Jan 26: E-Stories
Day701 Naftogaz CombatSit BehindLines InRussia Allies A&P UkraineRallyDC ISW UKDef Ukrinform Noel CDS United24 Scherba RFE/RL Liubakova Eckel WeissSoldatov Dermenzhi TerribleMaps USEmbassyUK Kenyon
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s Ukraine up-date page and for the latest news. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
What the US political arena has become saddens me to no avail. Then I see this American activist and know many others that are doing their damnest every day.
Stories we’re following…
Russian attacks kill 3, injure 31 over past day. Russia carried out attacks against nine of Ukraine's oblasts over the past day, killing at least three people and injuring at least 31, local officials reported early on Jan. 25. Photo: Regional military administrations.
Russian troops have bombarded the Marhanets hromada and the town of Nikopol, firing more than ten projectiles, on Thursday [a hromdada - an administrative unit designating a village, several villages, or a town, and their adjacent territories], Serhii Lysak, Head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration reported.
Official: 2 Ukrainian teenagers deported by Russia return to their families. Two Ukrainian teenagers previously deported to Russia from the occupied part of Kherson Oblast returned to their families in Ukraine, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported on Jan. 25. They have been brought back home through the efforts of the Save Ukraine organization. “Families are back together. I am happy for the children and their parents,” writes Prokudin.
Ukrinform—Ukrainian sappers saving people in Avdiivka:
Follow up on the II-76 crash: "Russian military and political important persons were supposed to be on board the IL-76, but at the last moment the FSB forbade them to board," GUR representative Andriy Yusov said. He added that Russian rescuers were not allowed to inspect the crash site.
Photos and videos from the site of the Russian Il-76 plane crash, in which Russia claims 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed, do not indicate "any signs that there were such a large number of people on the plane," Chief Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on air on Jan. 25.
The Russian Il-76 that crashed near Bilhorod had previously delivered weapons to the airfield in Engels and to Bilhorod itself, GUR spokesman Andriy Yusov said. According to him, the Il-76 was spotted at Engels-2 airport, which is used to provide ammunition for Russian strategic aviation.
CDS Report on the Ukrainian-Russian prisoners exchanges:
Since September, Russia has not responded to the proposal of establishing joint medical commissions to facilitate the exchange of prisoners of war. In August 2023, Ukraine made the decision to create these joint medical commissions for the purpose of exchanging prisoners. However, Russia has not yet approved their operation.
As part of the 49 exchanges of POWs between Ukraine and Russia, 2,681 Ukrainian soldiers have returned to their homeland. Additionally, 147 civilians have been repatriated from Russia. Currently, over 8,000 individuals are known to be in Russian captivity, and more than 1,600 of them are civilians.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case of terrorism after the crash of an Il-76 plane in the Belgorod region.
“The initial results of investigative actions, including preliminary data from the inspection of the scene of the incident, allow us to conclude that the aircraft was attacked by an anti-aircraft missile from the territory of Ukraine,” the Investigative Committee said in a press release.
Me: No biggie. They do this all the time, and it’s always ‘terrorism’.
This is an important document that is another step on the way to holding Russia accountable for crimes against Ukrainians. In particular, for kidnapping Ukrainian children.
Large-scale cyberattack on Naftogaz: "We have recorded a large-scale cyberattack on one of the data centers used by our companies. The website and the call center are currently down," the announcement read.
In 2023, every tenth private company in Poland was opened by Ukrainians, and the number of Ukrainian private entrepreneurs was over two-thirds more than in 2022, Rzeczpospolita reported with reference to data from the central register and information on economic activity.
Jan 25: An explosion was recorded in occupied Berdyansk near the railway station.
Journalist: HIMARS strike kills 24 Russian drone operators in occupied Ilovaisk. A Ukrainian High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) attack on the enemy's training ground near Ilovaisk, in the occupied part of the eastern Donetsk region, has killed 24 Russian soldiers.
Combat Situation Update
During the day, 65 military clashes took place. Russian troops carried out two missile and 18 air strikes, carried out 49 attacks from multiple launch rocket systems on positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and populated areas of Ukraine. The situation on all fronts is the same: Ukrainian forces are repelling Russian attacks.
