TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org

Maksym Marmazov's life ended in Kupyansk, Kharkiv Region.

On March 14, 2024, he came across explosives while tinkering in his garden. Maksym died of injuries on the way to the hospital.

A week before, the Russian military took the life of his mother-in-law during the shelling of residential buildings in the Kupyan region.

Maxim Marmazov was 44 years old. He was an employee of the Kupyan district of the Kharkiv branch of "Gazmerezhi", held the position of a locksmith.

Worked in the gas distribution industry for 15 years. His wife Natalya Marmazova also works in this field as a senior operator of the gas accounting sector.

"The gas distribution industry has lost a high-class specialist. He will always be remembered as a professional, a true friend and colleague who is ready to lend a hand and help under any circumstances," said colleagues of the deceased.

Maksym Marmazov is survived by his wife, son and mother.

Ukraine can launch 30 to 60 long-range drones at Russia every night - BILD analyst

Since the beginning of the year, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have attacked 12 oil refineries in Russia with drones, conducting 17 strikes. The maximum range of damage was 900 km. The attacks affected 12% of Russia's oil refining capacity. As a result, on March 1, the Russian authorities imposed a six-month ban on gasoline exports, fearing a shortage in the domestic market.

In addition to refineries, fuel depots, airports, and other infrastructure facilities are under attack.

From "The Analyst":

RUSSIANS STRIKE INTO KUPIANSK FOREST

The Russians began an offensive after extensive northern front regrouping, aimed at Synkivka, which is the key to opening up the attack path to retake Kupiansk.
The odd way the Russians have gone about this is completely different to their usual doctrines.
No preparation was made for the assault in advance - none of the usual essential artillery or air raids. They have also tried frontal assaults before with no success.
Previously the forest has been heavily fought over as the Russians tried to gain ground to prevent a Ukrainian flanking attack and give themselves more options to attack the village. However they failed to achieve any of these goals in the recent past.
Ukraine had sown the forest with trenches and mines, and the whole area is hopeless for carrying out mechanised assaults of any kind.
The latest attack had the Russian frontal assault on the village in the open ground, carried out by MTLB troops carriers with assault groups, which captured some Ukrainian trenches and held some ground northeast of the village.
To aid there advance the Russians have managed to infiltrate special operations ‘partisan’ units well behind Ukrainian lines to try and damage their logistics in the region.
This is a new departure for the Russians.
As the Russians moved in to capture a Ukrainian trench, Ukrainian drones spotted the appearance of heavy artillery and were successful in directing counter-battery fire at the attackers.
The Russians seem to have been on a timetable and went ahead with these attacks despite the fact they had been forced to redeploy most of their reserves to deal with the rebel forces incursions into Belgorod and Kursk.
Yet again the importance of drones in alerting Ukraine to upcoming attacks and tactical movements proved critical in the defence.
I think it’s also necessary to remind ourselves what the forested areas now largely look like. The battle lines and a significant area either side are basically decapitated tree stumps and very rough terrain. There are no trees where the battles have taken place. It’s something of a WW1 style landscape. It’s also still late winter and there’s no greenery. When it rains it’s a bog, and it’s very difficult all of the time to supply small units of troops in trenches and foxholes.
So how this unfolds in the next few days is difficult to foretell. It all depends on Russian capacity to sacrifice more men for not a lot.
Meanwhile the brave defenders do what they can to resist.

Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦!

From "The Analyst":

REPUBLICANS NEED TO AID UKRAINE - TRUMP IS GOING TO LOSE

Trump has been forced to admit that, having been criminally found guilty of 17 cases of fraud, he owes $464 million to the State of New York. He cannot get an insurance company to put up a bond because he doesn’t have anything like the assets to secure it. This is in addition to another $93 million he was able to get a bond for, to appeal the E Jean Carroll sexual assault case.
Trumps outlandish rhetoric and behaviour at rallies have really started to put off the electorate. The Republican Party is facing ‘67% reductions in small donor funding’ against the same time in the 2019 campaign when he was president. Worse still the big donors are nowhere to be found. SuperPacs supporting Trump are short of money and virtually begging. There is a huge drop in the money available to elect senators and representatives - most of them are having to raise their own or self-finance.
And that puts many in the Senate on alert. Some are facing uphill battles. Many in the House have decided not to even run.
Amongst the topics that are not largely discussed is that Americans in a sizeable majority, want Ukraine to survive and win - and they want to aid the country to do so. Republicans have swallowed so many Russian talking points and become so beholden to the right wing extremity bubble, they just don’t see that what they espouse isn’t what the average decent American wants to see or hear. For their own sake funding Ukraine properly would be good for them, but they have gone so far down the Trumpian rabbit hole of lies and misinformation they can’t find their way back out even if they wanted to.
All the indicators right now suggest that unless there is fraud, Trump is losing the path to election. Even his old vice-president Mike Pence refused to endorse him - the first time that’s ever happened.
Aiding Ukraine may actually help the republicans hold some of their seats, but they’ll never acknowledge it.
The only good thing, is that longer term, the torture of another Trump term will with luck, fade into obscurity.

