Oct 11 Buonasera Mag
Day 231: UA-G7, Lyman, ground war, UA economy, Energoatom, NASAMS, Belarus, Musk, Slovenia, Turkey, Bonham-Carter-A&Ps- Kyiv, UK Def, ISW, Glasnost Gone, Amanpour, Moutet, Davis, Aukan
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.
I’m back from Rome (more on that tomorrow) so the newsletter is a little late.
President Zelenskiy has asked G7 leaders to supply more air defence systems and for an international monitoring mission on the Belarusian border, as Russia continued to attack key infrastructure in Ukraine with a new wave of missile strikes on Tuesday.
Stories we’re following…
Spokesperson for the Operational Command ‘South’ of the UA AF, Nataliya Humenyuk: Over 1,170 square kilometres of Kherson and Mykolayiv regions have been liberated.
Ukraine’s air force destroyed 20 cruise missiles and 13 Shahed-136 UAVs yesterday In total, Russia launched 28 cruise missiles: 16 Х-101/Х-555 cruise missiles; 12 Kalibr cruise missiles.
UK Ministry of Defence: The damage from Saturday’s explosion on the Kerch bridge in Crimea could have a “significant” impact on Russia’s “already strained ability to sustain its forces” in southern Ukraine, the latest UK intelligence update says.
President Zelensky has proposed to deploy peace-keepers to the border between Ukraine and Belarus at the G7 summit.
Forensic workers pulled 10 bodies wrapped in black plastic from a mass grave in Lyman today as authorities work to assess the death toll and damage from more than four months of Russian occupation, the Associated Press reports.
ISW: The Kremlin is likely continuing to frame the Russian Ministry of Defense as the scapegoat for the Kerch Bridge explosion and other Russian military failures in order to deflect the blame from Putin.
On Sunday evening, Putin made his first comments about the explosion on the bridge to Crimea. He says it's a "terrorist attack aimed at destroying critical Russian civilian infrastructure" and blames "Ukrainian secret services" for it.
The Ukrainian economy is expected to shrink by more than a third this year, but with businesses reopening, Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko sees output stabilizing and growing by as much as 15% in 2023, albeit from a low base.
Ukrainians crowdfund about $10 million for kamikaze drones in 1 day. Ukrainian comedian, politician, and volunteer Serhiy Prytula said that he and activist Serhii Sternenko had raised nearly $10 million in one day to buy RAM ІІ kamikaze drones for the army.
Energoatom: Russia kidnaps Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant's deputy head. Russian troops have kidnapped Valerii Martyniuk, deputy head of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, holding him in an unknown place and allegedly torturing him, according to state company Energoatom.
G7 Leaders joint Statement: The leaders of the G7 have condemned Russia’s most recent missile attacks in Ukraine “in the strongest possible terms”, and vowed to stand “firmly” with Kyiv “for as long as it takes”. The “indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilian populations constitute a war crime” by Russian forces, they said in a joint statement following their meeting with president Zelensky.
No country wants peace more than Ukraine, whose people have suffered death, displacement and countless atrocities as the result of Russian aggression. We reaffirm that any use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by Russia would be met with severe consequences.
The US is speeding up the shipment of two National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) to Ukraine, the White House said. The US has approved sending Ukraine a total of eight NASAMS air defences so far, with two expected to be delivered soon and six more sent over a longer time frame.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the alliance has been monitoring Russia’s nuclear forces and that any deliberate attack against allies’ critical infrastructure “would be met with a united and determined response”.
New Russian commander for war: Gen. Sergei Surovikin. He committed military crimes in Chechnya, Syria, coordinated operations on Donbas. He is guilty of thousands of civilian deaths. Surovikin must be prosecuted as war criminal. His close people must be under severe sanctions.
General Staff: Russia tries to buy ammo from third countries, Belarus. Russia's leadership is trying to find resources to continue its war, Ukraine's General Staff reported on Oct. 9.
Elon Musk spoke directly to Putin before tweeting his peace plan to end the war in Ukraine that would have seen territory permanently handed over to Russia, according to a report. (more to come on this)
Christmas and New Years celebrations in St Petersberg will be cancelled this year to aid the war effort.
Russia has added the US tech giant Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, to its list of “terrorists and extremist” organisations, Russian news agencies reported.
Kyrgyzstan cancels at last minute joint military exercises with Russia, Belarus, Armenia and other former Soviet countries that were supposed to bring nearly 7,000 troops and showcase unity with Russia. Unironically, the exercises were named "Unbreakable Brotherhood 2022".
Slovenia’s MoD Jaro Nad: To mark his 70th birthday, we delivered yet another gift to agressor Putin. Another two new Zuzana 2 howitzers are now in Ukraine (and much more to come).
Milliyet: Turkey seeks to broker talks between Russia, 4 Western countries. According to Turkish pro-government newspaper Milliyet, Istanbul requested the U.S., France, Germany, and the U.K. to hold negotiations with Russia. No official comments were made regarding the issue.
Ukraine receives German IRIS-T air defense system. According to the German magazine Der Spiegel, the first of the four new IRIS-T SLM air defense systems arrived in Ukraine. Germany's Ambassador to Ukraine said Berlin will provide two systems by the end of 2022. Germany will also be giving Ukraine over 90,000 winter uniforms.
A British businessman, Graham Bonham-Carter, has been arrested on US charges of conspiring to violate sanctions placed on the Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, according to prosecutors as per Reuters. Bonham-Carter was also charged with wire fraud for funding US properties purchased by Deripaska and efforts to expatriate Deripaska’s artwork in the US.
Nissan Motor has announced a complete withdrawal from the Russian market and the sale of its Russian assets, the company said in a press release.
‘People need to tell stories’: Lviv holds literary festival in defiance of war- The Guardian
The festival has brought together Ukrainian, British and international authors including human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, whose bestselling book, East West Street, is largely set in 20th-century Lviv.
Ukrainian writer Oleksandr Mykhed told audiences that at the moment of the invasion, he realised: “You could not protect your family from a rifle with your poems. You could not hit someone with a book, you could try but it won’t work with the crazy occupiers from Moscow. I lost belief in the power of culture, lost interest in reading.”
Inside the Ukrainian Counterstrike That Turned the Tide of the War- Time
In Zaluzhny’s view, the drills were a centerpiece of Ukraine’s defensive strategy, its best chance of survival, and the commanders were not taking them seriously enough. “I spent an hour yelling,” he recalls. “I lost it.” The men seated around the table were mostly older and more experienced than Zaluzhny, who did not have a reputation for losing his cool. “I explained to them that if they can’t pull this off, the consequences will not only cost us our lives, but also our country.”
Julia Davis, Team Putin Wakes Up: We Never Should’ve Laughed at Ukraine- The Daily Beast
He also revealed that not everyone is as receptive to the idea of an indefinite war against Ukraine as Russian public polls alleged. Behind the scenes, many are anxious for the armed conflict to be over. In light of this rapidly growing trend, state TV propagandists have been tasked with convincing the public that unless Russia wins, its citizens would be locked “in concentration camps,” enslaved by the West or killed.
A Russian propaganda video depicting American society.
Erik Aukan…the ‘Kyiv’ Tapestry
