Oct 6 Buonasera Mag
Day 226: Kherson, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia NPP, RU woes, Shoigu, Kara-Murza, EU sanctions, OPEC, EPC, Greece, Truss-A&Ps-Trad, UA Def, Avdeeva, NATO, Cseh, Babij, Massaro, Radicalized Pod
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.
"We aren’t just moving back. We are retreating, I can’t even find a word for it. This is an escape… There is nowhere to run. Antonovsky bridge is completely destroyed." - Russian soldiers- Kherson Oblast
Stories we’re following…
Ukraine may now strike key Svatove-Kreminna road. Ukraine's Armed Forces continue to make progress in offensive operations along both the northeastern and southern fronts, according to the U.K. Defense Ministry.
Russian columns have been sighted heading to the southern front lines near Melitopol.
Ukraine liberates more settlements in Kherson, Luhansk oblasts. President Zelensky said on Oct. 5 that over the last 24 hours, Ukraine had liberated Novovoskresenske, Novohryhorivka, and Petropavlivka villages in Kherson Oblast.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have liberated Hrekivka, as confirmed by Serhii Haiday, head of the Luhansk regional state administration: Heavy fighting continues for other settlements of Luhansk Oblast. The Russians are preparing for long-term defence.
Russia hit Zaporizhzhia with seven rockets, flattening an apartment building on early this morning. One person was killed and the local rescuers are trying to save 5 people from under the rubble. Elsewhere, Russia used what the Ukrainian authorities say are Iranian-supplied kamikaze drones to target the cities of Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Odesa. Ukraine’s military say they managed to shoot down 18 additional drones before they reached Odesa and Mykolaiv.
Putin signed a decree designating Zaporizhzhia NPP - Russian " federal property". Ukrainian state nuclear company Energoatom called the decree "absurd". The company stressed that ZNPP will continue to operate in Ukraine – in accordance with Ukrainian legislation.
Ukrainian intelligence: Russia began covert mobilization back in May. Russia has been conducting covert mobilization since May, when its forces had failed to achieve the tasks set for the invasion, including capturing Kyiv, according to Vadym Skibitsky, a deputy head of Ukraine's military intelligence.
MoD Shoigu claims that mobilization is proceeding in an orderly manner, with minimal problems, but the Russian Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has sent inquiries to three major marketplaces about the prices of army equipment. The FAS explained that the inspection and study of the situation on the market were carried out in connection with the appeals of deputies of the State Duma and numerous complaints of citizens about the unjustified growth of uniforms, gear, and military equipment prices.
A Russian-installed official in Ukraine, Kirill Stremousov, has suggested MoD Shoigu should consider killing himself in a video message due to the shame of the defeats in the Ukraine war, representing an astonishing public insult to Russia’s top brass.
Andrey Kartapolov, head of the State Duma Committee on Defense, criticized the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for not reporting the whole truth about military action in Ukraine. “They need to stop lying. We have spoken about this more than once. But somehow it doesn’t reach the individual leaders,” he said.
Mobilized Russian soldiers will not be reimbursed for military supplies or medicines they purchase themselves, according to the Obyasnyaem (We Explain) government portal.
Putin signs decree to formalize Russia's illegal seizure of Zaporizhzhia NPP. On Oct. 5, Putin signed a decree making an illegal order to transfer Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia NPP in Russian-occupied Enerhodar into Russian property.
Zaporizhzhia NPP seizure significance: “It is the first case in history when one country seizes the nuclear object of another.”
Kara-Murza: RIA has quoted lawyer Vadim Prokhorov as saying a criminal case for treason - which carries a sentence of up to 20 years - had been opened against Kara-Murza in connection with three of his public speeches.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Kuleba, who is in Senegal this week, promised that his country will do all it can to send more grain to Africa, which is facing a food crisis in the wake of the war, the AP reported.
Economy Ministry: Almost 3 million Ukrainian refugees are of working age. More than 6.4 million Ukrainians have fled Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine abroad, while 2.75 million of them are of working age, Interfax news site reports citing Ukraine’s Deputy Economy Minister Tetiana Berezhna.
