The 1st 4 Bushmasters ready to ship.
So the Ukrainian armed forces claims that they have heavily damaged the Admiral Essen.
We will see later if this claim is true, the Ukrainians have earlier lied about the killing of the 13 border guards of Zmiily and the destruction of tge Project 22160 ship Vasily Bykov.
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'Russisch fregat Admiral Essen beschoten en zwaar beschadigd'
Mogelijk Neptune kruisvluchtwapen gebruiktmarineschepen.nl
Footage of the combat departure of Ka-52 attack helicopters of the Russian Aerospace Forces was published by the Ministry of Defense. The combat mission was to find and destroy the camouflaged positions of the Ukrainian army. The pilots successfully completed the task by using guided and unguided S-8 missiles from low altitudes.
After the transfer of a group of Russian troops from Kiev to Donbass to complete a special operation to liberate these territories, Ukrainian troops entered the Antonov International Airport in the village of Gostomel. One of the eyewitnesses took a close-up of the wreckage of the largest aircraft in the world An-225 "Mriya". Ukraine destroyed the world's largest AN-225 Mriya transport aircraft with its own hands. It happened because of the shelling of Antonov airport by Ukrainian troops.
I am putting these two videos in here because though they are Ukrainian civilian aviation specific, Antonov Airlines, they are about the war and the conduct of Russian military personnel during the occupation of the Antonov Airline base of operations at Gostomel Airport. It includes footage of the AN-225 Mrya, it's hangar and the other facilities. The videos are video blogs by Capt Dymtro Antonov the Chief Pilot of Antonov Airlines and the main command pilot of Mrya. The Russians stole computers, hard drives, and every document that they could lay their hands on. They ransacked the place looking for documents. They took all the maintenance records, manuals, everything except a microwave.
There's a change of management of the company and some have been declared traitors by him for not flying the company's aircraft to safety, out of the country. In an earlier vblog he ripped right into them.
In this vblog he says that the majority of the destruction and damage to the aircraft on the ground was caused by Russian troops on the ground through arson. He said that there was little evidence of shell or rocket craters around the destroyed aircraft and many bullet holes fired from the aircraft to destroy vital components. It looks like the plan was to completely destroy Antonov Airlines and Ukrainian aviation. He wouldn't be surprised that some of the stolen documents turn up in the future as the Russians attempt to blackmail the Antonov Company.
After what he said in the last video, I think the Mrya wasn't destroyed in an air attack, artillery or rocket strike. It may have been structurally damaged in the wing spars, but the damage on it away from the cockpit area looked like mainly gun shot in places apart from the hole gouged in the front of the port horizontal stabilizer. Around the forward fuselage the aircraft is destroyed by fire which appears to be centred on the cockpit area.
There would be quite a bit of commercially sensitive information I would suspect. Contracts etc.It would make sense. the An-124 and 225 family are fundamentally military aircraft. It makes little sense not to destroy them, unless you have such solid control of the area that they will be a total asset. Remember, Russian forces were counter-attacked pretty hard at that airfield, and according to some reports at one point driven out. If you took an airfield full of those kinds of planes, and were then getting pushes out by enemy forces, would you leave them behind and intact?
On the subject of document looting, Russia has an An-124 fleet of it's own, and has had difficulties maintaining them. It's possible documents were stolen to that end. Not sure about the blackmail angle. Is there information in there that would lend itself to blackmail?
Don't know and the OSINT maps seem to again show a wide front in the east, perhaps too wide for Russia to handle right now. But if they actually scale down the fighting, we can see a reversal of the new casualty ratio.It's tricky to say for sure. Russia has already been pushing south of Izyum to encircle the Kramatorsk-Slavyansk area. This would presumably be met with a thrust out of Zaporozhye area to the north-east. If these two arms meet up, Ukraine's largest and best organized force is encircled in the east. If they dig in and fight to the death in the ruins of those twin cities, it could be another 3-5 weeks of mop up operations. The question is.... does phase 2 involve anything else? Russia pulled back from surrouding Chernigov, but not Kharkov or Sumy so far. And the north-ward prong towards Slavyansk-Kramatorsk comes out of the Kharkov area. Are assaults on Kharkov and Sumy in the works? What about Nikolaev, Krivoy Rog, or Zaporozhye?
