Oct 25 Buonasera Mag
Day 244: Zelensky, Donetsk, drone strikes, RU ammo depots, car bomb, Griner, RU spy, Steinmeier, Croatia, World Bank, Czeh, POL, EU- A&Ps- UK Def, Sovsun, ONS, Mongelli, Bellingcat, Lighthouse 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…
AP reporting 15 Russian strikes on eight settlements in the Donetsk oblast in the past day, authorities said. The attacks came as Russian forces pressed their offensive on the strategically placed towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Ukraine’s industrial heartland of Donbas. Ukrainian national police said that the strikes destroyed 19 residential buildings and one power line.
Russia launches 10 Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones from Belarus. Ukrainska Pravda cited intelligence sources. An air raid alert was announced in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast. Social network users reported that Shahed-136 drones had been seen in Kyiv and Chernihiv oblasts.
Ukraine’s military destroys 3 ammunition depots in southern Ukraine. Ukraine’s Operational Command “South” reported that Ukrainian forces also killed 40 Russian troops and destroyed three tanks, an anti-aircraft missile system “Osa,” and six armored vehicles on Oct. 24.
A car explosion near the office of ZaTV (Russian FSB HQs) in Russian-occupied Melitopol has injured at least five people – including some company employees, officials said. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official, has purportedly told Russian state media that the car explosion was a terrorist attack stemming from an “improvised explosive device”.
TASS just reported that Russia's Security Council pledged to "desatanize" Ukraine. The "desatanization" of Ukraine is becoming increasingly urgent, said Alexei Pavlov, deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council, because "hundreds of sects" are now operating in Ukraine.
American basketball star Brittney Griner has been sentenced to 9 years to a Russian penal colony. The official ‘charge’ was for drug smuggling. It was not immediately clear if her legal options were exhausted. There are two higher courts above the appellate division, culminating in the Supreme Court, but Ms. Griner’s lawyers have yet to confirm whether they will take the case any further.
Norwegian police on Monday arrested a suspected Russian spy in the Arctic town of Tromsoe, public broadcaster NRK reported on Tuesday, citing the Nordic country's PST security service. The man, who worked as a scientist, who studied "hybrid threats", at the University of Tromsoe, and posed as a Brazilian citizen but police believe his real identity to be Russian, NRK reported. The researcher apparently graduated from the Center for Military Studies in Calgary. Also, implausibly, he worked on a hybrid-threats university project called "The Grey Zone". This is the third Russian spy caught in the last few months who used a South American cover identity.
Russia is artificially delaying the inspection of ships in the Bosphorus. As a result, a queue of more than 170 vessels has formed, the Ministry of Infrastructure noted. Currently, this is causing Ukrainian ports to work at only 25-30% of their capacity. (UBN)
The Hague: 19 October 2022. Croatia is the 22nd State to file a declaration of intervention in the allegations of genocide case for the @CIJ_ICJ Ukraine vs. Russia.
Ukraine demands Russia's exclusion from FIFA and UEFA. The reason is that it is possible for teams from the occupied territories to participate in the domestic championships of Russia.
The World Bank said yesterday it had disbursed an additional $500 million to help Ukraine meet urgent spending needs created by the Russian Feb. 24 invasion and the ongoing war.
Poland’s PM, Mateusz Morawiecki, has said Russian assets and those of Russian oligarchs present a “huge pot of gold” that should be used for Ukraine’s reconstruction. “We must make sure that the offender pays for reconstruction. Russia should pay Ukraine war damages, war reparations,’ Morawiecki said today.
EU energy ministers are meeting in Luxembourg today to discuss a bloc-wide gas price cap and to map out their next moves, although it is likely to be weeks before any final decisions are made.
The European Commission urged EU countries and companies to donate more money and equipment to support the energy sector in Ukraine, over a third of which has been destroyed by Russian missile and drone strikes. “What is at stake is the protection and wellbeing of thousands and tens of thousands of households, vulnerable people, children and elderly before this coming winter,” EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson said.