OPEC to cut 2 million barrels of oil per day, three months after Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia asking MBS to boost production.
EU Parliament voted for a resolution supporting an EU initiative for the delivery of advanced weapons systems such as Leopard2 tanks and calling on the Member States to immediately start training of Ukrainian soldiers.
European Political Community: 44 European heads of state and government are in Prague for the inaugural meeting of the European Political Community (originally proposed by President Macron) — a congregation of leaders including from the EU, as well as aspiring members of the bloc, but also some of its neighbors who don’t want to join the Union, such as Norway, Switzerland and the U.K. Today discussions will focus on: 1) peace and security and 2) energy, climate and the economy.
President Zelensky spoke at the first meeting of European Political Community today. He has told European heads of state that Ukraine must win so Russia does not “advance on Warsaw or again on Prague”, according to reporting by Agence France Presse.
Czech Republic to provide Ukraine with heavy weapons as part of new military aid package This was reported by Czech media, citing a statement made by the head of the country's defense ministry, Jana Cernohova.
Jan Kallberg: “Winter is around the corner. In the sub-Arctic your problems are in the order - climate - logistics - enemy. Enemy messes with you sometimes, climate 24/7. UKR needs winter gear. If the Russians have no winter gear - it will put afterburner on their retreat and losses.”
Ukrainian MoD Reznikov: "We have precise information from our Turkish partners that Russians tried to order 200 thousand flak jackets and 500 thousand sets of winter clothes through third countries. It means that they have a problem with this.”
Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis has reassured President Zelensky that Athens is in lockstep with its EU and Nato allies in strongly condemning Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
Norway’s government will restrict access for Russian fishing vessels to its ports in the latest tightening of security following last week’s discovery of major leaks from the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
UK PM Liz Truss: Putin the shared foe of Europe for threatening democracy and pushing up energy prices, while her French counterpart, President Macron, is a “friend”. She also said that the UK is working with its European partners to "challenge Putin's appalling war in Ukraine".
Incoming PM Giorgia Meloni said that she would not attend the European Council meeting on October 20-21. “What’s the point of forcing the timing of an appointment where you risk bringing [back] little, or even worse, failure?”
Ukraine sells bracelets made of Azovstal steel to support Armed Forces. Ukraine's fundraising platform United24 and Metinvest Group used the last pre-war batch of steel produced at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol to create bracelets and raise money to support the army.
Kadyrov was included in the Russian Book of Records because of the number of sanctions imposed on him. In honor of this, the Russian Federation organized an award ceremony.
EU imposes 8th sanctions package on Russia
The measures, which came into force with their publication in the bloc’s official administrative journal, also pointed the way to an oil price cap on Russian crude transported around the world but only after details are worked out within the G7 group of nations. So the details haven’t been worked yet.
30 people, 7 entities added to EU blacklist, including including singers Yulia Chicherina and Nikolay Rastorguev, among others deemed pro-war “propaganda” artists.
Russia’s electoral commission and its head
proxy Russian officials in the annexed regions
Russian defence officials and defence-affiliated companies
The “circumvention” list: individuals or companies helping banned Russian entities get around the EU sanctions
Expansion of a ban to all Russian cryptocurrency transactions, regardless of amount, and the
Widening the existing ban on Russian imports, and broadening a prohibition on weapon sales to include personal arms
Banned for sale to Russia: electronic components that can go into Russian weapons, such as transistors, electronic integrated circuits, controllers, and aerial surveillance cameras.
Barring service providers in several sectors from exporting to Russia- legal advice, architecture, engineering and IT consultancy
Larissa Babij, a Kind of Refugee / 03.10.2022
I dreamt I was living in a house with Putin. That’s the thought I awoke with on Sept 29. It was scary. We’d meet in the house in passing. I wanted to shoot and kill him. This is one of those actions that must succeed on the first try. But I was afraid he was out to kill me. It’s the first dream I remember having since before February 24.
Hanna Arendt: from Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and nothing was true… The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.
Radicalized Pod: War is Hell with Volodymyr Demchenko
Tune into the Lviv Book Forum…
