Aug 4 Buonasera Mag
Day 162: Bakhmut, nuclear power stations, Gazprom, Russian media directives, UK funding, mural, Himars & Russian bungling, duty free, Synder, Finland & Sweden--articles by Niland, Kirillova
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…
General Staff: Ukrainian military repels all Russian attacks in Bakhmut direction. Russia also failed to advance in two more settlements – Maryinka, 30 kilometers west of Russian-occupied Donetsk, and Bilohirka, a village in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine's General Staff said.
Via Gazeta: “Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned of possible provocations at Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Military took control of the facilities in order to protect the stations from UAF attacks.”
"The authorities of the Leningrad region sent orders to state-owned enterprises to send men aged 18 to 60 for military retraining"
NATO members are working closely with defence companies to ensure Ukraine gets more supplies of weapons and equipment to be prepared for the long haul in its war with Russia, NATO secretary-General Stoltenberg said today.
Canada, UN to purchase $40 million of grain storage equipment for Ukraine.
Officials and pro-government media have been given a new “methodology” for covering the invasion of Ukraine. It recommends comparing Putin to Alexander Nevsky, who in the Battle of the Neva River in 1240 was the first to repulse the “collective West” represented by the Swedish army.
Russia’s Gazprom refuses to take back turbine for Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. The turbine was repaired in Canada at German engineering firm Siemens' facilities. Canada recently allowed the company to bypass Western sanctions and send the turbine back to Germany.
Russia finds new way to bypass Western sanctions on oil market. Russia is using the El Hamra oil terminal in Egypt on the Mediterranean coast. Some 700,000 barrels of Russian oil was delivered there on July 24 and picked up by another vessel a few hours later.
Angela Merkel’s former Defense Minister, Kramp-Karrenbauer admitted yesterday: "I'm so angry at us for historically failing. After Georgia, Crimea and Donbass, we have not prepared anything that would have really deterred Putin."
UK plans to lend $3.6 billion to Ukraine. The UK's chancellor of the exchequer, Zahawi has written a letter to other ministers, supporting a request for a loan from UK Export Finance.
Brittney Griner convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison by Russian judge for drug possession and smuggling.
FM Kuleba: Amnesty International's report creates 'false balance between criminal and victim.' Foreign Minister Kuleba was "outraged" by the report accusing Ukraine's military of endangering civilians by creating bases and placing weapons in schools and hospitals.
A unique mural called “Do Peremogi” (Until Victory) appeared in Vilnius, Lithuania in late July thanks to a team of Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Estonian artists. The mural was produced on a building that was meant to become the symbol of Russian might. Instead of that, it is now the symbol of Ukraine’s will to resist.
Two massive explosions
Besides the Ukrainian hit in the video below, the Kalanchak railway station, on the same rail line but further south, went up in flames as well. The Russian forces were trying to mask the unloading process and protect against HIMARS strikes, so the occupiers used powerful means of smoke. At approximately 11:20 an explosion rang out in the work area. the explosion resulted from careless handling of ammunition during unloading or a fire that arose due to inept use of pyrotechnics during the creation of a smoke screen.
Meduza, Russia dusts off duty-free shops for diplomats to accrue more foreign currency
To accommodate official foreign visitors and to accumulate more foreign currency, Russia is launching several duty-free shops accessible exclusively to diplomats, employees of embassies, consulates, and international organizations, and their families. The idea isn’t new: the USSR operated two chains of state-run retail stores that sold goods in exchange for foreign currency. Known as “Beriozkas” (little birch trees), the shops sold luxury goods that were often unavailable or unaffordable in traditional Soviet markets.
Timothy Snyder’s assessment
Ukraine Crisis Media Centre, Top-5 russian narratives about Ukraine after February 24
A constant element of the Russian hybrid war for 8 years already, Kremlin disinformation has become even more active with the further invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Russian narratives target both domestic and foreign audiences, each aiming to fulfill certain goals, but the ultimate target is, of course, the full surrender of Ukraine to the aggressor.
Ukrainians are responsible for their suffering, as they keep resisting.
Western partners will abandon Ukraine to Russia, so it should be negotiated with.
Ukraine is responsible for the global food crisis.
Ukraine is a corrupt failed state that shouldn’t get weapons supplies.
Russia is at war with NATO, not just Ukraine.
Please see the infograph in the article for explanations.
Le Pen and Melenchon — Finland & Sweden’s accession to NATO
23 out of 30 NATO members have ratified Finland and Sweden’s accession protocol. In France. the Front National abstained, and Melenchon’s voted against. The Italian lower chamber and Senate have ratified the accession protocol yesterday as well as the US Senate, with only one vote against: Josh Hawley.
EuObserver, How MEPs serve Russia via fake election-monitoring
When the European Parliament (EP) considered, on 1 March 2022, a resolution that condemned "in the strongest possible terms the Russian Federation's illegal, unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against and invasion of Ukraine", only 13 out of 676 MEPs who took part in the vote declined to support the motion.
Kirillova, Russia’s Military Grows Afraid of the Long War
Russia’s military experts, even those wholly loyal to the Kremlin, are getting tetchy and are increasingly sounding the alarm that the prolongation of hostilities will rebound against Russia.
Those doubts about the course of events are increasingly shared by the public. In mid-July, independent sociologists from the Chronicles research project noted that during a period of about six weeks, the number of Russians declaring support for the so-called special military operation decreased by 9%, from 64% to 55%.
Following up on yesterday’s post
Niland, There Can Be No Concessions or Negotiations with Vladimir Putin
The growing calls to reach an accommodation coincide with the fact that the tide of this war has very decisively turned. Conditions no longer favour Putin, as they had in the early days when he blitzkrieged his way to dominating positions along Ukraine’s Azov Sea coastline.
Fun Fact…
