Sept 6 Buonasera Mag
Day 195: UA inroads, Enerhodar, Kherson, North Korea, RU colonel killed, RU oil, EU, Iran. Arts & Posts: Circincione, Davis, Ponzio, Sheftalovich & Cerulust, Schmitt, Boot, Babij, Saint Javelin
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…
Ukraine to announce 'good news' on counteroffensive tonight, per Serhiy Leshchenko, Zelenskyy's chief of staff. "Tonight there is going to be great news from President Zelenskiy on [the] counteroffensive operation in Kharkiv region."
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk oblast, has said Ukrainian troops have “gained a foothold”. In an update posted on Telegram, Haidai said Ukrainian forces have “advanced a little” in the Luhansk region and have repulsed Russian attacks.
The IAEA has warned there is an “urgent need for interim measures to prevent a nuclear accident” at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP. In its report, the IAEA said it was “gravely concerned” about the situation at the facility and that ongoing shelling near the plant “represented a constant threat to nuclear safety and security”.
UK intelligence: Russia repeatedly misses deadlines to occupy entire Donbas. The Ukrainian authorities have claimed that Russian troops have a Sept. 15 deadline for seizing all of the Donbas but they are highly unlikely to achieve this, the U.K. Defense Ministry said.
A powerful explosion in the occupied city of Enerhodar, which houses the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, has cut off water and electricity supplies, according to the local mayor.
Ukraine hits Russian pontoon bridges in Kherson Oblast. According to the Southern Operational Command, Ukrainian forces attack two floating bridges near Darivka and Hola Prystan. All Russian pontoon bridges in the region are in firing range, the military says.
In Ukraine, traitors who handed over the positions of "Azov" to Russia were convicted. Both received 10 and 16 years in prison, the SSU press service reported.
Ukraine responds to Russia buying arms from North Korea: "Those who are unable to transform to NATO standards, switch to North Korean standards: be it weapons, politics, standard of living".
The Russian commandant for Berdyansk, the port city of occupied Zaporizhzhia region, died after his car was blown up by presumed Ukrainian insurgents outside his office, in broad daylight, per Russian reports. This time it was a Russian colonel, not a local collaborator.
Zelensky advisor Mykhailo Podolyak on the information war between Russia and Ukraine: "Russia has archaic bot farms and trolls army. We have NAFO and Reddit. Truth always wins"
Russian invaders are shocked by the pressure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This is evidenced by the new telephone conversation of Russians, that was intercepted by the Security Service of Ukraine.
Russia is exporting “more oil than ever” despite Western attempts to cut off one of Moscow’s economic lifelines and despite new tools and technologies that make it harder to hide energy shipments, according to analysts and observers. Some governments, it seems, are determined to buy Russia’s oil even if they don’t support its war on Ukraine.
The Russian MoD is buying millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea to support its invasion of Ukraine, according to a newly downgraded US intelligence finding. A US official said the fact Russia was turning to North Korea demonstrated that “the Russian military continues to suffer from severe supply shortages in Ukraine, due in part to export controls and sanctions”.
Russia sanctions Hollywood actors Ben Stiller, Sean Penn. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Moscow has banned 25 U.S. citizens from entering Russia, including Penn and Stiller who traveled to Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky in June.
Reuters: Biden says Russia should not be labeled state sponsor of terrorism. U.S. President Joe Biden on Sept. 5 told reporters "no" when asked whether Russia should be recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Erdoğan has blamed Europe’s energy crisis on sanctions it imposed on Russia. European nations were “harvesting what they sowed” by imposing economic restrictions on Russia, Erdoğan added.
Head of RT Margarita Simonyan boasted about circumventing RT being blocked in the West by covertly spreading Russian propaganda under other brand names. She claimed the State Department listed her as one of the faces of Putin's propaganda "to legitimize" the threats on her life.
Zakharova: "Rome is driven to economic suicide by the Euro-Atlantic sanction frenzy, Italian companies will collapse and will be bought cheaply by the Yankees". One more example of how the Russian leadership is trying to weigh in on the Italian general election. They must be pretty hard up if they have to come out so brazenly.
