Oct 27 Buonasera Mag
Day 246: Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Korzhove, MLRS GER, surrender, bike battalions, Sobchak, Shrimp, Xi, EU, France-A&Ps- NLwartracker, Liubov, Scherba, Iran, Frontline, Yeva & Zaktar, GO_A
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…
Russian forces reportedly struck the Kyiv region and the city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, according to local media reports and regional officials. Kyiv regional governor, Oleksiy Kuleba, did not disclose the location of the attack but said that rescue workers were on site. Russian forces also attacked the power grid in central Ukraine as well.
General Staff: Ukraine repels Russian attacks near 11 settlements in Donetsk Oblast. According to the General Staff's recent update, Ukrainian forces also hit 3 Russian military command points, 6 spots with Russian troops and military equipment, and 2 ammunition depots.
Follow up on the oil depot in Russian-occupied Shakhtarsk, in Donetsk, was engulfed in flames overnight yesterday. The city’s Russian-installed mayor, Alexander Shatov, claimed the fire was caused by Ukrainian shelling of the railway station. Russian state news agency reports said 12 fuel reservoirs near the station were damaged by the fire.
Fuel tanks and tank cars are on fire for the second day in Shakhtars'k. Temporarily-occupied Shakhtars'k in Donetsk region is a logistics hub for the Russian invading forces. It is critical for the supplying Zaporizhzhya and Khersonshchyna.
Ukraine destroys Russian barracks in Korzhove, Luhansk Oblast, at least 10 officers killed and Nearly 60 Russian military personnel, according to Serhii Haidai.
President Zelensky: Ukraine has started cooperation with Israel in the field of intelligence and defense.
MLRS from the new German military assistance package is already in Ukraine. Information about this was published on the website of the German government. Berlin handed over to Kyiv 2 more "MARS II" MLRS with ammunition, 4 "PzH 2000" self-propelled howitzers and 2 surface drones.
Ukraine receives 2 NASAMS air defense systems from US. Raytheon Technologies, U.S.-based aerospace and defense conglomerate, has delivered two NASAMS air defense systems due for Ukraine to the U.S. government, its chief executive said on Oct 25.
New SBU interception: The Russian military reports that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are so actively destroying Russian equipment that individual units of the Russians have turned into "Bicycle battalions."
US @PressSec says, U.S is concerned that Moscow is advising Iran on "best practices" to manage protests "drawing on Russia's extensive experience in suppressing open demonstrations".
The US will deploy advanced B61-12 tactical nuclear bombs in Europe ahead of schedule. It will be delivered in December, not spring 2023, — Politico. This step is taken "to keep Moscow from crossing the red line".
Ukraine has boosted its forces in the northern region near Belarus to counter any possible renewed Russian attack across the border even if at this time “the creation of a strike force [in Belarus] is not observable,” says the head of Kyiv’s general staff Oleksii Hromov.
TASS: Konstantin Vorontsov, the deputy director of the foreign ministry’s department for non-proliferation and arms control, said:
Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike. We are talking about the involvement of components of civilian space infrastructure, including commercial, by the United States and its allies in armed conflicts.
Russian investigators on Wednesday raided the home of Ksenia Sobchak, the glamourous daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s one-time boss, in a move that has sent shockwaves through the country’s political scene. Investigators said that the search at Sobchak’s luxury home in Moscow was part of a probe into alleged wrongdoing by her media director, Kirill Sukhanov, who was arrested on charges of extortion.
Putin spoke at the Valdai Club today reiterating his old favourite that the West was finished and is destroying the world, appropriating all the global resources. He made no mention of the Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“The West”, he said “has taken several steps towards escalation and they are always trying to escalate. There’s nothing new there. They’re fuelling the war in the Ukraine, organising politicians around Taiwan, destabilising the world food and energy markets. As far as the last one is concerned, it is not deliberate, [I] don’t doubt that. It was due to a number of systemic errors committed by the Western authorities I’ve just mentioned.”
The West is playing a dangerous game, he says, and is “throwing aside all rules” when confronted with competition from Asia and that it still looks upon others as “second-rate people”.
“Western elites have no right to enforce others to follow their path,” he says. “No one can dictate to our people how we should build our society.”
Moscow had wanted to “be friends” with the West and Nato, but would not accept attempts by the United States, European Union and the UK to hold Russia down, he claimed.
President Xi Jinping said China is willing to work with the United States to find ways to get along to the benefit of both, Chinese state television reported on Thursday, ahead of a possible meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Indonesia.
Josep Borrell: The European Union has reduced its dependence on Russian gas supplies from 40% to 7% of all imports, the head of European diplomacy.
