Jun 6: 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.
80th Anniversary of D-Day Landings: I cried quite a few times today as I watched the ceremonies honouring the men and women who served to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation. What an emotional day!
Stories we’re following…
Russian attacks on Kherson, Donetsk oblasts kill 1, injure 7. Russian forces attacked the village of Pivniche and the town of Selydove in Donetsk Oblast, as well as the village of Inhulets in Kherson Oblast.
Ukraine evacuates children from Kharkiv Oblast's Zolochiv border area. Local authorities in the Zolochiv community have launched mandatory evacuations for children in six villages: Ivashky, Oleksandrivka, Perovske, Basovo, Tymofiivka, and Vidrodzhenivske.
In a new long-form investigation, The New York Times reports on 46 children whom Russian officials took from a state-run foster home for institutionalized children with special needs in Kherson and moved to two children’s facilities in Crimea. “Because Russia has not formally tracked the children’s movement or given intermediaries access to the children, the evacuation is a forcible transfer under international humanitarian law” — “a blatant war crime,” Stephen J. Rapp, a former U.S. ambassador at large for global criminal justice, told the NYT.
Russia sets up filtration camps in Vovchansk, says Ukrainian governor. Russian forces use filtration camps to identify and document Ukrainians in occupied territories. Those who pass through them are often subject to torture, sexual violence, and other violations, sometimes before being forcibly deported to Russia.
This is how Russia treats its prisoners of war. Ukrainian servicemen Roman Horilik returned home on May 31. He was one of the national guards, protecting the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and got captured in March 2022.
Me: there are far too many people who believe or support the idea of Ukraine surrendering their territory to the Russians. This means occupation and Russia has established concentration camps in Donbas and Crimea since 2014. This is what would happen, and the reason why Ukraine will not surrender their territory.
Russia's full-scale invasion has destroyed at least 210,000 buildings in Ukraine, NYT analysis reveals. An examination of satellite data reveals the destruction includes 106 hospitals, 109 churches, temples, mosques and monasteries and 708 schools, colleges and universities.
A passenger train traveling to Ukraine collided with a freight train in the Czechia: four people are known to have died, 23 were injured, police said The accident occurred at about 23:00 on a train leaving Prague in the direction of Chop. The first carriage of the RegioJet 1021 passenger express train was most severely damaged.
FT: Ukrainians may face blackouts for most of day during winter. Russia's systematic destruction of Ukraine's energy system means that by winter, Ukrainians may be without electricity for the "vast majority" of the day, the Financial Times reported on June 5, citing Ukrainian officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Restarting Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant 'difficult to envisage' during war, says IAEA chief. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the largest nuclear power station in Europe, has been under Russian occupation since March 2022.
A year ago today, the Russians destroyed the Kakhovka Dam in the Kherson region. Many died, were injured or were displaced. This adds to the long list of Russian crimes: ecocide.
Zelensky: Russia strikes Ukraine almost 1,000 times over past week. "Complete disregard for human life and constant terror is what Russia is trying to spread. In this week alone, Russian troops have launched almost 1,000 strikes with missiles of various types, satellite-guided KAB bombs, and attack drones," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
Occupied Ukrainian territory (Crimea, Zaporizhzia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk regions) will be included in a new district of the Russian Federation, its name may be ‘Novorossiya’, Russian appointed governor of occupied Zaporizhzia region and collaborator Yevgeny Balitsky said.
Combat Situation Update
'These weeks will determine this year' – Zelensky describes critical situation facing Ukraine. Speaking during his daily address on June 4, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia's strongest attacks were currently ongoing in Donetsk Oblast, where Moscow's forces are steadily advancing and which remains the Kremlin's primary target.
Russia is continuing its offensive in Ukraine across the entire front line — from the northeastern city of Kharkiv to the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region.
However, the pace has slowed in recent weeks, partly because the Ukrainian command has deployed all its operational reserves for defense.
This has helped establish a strong new Kharkiv front and stabilize the situation to the west of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region.
Russian military personnel from Stavropol, who refused to serve due to health issues such as cancer, tuberculosis, and mental illness, were deceived and sent to the front lines in the "DPR" under the pretext of being taken for questioning. Their relatives reported the incident, expressing their concerns and demanding the return of their loved ones to Russia for treatment. This case is part of a growing trend in Russia, where "refuseniks" are being sent to the front lines despite their health conditions.
