TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian Z fascist invaders.
I am a 73 year old Covid hermit who
lives on 10 acres in a sparsely populated area of the Ozarks. I heat with wood that is leftover by the lumber industry. When cutting oak for lumber only the trunk is used.
The largest town is population 2992. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
Institute for the Study of War’s (ISW) Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 16, 2024 (A few highlights)
• Zelensky stressed the problems Ukraine faces due to the shortages in air defense systems and artillery.
• Russian forces in eastern Ukraine utilize smaller groups for assaults and are plagued by morale issues; however, the Ukrainian material shortage means these attacks are unlikely to culminate in the near future.
• Ukraine’s SBU successfully targeted a Russian Nebo-U long-range radar station in Bryansk Oblast.
• The Kremlin continues to exert a centralized authority over Ramzan Kadyrov’s “Akhmat” Spetsnaz forces via the Russian MoD.
Zelensky stressed the problems Ukraine faces in defending against Russian air and ground assaults due to the shortages in air defense systems and artillery.
In an interview with PBS News Hour, Zelensky mentioned that Ukrainian forces were only able to destroy the first seven out of eleven Russian missiles launched against the Trypilska Thermal Power Plant (TPP) on April 11th. The plant was subsequently destroyed due to this ammunition shortage involving air-defense systems.
Furthermore, Zelensky mentioned that Ukrainian forces are at the short end of the stick with an artillery disadvantage of 1-to-10. Because of this artillery shortage, the Ukrainians have gradually lost some territory. As ISW critically mentions, “Russia and Ukraine are engaged in a constant air domain offense-defense innovation-adaptation race, in which Russia continues to adjust the timing, scale, composition, and targets of its strike packages to attempt to penetrate Ukraine’ air defense umbrella.”
Basically, the Russians are trying to launch air attacks in an eccentric fashion to confuse and exploit Ukraine’s air defenses. The delay in US aid for air defenses is helping these attacks become more successful.
Russian forces in eastern Ukraine utilize smaller groups for assaults and are plagued by morale issues; however, the Ukrainian material shortage means these attacks are unlikely to culminate in the near future.
Colonel Ruslan Muzychuk, spokesperson of the Ukrainian National Guard, recently stated that in eastern Ukraine, the Russians have opted to use small groups split into two detachments. The detachments are reinforced with armored vehicles to assist in ground attacks.
Furthermore, the Russians have been relying more on small, unprotected vehicles (the Chinese golf carts, for example) to rapidly approach Ukrainian positions with the hope of setting ideal conditions for subsequent Russian infantry groups to assault and secure the positions.
Oleh Kalashnikov, press officer for the Ukrainian 26th Artillery Brigade, stated publicly the Russians in the Bakhmut area seem to have opted for these smaller group attacks because Ukrainian drones immediately detect battalion-sized ground attacks and thwart them well.
At most, the Russians are using company-sized attacks. Kalashnikov also mentioned that Russian troops in this sector are experiencing chronic morale problems and use barrier troops to prevent troops from retreating. These morale problems would be ideal to exploit, but with the shortages in artillery that Ukraine faces, ISW predicts these Russian attacks are unlikely to culminate in the near future.
Ukraine’s SBU successfully targeted a Russian Nebo-U long-range radar station in Bryansk Oblast.
Per SBU sources, this particular Nebo-U station allowed Russian forces to survey up to 700 kilometers into Ukrainian airspace. Furthermore, the system was capable of detecting Ukrainian weapons and supporting Russian bombers to target concentrations of Ukrainian troops. Previously, the SBU successfully destroyed another Nebo-U station in Belgorod Oblast.
The Kremlin continues to exert a centralized authority over Ramzan Kadyrov’s “Akhmat” Spetsnaz forces via the Russian MoD.
(1/2)
Vladimir Putin signed a decree on April 16 appointing Commander of the Akhmat Spetsnaz - Apty Alaudinov - as the Deputy Head of the Main Directorate for Military-Political Work at the Russian MoD. This part of the Russian MoD is involved in ensuring Russian forces follow closely to Russia’s political ideology. This move is noteworthy due to not only it falls on the 15th year anniversary of the Kremlin declaring victory in Chechnya but also since it follows Kadyrov’s recent announcement that 3,000 former Wagner Group members would join the Akhmat Spetsnaz.
The ISW notes two probable reasons for this move by Putin. First, he is probably trying to establish safeguards to ensure Chechen leadership remains loyal to the Kremlin since Kadyrov’s forces continue to grow. Second, it might be a way to continue formalizing these atypical units under the MoD. In other words, ensure these forces remain loyal and reigned in under Putin’s control.
(2/2)
Moscow is preparing a provocation against Ukraine, allegedly related to the illegal circulation of Western weapons in Africa
With the aim of discrediting Ukraine and its partners, accusing Western allies of uncontrolled arms circulation with the participation of Ukraine, and emphasizing the fact that allegedly elite Ukrainian special forces are participating in hostilities in Africa at a time when Russia is waging a genocidal war in Ukraine itself, the Kremlin will try accuse Ukrainian special forces of allegedly using weapons of foreign origin during hostilities in the Republic of Sudan.
To do this, Russian propagandists plan to publish, in particular, in the Libyan media, commissioned publications and fabricated pictures of "trophy" weapons of American origin, previously captured by mercenaries of the so-called "Wagner" PvK during the war in Ukraine.
GUR emphasizes that Ukraine continues to act exclusively within the framework of international law and the UN Charter, with respect for the sovereignty of all countries and has nothing to do with illegal arms trafficking.