The Russian forces have not abandoned their intention to dislodge Ukrainian Armed Forces units from the bridgeheads on the left bank of the Dnieper. Thus, during the day, Russian troops carried out six unsuccessful assaults on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
CDS Report General Conclusions:
The grouping of Russian forces in Belgorod Oblast is not sufficient to launch large-scale offensive operations in the northern part of Kharkiv Oblast. However, it is capable of conducting local tactical actions on the border of Belgorod and Kharkiv Oblasts to constrain part of the forces and reserves of the "Khortytsia" OSG operating on the Kupyansk direction.
The adversary lacks a solution to the current operational situation and does not not have sufficient resources to break through the Ukrainian defense and develop an offensive into the territory's depth.
Ukrainian forces employ long-range firepower, including strike drones, preventing Russian forces, even in groups of one to two infantry companies and ten armored vehicles, from reaching their forward defensive lines. This compels the adversary to launch attacks in groups of up to a platoon with the support of armored vehicles from maximum distances.
The Russian military command is unable to significantly improve the command and control of troops at the operational level, which is necessary to break through the positions of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in one or more areas of the theater of operations.
Russian troops have recently demonstrated their capacity to achieve minor tactical successes during intense offensives, notwithstanding existing systemic problems, particularly near Kupyansk in Kharkiv Oblast and Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast.
The adversary increasingly employs false targets and decoy missiles during air strikes, saving their "Shakhed" UAVs.
"Partners are ready to provide Ukraine with F-16. The question is whether everything is ready for them to work in Ukraine," Air Force Spokesman Yuriy Ignat said. According to him everything should be ready from pilots, infrastructure to engineers.
"Currently, the preparation is not completed, therefore the partners do not hand over the aircraft, which will simply be on the territory of Ukraine, not performing combat missions."
Ukrainian sappers employing U.S.-developed AI technology. As part of a major demining effort in Ukraine, the country’s sappers are already using drones and artificial intelligence software, allowing them to map potentially contaminated areas before going in for clearance.
Ukraine plans to commence the construction of four new nuclear reactors in the summer or fall of 2024, seeking to compensate for lost energy capacity. All four reactors will be built at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant. Ukraine's Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko commented for Reuters.
Behind the Lines
Russia’s heating woes: 16 regions affected
This is truly disgusting: Russian ‘real estate agents’ are making promotional videos enticing prospective buyers of property in Mariupol. There’s absolutely no shame: she’s showing bombed out houses and what potential they may have.
Russia’s forced mobilization campaign in the Ukrainian territories it occupies has severely depleted the workforce, hollowing out municipal services. The dire conditions are pushing more Ukrainians under occupation to turn against Russian forces.
The Hungarian government has published the results of a survey in which 98% of respondents allegedly support the anti-Ukrainian policy of the Hungarian government, in particular, regarding the war in Ukraine, European Pravda reports.
The survey, called "national consultation", contained 11 questions about the war in Ukraine, the EU, and foreign and economic policy. Voting on it is not verified in any way.
The Fidesz governing party separately emphasised that 98% of Hungarian voters supported a "ceasefire and peace for our neighbour" instead of supplying weapons, as well as opposed "migrant ghettos" and favoured "strengthening regulations for the protection of children".
Judging by the published data, more than 1.5 million votes were registered in the "national consultation" of the Hungarian government. This is less than 15% of the registered Hungarian voters and about the same as those who voted in the previous "consultation".
In addition, as European Pravda previously found out, it was possible to vote at the "consultation" several times and even without the presence of Hungarian citizenship, which allows one to express reasonable doubts about the representativeness of such a vote.
Me: Got it. Run a ‘poll’ that opens and closes within 10 minutes (maybe even just all made up) and then use it to say…”see! 147% of Hungarians want what we want.” Actually, you don’t even need to be in Hungary or Hungarian…bot much? What a joke.
The Investigative Committee of Belarus is also investigating Hanna Liubakova, a Belarusian investigative journalist. Hanna and her colleagues have been indefatigable in bringing us news about Lukashenka’s dictatorial regime and the regime’s corruption and ties to Russia. I first learned about her work and those of the media in Belarus after the August 2020 stolen election.
North Korea says it tested new strategic cruise missile.
North Korea said it had conducted tests of its new strategic cruise missile, the North Korean state news agency KCNA reported on Jan. 25, confirming what the South Korean military said a day earlier.
The KCNA said that the name of the new cruise missile is Pulhwasal-3-31. The details, such as how far the missile flew, were not provided, but the KCNA noted that Pulhwasal-3-31 is still in its "development phase."
