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.
The best May 9 trolling in the video above from non other than the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine: “We watched russia's "Victory Day" parade today with great interest. Our tribute.” Genius.
Stories we’re following…
Russia launched about 15 cruise missiles at Ukraine’s capital on Tuesday, the second attack in as many days, with air defence systems shooting all of them down, officials said, after air raid alerts blared over most of the country. “As at the front, the plans of the aggressor failed,” Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv’s city military administration, said in comments posted on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian attacks hit 10 Ukrainian regions, kill 3 civilians over past day. Russia struck a total of 127 settlements over the past 24 hours, killing three civilians and injuring 28, Ukraine's Defense Ministry media center said on May 8.
Ukraine downs 23 Russian cruise missiles. Russian forces launched a total of 25 Kalibr and X-101/X-555 cruise missiles overnight on May 9, the Ukrainian Air Force said in its morning update.
About 100,000 Russian soldiers have died in the ongoing battle to capture Bakhmut, a Ukrainian general has claimed. Col Serhiy Cherevaty, who is spokesman for the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that they were “rough calculations” in an interview on Ukrainian TV. Cherevaty said that Russia had launched about 415 artillery strikes on Sunday alone.
Belgorod governor reports artillery fire that injured five in Shebekino. Two “massive attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” said Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
RFE/RL: Along the northern flank of Ukrainian-controlled territory on the outskirts of the eastern city of Bakhmut, tank crews from the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade are waiting for the ground to dry up so they can begin a long-anticipated counteroffensive against Russian forces.
AFP journalist killed by Grad rockets in Chasiv Yar. Arman Soldin, a video journalist for Agence France-Presse, was killed when Russia launched Grad rockets at Chasiv Yar on May 9, the news agency reported.
CDS Daily Brief: General Gerasimov couldn't integrate PMCs and Chechen units, which have operational autonomy but rely on Russian logistics, into a unified command system in the military operation zone. They have also lowered the priority of the offensive in Bakhmut in favor of accumulating resources for a defensive operation at the expense of reducing the supply to PMCs in this direction.
In Skadovsk, Kherson Oblast, the Russian invaders close down district and city administrations. On the night of May 6-7, they loaded documents, office equipment, and other state property into motor vehicles. By the morning of May 7, a significant part of the Russian occupation administration had left the city, along with their families. Similar situations are being observed in Mykhailivka, Petrivka, Shevchenko, Shyroke, Ulyanivka, and Krasne of Kherson Oblast.
Along the western coast of the Black Sea, occupied by the Russian Federation, and in the northern regions of Crimea, engineering fortifications and earth defense structures are being built.
Russian troops suspend operation of occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Russian occupation authorities are suspending the operation of reactors at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Russian state media TASS wrote on May 8.
General Staff: Russian occupation forces in Zaporizhzhia Oblast move looted property to Crimea. "Russian occupiers continue robbing Ukrainian citizens, enterprises, and state institutions in the temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region," the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on May 9.
National Resistance Centre: The Russian forces have begun forced deportations of the civilian population. At the same time, they settle Russians in the place of native inhabitants. For example, 60% of the native inhabitants left the city of Melitopol and moved to the territory controlled by Ukraine. Many else were deported to Russia. Instead, they were replaced by citizens of the Russian Federation, who in most cases have family ties to units of the russian army and representatives of the occupation administrations.
Water shortages are becoming an increasingly critical issue for the Russian occupiers in temporarily occupied Donetsk, As reported by UK Defence Intelligence update on 9 May.
Moscow airports are taking extra security measures amid a surge in reports of unauthorized drone flights. According to the Aviatorshchina telegram channel, airport workers were required to increase their vigilance and immediately report all foreign vehicles, stray items, and unmanned aerial vehicles in the airport area.
"A working group consisting of Iranian engineers, organized by the FSB of the Russian Federation and the KGB of the Russian Federation, visited the “Gomel Radio Factory” They discussed the possibility of systematic adjustment production of kamikaze drones.
May 9 parade at the Kremlin: Putin has told Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine that the “whole country was praying for them” as he used his Victory Day speech to defend his invasion of Ukraine. Leaders from Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and Uzbekistan joined Putin for Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on May 9. The Kremlin will try to use these visiting dignitaries as a show of support from Central Asia as reported by ISW. In his speech, Putin said:
"Russia has no enemies among the nations, neither in the West nor in the East. Like the absolute majority of people on Earth, we want to live to see a peaceful, free and stable future. I believe that any ideology based on superiority is disgusting, criminal and deadly by nature."
The decision to cancel Immortal Regiment was made earlier this year after a meeting with Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin's deputy chief of staff, a former Kremlin official told The Moscow Times. Security considerations were probably not the main factor in the decision, he said.
Immortal Regiment marches have been canceled to prevent an "unauthorized outpouring of grief" by the families of soldiers killed in Ukraine, says Dara Massicot, a military expert at US RAND Corp.
Six regions of Russia have exhausted the balance of budget reserves and entered 2023 with a complete or almost complete lack of funds in their accounts. According to RBC, analysts of Expert RA came to this conclusion after analyzing the data of the Electronic Budget portal. Although in general the “cash cushion” of the regions in 2022 increased by 13% and reached 2.28 trillion rubles, some subjects were forced to actively spend their savings, and some “ate” them without a trace.
Poll: 67% of Ukrainians are against any compromises with Russia; 82% say Putin new Hitler. A survey published by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation on May 8 shows that over 67% of Ukrainians say the war with Russia can end only after a Ukrainian victory. Roughly 5% of those asked say any compromises are acceptable as long as they end the war.