Speaker Johnson, GOP face crunch time on Ukraine - The Hill

The House returns to Washington on Tuesday facing heightened urgency to move more military help for Ukraine but with no formal deadline — and no clear strategy — for getting it passed.

The lower chamber is scheduled to be in session for only four days before a two-week holiday recess, and Kyiv’s supporters, including top Democrats in both chambers, are urging Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to move the additional aid before week’s end.

“We cannot go home for Passover and Easter — we must have this assistance to Ukraine,” former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.

Yet Congress is facing a Friday deadline to fund the government and prevent a partial shutdown — a process expected to dominate the week — and Johnson has given no indication he’s ready to move quickly on a foreign aid package in the short window before the break, nor has he disclosed what such legislation would look like.

Indeed, the Speaker has said he wants to focus first on funding the government and shift to a package of national security issues — including aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as funding for more security at the U.S.-Mexico border — only afterward. 

“We are moving through our normal appropriations process — should be done by this Friday — after which the Speaker’s indicated he’s committed to putting this supplemental on the floor,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told “Fox News Sunday.”

That timeline would push the earliest potential action on Ukraine until April 9 — three weeks away — when the House is scheduled to return to the Capitol after the long holiday recess.

In the eyes of many Democrats, Ukraine’s beleaguered forces don’t have that long to wait.
Russian troops are slowly advancing, while Ukraine is running low on resources.

ContFrom "The Analyst":

RUSSIANS STRIKE INTO KUPIANSK FOREST

The Russians began an offensive after extensive northern front regrouping, aimed at Synkivka, which is the key to opening up the attack path to retake Kupiansk.
The odd way the Russians have gone about this is completely different to their usual doctrines.
No preparation was made for the assault in advance - none of the usual essential artillery or air raids. They have also tried frontal assaults before with no success.
Previously the forest has been heavily fought over as the Russians tried to gain ground to prevent a Ukrainian flanking attack and give themselves more options to attack the village. However they failed to achieve any of these goals in the recent past.
Ukraine had sown the forest with trenches and mines, and the whole area is hopeless for carrying out mechanised assaults of any kind.
The latest attack had the Russian frontal assault on the village in the open ground, carried out by MTLB troops carriers with assault groups, which captured some Ukrainian trenches and held some ground northeast of the village.
To aid there advance the Russians have managed to infiltrate special operations ‘partisan’ units well behind Ukrainian lines to try and damage their logistics in the region.
This is a new departure for the Russians.
As the Russians moved in to capture a Ukrainian trench, Ukrainian drones spotted the appearance of heavy artillery and were successful in directing counter-battery fire at the attackers.
The Russians seem to have been on a timetable and went ahead with these attacks despite the fact they had been forced to redeploy most of their reserves to deal with the rebel forces incursions into Belgorod and Kursk.
Yet again the importance of drones in alerting Ukraine to upcoming attacks and tactical movements proved critical in the defence.
I think it’s also necessary to remind ourselves what the forested areas now largely look like. The battle lines and a significant area either side are basically decapitated tree stumps and very rough terrain. There are no trees where the battles have taken place. It’s something of a WW1 style landscape. It’s also still late winter and there’s no greenery. When it rains it’s a bog, and it’s very difficult all of the time to supply small units of troops in trenches and foxholes.
So how this unfolds in the next few days is difficult to foretell. It all depends on Russian capacity to sacrifice more men for not a lot.
Meanwhile the brave defenders do what they can to resist.

Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦
Ukrainian officials said an airstrike killed 20 people in Odessa, and last month Russian troops captured the key city of Avdiivka.

