Jan 14: E-Stories
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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…
Early Saturday morning, Russia attacked Ukraine with (ballistic) missiles in several regions. 40 attacks have been reported. Explosions were recorded in the Rivne, Chernihiv, Poltava, Kirovohrad and Khmelnytskyi regions. Air defense worked on several places. The air force warned that Russia had fired Kinzhal missiles, which move at several times the speed of sound, making them very difficult to shoot down.
A Russian missile attack on the city of Chernihiv on Saturday, 13 January damaged 23 houses and 4 shops, as well as windows and balconies in 20 flats of an apartment building, Ukraine's State Emergency Service (SES) reports.
IAEA experts continue to be denied access to reactor halls at Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Experts at the International Atomic Energy Agency continue to be denied access to the reactor halls of units 1, 2, and 6 of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, hindering their ability to monitor nuclear safety, the IAEA said on Jan. 12.
Two businessmen are driving from the UK to Ukraine to deliver supplies donated by the public.
Mike Racz and Karl Pemberton told BBC News they had planned to drive a small van of donations, but after receiving an “overwhelming” amount of support, will now drive two larger lorries.
Racz, from County Durham, told the broadcaster he “did not expect the amount of donations and love and support and aid” that people had provided. His partner, Kateryna Seranova, is from Ukraine and stressed the dangers her family and other Ukrainians were still facing.
The two businessmen expressed concerns that donations were slowing as the war drags on, while temperatures are plummeting. It was -11C in Kyiv overnight on 12 January.
Air Force: Ukraine downs 8 Russian missiles overnight, electronic countermeasures defend against 20 other weapons. Ukrainian air defenses shot down eight missiles launched by Russia overnight and interrupted the trajectories of over 20 other weapons using electromagnetic countermeasures, the Air Force reported on Jan. 13
Combat Situation Update
ISW: Russia makes limited advances along eastern front. Russian forces have made "marginal advances" amid ongoing fighting in several positions in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, the U.S.-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its latest report on Jan. 12.
Explosions reported in occupied Mariupol, air defense is reportedly active. Earlier this morning in occupied Berdyansk, explosions also rang out. This is a good sign as it means that the Ukrainian forces are getting within range to attack Russian entrenched positions and logistics.
Commander: Ukraine needs more attack aircraft. Ukraine requires more attack aircraft, including jets to support infantry and planes to fire long-range missiles, Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said in an interview with Reuters published on Jan. 12.
Behind the Lines
SBU charges bishop of Kremlin-linked church with assisting Russian occupation authorities. Vasyl Povorozniuk, metropolitan of the Luhansk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), has been accused of cooperating with Russian occupation authorities in Luhansk, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on Jan. 12.
Farmers in Romania have blocked the movement of lorries through the Siret checkpoint, located opposite the Ukrainian checkpoint in Porubne, European Pravda reports with reference to Ukraine's State Border Service.
Ukrainian border guards stated that the reasons for the farmers' blockade and its estimated duration are unknown, and there may be traffic problems in both directions.
"Currently, the queue of vehicles waiting to enter Ukraine is not significant. [A total of] 825 vehicles are registered in the E-queue to leave Ukraine," the department noted.
Russia is planning to build nine landfills in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, Ukraine’s National Resistance Center reports. The report noted that the Russians plan to build six landfills in Luhansk Oblast and three more in Donetsk Oblast. They also plan to transport rubbish to the occupied territories from the neighbouring Voronezh, Rostov and Belgorod oblasts on Russia.
The NRC pointed out that the Russian Federation had been transporting rubbish from Rostov Oblast to the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk Oblast, having abandoned plans to build a new landfill near the city of Rostov due to protests from local residents.
Grigori Chkhartishvili hits back on social media: Russia’s Ministry of Justice designated one of the country’s most popular fiction writers a “foreign agent” due to his opposition to its war in Ukraine.
The Ministry of Justice designated Georgian-born Grigori Chkhartishvili, who writes under the pen name Boris Akunin, a “foreign agent” late on Friday, citing his opposition to Russia’s war in Ukraine. It also accusing him of distributing false and negative information about Russia and of helping raise money for the Ukrainian army. The 67-year-old author lives in the UK.
Chkhartishvili, whose books used to be bestsellers in Russia and makes is open about his opposition to the Ukraine war, joked about his foreign agent designation online.
“They are writing that I have been declared a foreign agent today. Me, a terrorist and extremist?! I feel like Bin Laden who has been given a ticket for parking illegally,” he wrote.
RIA Novosti: Belgorod is fortifying bus stops to protect residents from shelling. Authorities in Russia’s Belgorod have begun fortifying the city’s public transport stops with sandbags and concrete amid an increase in shelling from across the Ukrainian border. As of Friday morning, 14 of the city’s stops had been fortified, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. Nine of them were reinforced with sandbags and five with concrete blocks.