Welt: Scholz blocks delivery of tanks to Ukraine. Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) is ready to supply Ukraine with 100 Leopard 2A7 tanks and provide training sessions for soldiers worth 1.55 billion euros. Yet, according to Die Welt, Chancellor Scholz did not react to the offer.
For the second time this week, an Iranian warship tried to steal American unmanned surface vessels, but were stopped by U.S. destroyers, which retook possession of the drones 18 hours after they were seized.
Sheftalovich & Cerulust,The chips are down: Putin scrambles for high-tech parts as his arsenal goes up in smoke- Politico
At first glance, Russia shouldn't be able to acquire the most sensitive tech on the lists. With only very basic domestic technology, the Kremlin has relied on key players in the U.S., the EU and Japan for semiconductors as suppliers over the past years and these should be out of grasp thanks to sanctions. The difficulty would emerge in whether an intermediary country such as China were to buy technologies, then sell them on to Moscow. In extreme cases, Russians appear to be clawing chips out of household appliances like fridges.
Russia Privately Warns of Deep and Prolonged Economic Damage- Bloomberg News
Two of the three scenarios in the report show the contraction accelerating next year, with the economy returning to the prewar level only at the end of the decade or later. The “inertial” one sees the economy bottoming out next year 8.3% below the 2021 level, while the “stress” scenario puts the low in 2024 at 11.9% under last year’s level.
Gas prices jump by 30% to almost $2,900 over Nord Stream shutdown. October futures on the ICE Futures exchange rose to $2,855 per 1,000 cubic meters on Sept. 5 from $2,213 on Sept. 2. Russian gas giant Gazprom halted gas supplies via the Nord Stream gas pipeline on Aug. 31 for an indefinite period.
Max Boot, Opinion The GOP reaction to Biden’s speech shows that his anti-MAGA strategy is working- WaPo
What Biden is doing is smart, if difficult to pull off: He is attempting to draw a dividing line between those Republicans who threaten U.S. democracy and those who don’t.
The problem, as he acknowledged, is that the MAGA Republicans aren’t some fringe movement: “The Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans.” As Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) showed by losing her primary by nearly 40 points, there is no room for Trump critics in the Republican Party outside of a few blue enclaves such as Maryland and Massachusetts.
Larissa, Babij, a Kind of Refugee / 31.08.2022
The greatest shock upon arriving in the US is that there is a (tremendously large) part of the world where the war in Ukraine is not happening at each and every moment.
I know that countless Americans have been standing tirelessly with Ukraine since February 24: I see and feel this support every day from afar. Without it we could not say with confidence that we will keep fighting until we win. To say that I deeply appreciate this support is an understatement.
Russian Patriotism Classes: "Who are your grandfathers?" "The [WW2] victors!" "Whose grandkids are you?" "The grandkids of the victors!" "What is fear?" "When there is no love!" "What is envy?" "When there is no love!" "What is love?" "Love is sacrifice!"
Mike Glenn, Morale and discipline problems with Russian troops in Ukraine- The Washington Times
Morale among Russian military troops in Ukraine is plummeting but it’s not just because they’re getting bombarded with artillery and rockets supplied by the West.
After more than six months’ worth of inconclusive fighting, soldiers sent to carry out President Vladimir Putin’s invasion aren’t being adequately fed or receiving a regular paycheck.
In addition to the record number of casualties and combat fatigue, one of the main grievances from deployed Russian soldiers continues to be problems with their pay, according to British military intelligence officials.
What the world has learned from Russia’s war in Ukraine- Atlantic Council
The conflict, moreover, has already transformed much of what the world thought it knew about not only military operations and strategy, but also diplomacy, intelligence, national security, energy security, economic statecraft, and much more. So as the war hits its half-year mark, we asked experts across our vast network to share the biggest lessons they’ve learned from the crisis. The results, an illuminating and wide-ranging primer for policymakers and the public alike, are below.
Fallen heros…
