Dec 6 Buonasera Mag
Day 286: Kursk Ryazan Saratov Pirogova Crimea RUmissiles LGBTQ Shoigu EU9thpackage CND ICC Spain Moldova-A&Ps-Zelensky Latushka Lapychak Lucas Giannangeli Iacoboni Colborne Marche Shagina Simonyte
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…
A drone attack has set an oil storage tank on fire at an airfield in Kursk, the Russian region’s governor, Roman Starovoyt, has said. Video footage posted on social media showed a large explosion lighting up the night sky followed by a substantial fire at the airfield 175 miles (280km) from the Ukrainian border.
The drones that attacked the airfields near Ryazan and Saratov in Engels on December 5 were launched from the territory of Ukraine. This was told to The New York Times by a high-ranking Ukrainian official, whose name was not released.
Ukrainian troops say Gepard mobile antiaircraft systems donated by Germany have proven effective at stopping Russian-operated drones made in Iran. The Ukrainian crews say they can detect the drones at a distance of 16 kilometers.
It is reported that a member of the so-called ‘People’s Council’ of the so-called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’, Maria Vladimirovna Pirogova died due to recent attacks on Donetsk.
Ukraine’s health ministry has asked regional authorities to consider suspending non-essential surgeries and hospitalisations due to power blackouts as a result of Russian missile strikes targeting the country’s critical infrastructure.
Ukraine, activists call militarization of schools in Russian-occupied Crimea a war crime. The head of the Russian occupation administration in Crimea has signed off on a program of "preliminary military training" for students on the peninsula. Kyiv is castigating the move as an illegal attempt to wipe out Ukrainian identity and instill the perception that Ukrainians are an enemy.
Russian “opposition” politicians are appealing to Putin to issue a decree to end the “partial mobilisation” that has seen hundreds of thousands of men called up to fight in Ukraine. The Kremlin said Putin would not sign any order, in effect allowing for future waves of mobilisation. Without a formal decree cancelling mobilisation, those already drafted could not leave the armed forces, according to Emilia Slabunova, an opposition councillor in Karelia in northern Russia. She said: “We, as councillors, represent our constituents and these appeals from us are the result of numerous appeals from citizens.”
The Russian Federation has missiles left for several more massive missile strikes on Ukraine. After that, the Russians will go to zero, said the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Kyrylo Budanov. According to him, the production of new Russian missiles is there, but it is small compared to the huge number they use during attacks.
According to the publication, the Village, all libraries in Moscow’s Central Administrative District received a list of writers whose books should not be available to order on the site mos.ru. Most likely, the books will be available to read only in library reading rooms. The books are by authors who have been declared “foreign agents,” or who are critical of the war in Ukraine, as well as books that authorities might consider “LGBT propaganda”.
The five Caspian countries agreed to use the sea for peaceful purposes and turn it into a zone of peace and friendship. But is it possible to call the Caspian Sea, which Russia uses to launch missiles at Ukrainian civilian targets, a "sea of peace and friendship"?
Russia on December 2 tested a new missile-defense system rocket, the Defense Ministry said, adding that the missile was launched from the Sary Shagan testing range in Kazakhstan.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said he agreed with comments by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, about the need of lasting peace in Ukraine, but that Moscow does not see the prospect of talks “at the moment”.
Bloomberg: EU to target Russia’s drone sector in 9th sanctions package. The European Union plans to impose restrictions on Russia’s drone industry under its new package of sanctions, which is to be approved next week, Bloomberg reported on Dec. 5, citing people familiar with the matter.
Canadian company confirms its parts ended up in Iranian drones. President of Canadian company Tallysman Wireless Gyles Panther confirmed that his company’s products were found in the Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones that Russia has been using to attack infrastructure in Ukraine, the Globe and Mail reported.
The ICC condemns the EU's plan to create its own special tribunal for Russian war crimes. The ICC's inability to prosecute the crime of aggression drove the EU to take independent action. The ICC says the EU misinterprets the law and urges a consolidated framework of cases against Russia. Figures responsible for aggression would face war crimes or genocide charges.
