Oct 5 Buonasera Mag
Day 225: Kherson, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Lyman, UN, NATO, EU, Zaporizhzhia, RU polling, Alrosa, Navalny, Iran-A&Ps-Theiner, Davis, Lautman, Dmitri, Zelenska, Wolfsonn, Keepgoing, PBS Holocaust
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.
Sorry for the delay…we were on our Spaces with Christopher Burgess and Alexander Khara. In the Saturday Edition, look out for the recording.
Stories we’re following…
Oct 4 address: President Zelensky: “Today we have good news from the front line. First: the Ukrainian army is making quite fast and powerful progress in the south of our country as part of the current defense operation. Dozens of settlements have already been exempted from the Russian pseudo-referendum this week alone.”
ISW: Ukraine continues to make simultaneous advances in Kherson, Kharkiv and Luhansk oblasts. The ISW reported that Ukraine's interdiction campaign is crippling Russian attempts to transfer additional ammunition, reserves, and mobilized men.
Stunning!
Ukrainian formations have advanced up to 20 km beyond the river into Russia’s defensive zone towards the supply node of the town of Svatove.
It is highly likely that Ukraine can now strike the key Svatove-Kremina road with most of its artillery systems, further straining Russia’s ability to resupply its units in the east.
Politically, Russian leaders will highly likely be concerned that leading Ukrainian units are now approaching the borders of Luhansk Oblast, which Russia claimed to have formally annexed last Friday.
Defence of Ukraine: “A torture chamber in Pisky-Radkivski. 2 photos. A gas mask that was put on the head of a victim who was covered with a smoldering rag and buried alive. And a box of gold dental crowns. A mini Auschwitz. How many more will be found in occupied Ukraine?”
The UN rights office has warned that Russia’s claimed annexation of Ukrainian territory could worsen human rights violations in the area, reported AFP: “The Russian Federation’s wide-scale armed attack has resulted in a dire human rights situation across Ukraine,” the UN rights office’s field operations chief said. “The people in Ukraine have experienced unspeakable suffering and devastation.”
The US has no indication that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict, despite “nuclear sabre-rattling” by Putin, according to the White House press secretary. An unnamed Western diplomat told Reuters that NATO has not warned alliance members of any Russian nuclear threat.
RIA Novosti: Vladimir Rogov (Russian-imposed administration in occupied Zaporizhzhia) is claiming that Ukraine will stage a “provocation”: “Extremely unhealthy activity has been observed in relation to the DHP in the city of Zaporizhzhia, temporarily under the control of the Zelenskiy regime. The information we receive cannot but cause concern for the fate of our native land […] According to their plan, the DHP can become the object of a provocation in order to blame Russia for everything.”
Ukraine may restart the Zaporizhzhia NPP, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, to ensure its safety, the president of the company that operates the plant told the Associated Press on Tuesday. Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant will operate under the supervision of Russian agencies.
Please watch this video. One gem: “It feels like your melon is getting thumped,” will go down in the books as one of the admissions made in this clip by the russian ‘war reporter’.
According to a poll by the pro-Kremlin Center for Public Opinion Research (FOM), before mobilization began (poll Sept 16-18), 57% of Russians characterized their mood as “calm” and 25% as “anxious.” A week later (Sept 23-25), the ratio of opinions was reversed: Only 26% of respondents were calm, and 69% said they were worried.
Putin has signed the four laws ratifying the Russian Federation’s claimed annexation of the occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russian forces do not currently fully control any of the four areas. Denis Pushilin named as Putin’s choice to lead the Donetsk region.
Polish MFA Zbigniew Rau: “The diplomatic note signed today, addressed to @AuswaertigesAmt, reflects the commitment for a complex settlement of the aftermath of German aggression and occupation during WW2.” Poland is demanding reparations from Germany for WW2.
President Duda has revealed that Poland has entered into negotiations with the U.S. to enter the NATO nuclear sharing program. American nukes are currently stored in Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands within the program.
8th round of sanctions against Russia agreed to by EU ambassadors. Details will be released tomorrow at 10am. Diplomats say the measures include export controls, import bans, broadening of sanctions criteria and legal alignment with the planned G7 oil price cap.
A price cap for Russian oil will not apply to pipeline shipments, Hungary‘s FM Szijjarto said in a statement late on Tuesday. Hungary, which has been the most vocal critic of sanctions against Russia in the EU, largely relies on Russian crude shipments and Russian gas, both imported via pipelines.
EUobserver: The EU is giving Russia carte blanche to keep selling diamonds to Antwerp and the EU. It had been planning to blacklist Russian diamond-mining giant Alrosa under original EU Commission proposals. Alrosa had directly financed a new Russian naval submarine as well as feeding billions of euros a year into the Kremlin's war chest. Alrosa stayed out of the final agreement on a new sanctions package nailed down in Brussels on Wednesday morning, diplomats said.
Frontex News: High tech border surveillance. Frontex installs cameras in the stratosphere. With such high-altitude platforms, the EU border agency aims to close the gap between its planes, drones and satellites.
Olga Lautman: “More absurdity from Russia. A 34 year old who has been blind from birth received mobilization papers. They continue looking for bodies to send to their death.”
Also: “The Russian market collapsed on rumors about Putin's new address to change the status of his genocide operation. Not sure how changing the status will help the Kremlin. Not like they will instantly develop a functioning military.”
Navalny news: Opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s comrades-in-arms in exile decided to revive the network of regional organizations. Navalny’s lieutenants, Ivan Zhdanov and Leonid Volkov, who initiated the network’s revival, were motivated because people who until recently remained outside politics “are beginning to realize the truth or at least ask questions.” Navalny’s supporters have announced that the new network will be unrelated to the old one and that they will recruit employees from scratch.
This situation is unique: It has never happened before in recent years. The sleeping majority woke up. Putin himself woke it up. And that is why we must act right now. Maybe tomorrow it will be too late.
Pro-Russian Accounts
Michael Wolfsonn, The Germans don't need Merkel's Russia Council! Bild (not again)
Europe needs a security architecture "including Russia," said the former chancellor at the ceremony marking "1110 years of Goslar". The Germans should also "think about the currently unthinkable, almost unimaginable - namely how something like relations with and with Russia can be developed again".
Donating for Ukraine…
Women at the forefront…
The U.S. and the Holocaust
The U.S. and the Holocaust is a three-part, six hour series that examines America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century. Americans consider themselves a “nation of immigrants,” but as the catastrophe of the Holocaust unfolded in Europe, the United States proved unwilling to open its doors to more than a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of desperate people seeking refuge.