Meanwhile in Russia
Bloomberg: Putin tests US receptiveness to discuss ending the war. Indirect signals suggest openness to talks, possibly on Ukraine's security. US officials, unaware of overtures, remain skeptical. Kremlin insiders hint at flexibility on Ukraine's neutrality.
Jan 25: Putin's plane landed in Kaliningrad (Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea. Former Königsberg, known online as Královec). Putin's trip to Kaliningrad is not a "message" to NATO countries, it is casual visit to the region, - Kremlin's spokesperson
Former prisoners from the Storm Z units who returned from the war wrote an appeal to Vladimir Putin, in which they said that they were not receiving the promised salaries and payments for injuries. They also claim that they do not receive documents about expungement of criminal records as reported by “Important Stories”, which obtained the letter. The authenticity of the appeal was confirmed to the publication by one of its authors.
An appeal to Putin was written by seven former prisoners who participated in the war in Ukraine. They write that during their participation in the war, “they did not and did not receive a single full salary, did not receive combat payments for being on the front line, and did not receive guaranteed payments for their wounds.” The authors of the letter note that they cannot issue certificates for combat veterans, since the military unit does not provide the necessary extracts.
The Moscow City Court sentenced former “Minister of Defense of the DPR” Igor Strelkov (Girkin) to four years in a general regime colony in the case of calls for extremism on the Internet, Mediazona reports.
The prosecution requested four years and 11 months in prison for Strelkov. Strelkov did not admit his guilt in court.
Supporters of Strelkov began to be detained at the Moscow City Court building. The first arrests are reported by a Mediazona correspondent. According to him, police detained at least three people standing with placards.
Hungary will not rush to ratify Sweden's application to join NATO because it does not feel any urgency, Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament Laszlo Kever said.
Croatia to hand over to Ukraine Putin ally’s superyacht. The Croatian court decided to transfer Viktor Medvedchuk's seized $200 million yacht Royal Romance to Ukraine, head of the Agency for Tracing and Asset Management, Elena Duma reported.
Medvedchuk is a former Ukrainian lawmaker known for his close ties to Putin. Medvedchuk was arrested in April 2022 after escaping house arrest on treason. Later that year, he was part of a prisoner exchange with Russia.
Allied Support
US Senate committee backs bill to seize Russian assets to help Ukraine.
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee almost unanimously approved a bill on Jan. 24 that would pave the way for Washington to confiscate Russian assets and hand them over to Ukraine for reconstruction of the country, Reuters reported.
If it were to pass the Senate and House of Representatives and be signed into law by President Joe Biden, the bill would enable Washington's first-ever seizure of central bank assets from a country with which it is not at war.
Hungary will drop its objections to the creation of a €5 billion Ukraine military assistance fund, paving the way for an agreement to revamp a vehicle that aims to steady supply of weapons to Ukraine, once member states sort out technical issues.
Germany is exploring a swap deal in which it would supply long-range cruise missiles to Britain and France so they could arm Ukraine with their own Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG.
Terrible Maps: you know I love maps and when I have free time, I do actually just open a map and look over a country. Have they got any bus lines? I can do that.
France sent 2 additional M270 LRU to Ukraine as part of the artillery coalition. The LRU is a modernized version of the American M270 equipped with a new firing control system and able to fire new types of guided rockets. France have now sent 4 in total.
Sweden and the United Kingdom have joined the coalition of drones and electronic warfare, along with Ukraine and Latvia; the number of participants has increased to four countries, the Ministry of Defence reports. The UK also announced its intention to join the coalition and become its co-leader with Latvia.
"Technology, not people, should fight. The drone coalition will be another step towards implementing this idea. This will save many lives. Strengthening and developing the production of unmanned systems will transform the army and make the latest technologies a reality today," said Kateryna Chernohorenko, Deputy Minister of Defence for digital development, digital transformation and digitalisation.”
It was President Zelensky’s birthday yesterday. He’s turned 46: my goodness—he’s the leader of a nation at war at 46.
EU, Lithuania allocating $16.7 million for school shelters in Ukraine. The project will prioritize Ukrainian regions close to the front line or the border with Russia — Chernihiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and Odesa — the Lithuanian Central Project Management Agency wrote in a press release. The organizers plan to build at least five next-to-school bomb shelters in these oblasts.
Denmark announces $13 million for Ukraine's cybersecurity.
"This assistance is an important contribution to the long-term support for strengthening Ukraine's cyber defense," said Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.
