he sought to subvert the result of the 2020 presidential election will begin March 4, 2024, the day before the Super Tuesday primary, a federal judge ruled Monday. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan made the ruling after a contentious hearing Monday in Washington, DC. Special counsel Jack Smith had proposed a January 2024 start date and Trump sought to begin the trial two years later, in April 2026.
Georgia finally lets in 6 Ukrainians after 10 days on Russian-Georgian border. After a 10-day stay in the neutral zone on the Russia-Georgia border, Georgian officials finally let in six Ukrainian men seeking asylum, the human rights organization UnMode reported on Aug. 27.
Evergrande lost as much as $2 billion, or 80% of its market value, on Monday after its shares resumed trading in a crucial step for the world's most indebted property firm as it seeks to restructure its offshore debt.
Pope Francis praises Russian culture
On Sunday, a series of tweets were posted about Pope Francis’s closing greetings at a Catholic Youth Conference in St Petersburg via video link. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow had published the Pope’s words below, but the official Vatican version omitted such comments.
“Never forget your heritage. You are the heirs of great Russia: great Russia of saints, rulers, great Russia of Peter I, Catherine II, that empire - great, enlightened, of great culture and great humanity. Never give up this legacy, you are the heirs of the great Mother Russia."
Until the audio/video evidence emerged later on in the evening, there was a debate on social media about the authenticity of the Moscow version. While his statements were most likely tailored to the Russian audience in attendance, he didn’t have to go out of his way to express his love of Russian culture and rulers from the past. He could have stopped at the official speech that was written for him and approved by his cabinet.
In doing so, the Pope should be excluded from any further diplomatic efforts on behalf of Ukraine. I dare say that within the global Catholic community, his final comments will have an impact as they justify the Russian state’s criminal warfare in Ukraine. He ended his speech by saying, “And thank you. Thank you for your way of being, for your way of being Russians.” The Pope’s comments were picked up quickly by the Russian media.
Before the the audio/video clip came out, I combed the internet to see where those words could have come from. Working in the field of information warfare, I often see misquotes, and misattribution, so I was careful. To me, they sounded like something Putin would say, and indeed, I found a version of those words in Putin’s infamous June 2021 essay.
The realisation that Pope Francis has praised a violent, imperialist culture destabilised me for the entire day and I am still shaken today. I have publicly stated that the Pope’s position vis-a-vis Russia’s criminal war in Ukraine was unacceptable and short-sighted. From now on, I won’t be looking to him for any words of wisdom.
I’ll leave you with Taras Schevchenko’s words. He may be Ukraine’s greatest poet:
“The First crucified our Ukraine and the Second finished it off, the orphaned widow. Butchers! Butchers! Cannibals! They ate their fill, that pair.”
Bad Baltic Takes: Kremlin Killed Civilians on Wagner Flight
The russian state’s public execution of the crew members should be treated as a much more significant part of the story.
These were russian civilians doing their normal job on a russian plane.
Of course lots of russian civilians have been murdered by the russian state. It’s how Putin began his rule with the apartment bombings. But that was genuinely meant to be secret, not just unacknowledged officially like these deaths.
No care was taken for russian civilians. The drama of the execution was more important. And what’s notable is the total lack of care across russian society and among supporters of russia.
Note, for example, the people who claim to care about the rights of russian speakers abroad (where they enjoy full civic rights in free, open democracies like the Baltic countries where they can become citizens) have absolutely no care whatsoever about a Russian flight attendant doing her job on a Russian flight just blown out of the sky by her own government …plus a billion other human rights violations against russians by russia. Life has no value to russia, even if you speak Russian. It’s no wonder that russia’s resettlement schemes aimed at luring russian speakers from the Baltic countries have been a total failure. “Concern for russian speakers abroad” has always been an act directed by people who murder and deny them basic freedoms inside russia. It’s every bit as absurd as russia the major polluter championing environmental causes just very specifically around NATO activity in the Baltics.
But the contractual relationship between russia’s state and society - that people would be left alone if they accepted that - would never survive russia’s imperial war. For a start, too many bodies are needed for it. All that’s on offer now is the fantasy of imperial glory.
At this point, I genuinely wonder if there would be any significant reaction even if the russian state now admitted to the apartment bombings in 1999 and said it was necessary.
Russia is a terrorist state in an increasingly blatant way. It’s basically cold ISIS.
And, yes, if they can do this so casually then you should be able to believe they could do every other atrocity or “accident” that suited them and obviously pointed to them but that the world pretended there was reasonable doubt over.
The only way to end this is by ending russia’s delusions of imperial glory. Victory for Ukraine. Special Tribunal for Russia’s leaders.
Ukraine loses three pilots
Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force, has paid further tribute to Andrii Pilshchykov, aka Juice, in a statement on his Facebook page.
A year ago in the USA, Andrii met with American government officials, brought up the urgent needs of the Air Force, was in constant contact with Californian pilots, and was the main driver of an advocacy group promoting many decisions on the F-16s [supply].
During the war, he gave dozens of interviews to Western media because he knew English well, and the most important was the topic of conversation: what can and should be talked about for Ukraine!
You can’t even imagine how he wanted to fly on an F-16... but now that American planes are actually on the horizon, he will not fly them. Andrii Pilshchykov was not just a pilot, he was a young officer with great knowledge and great talent.
He was an excellent communicator, the driver of reforms in Air Force aircraft, a participant in many projects. I often supported his crazy ideas, which gave incredible results!
You survive or you lose: a civilian doctor's perspective on war—Hromadske
Roman Shtybel, a 26-year-old anesthesiologist, worked in the children's intensive care unit of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Hospital before the full-scale invasion. Last summer he volunteered for the Hospitallers medical battalion. For a month he has been saving the wounded at the front, and for a month he has been saving newborns in the hospital of his hometown.
He told hromadske about what surprised him about the war, about military doctors who were saved by a sense of humor, and about the wounded who silently endured hellish pain.
I grew up watching my dad's favorite movie, Propala Hramota (The Lost Letter), stories about rebels and Cossacks, about the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which fought for an independent Ukraine. I was a member of the Plast (National Scout Organization of Ukraine) since I was a kid.
My younger brother and I were not raised to hate Russia, but we always knew where trouble was coming from. My great-grandfather was shot dead by drunken Soviet soldiers on the doorstep in front of his family during World War II. They wanted to take the pig, but he wouldn't let them. [continue]