“The clock is ticking, and we hade to get the bipartisan national security bill over the finish line before we leave town next Friday, March 22 — before we leave town,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) warned last week.

“It’s reckless to do otherwise.”

The Democrats’ ultimatums are designed to put political pressure on House GOP leaders to consider a Senate foreign aid package, including $60 billion for Ukraine, which passed easily through the upper chamber last month by a 70-29 vote.

Johnson, however, hasn’t budged, rejecting the Senate bill out of hand for lacking border provisions and vowing to send a more conservative House alternative back across the Capitol — maybe as a package, maybe in separate pieces — at some unspecified time in the future.

The issue has emerged as a huge challenge for Johnson, who’s scrambling to provide more military assistance to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s advancing forces without sparking a revolt in his own GOP conference, where the appetite for foreign aid has waned, and the wrong move could cost him his gavel.

Complicating the political math, former President Trump has opposed both Ukraine aid and tougher border provisions — the centerpieces of Johnson’s vague plan — before November’s elections, warning against lending President Biden a political victory on an issue that stands as one of his top vulnerabilities in his rematch against Trump.

Many House conservatives have adopted Trump’s isolationist leanings, and some are pushing Johnson to scrap the idea of providing any more military aid to Ukraine — now or ever.

Johnson told reporters at the House GOP’s annual retreat in West Virginia last week that he understands the urgency of sending additional aid to Ukraine, but he has disclosed few details on how he intends to accomplish that goal — leaving lawmakers, White House aides and Ukrainian officials in the dark as they sound the alarm about Kyiv’s dwindling arsenal in its battle against Moscow.

The mystery of how Johnson plans to move Ukraine aid is deepening by the day as he gets closer to having to make a decision. The Speaker told Politico in an interview last week that any Ukraine legislation would likely be a “stand-alone” bill and be considered under a fast-track procedure known as suspension of the rules. By “stand-alone,” Johnson meant the assistance for Ukraine would not hitch a ride on must-pass legislation such as government funding, according to a leadership aide. But that does not necessarily mean it would be free from border provisions, which has been a key request from congressional Republicans.

The aide said the components of a bill or series of bills are still being worked through with members, and leadership has not provided any guarantees on being able to move something.

During a conversation with Senate Republicans at their retreat last week, Johnson floated tweaking the upper chamber’s foreign aid bill to make it a loan or lend-lease program rather than a grant. He also discussed including language that would allow the U.S. to use seized Russian assets to pay for the aid, similar to the REPO for Ukrainians Act sponsored by McCaul.

But by predicting that the Ukraine aid would move under suspension of the rules — which requires two-thirds support for passage, meaning buy-in from Democrats is a must — Johnson is signaling that the legislation would be bipartisan, a detail that raises more questions about the makeup of the measure.

Johnson last week suggested that border security is still part of the conversation — Republicans have demanded that any aid for Kyiv be paired with policy to address the situation at the U.S. southern border — but it remains unclear how that will attract support from Democrats.

“I believe, and the American people believe, we have to secure our own border as the top priority, and I think that is a sentiment that the vast majority of the people in the country expect and deserve. And we’re gonna continue to press for that,” Johnson told reporters Friday when asked if he was considering moving Ukraine aid without border security policy.

Lawmakers in both parties recognize the difficult situation Johnson finds himself in as he contends with a Ukraine in need, vocal Democrats calling for support for the embattled U.S. ally, a pair of discharge petitions trying to go over his head and a rowdy right flank that has threatened to force a challenge to his gavel.

“It is in everyone’s best interest not to delay. However, we are operating in a divided government with a slim majority,” Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), a proponent of Ukraine aid, told The Hill.

“Navigating government funding and other foreign aid priorities in this environment requires buy in from everyone,” he added. “I’m confident Speaker Johnson will thread this needle swiftly.”

German president will not send Putin a congratulatory letter
https://t.me/warinukraineua/3580

https://t.me/noel_reports/9703

Not a single Ukrainian soldier saw Red Cross representatives while in captivity

Ukrainian servicemen released from russian captivity confirmed to the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner of Ukraine that none of them met with representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross during their imprisonment.

"During the exchanges, we conduct a survey of those released from captivity and ask if they have seen representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross. So far, there has been not one positive response," stated Dmytro Lubinets at a meeting with relatives of persons missing under special circumstances.