Erdogan officially approved Turkey's ratification of Sweden's NATO membership. Now only Hungary has to vote in favor of Sweden’s bid to join the bloc. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that his government supports Sweden’s membership bid. A vote is still due.
Tea is serious affair in the US-UK special relationship.
In Hungary, the pro-government news portal Index has interviewed the speaker of parliament, László Kövér, about the diplomatic standoff between Hungary and Sweden over Stockholm’s attempts to join Nato, which he said there was no urgency to resolve.
Asked if the situation was diplomatically awkward and illustrated a failure of Hungarian diplomacy, he said:
We have already stated our problems quite clearly. Hungary takes seriously the fact that Nato … is a defence alliance of equal and sovereign states. But let it be clear to everyone: the member states voluntarily undertake the obligation that if any other ally is attacked, it will automatically be considered as if it is directed against them. Does everyone understand how much responsibility this is?
This requires a degree of trust that is stronger than that. Now, let’s see how Sweden has treated Hungary in the past period, since their accession was on the agenda, with what arrogance and negligence they treated us. It is not entirely clear to me whether they are aware of what the alliance they want to enter actually means.
It’s about the fact that the Swedes – I would like to note that the Finns as well – have gone so far in defaming Hungary, defaming the democratically elected government.
Especially considering that after the parliament ratified the Finns’ accession with good intentions, Finland immediately joined the proceedings against Hungary before the European court of justice. Simply because we want to protect our children from LGBTQ brainwashing at all costs. Do they honestly think that they want to make a life-or-death contract with us, to whom they refuse to show the slightest respect?
He did not seem to hold out much hope of a quick resolution in Hungary’s parliament, saying of the prospect of an extraordinary session:
I have no doubt that one of the opposition parties, which usually do not serve Hungarian interests, will initiate the convening of this, probably without success. Anyway, I don’t feel that anything is urgent, and in fact, I don’t think an extraordinary situation has arisen.
Whitewashing Putin: how one reporter muddies Austrian views on Ukraine—EuroMaidan Press
The murky career of Christian Wehrschütz, from far-right Aula to ORF correspondent accused of pro-Russia bias, encapsulates Austria’s complex relationship with Moscow.
As the Austrian public broadcaster’s chief Ukraine correspondent, Christian Wehrschütz holds considerable sway over Austrian public opinion on Ukraine. However, his reporting is often indistinguishable from Russian propaganda, from whitewashing Putin to demonizing NATO.
Flaunting press freedom, Wehrschütz leverages lawyers and tabloids to evade scrutiny for his factually flawed reporting. Meanwhile, his employer provides an uncritical platform for disinformation that toes the Kremlin’s line and promotes Russia’s occupation of Ukraine. While Austria relies on Russia’s gas, Wehrschütz whitewashes Putin’s war crimes.
His views permeate state TV despite clashing with Austria’s official pro-Ukraine stance. With the pro-Russian Freedom Party polling at 30%, will its dogma shape ORF’s future coverage?
Introduction
The reasons for the relative success of pro-Russian positions in Central and Western Europe can be summarized as follows:
The role of certain mass media and media personalities who, intentionally or unintentionally, spread Russian narratives;
sympathies for the “strong man” Vladimir Putin and his way of “doing things decisively” (many opinion polls testify to an increasing “longing for the strong man”, dwindling trust in the existing democratic system, and authoritarian tendencies among the population);
the influence of certain lobbyists and businessmen who have made a lot of money in and with Russia;
indifference in the population, politics, and media towards Ukraine, a lack of solidarity with it;
widespread ignorance about Ukraine (and Russia) among the population as well as the political class;
“traditional” anti-Americanism, which also fuels and supports the theory of a “proxy war” between the USA and Russia over Ukraine (see chapter 7).
In this context, it must be taken into account that Austria (since 1955) – unlike most other countries in Central and Western Europe that belong to NATO – is neutral. The right-wing radical and populist Austrian Freedom Party takes advantage of this to present itself as a “defender of neutrality,” which is, however, only a cipher for its pro-Russian orientation. Thus, it has since 2016 a cooperation agreement with the United Russia party, a tool of the Kremlin’s increasing and eventually totalitarian rule. The Freedom Party has been leading in all opinion polls for about a year with about 30%, why it would therefore clearly win parliamentary elections.