Ukraine has used US weapons to hit targets inside Russia, source tells AP. Ukraine's armed forces have used U.S.-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia, the Associated Press (AP) reported on June 5, the first such confirmation since the White House partially lifted a ban on such actions last week.
Noel Report: A video released by the GUR shows a naval drone attack on a Russian Project 498 ‘Saturn’ or 'Proteus' in Ozero Pansʹke near Chornomorske, occupied Crimea. You can see how a naval drone easily bypasses defensive barges and seeks and finds a target. Prior to that, another explosion is visible.
Southern Group spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk reports that two Pantsir-S1 air defense systems were destroyed in the southern direction, as well as a command and control/drone post.
US allowed Ukraine to down planes in Russian airspace since start of full-scale war, White House says. The U.S. gave Kyiv permission at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion to down military aircraft flying in Russian territory if they pose a threat to Ukraine, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said at a press briefing on June 4 in response to a question on the use of U.S.-supplied weapons on Russian territory.
Ukrainian cyberattack 'paralyzed' work of Russian ministries, companies, source said. Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) was behind a large-scale DDoS attack that "paralyzed" the work of several Russian ministries and companies, a source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent on June 5.
Explosions, oil refinery fire reported in Russia's Rostov Oblast. A fire broke out at Russia's Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery following a series of explosions in Rostov Oblast in the early hours of June 6, according to Russian media.
Behind the Lines
The Insider and the Moldovan news outlet Malenkaya Strana reveal that Moldova’s former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Igor Gorgan, served for years as an informant to Russian military intelligence. The journalists gained access to Gorgan’s secret Telegram correspondence with his GRU handler, Colonel Alexey Makarov. The messages show that Gorgan regularly reported on Moldova’s domestic affairs and visits by Ukrainian military officials, who came to buy weapons. Gordan also reportedly “constantly bombarded” his Russian curator with requests to send Russian troops to “cleanse the country of all fascist scum.”
Leaked internal documents obtained by the Danish public broadcaster DR from a European intelligence source reveal that the Fund for Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad (Pravfond) is part of a “Kremlin influence operation active in 48 countries across Europe and around the world,” reports The Guardian. The documents reportedly show that “the foundation finances propaganda websites targeted at Europeans” and “helped pay for the legal defense of the convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout and the assassin Vadim Krasikov.” Specifically, lawyer Robert Unger received €60,000 ($65,380) in legal fees paid out by Pravfond’s budget in 2021 to defend Krasikov, an alleged FSB agent who was sentenced to life in prison for killing a former Chechen field commander in Berlin in 2019.
Russian propaganda sought to cast Medvedchuk as Zelensky's replacement, WP reports. A Russian propaganda operation was meant to present pro-Kremlin oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk to the international public as a potential replacement for President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Washington Post (WP) reported on June 3, citing undisclosed officials and documents.
Ukraine's use of German weapons to strike Russia will not 'contribute to escalation,' Scholz says. In the past, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly cited a fear of escalation as among the principal reasons for limiting Germany's support for Ukraine.
NATO has 2-3 years to prepare for reconstituted Russian army, top Norwegian general says. "At one point someone said it'll take 10 years (before Russia reconstitutes its offensive capacity), but I think we're back to less than 10 years because of the industrial base that is now running in Russia," said General Eirik Kristoffersen, Norway's top general.
Polish farmers resumed blockade at a Ukrainian border crossing, Border Guard Service says. Polish protesters have resumed their blockade at the Rava-Ruska-Hrebenne border crossing over Ukrainian agricultural imports, Ukraine's Border Guard Service said on June 4.
Georgia announced that a Chinese consortium submitted the sole bid to build a sprawling deep-sea port in Anaklia, marking the first megaproject on the Black Sea coast to be built and operated by Chinese firms. Georgian Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Levan Davitashvili made the announcement at a May 29 press conference, where he said the government had received bids from a Swiss-Luxembourgish consortium and a joint offer from China Communications Construction Company and the Singapore-based China Harbour Investment.
Two of the Chinese firms are under U.S. and U.K. sanctions. It's another sign of the close ties between Tbilisi and Beijing. In July 2023, they signed a strategic partnership pact, and Anaklia marks another attempt to bring Chinese companies to Georgia's Black Sea after a bid around Poti's port broke down in 2020.
Why is this important? This deal will also affect the future of the so-called Middle Corridor, a global trade network that ships goods between Europe and Asia in which Georgia serves as a strategic node. The European Union has said developing the route is a goal, especially since Moscow's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine where it provides trade links that bypass Russia.
