Jan 7: 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…
Russian attack injures 4, including twin boys, in Kherson Oblast. Two children have been hospitalized with shrapnel wounds after Russian forces hit the Darivka community east of Kherson, the regional prosecutor’s office reported.
Russian airstrikes against Donetsk Oblast kill civilian. Russia launched two airstrikes against Pivnichne in Donetsk Oblast on Jan. 6, killing one person, Governor Vadym Filashkin reported.
Russian shelling of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast's Nikopol kills 1 civilian, injures 2. Russian forces launched an artillery strike against Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on the morning of Jan. 6, killing a 45-year-old man and injuring two other people, Governor Serhii Lysak reported.
Maria Avdeeva: Devastating news from Pokrovsk: 11 people, including five children, killed in Russian missile attack. Residential buildings were hit with S-300 missiles.
These hours, a rescue operation is underway in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region after a Russian missile strike. The missiles are S-300. Necessary rescue forces and equipment of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine are involved. They are dismantling the rubble. As of this time, more than ten people have been killed, including children, unfortunately... My condolences to all those who have lost their loved ones. The Russians struck at ordinary residential buildings, at private houses. All the wounded are being provided with the necessary assistance. And Russia must feel - and always feel - that none of these strikes will be without consequences for the terrorist state. We must ensure this with our strength, our own defense and political capabilities.
Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force Mykola Oleshchuk reports that during attacks on Crimea, another command post was destroyed near Saky airbase.
President Joe Biden’s top budget official stressed that there is no avenue to help Ukraine aside from Congress approving additional funding, as negotiations among US politicians remained stalled. Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said that while the Pentagon has some limited authority to help Kyiv, without new funding from Capitol Hill “that is not going to get big tranches of equipment into Ukraine”.
Combat Situation Update
Enemy doubles number of attacks in Tavria sector – military spox. Russian forces have doubled the number of attacks in the Tavria sector, but the Ukrainian military is on the defensive.
Ukrainian strike on Crimea: Russia confirms elimination of 23 troops. Russia has confirmed the elimination of 23 members of its armed forces during Ukraine's January 4 attack on the temporarily occupied Crimea.
The GUR of Ukraine reports that warehouses with ammunition and several radars were destroyed on occupied Crimea. Satelite images confirmed the damage to one of the premises near Hryshyne in occupied Crimea.
Ukraine's military intelligence claims cross-border raid on Russian positions in Belgorod Oblast. The agency said it planned the operation after receiving reports that Russian commanders were coming to inspect positions in the area.
Kremlin attempts to strengthen Moscow’s protection – UK intel. From summer 2023, the Moscow Government Security Force (MGSF), established by the Kremlin to guard the capital’s infrastructure.
Enemy sends new detachment, formed to replace Wagner mercenaries, to Zaporizhzhia sector. The Russian army has sent a new detachment called "Espanola," which was formed to replace Wagner mercenaries, to the Zaporizhzhia sector.
Behind the Lines
Media: Businesswoman linked to Defense Ministry graft case owns hotels in Croatia. The NABU said in January 2023 that it had begun to investigate possible corruption in the Defense Ministry's food procurement before ZN.ua, a news site, published an investigation on the issue.
Governor: Russia plans war propaganda museums in occupied Luhansk Oblast. Russian authorities in occupied parts of Luhansk Oblast had ordered the creation of propaganda centers posing as "museums of the special military operation (a Russian term for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine)," Governor Artem Lysohor said on Jan. 6.
The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, offered to release 20 Ukrainian prisoners of war if Western sanctions were lifted from his family members.
"My mother, wife, daughters and nephews are not to blame. They never participated in political games. They never said a word. I fought, I will fight... Put whatever you want against me, but don't touch my family, my mother. If the lives of these people are important to them, then let them trade their soldiers for sanctions.
President Zelensky: $300Bln Russian Assets to Seize
Russian assets currently frozen abroad total around $300 billion. They must be put to use in support of Ukraine.
This is a historic opportunity to make the terrorist state pay for its terror. The Russian elite and leadership do not care about human lives, but they do care about money above all else.
For them, losing assets will be the most painful loss. They will sense the true strength of the international community and see that the world is stronger than terror.
The decision to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine will be an entirely just and legitimate response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine. It will send the right message to all would-be aggressors around the world: attacking another state does not pay off; it makes the aggressor pay.
I encourage partners to move quickly on relevant legal frameworks. This year, we must achieve tangible progress toward using frozen Russian assets for the benefit of Ukraine. We firmly rely on G7 leadership on this matter.
The Minister of Agriculture of Poland, Czeslaw Sekerski, will sign an agreement with farmers in Rzeszów today, which will help unblock the Medyka-Szegina border crossing.
Denmark’s transfer of 19 American-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine will take place in the second quarter of 2024, once Ukrainian pilots have completed training, the defence ministry has said. The Danish ministry said in a statement: “Based on the current timetable, the donation should take place in the second quarter of 2024. It’s mainly an issue of finishing the training of Ukrainian personnel who will operate the planes.”