Meanwhile in Russia
Bill allowing foreigners with criminal records to sign contract with Russian military submitted to State Duma
While some Russians die in war and others freeze in their apartments, ‘Putin’ takes a tour of a hothouse, smells tomatoes and rejoices with about the cucumbers.
Penal colonies in Russia turned off the heating for prisoners. "The aim is to make the conditions unbearable so that the men who are there choose to fight in Ukraine," Olga Romanova, founder of the non-governmental organization 'Russia Behind Bars' said.
Council of Europe raises concerns about Russia's national minorities. The FCNM's Advisory Committee issued a statement saying that this step "deprives more than 25 million persons belonging to the Russian Federation's numerous national minorities from the protection offered by this unique international treaty."
The Sberbank building which is under construction in Moscow is burning.
The Wildberries warehouse in St. Petersburg is likely to burn all the way to the ground. Wildberries is a retailer—a bit like Amazon. Reuters reports that the fire is covering 70,000 metres. Russian authorities now saying that the warehouse was built ‘illegally’.
Wildberries company claims it is negotiating with rescue services to use a helicopter to put out the fire at the warehouse in St Petersburg. So if there's a fire in Russia and the smoke from it covers half of St Petersburg - negotiations with firepersons are needed so they will start work.
Sergej Sumlenny: Russian companies obliged to pay a "slave toll" to the army, delivering a number of recruits. Some companies pay ransoms to protect employees. Wildberries, a Russian clone of Amazon, did the opposite: they mass-delivered slave soldiers, allegedly against some privileges for their business. Since 2022, Wildberries helped police to mass-arrest employees and forcibly recruit them. They pushed personnel out of the offices and warehouses into streets, where police waited for them, and arrested for the army. It was a well-known practice. Only in September 2022, Wildberries delivered 3,000 slave soldiers to the army so many, that their warehouse in Koledino, Moscow region, could not function anymore. According to rumours, today's fire in Petersburg was set by employees who were furious about the plans of their slave owners to sell them to the army.
Since the end of December, there’s been a series of arson attacks in St. Petersburg residential buildings, all with the same MO. Arsonists have been placing tires outside the doors of apartments and setting them on fire. The St. Petersburg news outlet Bumaga identified seven buildings where the fires were set, all in different parts of St. Petersburg.
Meduza: Crematoriums in St. Petersburg have stopped accepting coffins manufactured from fiberboard, particleboard, and other cheap materials held together with glue — materials used in roughly 80 percent of coffins in Russia. An industry insider told the news outlet Takie Dela that the cheap materials are overloading the filters in funeral homes’ furnaces, and Western sanctions have made it harder to find replacement parts. The new policy effectively raises the costs of cremation in the city.
Russian Poultry Union CEO Galina Bobyleva has bad news for anyone comforted by Putin’s claim last month that rising egg imports from Turkey and Azerbaijan will reduce prices that spiked more than 46 percent last year. (The poultry union represents some 250 enterprises that account for 80 percent of Russia’s poultry-meat and eggs market.) Current prices — 110–125 rubles (about $1.35) per 10 eggs — are here to stay, Bobyleva said on Wednesday, explaining that imported eggs aren’t any cheaper. At his end-of-the-year press conference in December, Putin accused poultry farmers of delaying imports to rake in higher profits.
Allied Support
Denmark announces almost $22 million in new funding for Mykolaiv's reconstruction. The new funds will be directed toward agriculture projects, repairing damaged educational infrastructure, and strengthening the electrical grid.
Sweden's defense-industrial complex will increase the production of artillery ammunition for Ukraine, in particular 155-mm shells. The Defense Materiel Administration (FMV) has signed an agreement with ammunition manufacturer Nammo.
Tusk: No tolerance for 'anti-Ukrainian' sentiment in Polish government.
"There can be no doubts about the war and our commitment, and that of the entire Western world, to Ukraine in its confrontation with Russia. Every Polish patriot must absolutely recognize these reasons," said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Ukrainian diaspora asks Australia to send 45 retired helicopters to Ukraine. In its statement, the Ukrainian diaspora organization in Australia said that these vehicles "could be a game-changer in Ukraine."
France’s new FM Stephane Sejourne visited Kyiv in his first official trip abroad in a show of support for Ukraine as it approaches its second year since Russia’s invasion.
“Stephane Sejourne arrived in Kiev for his first trip on the ground, to continue France’s diplomatic efforts there and to reiterate France’s commitment to its allies and to the civilian population,” France’s foreign ministry wrote on X.
“Despite the multiplying crisis, Ukraine is and will remain France’s priority,” AFP quotes Sejourne as saying. “We will not falter... our determination remains intact, and so does our admiration for the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people.”