Meanwhile in Russia
Journalist Ekaterina Barkalova (Bumaga Media) describes how the Russian military’s recruitment of soldiers among the prisoner population in St. Petersburg has pivoted to suspects in criminal investigations, offering release from pretrial detention and the suspension of their case in exchange for frontline service in Ukraine.
Previously unknown tool in the Kremlin’s propaganda arsenal: an online program called Clicker Pulse. This software allows the Russian authorities and pro-government media to track which individual messages from the president’s speeches resonate with specific audiences and which ones fall flat. Using this information, the managers of Kremlin-aligned social media pages can then boost or suppress various sound bites from Putin’s addresses and press conferences to align with what regional audiences want to hear.
Gazprom won't recover losses from full-scale war, report says. "The main consequences of sanctions for Gazprom and the energy industry are the contraction of export volumes, which will be restored to their 2020 level no earlier than in 2035," the report said.
Biden clarified that the US does not permit the use of its weapons for strikes deep into Russia, including Moscow or the Kremlin. Permission is only granted for strikes on border areas from where Russian shelling of Ukraine originates and where Russian troops invade Ukrainian territory.
In a recent statement, Putin issued a “strong” warning against any strikes against the Russian Federation involving Western countries, stating that such actions would be considered a direct war against Russia.
He emphasized that Moscow would respond accordingly to such threats. Additionally, Putin mentioned the possibility of Russia supplying long-range weapons to regions of the world that could launch attacks on countries providing weapons to Ukraine. He pointed out that Ukraine's military cannot independently use weapons like ATACMS missiles, implying that any such attacks would have Western involvement.
Putin also noted the presence of Western instructors in Ukraine, suffering losses, and criticized the West for trying to downplay this fact. Despite the tensions, he observed that Italy's policy towards Russia is more restrained compared to many other countries, and Russophobia is not prevalent there.
Apparently tired of naming British individuals, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that it is adding to its diplomatic “stop list” an unspecified number of “representatives of the [U.K.] political establishment, journalism, and expert community.” The new group banned from entering Russia includes “local politicians responsible for formulating and implementing London’s anti-Russian policy, journalists caught lying and spreading Russophobia, and experts portraying important sociopolitical events in [Russia] in a negative and inaccurate light.”
A Moscow court sentenced online streamer Anna “YokoBovich” Bazhutova to 5.5 years in prison for spreading supposedly false information about the Russian military’s atrocities in Bucha.
A group of wives and mothers of mobilized Russian soldiers picketed outside of the Defense Ministry building in Moscow on June 3. The women brought their children and wore t-shirts and carried signs with slogans like, “Please bring my dad home” and “It’s time for the mobilized to come home,” referring to servicemen who were drafted into the army as part of Russia’s mobilization drive in September 2022.
The Russian state has been spending more on the film industry since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine — 3.5 times more on films about war and conflict with the West. Journalists found that the Cinema Fund and Culture Ministry's average annual spending on such storytelling has jumped from 640 million rubles ($7.93 million) to 2.35 billion rubles ($29.13 million). The government has helped finance movies about Soviet pilots during WWII, the liberation of Jewish prisoners during WWII, and a young man enlisting with Donbas separatists after 2014, among others. There’s also a film in production by one of Gazprom Media’s subsidiaries about a Soviet submarine going to the North Pole to demonstrate a potential nuclear strike against the United States.
Why is this story relevant? Each regime from time immemorial has re-written Russia’s history. Putin is no different: he’s actively shaping the history that the regime would like Russian children and adults to believe. Historical memory is weaponised as everything else. The propaganda films being produced now serve this purpose.
Official Kremlin rhetoric has become openly hostile since Western leaders allowed Kyiv to use their weapons to strike targets inside Russia. On Tuesday, President Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said at a briefing that Russia and the United States view each other as “enemy countries.” Peskov was commenting on U.S. officials reportedly removing former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter from a plane in New York before he could travel through Istanbul to reach St. Petersburg and appear at a St. Petersburg economic forum.
Moscow and Tehran can cooperate closer in the sphere of high technologies, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the meeting with heads of international news agencies organized by TASS. "We have the whole plan of joint efforts; we have trade and economic ties developing. Certainly, the desire is strong that we undertake extra efforts in the direction of development in the sphere of high technologies. Considering all the constraints, it is not so simple to do this but it is possible. And we will certainly do it," Putin stressed.
China's peace plan has international backing, Beijing claims after Ukraine summit snub. The document, which China and Brazil laid out in a joint statement in May, called for an international conference recognized by both Ukraine and Russia, Bloomberg said.