Its current success can be at least partly explained by a considerable “longing for the strong man” and desires for an “overall change of the political system” in society, which can be clearly proven on the basis of opinion polls.
Austria has traditionally been one of the most pro-Russian members of the EU. In this country, the wrong conclusions have been drawn from the events since 2014 with Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the unleashing of a war in the Donbas. Soon after the annexation, namely at the beginning of June 2014, Putin was received ceremoniously in Vienna. Especially during his visit to the Economic Chamber, some top Austrian politicians delivered exceedingly embarrassing scenes.[1] [continue]
I’m getting Lenin vibes here. He will establish a ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ Commission (headed by a Commissar, no doubt. Good, there are so many Russians out of work.) “ to declassify and publish all documents on ‘deep state’ spying (he won’t address the ‘deeper state’ spying, I guess) on censorship and corruption (if that makes sense).
He’ll then eradicate the ‘colluders’ that leak stuff to the press (he knows a lot about ‘leaks’) and bla bla bla that disseminate fake stuff (a masterclass of gaslighting) and ‘press criminal charges’ (there goes the First Amendment).
He’s going to separate offices so that they don’t protect the ‘deep state’ (where is it?!?!?). Wait…he’s not finished.
Intelligence agencies are next: he’s going to make sure ‘they don’t spy on citizens’ (OMG I thought the FBI only spied on criminals?) and run ‘disinformation campaigns’ against the ‘Merican people’ or that they aren’t ‘spying on someone’s campaign’…like him! (So needy…it’s always about him.) You mean like…when his campaign people met with Russian proxies to obtain dirt on Hilary Clinton?
La piéce del la resistence…no more terms limits on members of Congress. This is how he will ‘shatter’ the ‘deep state’ and ‘restore government’ that is controlled by the people and for the people. Translation: he’s staying in forever.
Bloomberg: Israeli officials estimate Hamas is getting $8 million to $12 million a month through online donations, much of it through organizations posing as charities to help civilians in Gaza.
That would equate to a multi-fold increase for online funding compared to what the group was receiving before its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, according to several officials at Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing. They all spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of their work.
Washington also believes that Hamas receives significant funding from online-donation sites and it is determined to help Israel put a stop to that, according to a senior US official.
All the officials said tracking and quantifying Hamas’s fund raising is difficult because the organization has years of experience of getting around financial sanctions and other tools designed to choke off or restrict its access to money.
‘Ukraine fatigue’: why I’m fighting to stop the world forgetting us
by Olesya Khromeychuk, The Guardian, 25 Jan 2024
Everyone likes to support an underdog, especially if it’s winning. But it’s one thing to win a battle, it’s quite another to win the war. And Ukraine cannot win without international support.
If you were 30% braver, what would you do to be a better ancestor?” the enthusiastic host asked a roomful of delegates in New York, gathered for a conference on democracy. “Take 60 seconds to think and share your answers in your small groups.”
My small group consisted of seasoned activists from different parts of the world. They were eager to discuss their opinions on courage and legacy. “I’d spend more time with my kids,” said one. “I would speak to people I disagree with more often,” said another. I kept quiet hoping no one would notice.
“You’re being quiet,” said one of them when everyone else had spoken. My group turned to me.
“Oh, I don’t know. It’s a difficult question.” I tried to get myself out of the trap. “I need more time to think about it.”
The thing is, I didn’t need time to think about it. As soon as the facilitator finished her question, my answer was right there, staring me in the face. Now that my small group was staring at me just as insistently, I couldn’t face sharing my thoughts with them. It seemed like I needed to be 30% braver just to utter the answer.
“If I were braver, to be a better ancestor, I’d join the army. The Ukrainian armed forces.”
At that moment, it was the only answer that rang true.
My response was met with the sort of uncomfortable silence I seem to bring to most social conversations. A friend has found a good term for that: a Ukrainian killjoy. It applies to those of us who keep talking about the war when people want to talk about their kids, the future and all those wonderful things that give us hope. Sometimes, we don’t even need to offer a digest of Russia’s recent bombardments, we end conversations just by entering the room. [continue]
Read the full article on the Guardian website or in a post I have published.
I reposted a portion of Olesyàs article on my IG account and one of my exclusively Gaza supporting friends messaged me to say that she feels like Gaza is suffering in the same way as Ukraine. I am beginning to become very frustrated with the way that people are making everything about Gaza. Yet nothing is ever about Ukraine. Is that wrong? It was an excellent article.