US Army plans ‘dramatic’ ammo production increase amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. Army is seeking a “dramatic” increase in monthly production of 155mm artillery shells over the next three years as donations to Ukraine are “straining allied munitions stockpiles,” Doug Bush, the assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for acquisition, told Defense News, a U.S. media outlet.
Spanish police intercepted three more envelopes containing animal eyes addressed to Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid and its consulates in Barcelona and Málaga, police sources close to the investigation said. The postal service’s security staff detected the new envelopes during screening on Monday morning and alerted police, the sources said. Officers found no explosive or flammable substances inside, the sources added.
Russia has changed many of the Soviet-era names of its cities, streets, and landmarks since the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. But Russian politicians were furious over a call in Kyrgyzstan for Bolshevik names in the Kyrgyz capital to be changed, seeing it as an attack on the Russian language.
Latvia’s broadcasting regulator, Ivars Abolins, has cancelled the licence of the exiled Russian independent television station, TV Rain, “in connection with the threat to the national security and public order”. TV Rain, or Dozhd in Russian, moved to broadcasting from Latvia in July, after it was forced to shut its Moscow studio following accusations by Russia’s communications watchdog that it was spreading “deliberately false information about the actions of Russian military personnel” in Ukraine.
Moldova’s PM Natalia Gavrilița has pledged to boost cooperation between her country and Ukraine during a visit to the towns of Bucha and Irpin.
Edward Lucas, Muddled Scholz is a threat to Europe’s future- The Telegraph
Ukraine is winning its war against Russia. But some allies are wobbling. Last week Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, hankered publicly for a return to what he termed Europe’s “peace order”. He later phoned Vladimir Putin for an hour. President Macron, in remarks broadcast on Saturday, repeated Kremlin talking points about Nato enlargement to Russia’s borders, saying the West must prepare “to give guarantees to Russia the day it returns to the negotiating table”.
Marco Giannangeli, Series of mysterious deaths linked to Russia shows 'Putin not to be crossed', experts warn- The Express
Putin’s relationship with oligarchs, organised crime, and his intelligence services has been a carefully-controlled balancing act since 2004 when he arrested Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a pro-democracy head of Yukos energy conglomerate after he failed to heed warnings.
Since then, the message to oligarchs who profited to the tunes of billions in the "wild west" days following the fall of the USSR has been clear: toe the line or lose it all.
“Putin has built his entire career, from the moment he worked in St Petersburg on a nexus of mafia, business interests and intelligence,” said Nathalie Vogel, of the European Values Centre for Security Policy.
Michael Colborne, Finding Rundo (Again): US White Supremacist Facing Criminal Charges Located in Bulgaria- Bellingcat
Imagine you’re the US far-right extremist Rob Rundo. You don’t want anyone, especially not law enforcement or a pesky researcher from Bellingcat, to know where you are. You’re somewhere in Europe, facing up to ten years in prison if convicted on charges of rioting and conspiracy in a trial due to start next spring in Los Angeles.
But you’ve got a far-right fashion brand to promote and a tough-guy image to project. You need to constantly post on your multiple Telegram channels without coughing up evidence of where you are. And the photos you posted on one of your Telegram channels on 31 October 2022, modelling a new jacket, are perfect — no one could possibly figure out where you are from looking at them. Or so you think.
Stephen Marche, ‘Our mission is crucial’: meet the warrior librarians of Ukraine- The Guardian
Thanks to that computer, Bruy could work. She didn’t return to her office; instead, she fled west to Lviv. “In all that time, from the first day of the full-scale war, I did not stop working,” she says. The library’s IT specialist lived in the neighbourhood. He kept the servers running and the employees connected. “So there was not a single day’s break in the work of the Kyiv Polytechnical Library, all this time, from 24 February.” The Russians have not shut her down. Oksana Bruy is winning her battle in the Ukrainian war. The libraries are open.
Christmas gift suggestions
I’m personally giving whatever I would have spent on my family to two Ukrainian government vetted organisations this year. If you’re thinking differently, I saw this and thought it was a gift for someone who has absolutely everything…