80th Anniversary of D-Day
On this day eighty years ago Mr Donovan, the father of a very close friend, landed on the beaches in Normandy. He’s there today with his daughters to remember and honour his mates that didn’t make it. This video about the Royal British Legion is for him with our sincerest thanks.
France has detained a Russian terrorist who planned to blow up a cargo with military aid to Ukraine amid the arrival of President Zelensky in the country. The French PNAT anti-terrorism prosecutors office detained a Russian agent who intended to blow up military equipment intended for delivery to Ukraine. This was reported by Le Journal du Dimanche media.
United24: President Zelenskyy salutes a World War II veteran during the event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy.
Allied Support
FT: US proposes $50 billion Ukraine loan conditional on EU extending sanctions against Russia until end of war. The U.S. has proposed that a $50 billion loan to Ukraine could be repaid by profits from frozen Russian assets, on the condition that the EU agrees to extend sanctions against Russia until the end of the war, the Financial Times reported on June 5, citing a leaked EU discussion paper.
France to provide Ukraine over $700 million in critical infrastructure support. The funds will primarily focus on projects related to Ukraine's transportation and energy infrastructure, hit hard by heavy Russian assaults in 2024.
Italy to send Ukraine second SAMP/T air defense system, foreign minister confirms. Ukraine has asked international partners to deliver more air defense in the wake of an increase in Russian strikes targeting energy infrastructure since March, and devastating aerial attacks in Kharkiv Oblast.
UK and Latvia launch an industry competition to provide thousands of drones for Ukraine. This competition is open to industry from any nation in the Ukraine Defence Contact Group.
Ukraine has urged the U.S. and Europe to increase the training of F-16 pilots. They have 30 eligible pilots ready for training in the U.S., but the Biden administration has limited the training slots to 12 pilots due to capacity constraints in Arizona.
During Lukashenko's visit to the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, a man ran to the central square with a Ukrainian flag.
UK military chief confident Ukraine will win the war, but allies must 'maintain support.' Radakin insisted that Russia is "failing" despite the ongoing offensive in Kharkiv Oblast and Ukrainian forces, which have been recently facing both a lack of personnel and ammunition shortage.
Politico: Ukraine-born Congresswoman Spartz under preliminary inquiry due to allegations of abuse of staff. Republican Congresswoman Victoria Spartz, the first member of the U.S. Congress born in Ukraine, is under a preliminary inquiry by the House Ethics Committee due to allegations of abusive treatment of staff and "general toxicity," Politico reported on June 4.
NYC: The Georgia Court of Appeals stayed most proceedings in Donald Trump’s election interference case, effectively freezing the prosecution. The order was more bad news for critics and opponents of Trump who had hoped that he would stand trial in Georgia before he faced off against President Biden in the general election.
"I forgive the attacker, let him figure out in his own head what he did and why," Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico released the first video after the May 15 attack. He added that he plans to return to work in late June - early July. He also blamed the opposition for the attack.
Reuters: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alliance was winning a majority of seats about halfway through the count in the general election, but the numbers were well short of the landslide predicted in exit polls.
Iran-backed Shi'ite armed groups in Iraq have ramped up rocket and missile attacks on Israel in recent weeks, raising concerns in Washington and among some Iranian allies of potential Israeli retaliation and regional escalation should they draw blood.
President Joe Biden is expected to sign a sweeping new border measure that would allow authorities to quickly deport or send back to Mexico migrants caught crossing the southwest border if illegal entries surpass a certain level, according to two sources with knowledge of the move.
Putin is Relying on Xi to Help Recreate the Russian Empire—J. De Trani
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, their 43rd meeting since Xi took over in 2013, was an opportunity for both countries to challenge the U.S. and its leadership role in the global community.
Xi and Putin pledged a “new era” strategic partnership and rivals of the U.S., “an aggressive Cold War hegemon sowing discord across the world.” Xi, his third term in power, and Putin, starting his fifth term in power, both challenged the U.S. led global order. Xi spoke of “pushing forward with changes that have not happened in 100 years.”
Although Russia is heavily sanctioned for its invasion of Ukraine, trade with China has increased exponentially, up more than 64 % since 2021, to $240 billion in 2023, using their own currencies for over 90% of the trade. China provides Russia with cars, clothing, raw materials, and other products. Of special concern, however, are the dual-use products China provides to Russia for its war in Ukraine: machine tools and microelectronics, to the tune of about $300 million per month. [continue]