Czech Republic closed its borders for Russians with touristic Schengen visas. The decision was approved on October 12th, today it came into force. Every day up to 200 Russians fly to Prague - reported by Novinky.cz referring to the the Czech Foreign Ministry.
Poland’s president Duda has organized an urgent evening meeting between himself, Poland’s PM Morawiecki, Defense Minister Błaszczak, Interior Minister Kamiński and the top generals of the Polish Army. Rumors swirling in Poland say there‘s a new threat from Kaliningrad
German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s surprise visit to Kyiv today comes six months after the Ukrainian government snubbed the Social Democrat’s offer of a visit over his past role in brokering closer economic ties between Germany and Russia.
Steinmeier also visited a town near the Belarusian border, which Ukraine says has been liberated from Russian troops but left with its infrastructure destroyed. Steinmeier will provide aid to the municipality for its energy infrastructure, he said. “My message to Ukrainians: you can count on Germany”, Steinmeier said.
Two new prime ministers take office today: PM Rishi Sunak in the UK and PM Giorgia Meloni in Italy.
Iulia Sabina-Joja, Meet the tough women leaders taking on Vladimir Putin- NY Post
It’s striking, the large number of brave women who are leading the protests against Iran’s violent and vicious theocratic regime. It’s likewise notable that young women lead the Ukrainian organization just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Arguably less noticed yet equally important: Across Europe, it’s women who are transcending political and geographic boundaries to call for an end to Russia’s brutal aggression.
Here are five names Americans should know.
The Remote Control Killers Behind Russia’s Cruise Missile Strikes on Ukraine- Bellingcat
Following a six-month-long investigation, Bellingcat and its investigative partners The Insider and Der Spiegel were able to discover a hitherto secretive group of dozens of military engineers with an educational and professional background in missile programming. Phone metadata shows contacts between these individuals and their superiors spiked shortly before many of the high-precision Russian cruise missile strikes that have killed hundreds and deprived millions in Ukraine of access to electricity and heating. The group, which works from two locations – one at the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Moscow and another at the Admiralty headquarters in St. Petersburg – is buried deep within the Russian Armed Forces’ vast “Main Computation Centre of the General Staff”, often abbreviated as ГВЦ (GVC).
Shadow Government in Putin’s Own Backyard Plots Against Him- The Daily Beast
“We are proposing to build an alliance with democratic Belarus,” Tsikhanouskaya said in her proposal. “I am convinced that Russia will be defeated, and Ukraine will restore its territorial integrity and defend its independence. Ukrainians are now writing the history not just of their own, but that of the world… We are ready for joint action with Ukraine.”
The alliance would be focused on building close relations across multiple spheres, from social to economic, as well as military and diplomatic relations, her team told The Daily Beast. Kavaleuski said their team would be interested in security guarantees that Ukraine is working to gain as well.
QAnon in Europe: tracing a viral conspiracy- Lighthouse Reports
Lighthouse Reports and Bellingcat spent a year working on the largest data-driven investigation into QAnon in Europe, setting up a database of channels and posts in order to reveal the dynamics of viral conspiracy theories and their mutation in different countries, focusing on who is sustaining QAnon and how this is happening in Europe.
In Germany, our partner Der Spiegel focused on a trend that investigators have come to call “conspiracy entrepreneurship”.
In Italy, Il Manifesto reports with us on how the Italian QAnon ecosystem has taken a peculiar shape: a mostly self-referential universe, where some figures play a central role in the spread of theories and where QAnon narratives have reached other ecosystems thus mixing with other traditional conspiracy theories but also with anti-vaccine content.
In France, Le Monde used our data-analysis to investigate how the “biolabs” conspiracy travelled from the US to Europe. This conspiracy alleges that Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine to destroy US biological laboratories — the theory of the presence of biolabs has been fed for many years by various Russian propaganda outlets, and it has recently returned to prominence.