The government of Nepal banned its citizens from travelling to Russia or Ukraine for employment after 10 young men were killed and dozens more reported missing while fighting, predominately in the Russian military. More than 200 Nepali soldiers are believed to have enlisted in the Russian army since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Nepal’s foreign ministry had said, and more than 100 of them have gone missing. A smaller number are believed to be fighting in the Ukrainian army.
Polish government reaches deal with farmers to suspend border blockade. Polish farmers have agreed to suspend their border blockade at the Shehyni-Medyka crossing after reaching an agreement with government representatives, the Polish Agriculture Ministry announced on Jan. 6.
Meanwhile in Russia
Francis Scarr for the BBC: Scott Ritter has turned up in Chechnya and spoken in broken Russian (some of which I couldn’t make out) to thousands of Kadyrov’s fighters about his efforts to strengthen the "friendship between Chechnya and America"
Rock band famous for 2020 protest anthem detained in Belarus. Three members of Belarusian rock band Nizkiz, whose song "Pravily" became known as a protest anthem during the 2020 pro-democracy demonstrations, were detained in Belarus, independent Russian media outlet Meduza reported on Jan. 6.
Allied Support
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is under increasing pressure to supply Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. Several politicians from the Greens, FDP and the CDU emphasized the need and blame Scholz for being so reluctant.
Jurgen Nauditt: It seems that Ukraine will get a new European transport corridor. Romanian media reports that around 3,000 workers and hundreds of vehicles are working 24/7 to continue the construction of the highway from Bucharest to the Ukrainian border. This highway can provide access to Romanian ports and will also create an alternative route to European countries bypassing Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.
Keir Giles, Opinion: What would happen if the West stopped playing by Russia’s rules?
At the moment there are no downsides for Russia in continuing its attacks on Ukrainian residential areas and critical infrastructure. That’s because the West as a whole, and the US in particular, have decided that they can do nothing to influence Russian choices.
But just making Ukraine a more resilient punchbag is not a sustainable strategy. If they want fewer civilians to die, Kyiv’s Western backers have to realize they can take the initiative instead of watching helplessly.
In fact one of the most obscene and perverse elements of the war on Ukraine is the way in which Russia has been permitted by the global community to wage it. The world — and the West — has acquiesced in rules of the game dictated by Moscow, where Russia is afforded safe zones from which it can launch missile attacks against Ukrainian apartment buildings without concern for counter-strikes.
That acquiescence argues a failure of imagination and initiative, and a failure to step back and realize how absurd and bizarre it is that Russia can continue on this path of behaviour unchallenged by anybody but Ukraine.
It’s a mental paralysis rooted in an assumption that Russia is too big, too strong, too irrational or has too many nuclear weapons to be influenced. Russian state behavior seems to be treated as a natural phenomenon that must be observed helplessly, rather than the result of calculated decisions by leadership figures — whose calculations can be influenced by both incentives and deterrents. [continue]
January 6th Insurrection: New video footage
I listened to a space on Twitter last night for about an hour. The entire time I was listening the speakers denied that the insurrection took place, and that police officers weren’t killed. Many said that the violence was actually encouraged by the FBI, that had also put up the gallows. Others said that the mob was ‘peaceful’ and that they were not storming the Capitol.
The space was disgusting to listen to because of the denial of death and destruction, and the sheer level of gaslighting. This is not exercising ‘free speech’. This is lying.
Mixed into the space were probably paid actors to keep the ‘debate’ going and everyone angry.
Alex Alvarova: At the heart of Soviet ‘ideology’
This is a less known story of how the Soviets attacked Czechoslovakia in 1968. The real trigger wasn’t the fact that reform communists wanted to change the rules of how the ineffective soviet economy worked in the Czech (previously highly industrial and developed) environment.
No, sir. The real trigger for military action came in the moment when Czechoslovak army started to prepare plans for doctrinal changes. That was a language the Soviets understood too well. They in fact never gave a shit about ideology. If they could colonize the planet under the flag of some New Age flying agaric mushroom shit, they would have gladly do it. Whatever works, folks. Only brute force matters. And so they sent the tanks and troops and killed hundreds including moms with strollers.
Czechoslovak army hoped the West HAS TO act. But nope. No one gave a shit. Mainly thanks to Henry Kissinger, may he be forgotten for what he has done. And then, after it became all too clear that not even a blade of grass would be moved, the Czechoslovak army allegedly considered invading Germany, its neighbour state behind the Iron Curtain. That would make the conflict global and change the cards.
Unfortunately for Czechoslovakia and fortunately for the lovely quiet live of western population, this “out of the box plan” never happened. Just saying.
I wrote this post to make clear the level of desperation of nations who were sold to Stalin during the Yalta conference and had to spend 60 years in one large concentration camp called Eastern Europe.
The New York attorney general asked a judge to make Donald Trump pay roughly $370 million after his New York civil fraud trial. Along with the steep financial penalty, the state's attorney general is asking that Mr. Trump be barred from running any company or participating in the real estate industry in New York.
Supreme Court agrees to decide whether Trump can be barred from holding office
The US Supreme Court said Friday it will review the Colorado Supreme Court’s unprecedented decision removing former President Donald Trump from that state’s ballot. The court scheduled oral arguments for February 8.