Russia invasion of Ukraine

[Yu Ominae]

BBC has coverage on whether the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant will be sabotaged by Russian troops.

[Jaden]

If Russians have to abandon the plant, they will definitely break it. With the reactors cold, it's not going send plumes of irradiated shit everywhere, but damaging the containers of spent fuel can make the area pretty dirty for a long time.

[Yu Ominae]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66141701

President Zelensky visited Snake Island.

[Key Board]

https://www.zeonic-republic.net/?page_id=10526

I wasn’t very familiar with Ukraine’s situation, so at first, I thought it was a clever, fictional narrative devised by filmmakers. But reality differed, and the film was a biting satire. The political situation in Ukraine was disastrous, rampant with corruption. The politicians were all up to no good. This was the backdrop of the film, and consequently, a real-life comedian ended up as the president.

Observing Ukraine’s situation led President Putin to initiate what he called a ‘special military operation.’ He probably thought he could easily topple the Ukrainian government with a fool like Zelenskyy at the helm. But the moment he started the war, President Zelenskyy transformed.

veteran Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino attempts to psychoanalyze Zelensky and Putin.

Interesting stuff

//

[Yu Ominae]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66185545

Russian Army removed Maj Gen Ivan Popov, who's commander of the 58th Army, over conditions his troops are facing in southern Zaporizhzhia.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by Yu Ominae

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66185545

Russian Army removed Maj Gen Ivan Popov, who's commander of the 58th Army, over conditions his troops are facing in southern Zaporizhzhia.

I'm kind of wondering if part of this is fallout from the Wagner mutiny. That was preceded by months of Prigozhin being able to get away with being *candid* about the frontline conditions, so I'm curious if there's a degree of paranoia that anyone rocking the boat might be having similar thoughts.

It's interesting that the biggest gripe he had was the situation as far as artillery counter battery fire game was going. If you happen to follow open source intelligence's recording of confirmed Russian losses (as well as the Ukrainian armies own, probably somewhat inflated, kill claims), for awhile now there's been a fairly notable inversion of Russia starting to lose artillery systems in much greater numbers than main battle tanks. While the Ukrainians haven't been making the front-line breakthroughs that some where hoping for, they do seem to be making progress in an artillery attrition game.

Probably fairly substantial since the US is also starting to open Ukraine up to cluster munition artillery, which they have very deep stocks of.

[Renegade334]

Ukraine's already received the DPICM ammunition from the US and might have already used some of Turkish origin.

[Yu Ominae]

Originally Posted by Roger Rambo

I'm kind of wondering if part of this is fallout from the Wagner mutiny. That was preceded by months of Prigozhin being able to get away with being *candid* about the frontline conditions, so I'm curious if there's a degree of paranoia that anyone rocking the boat might be having similar thoughts.

It's interesting that the biggest gripe he had was the situation as far as artillery counter battery fire game was going. If you happen to follow open source intelligence's recording of confirmed Russian losses (as well as the Ukrainian armies own, probably somewhat inflated, kill claims), for awhile now there's been a fairly notable inversion of Russia starting to lose artillery systems in much greater numbers than main battle tanks. While the Ukrainians haven't been making the front-line breakthroughs that some where hoping for, they do seem to be making progress in an artillery attrition game.

Probably fairly substantial since the US is also starting to open Ukraine up to cluster munition artillery, which they have very deep stocks of.

I'm guessing the guy being disappeared for a while is a sign of some kind of fallout that's being "addressed".

[Ithekro]

It would appear that the road bridge to Crimea from Russia was hit again, probably with boats. The rail bridge is still intact, but the roads are out for a while.

[Renegade334]

Igor Girkin (AKA Igor Strelkov) just got arrested in Russia under charges pertaining to Article 282 of the Criminal Code, which covers...extremism. He was apparently denounced by a former member of Wagner, though this claim is questionable; the FSB and various LE organs have been itching to detain the man after he started running his lip off about the government's incompetence and asking for changes in the military chain of command. At this point, even a dog barking at him across the street would've been enough of an excuse to get him behind bars and off the airwaves. Neither the first nor the last we'll see whisked away in the Wagner hoopla aftermath.

And another RU milblogger, Mikhail "Misha in Donbas" Luchin, has reportedly been killed in Donetsk by a DPICM (cluster munition) strike. There is a drone video allegedly showing the moment the submunitions fell on his group.

[mangamuscle]

IMO the reason putin ended the grain deal is because he is desperate for new ammunition/weapons and China probably has made clear they wont send any thru their land borders, but if they are delivered by boat they can deny any implication saying those were stolen, heck with how corrupt the chinese military is, they might be.

So I expect sooner rather than later for some boats full of ammunition with non chinese flags to explode due to a "misplaced cigar".

[Yu Ominae]

Interesting vid.

Brandon Mitchell interviews a Russian-born, but UK-based volunteer named Ignat. He got involved since his mom was a Russian, but pro-Kyiv humanitarian.

[Renegade334]

Apparently, the main thrust of the Ukrainian counteroffensive is at long last underway, with more reserve manpower being funneled to the front.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of weeks.

[ganbaru]

I'm kind of dissapointed about the coverage and discution about the US sending cluster munition to Ukraine, not so much about the ethic issue of (which is fully valid) but not much more beyong that;
Would thoses shells be useful against trench? Is it ethical to use weapon than would effectivelly put anti-personal landmines (than will be a danger to civilians in the future) on a battlefield already containing both anti-tank and anti-personal mine? Can it be cosidered a escalation when the Russian did use the same kind of waepon already?

[Yu Ominae]

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkrainianCo...nd_thought_it/

Russian troops found a Starlink and they're using it as a table...

[Yu Ominae]

A BBC interview with a team of Ukrainian soldiers, led by a soldier known as "Ghost".

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

I'm kind of dissapointed about the coverage and discution about the US sending cluster munition to Ukraine, not so much about the ethic issue of (which is fully valid) but not much more beyong that;
Would thoses shells be useful against trench? Is it ethical to use weapon than would effectivelly put anti-personal landmines (than will be a danger to civilians in the future) on a battlefield already containing both anti-tank and anti-personal mine? Can it be cosidered a escalation when the Russian did use the same kind of waepon already?

The long and the short of the whole cluster munitions thing is that the war is in an attritional state that is consuming vast amounts of conventional artillery ammunition that is seriously digging into existing shell stockpiles, and new shell production has not as of yet expanded enough to meet current consumption. Meanwhile, the United States has reserves of millions of artillery cluster muntions that despite not being a signatory of the Cluster bomb ban, it really doesn't want to rely on them anymore as much as it would like to rely on precision artillery.

While there's a lot of valid humanitarian concerns over unexploded cluster bomblets, I think the bigger question was over what to do about Ukrainian artillery until Western shell production could be ramped up. Totally stripping Western/US conventional shell reserves or having Ukrainian guns having to ration their shells even more stringently were both likely considered undesirable. Sending cluster bombs was likely considered the lesser of three non-optimal options.

[Yu Ominae]

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarV...ria_airport_in

Flightradar 24 reported that a Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations Il-76 landed in South Africa.

[ramlaen]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/08/polit...e-us-briefings

[Yu Ominae]

An interview with Maxim Tucker who reveals that the Ukrainian special forces unit "Shaman" is reportedly taking out high-ranking Russian officers.

Tucker said that the info he's disclosing is cleared with the unit itself.