At the meeting, the commissioner also explained to the Ukrainian defenders' relatives that the status of missing does not imply that the person has died. He claims that missing people are frequently held captive, but the International Committee of the Red Cross cannot confirm this.

@ukrainejournal

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/03/american-satellites-russia-ukraine-war/677775/

🇦🇺 The Australian broadcaster ABC aired the documentary "The Ukrainian War: The Other Side". This film by British director Sean Langan covers the war through the eyes of Russians and shows their life at the front.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Australia called the film "the equivalent of a vomit bowl" that repeated Russian propaganda and historical distortions.

The Federation of Ukrainian Organizations of Australia stated that the film gave Russian soldiers a platform to justify a brutal invasion, gross lies, hatred and calls for genocide.

ABC defended the movie. The film allegedly offers the audience a glimpse into the lives of Russian soldiers and is an "important contribution" to war reporting.

@liveukraine_media

REPUBLICANS NEED TO AID UKRAINE - TRUMP IS GOING TO LOSE

Trump has been forced to admit that, having been criminally found guilty of 17 cases of fraud, he owes $464 million to the State of New York. He cannot get an insurance company to put up a bond because he doesn’t have anything like the assets to secure it. This is in addition to another $93 million he was able to get a bond for, to appeal the E Jean Carroll sexual assault case.
Trumps outlandish rhetoric and behaviour at rallies have really started to put off the electorate. The Republican Party is facing ‘67% reductions in small donor funding’ against the same time in the 2019 campaign when he was president. Worse still the big donors are nowhere to be found. SuperPacs supporting Trump are short of money and virtually begging. There is a huge drop in the money available to elect senators and representatives - most of them are having to raise their own or self-finance.
And that puts many in the Senate on alert. Some are facing uphill battles. Many in the House have decided not to even run.
Amongst the topics that are not largely discussed is that Americans in a sizeable majority, want Ukraine to survive and win - and they want to aid the country to do so. Republicans have swallowed so many Russian talking points and become so beholden to the right wing extremity bubble, they just don’t see that what they espouse isn’t what the average decent American wants to see or hear. For their own sake funding Ukraine properly would be good for them, but they have gone so far down the Trumpian rabbit hole of lies and misinformation they can’t find their way back out even if they wanted to.
All the indicators right now suggest that unless there is fraud, Trump is losing the path to election. Even his old vice-president Mike Pence refused to endorse him - the first time that’s ever happened.
Aiding Ukraine may actually help the republicans hold some of their seats, but they’ll never acknowledge it.
The only good thing, is that longer term, the torture of another Trump term will with luck, fade into obscurity.

@EveryUkraineWarVideo Subscribe

https://kyivindependent.com/western-leaders-decline-to-congratulate-putin-on-his-electoral-victory-but-fall-short-of-refusing-to-recognize-results/

https://kyivindependent.com/ukrainian-embassy-condemns-documentary-broadcast-in-australia-as/

Republican Party is shrinking fast

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/last-one-out-the-door-turn-out-the-lights-2/55090/

Will deliver 500,000 shells by end of March

https://mil.in.ua/en/news/eu-countries-will-deliver-half-of-the-promised-one-million-shells-to-ukraine-by-the-end-of-march/

This is an article by Rebecca Barth of the German broadcaster ARD. I translated it, because the story told stands for so many Crimean tatars and Ukrainians who are abducted, tortured, imprisoned. It highlights a tragedy whose full extent will probably only become clear after Ukraine's victory.

"Crimea has become a prison"

It has been ten years since the annexation of Crimea - since then Russia has been arming the peninsula and is apparently abducting civilians from other occupied areas there. The whereabouts of the prisoners have long been unclear and the conditions in which they are held are appalling.

Faride Abdurachmanowa took extra time for the conversation. The 27-year-old gives her cell phone to her daughter and turns on a children's series. Then she begins to talk about the day two years ago that would change her life forever. "They took my husband with them. There were seven of them, they came into the house, sent the children into my room. And then all I heard was screaming and beating. They tortured him very badly."

At the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, the young family still lived in a small village in the south of Ukraine - just a few kilometers from the annexed Crimean peninsula, right by the sea. The Russian occupiers accused Abdurakhmanova's husband of being a member of a Crimean Tatar battalion. The Muslim minority to which the family belongs is particularly in the focus of the Russian authorities.