France and Ukraine have agreed to “scale up” their defence cooperation, Ukraine’s foreign minister has said after a meeting with his counterpart. France’s show of continuing support will be welcome news to Ukraine, which fears backing for the country is waning as the war nears its second year and critical aid packages remain stuck in both Brussels and Washington.
Marine Le Pen interviewed by the BBC: France should leave NATO command because the USSR doesn’t exist anymore.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told The Times on Wednesday that claims from Moscow that he derailed a peace deal early in the war between Russia and Ukraine are “nothing but total nonsense and Russian propaganda.” Johnson said he merely expressed his concerns to President Zelensky “about the nature of any potential agreement” and pledged that Britain would support Ukraine “a thousand percent.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with Liu Jianchao, Head of the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, who is widely tipped to be the country's next foreign minister, in Washington— a statement from Matthew Miller, spokesman for the US Department of State, as reported by European Pravda.
"The two sides exchanged views on regional and global issues, including Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the Middle East, and the Secretary noted the importance of upholding and defending navigational rights and freedoms in the Red Sea and avoiding further escalation."
CNN: US carries out further strikes against Houthis in Yemen one day after hitting nearly 30 locations
The US carried out further strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, according to a US official, one day after launching a coordinated multi-nation attack on nearly 30 Houthi locations. The additional strikes carried out Friday night were much smaller in scope and targeted a radar facility used by the Houthis, the official said.
Reuters: Houthis accidentally target cargo ship carrying Russian oil. Reuters reported, citing sources from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organization, that Houthis had fired a missile at the ship, which landed in the water some distance away and caused no damage or casualties.
Me: they have also targeted a Norwegian ship as well.
The EU plans to send at least three warships to the Red Sea by March to protect merchant ships from the Houthis.
CNN: Taiwan’s ruling party set to win historic third consecutive presidency as opposition concedes
Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party is set to win a historic third consecutive presidency after the two opposition parties conceded defeat on Saturday night as voters shrugged off warnings by China that such a victory would increase the risk of conflict.
Hou Yu-ih, the opposition Kuomintang’s (KMT) presidential candidate, congratulated the DPP’s presidential candidate Lai Ching-te for his win.
Moscow continues to consider Taiwan an integral part of China, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry has said after voters elected Lai Ching-te from the ruling pro-sovereignty party.
Sergey Sumlenny: Olexiy Onulya’s experience in captivity
Ukrainian soldier Olexiy Onulya spent 9 months in Russian captivity. In his interview to Ukrainian TextyOrgUa he described routine torture he experienced and observed. I publish his main messages to demonstrate what terror will go on if Ukraine "freezes" the war.
Olexiy Onulya was a kickboxer from Chernihiv, a beautiful Ukrainian city in the north of the country, close to both Belarus and Russia. Within 9 months in Russian captivity, he was routinely tortured with batons, electricity, and hunger.
Olexiy was captured on March 9th 2022 close to Chernihiv. His unit faced a massive Russian attack with dozens of tanks and IFVs. He and his comrades destroyed multiple tanks, but soon were out of ammunition. "A Russian shell came, I lost my tooth, my face was bleeding".
"Later I took 49 fragments from my face, jaw, hand. I took off my armour and helmet, jumped into a cave close to a road to hide. Russian patrols were searching the area, close to me. I knew in 18 km there is a village where my godfather's mother lives. I decided to go there".
"On my way, I met an old Belarusian granny, she gave me an egg and chocolate. When I left here house, I met another local woman, 35-40 years old. She asked me: 'Soldier, soldier, are you our one? Are you against us?" I am sure, she was the one who betrayed me to the Russians".
Soon, a patrol of four Russians, with Buryat look, came across my way. They searched me and robbed my belonging: German boots, belt, Japanese Casio watch. But they did not want to capture me, only to rob. Than their commanding officer came, and he identified me as a Ukrainian".
"Their problem was to unblock my phone. I showed them again and again, that the code was drawing a "√" symbol, but they could not remember. They discussed how to cut off my finger to unblock the phone every time they need. I hardly explained this a dead finger will not help".
"So even with my hands tied behind my back, they brought my phone and I had to unblock it with my finger behind my back".
"One of Russians have recognised me as a Ukrainian kickboxer, and said: 'This khokhol (slur for Ukrainians) will be useful for us'. He eased band on my wrists, put some isolation under my body to make it not so cold. He asked me to add him on social networks too".
"The most aggressive of the Russian soldiers was a soldier from the North Caucasus. He raped one prisoner because that prisoner looked like him. There was a 20-years old prisoner with us, he was gang raped at a checkpoint by six Russians. The prisoner's parents had to watch".
"We were brought to a camp close to Kursk. They took blood samples, DNA, made a 3D photo of face, checked our palms with UV looking for gunpowder traces. They read our social network accounts, looking if we supported Maidan, protested against the Russian church".