I know getting in first is important with propaganda, however when the evidence looks overwhelming it seems stupid to highlight it and bring it to everyone's (UN/worlds) attention. Another mistake by the Master Strategist.
Internet sleuths/anonymous/Ukraine intelligence are attributing the Bucha Massacre to this man Lieutenant Colonel Omurbekov Azatbek Asanbekovich, military unit 51460 I think on the basis he was in charge of that unit and it was known to be in control of the area of that time. Not direct evidence. Bellingcat look at Russian denials Russia’s Bucha “Facts” Versus the Evidence - bellingcat
Don't know and the OSINT maps seem to again show a wide front in the east, perhaps too wide for Russia to handle right now. But if they actually scale down the fighting, we can see a reversal of the new casualty ratio.
A few speculations on my part:
1. Russia will entrench significant forces for its own guerilla campaign in whatever territory it's in now. This to meet a Ukrainian assault that is due at least at some point. If not now then in a few months, years.
2. Close combat will be avoided by Russia, and artillery, drones, and SIGINT again prioritized.
3. Pushes will be slow and coordinated as small operations rather than a wartime push.
4. Said pushes will be done mostly by light infantry, armor at a bare minimum. Preferably by special operation units rather than regular infantry.
5. VDV and marines will be either relegated to regular infantry missions or withdrawn.
6. As an exception, some big pushes from the east are expected to generate symbolic victories for RU in the short term, after which RU might consolidate in its new territories. All to be done before the May 9th victory day parade to score PR points at home and thus create an influx of motivated soldiers into the army.
It's tricky to say for sure. Russia has already been pushing south of Izyum to encircle the Kramatorsk-Slavyansk area. This would presumably be met with a thrust out of Zaporozhye area to the north-east. If these two arms meet up, Ukraine's largest and best organized force is encircled in the east. If they dig in and fight to the death in the ruins of those twin cities, it could be another 3-5 weeks of mop up operations. The question is.... does phase 2 involve anything else? Russia pulled back from surrouding Chernigov, but not Kharkov or Sumy so far. And the north-ward prong towards Slavyansk-Kramatorsk comes out of the Kharkov area. Are assaults on Kharkov and Sumy in the works? What about Nikolaev, Krivoy Rog, or Zaporozhye?
On the pro Ukranian sub reddits they are claiming this is Russian false flag and these are Ukrainians pow dressed as Russians...... The level of denial is insane.For those who do want to See this for themselfs and in order to substantiate the claims made prior, here are the Videos warning graphic :
This is the Video oder the dead russian soldiers. We can see that one clearly has His hands tied behind his back and died from a gunshot to his head.
There might be a different explanation for this but to me it looks like an execution.
In this video we see one of the soldiers wounded but still alive beeing shot multiple times.
It would be interesting for me to know what is beeing said in this videos, If any russian speaker here has the stomach for this I would appreciate it.
It seems russian social Media is already busy identifying the ukrainians in this Video _and their relatives_. This is an extremly worriesome trend.
Uavhengig russisk journalist: Sanksjonene får eliten til å samle seg bak Putin – VG- Some of the sources are in the management of state-owned companies, some are in the government, do business with the government, they are civil servants, legislators, and people in the trade elite close to the government. These are sources I have had for a long time. Many say that the mood has changed, says Rustamova.
At the beginning of the war, they were shocked and frustrated by Putin's invasion. Now they are angry at the West, according to Rustamova.
- More and more people are now gathering around Putin.
In her newsletter, Rustamova tells, among other things, about a highly ranked Russian official. He is clear about what he now thinks about western countries:
'We're going to screw them. Now they have to buy rubles on the Moscow Stock Exchange to buy gas from us. But that's just the beginning. Now we're going to fuck them all. "
With live transmition of war crimes ffrom both sides, the sentiment will turn very ugly. If both sides start a revenge tally on who can commit more crimes than the other it will be unthinkable. The internet's ability to multiply extreme sentiments is going to have some unforeseen consquences.
Russians are well known for their false flag operations, so it should not be dismissed entirely. On the other hand in all wars we see war crimes, and often by all sides participating, so it should come as no surprise if also some Ukrainian soldiers are committing war crimes. All war crimes should be condemned and punished.On the pro Ukranian sub reddits they are claiming this is Russian false flag and these are Ukrainians pow dressed as Russians...... The level of denial is insane.
The West will block everything the Russian media and social media shown on attrocities in Mariupol.