"We didn't have a chance to ask anything. The whole room was covered in blood," she says. "They tied his hands with tape, put a bag over his head, tied everything up with tape and threw him in the car. After three or four days we got a call from the FSB that he was there."

There - that means: in Simferopol, in the Crimea. Ten years ago, Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula. Today it is of extremely great symbolic, political and military importance. But not only that, explains Olha Skrypnyk from the human rights group Crimea: "What is important to mention - and a completely new situation for Crimea - is that Crimea has become a prison for people from the newly occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. They are kidnapped and taken to Crimea. Previously, there was only the number one detention center in Simferopol, where, among others, political prisoners were imprisoned."

Abdurakhmanova's husband is one of an estimated hundreds of Ukrainian civilians who were forcibly brought to Crimea from the south of the country. How many people in total have been abducted and imprisoned in the areas occupied since 2022 is difficult to determine, says Olha Skrypnyk.

People would disappear into the Russian prison system, cut off from the outside world: "When relatives, lawyers, the Red Cross or the Ukrainian authorities get involved, the Russian authorities do not confirm the detention of the person they are looking for. They don't have a lawyer," she says. "They were kidnapped in Kherson, Oleshky or Melitopol, but are not officially in Simferopol either. Formally they don't even exist."

In the first year of Russia's war of aggression alone, two new prisons were registered in Simferopol in Crimea, says Skrypnyk. The AP news agency has researched that there will be at least 25 new prisons in the occupied territories of Ukraine within a few years. There is currently little hope of release for detained civilians, explains human rights activist Skrypnyk.

"The Geneva Convention says nothing about civilian prisoners. It was not assumed that a country would simply hold thousands and thousands of civilians during a war."

There is an established procedure for prisoners of war; soldiers can return home through prisoner exchanges. "There is no such thing for civilians. We are now looking for a mechanism, at least some way, to bring these people home," says Skrypnyk. But often it is too late: the captured and abducted people die as a result of torture, a lack of medical care or the terrible prison conditions - "and we don't even know exactly where they are."
to continue 👇

https://t.me/WarriorsUkrainian/23830

https://kyivindependent.com/charles-michel-europe-must-prepare-for-war/

The Houthis congratulated Putin on his “victory” in the elections

A member of Yemen's Supreme Political Council, formed by the Houthis, Lieutenant General Sultan al-Sami congratulated Vladimir Putin on his re-election to a fifth presidential term. He called the result announced by the Central Election Commission of more than 87% of the votes a “convincing victory.” “The re-election of President Vladimir Putin as head of state is a victory for the BRICS group, which is fighting to destroy the unipolar system that fuels wars and conflicts around the world and pursues a policy of colonization and impoverishment of peoples,” al-Sami said.

Earlier, Putin was congratulated on his re-election by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bolivia, Venezuela, Honduras, Iran, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nicaragua, North Korea, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping also sent telegrams. The latter expressed his conviction that Putin would remain to rule Russia for a fifth term, a year ago during a visit to Moscow.

In total, Putin was congratulated by the leaders of 17 states, while after the 2018 campaign there were almost twice as many. Western leaders were not among them this time. In Europe, the vote organized by the Russian authorities, to which not a single independent candidate was allowed, was perceived negatively or with sarcasm. Back on March 15, European Council President Charles Michel congratulated Putin in advance on his “convincing victory,” emphasizing that Russians would have “no freedom, no choice.” Germany refused to call Putin president.

TOP NEWS TODAY 👀🔝

🇨🇿 Czech Republic found another 700,000 (❗) shells for Ukraine that can be secured with additional funding, - WSJ

🇧🇪 Belgium has announced a $450 million military assistance package for Ukraine: 300 Lynx, 3 minehunter ships and ammunition.

🇺🇦 NATO soldiers are already in Ukraine for arms control, intelligence operations and training, - El Pais

🇬🇧 UK advises Ukraine to focus on strikes on Crimea and the Black Sea Fleet and postpone counteroffensive, - Sunday Times

🦅 The government has allocated an additional 5 billion hryvnias for for the purchase of drones, - Prime Minister Shmyhal

🇷🇴 President Iohannis approved the training of the Ukrainian military in Romania, who will learn to use F-16 at the military base in Fetești.

🇰🇵 North Korea 'ships 7,000 containers of military aid to Russia', - Sky News