The EU Commission is planning to designate the United Arab Emirates as a high-risk country for money-laundering. Brussels “will soon propose the European Parliament and the Council […] to add the UAE to the EU’s list of high-risk third countries,” Commissioner Mairead McGuinness wrote in a letter dated October 24 to Transparency International EU Director Michiel van Hulten. (via Politico)
The French company Eutelsat continues to broadcast Russian channels despite the unprecedented sanctions imposed by the EU.
The German government has reached an agreement on the controversial Hamburg port deal that allows for Cosco to buy a stake in one of the terminals. The Chinese firm will be allowed to buy a 24.9 percent stake (instead of 35 percent) of the shipping company that runs the terminal, preventing Cosco from having a formal say over management decisions.
Asked in a BBC interview if Nato countries should aim to spend 3% of GDP on defence, the Estonian foreign minister Urmas Reinsalu said: “Absolutely.” He also said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a “game-changer”, adding: “Autocrats are investing in weapons. They believe in (the) power of arms. To defend our values – the rules-based order – we need also to invest in the weapons.”
Russians sanctioned over Ukraine aren’t barred from Canada because the government chose to use SEMA instead of the Magnitsky Act. The government choosing not to use the Magnitsky Act means our response isn’t as effective as it ought to be.
Frontline: Documenting Potential War Crimes in Ukraine (must see)
FRONTLINE and the Associated Press trace Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pattern of atrocities in Ukraine and across other conflicts, exposing the challenges of trying to hold Russia to account. The documentary offers a window into the lives of Ukrainians living under siege, capturing the devastation of the war and the ongoing pursuit for accountability.
Inside the hospitals that concealed Russian casualties- CNN
"We can confirm they (Russians) used Belarusian infrastructure, including medical buildings and field hospitals. They also used morgues ... and they used train stations or airbases to transport dead people or injured people, we have photos of that,” Anton Motolko, a Belarusian blogger who fled Minsk in 2020 and founded Belarusian Hajun project, told CNN. Motolko said his sources told him that morgues in the area were overflowing, and that a steady stream of wounded soldiers had arrived at Mazyr City Hospital, where Andrei worked.
Thomas M. Gregg, No Off Ramp: Critics of US involvement in Ukraine spin fantasies of a diplomatic exit strategy- The Cosmopolitan Globalists
Americans who oppose US involvement in the war periodically berate the Biden Administration for its failure to impose a diplomatic solution. V. Putin, they say, must be provided with an “off-ramp”; that is, some sort of face-saving compromise, the tab to be picked up by Ukraine in the form of territorial and other concessions. National Review’s Michael Brendan Dougherty is one such critic. But details tend to be lacking, no doubt because to spell them out would expose the off-ramp for what it is: appeasement. So instead we get a cascade of rhetorical questions; e.g., from Mr. Dougherty: What are the limits of America’s involvement in the war? What will be the status of Crimea? What’s the exit strategy? And so on.
Robin Sears, Convoy inquiry reveals another Canadian intelligence fiasco- The Star
Bizarrely, CSIS, RCMP and OPP have for years failed to understand and master the power of social media. They monitor the obscure hate sites peripatetically. They fail to see patterns, share findings, or dig into identities and connections. Shopify does a better job at it than Canadian security agencies. Perhaps we should retain them.
It is the absence of an aggressive outbound social media strategy that is even more astonishing. No agency smacks down misinformation, calls out lies and disinformation, let alone offers a more Canadian view on issues from race to terrorism. The reason may be that they fear to be seen to be “political.”
Bob Woodward, The Trump Tapes: 20 interviews that show why he is an unparalleled danger- WaPo
In more than 50 years of reporting, I have never disclosed the raw interviews or full transcripts of my work. But after listening again to the 20 interviews I conducted with President Donald Trump during his last year as chief executive, I have decided to take the unusual step of releasing them. I was struck by how Trump pounded in my ears in a way the printed page cannot capture.
In their totality, these interviews offer an unvarnished portrait of Trump. You hear Trump in his own words, in his own voice, during one of the most consequential years in American history: amid Trump’s first impeachment, the coronavirus pandemic and large racial justice protests.
The voice of Ukraine…
Kateryna Pavlenko (middle) is the lead singer in the group Go_A, an electro-folklore outfit, that specialise in the modern retelling of traditional Ukrainian stories that have already passed through many generations by word of mouth.
Kateryna has studied folklore most of her life. She sings using the ancient folklore technique of “white voice” (based on an open throat and free volume with a bright colour) and has a command of extreme vocals.
Go_A should have won Eurovision 2021 with their incredible song, Shum: original sound mixed with Ukrainian folk, and hypnotic.
