Jul 8 Buonasera Mag
Day 135 War vs Ukraine: Russian pause, occupied territories, Patrushev, NATO, Bondarev, Japanese sanctions, Kadyrov, Avdeeva reports
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…
American HIMARS seem to be making a difference. Russian telegram chats are complaining about them.
General Hromov, deputy chief of Ukraine's General Staff, said that 70% Russian projectiles and air-to-surface missiles either are downed by Ukraine's air defense or hit areas that lack military targets.
In Kreminna, Russian occupiers forbid locals from using their mobile phones and even shoot people dead for talking on the phone too much, suspecting them of spying, Haidai said.
Russian forces burning Ukrainian grain fields.
Kazakhstan says it will supply oil to Europe via routes that bypass Russia. Kazakhstan will step up oil transit via Trans-Caspian shipping routes, as reported by Russian media.
The Russian Armed Forces stole all valuable exhibits from Mariupol museums. Local history and art museums were left without collections - the original paintings by Aivazovsky and Kuindzhi were stolen, local authorities said.
The Russian MFA has tied Boris Johnson's resignation to Britain's military support for Ukraine: “The moral of the story – do not seek to destroy Russia. Russia cannot be destroyed. You can break your teeth on it, and then choke on them".
Canada under pressure from Germany to return to return electric turbines, which were being repaired in Canada to Russia’s Gazprom.
UBN: the EU is preparing legislation for the seizure of sanctioned Russian assets to use them for the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.
The European Parliament has endorsed a proposal that allows Ukrainian refugees to continue using their driver’s license without needing to switch it out for a European driver’s license, the Kyiv Independent reports.
The EU plans to become the top investor in the world's tallest dam in Tajikistan so it cut its reliance on Russian energy and part of EU's answer to China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Kyiv Independent, Ukraine targets Russia’s ammunition depots, undermining its artillery advantage
Now that Ukraine has acquired advanced Western artillery and rocket systems, it has gradually begun a campaign to take out Russia’s key military infrastructure. Over the last four weeks, nearly 20 Russian ammunition depots in Russian-occupied Donbas and Ukraine’s south, including some of the largest, have been hit or completely destroyed.
Patrushev listed the goals of the special operation in Ukraine
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said Tuesday that the aims of Russia's invasion "are to ensure the protection of people from genocide by the Ukrainian neo-Nazi regime, to demilitarize and denazify the territory of Ukraine," allegations that are not at all true—especially since Kyiv's duly elected president is in fact Jewish; but nevermind the truth.
Patrushev also insisted the war must continue because of "the spread of neo-Nazism in Ukraine, the functioning on its territory of biological laboratories involved in the U.S. military biological program [which is part of a decades-old deception engineered the Kremlin going back even to the Soviet era], as well as the plans announced by the Kyiv authorities to create nuclear weapons [not true] and join NATO [won't happen for a long time, if ever] created significant threats security not only of Russia, but of the whole world."
Patrushev also accused Ukraine's leaders of "bullying and genocide" in the country's east—all of which, taken together, amount to a brazen (if sadly unsurprising) combination of disinformation, projection, and machismo.
And they also, of course, point to extended economic pain for Ukraine and its allied partners across Europe and the West as sanctions against Russia are unlikely to end anytime soon.
Explainer: Four Takeaways From NATO's Summit In Madrid
NATO leaders promised more military aid to Ukraine and declared Russia a "direct threat" at their June 29-30 summit in Madrid. The leaders of the 30-member Western military alliance were gathering amid Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. RFE/RL's Europe Editor Rikard Jozwiak was in the Spanish capital for the meeting and has these four takeaways.
Decode39, Bondarev, the dissident. An interview on Putin and Ukraine’s fate
Our exclusive interview with Boris Bondarev, the first and only Russian diplomat who rebelled against the regime by condemning the war in Ukraine, who now lives in hiding. Putin’s Russia is not going back, he says; it wants more military victories and can only be stopped on the battlefield. He offers memories, fears, and advice to the storm-stricken West.
Interview by Reid Standish: Why The 'Failure' Of Russian Spies, Generals Is Leading To 'Apocalyptic' Thinking In The Kremlin
Andrei Soldatov, a Russian investigative journalist who has covered the country’s shadowy security services for decades, reported in April that Colonel General Sergei Beseda, the head of the foreign intelligence branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB), was detained and later sent to Moscow’s Lefortovo prison.
Charter97: “Dmitry Medvedev's wife left. it was Svetlana Medvedeva who initiated the divorce. Journalists noticed that in recent years, the couple practically did not appear in public together. Their last joint appearance took place in January 2020 at a service in Moscow.”
Denazification of Russia
Kadyrov— the TikTok Commander
He’s supposed to be a great fighter and commander: this is how he sells his image on TikTok. The brand doesn’t live up to expectations, as he’s not tested himself on the battlefield. He lives in the virtual world, while Ukraine’s soldiers fight on the ground.
Maria Avdeeva Reports
We’re signing off. Thanks for reading…
Mo & Scott