Zelensky signs decree making May 9 Europe Day, proposes to celebrate Victory Day on May 8. President Volodymyr Zelensky has submitted a draft law to the Ukrainian parliament proposing that May 8 be the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in the Second World War. The decision constitutes a significant break from the Russian colonial view of WWII history. Russia celebrates the Victory Day on May 9th, and it's one of the centerpieces of modern-day Russian propaganda.
President Zelensky said he discussed European integration, defence matters and sanctions against Russia at talks at a meeting with EU Commission president von der Leyen in Kyiv on Tuesday. Zelensky said he expected the European Union to soon approve more sanctions on Russia over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
He said he expected the EU to remove trade restrictions on grain imports from Ukraine, after the trading bloc put measures in place after complaints from Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria. Zelenskiy told reporters the moves were “harsh” and “protectionist”.
Germany chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday as Russia marked Victory Day with a parade.
“2,200 kilometres northeast from here, Putin is parading his soldiers, tanks and missiles today,” Scholz told lawmakers in a speech at the European parliament in Strasbourg, according to prepared remarks.
“We must not be intimidated by such power plays! Let’s remain steadfast in our support for Ukraine – for as long as it takes!”
The European Parliament voted to prolong tariff-free trade with Ukraine for another year to support the Ukrainian economy in wartimes. The suspension of tariffs applies to fruits and vegetables subject to the entry price system, as well as agricultural products and processed agricultural products subject to tariff-rate quotas. Industrial products are subject to zero duties since 1 January 2023 under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, so they are not included in the new proposal.
UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said there is currently no prospect of peace between Russia and Ukraine because “both sides are convinced that they can win”.
Unfortunately, I don’t think peace negotiations are possible at the moment,” he said. “Both sides are convinced they can win. This was a Russian invasion that was against international law and against the United Nations charter, but I don’t see Russia being willing to pull out of the territories it’s occupying at the moment and I think Ukraine is hoping to retake them.
Washington Post: UK preparing to send long-range missiles to Ukraine. The U.K. appears ready to send Ukraine long-range missiles that can hit targets up to 300 kilometers away, the Washington Post reported on May 9, citing a procurement notice by the U.K.-led International Fund for Ukraine.
US announced new long-term security assistance package for Ukraine. The U.S. should announce a $1.2 billion military aid package for Ukraine on May 9, the Associated Press reported, citing U.S. officials. The aid package is designed to meet Ukraine’s long-term security needs, including helping Ukraine protect itself from Russian missile and drone attacks.
The package includes funding for:
Additional air defence systems and munitions.
Equipment to integrate western air defence launchers, missiles, and radars with Ukraine’s air defence systems.
Ammunition for counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems.
155mm artillery rounds.
Commercial satellite imagery services.
Support for training, maintenance and sustainment activities.
Bloomberg: EU hoping to prevent Russian oil transfers at sea. The European Union has proposed banning vessels from entering its ports that help Russia evade sanctions and price caps with cargo transfers at sea, Bloomberg reported on May 8.
EU plans to sanction Chinese companies aiding Russia’s war. For the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, the European Commission has proposed sanctions against Chinese businesses supporting Moscow’s war efforts, the Financial Times reported on May 8.
The Dutch government is considering the possibility of sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine and is negotiating with its allies, Reuters, referring to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. "We [are] discussing intensely with Denmark, the UK, some other parties in Europe and also the U.S. on F-16s," Rutte said on the first day of his visit to Brazil.
Poland has transferred 10 MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said on air of еру Polish TVP. In addition, on 13 April, the German government approved Poland's request to transfer MiG-29 fighters left over from the German Democratic Republic's stockpile to Ukraine.
First Trump Verdict…
Matthew Cantor, Nearly 50 news websites are ‘AI-generated’, a study says. Would I be able to tell?—The Guardian
A tour of the sites, featuring fake facts and odd wording, left me wondering what was real
Breaking news from celebritiesdeaths.com: the president is dead.
At least that’s what the highly reliable website informed its readers last month, under the no-nonsense headline “Biden dead. Harris acting president, address 9am ET”. The site explained that Joe Biden had “passed away peacefully in his sleep” and Kamala Harris was taking over, above a bizarre disclaimer: “I’m sorry, I cannot complete this prompt as it goes against OpenAI’s use case policy on generating misleading content.”
Celebritiesdeaths.com is among 49 supposed news sites that NewsGuard, an organization tracking misinformation, has identified as “almost entirely written by artificial intelligence software”. The sites publish up to hundreds of articles daily, according to the report, much of that material containing signs of AI-generated content, including “bland language and repetitive phrases”. Some of the articles contain false information and many of the sites are packed with ads, suggesting they’re intended to make money via programmatic, or algorithmically generated, advertising. The sources of the stories aren’t clear: many lack bylines or use fake profile photos. In other words, NewsGuard says, experts’ fears that entire news organizations could be generated by AI have already become reality.
Kim Philby: Russian spy
Documentary exploring the murky circumstances behind the escape of one of Britain’s most notorious spies. In 1963, at the height of the Cold War, Kim Philby defected to Moscow from under the nose of British Intelligence. For the best part of thirty years he had been spying for the Soviet Union, while holding senior jobs in MI6. Fifty years on, more questions than answers still surround his defection. This film, shot in Beirut, London and Moscow reveals the blind spots in the British ruling class that made it so vulnerable to KGB penetration.
May 10: E-Stories