"Those who protested on Maidan, they executed them. They said: those people destroyed a pro-Russian government, they were paid by the U.S.".
"In May, they brought us to Tula, and than to Donskoi prison. On 'arrival' they beat you: with batons, electroshocks. I couldn't step on my foot, it was rotting. They beat you all the time. Wake up you at 6am, at 7am they beat you. At 8am they beat you checking your names".
"Than you go to the yard, they beat you from all directions. You walk - they beat you. They can do it for 15 minutes, can do for 30 minutes. I had bleedings everywhere: head, feet, anus. My rips were broken. They beaten me deliberately on my wounded leg".
"They cut muscles on my finger with a knife saying: 'you used this finger to fire at us'. They beaten me in a group, five, seven people, the whole body. They were males and females, who were beating me, no difference. Zero sympathy. They cut "Z" sign on cheeks of POWs".
"Once a soldier put me on my four, and asked: 'did you mom beat you?' I said: 'no, never'. - 'And my mom used beat me' he said, than he took a cutting plate and started to beat me. After that he took two electroshocks and electrocuted me until the batteries died".
"I lost 40 kilograms in captivity, I lost also 6 cm of my height. Before captivity, I was an athlete, run 15 km a day. Now it is hard for me to walk a mile."
"In our cells, we did not have any sewer or running water. Beds were black from fungus, no light, very cold. They demanded from us certain actions, like if they hit a door with a baton once, we need to greet them. If four: cry "Pikachu", if five cry "Zelensky is a faggot" etc.
"The Russians deliberately came to serve in this prison to torture Ukrainians. They enjoyed it. They had zero sympathy. They started to beat a wounded person focusing on their wound. They were killing prisoners".
"They fed us sometimes from plates they used to feed dogs. They fed us with boiled water with cabbage, or sometimes fish heads. Once I got an onion. I was chewing it as long as I could, so tasty it was for me."
"I found rainworms once and put them into a water can in my cell. In a week, there was a dozen of worms already. I was so happy. I ate them all. It was my first protein since weeks. I have never tasted anything that tasty after".
"I was hunting a mouse in my cell, to eat it. After months in a cell, I could hear things very well, although my eyesight weakened massively. Finally, I caught that mouse. But the Russians saw movement in my cell, and came to check. I put the mouse into my mouth to keep it".
"The mouse was alive, and I started to bite it in order to kill it. And I could not say anything, while I had to 'greet' the Russians. They started to beat me, and I was trying to chew the mouse at the same time. The mouse bite my tongue, I started to bleed out of my mouth".
"The Russians believed, they destroyed my kidneys, that is why I was bleeding, and stopped beating me. And I did not feel any pain, because I was fascinated by the fact that I am chewing real meat. I was chewing it like a candy".
"There was no medical help there. There was one Russian nurse, she constantly told how she hates Ukrainians. Once a week, we had a 'bath day', but it was another torture day. The Russians used electroshocks on our wet bodies.".
"My father was in the army. He did not believe there will be war with Russia. The Russians killed him. They captured him, tortured him, and burned his body, than dumped it into the field. We found his body and identified with a DNA".
"I was ready to commit suicide. I decided to kill myself, and than I saw my belated grandmother walking in my cell. She said: 'Where do you want to go? You have not greeted your kids to Christmas yet'. I stood up, the Russians saw movement in my cell, stormed in and beaten me".
"The Russians transferred us to another camp, asked us, if we were ready to fight for Belarus. We said no, they started to beat us. Than, they gave us another cloth. I got trunks with someone's dry faeces and blood. I was exhausted and could not do anything".
"On December 31st 2022, they put us on a bus, said they bring us to an execution. We couldn't see anything. After some hours, they left a bus and than we heard Ukrainian voice: "Boys, why are heroes are so sad?" I could not believe my ears. I called my wife an said I go home".
"I am on a rehabilitation program since 10 months. I learned that my former colleague helped a lot to bring me out of captivity. This November, I participated in baptism of his daughter and am her godfather now".
Hi Monique - a couple of things.
1. Truly disappointed in my country's lack of foresight in not redirecting those helicopters to the Ukrainian cause. I hope they somehow change their minds before consigning them to the scrapheap. China's nearby but supporting Ukraine with physical objects isn't going to cause Xi Jinping to suddenly lose it.
2. That interview with the former POW (and I say former lightly because just reading his experiences makes me wonder if you can ever escape the mental and emotional experience of that terror) should be made more widely available so people can understand not just what Ukraine is dealing with but what we will all be dealing with if either they lose, or they have to enter negotiations. I am concerned about what will come out eventually about the treatment of women either attacked or taken prisoner by Russians, particularly at Mariupol. Thank you for sharing these interviews.