Moskowitz confronts Greene on Ukraine, Nazi remarks - The Hill
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) confronted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in a Wednesday hearing about her false claims that Nazism was rampant in Ukraine — an argument frequently touted by Russian President Vladimir Putin to justify his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a House Oversight Committee hearing titled “Defending America from the Chinese Communist Party’s Political Warfare,” Moskowitz issued a searing rebuke of the Georgia congresswoman’s efforts to paint Ukrainians as Nazis and pushed back against her comparisons of Ukraine’s government to that of Nazi Germany.
“Stop bringing up Nazis and Hitler. The only people who know about Nazis and Hitler are the 10 million people and their families who lost their loved ones — generations of people who were wiped out,” Moskowitz said.
“It is enough of this disgusting behavior, using Nazis as propaganda,” he continued. “You want to talk about Nazis? Get yourself over to the Holocaust Museum. You go see what Nazis did.”
“It’s despicable that we use that, and we allow it, and we sit here like somehow it’s regular,” he said.
Moskowitz began by invoking his own family’s history, saying, “Now, I want to address something else that went on in this committee by another member,” referring to Greene’s comments earlier the same day.
“And I say this as someone whose grandparents escaped the Holocaust. My grandmother was part of the Kindertransport out of Germany. Her parents were killed in Auschwitz. My grandfather, her husband, escaped Poland from the pogroms.”
Moskowitz described Nazi Germany’s efforts to wipe out the Jewish people, and criticized fellow lawmakers for tolerating false claims, saying, “We pretend that behavior is acceptable and regular.”
“There are no concentration camps in Ukraine. They’re not taking babies and shooting them in the ear because they’re Jewish. There’s no gas chambers. There’s no ovens. They’re not railing people in, they’re not ripping gold out of people’s mouths. They’re not taking stuff out of their homes. They’re not trying to erase a people, the Ukrainians,” Moskowitz said.
His remarks follow Greene’s line of questioning in the hearing, which she used to push back on Democrats’ witness, historian Timothy Snyder, an expert on the Holocaust, fascism, the Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe.
In her remarks, Greene highlighted several news stories and displayed several photos that she said depicted neo-Nazis in Ukraine. She raised concerns that it is now widely considered misinformation to talk about “the Nazis in Ukraine and their recruitment efforts that go all around the world.”
Greene displayed a news story, entitled, “Inside a White Supremacist Militia in Ukraine,” and then held up a photo of what appeared to be two Ukrainian soldiers, smiling, and holding their right hands up as a form of salute.
“This looks like something you’d see out of Hitler’s Germany from Ukraine. And this is something that’s extremely important to talk about,” Greene said.
When given a chance to respond to Greene’s remarks, Snyder refuted the suggestion that Nazis were pervasive in Ukrainian government, and he urged lawmakers to redirect their concerns about fascism to focus on Russia.
“If the chamber is interested in the degree of far-right participation in Ukrainian politics, you can be assured that no far-right party has ever crossed 3 percent … in a Ukrainian election,” he said. “So, of course, there are bad people in every country, but by any comparative standard, it is a very small phenomenon.”
“In Russia, on the other hand, the army includes openly Nazi formations … the government itself is fascist in character, and it is carrying out a war, which includes deportation of children by the tens of thousands, the open intention of destroying a state, as well as mass torture,” Snyder said. “So if we’re looking for fascism, and if there is anyone who is sincerely concerned about halting fascism or racism, you would wish to halt Russia.”
Russian enterprises report record shortage of workers
The supply of personnel in the first quarter fell to its lowest level in the entire history of observations, while companies’ hiring plans for the second quarter were at a maximum, the Central Bank reports in its monitoring of enterprises. Since 1998, the Central Bank has been monthly surveying approximately 15 thousand companies about their assessments of the current situation and expectations (the April survey took into account the responses of 12.7 thousand).
According to enterprises, in the first quarter the problem of staff shortages worsened, the Central Bank notes. The provision of workers was minus 28.2 points (this is the balance of responses - the difference between the number of those who are provided with and those who experience a shortage of workers). The most acute shortage of personnel is still at manufacturing enterprises producing products for investment and consumer purposes, monitoring showed. Earlier, the Central Bank wrote that “the greatest need for workers has arisen in the areas of IT, manufacturing, as well as in areas with a large share of blue-collar specialties: cargo transportation, construction, agriculture, etc.”
In the second quarter, enterprises in the main sectors of the economy plan to increase the number of employees, the Central Bank reports the results of the survey. The question is where will they get them: there are almost no free hands left in the economy. Unemployment is at historic lows, and labor demand (employment plus vacancies) has caught up with supply (labor force).
In Tatarstan, 14-year-olds will be recruited to work at military factories
The Parliament of Tatarstan has prepared a new regional program to "promote youth employment", according to which teenagers 14-18 years old will be allowed to work in factories in their free time, Kommersant writes .
Separate paragraphs in the document indicate “promotion of employment of youth under the age of 35 in agriculture” and “at enterprises of the military-industrial complex.”
Officials are worried that the number of working youth in Tatarstan is declining - due to “a decline in the birth rate in the country in the 90s of the twentieth century” and due to the fact that young people prefer to study rather than work.
Last year, the State Council of the Republic wanted to allow teenagers from 16 years of age to be employed in hazardous and hazardous industries.
Earlier it became known that in the Tatarstan SEZ "Alabuga" underage students of the "Alabuga Polytechnic" are forced to assemble Iranian kamikaze drones , which are used in the war against Ukraine.
From "The Analyst":
THE RETURN OF THE PRIVATE ARMY
Russia has just permitted yet another private military company for Novotek,the gas supply giant.
A string of other private armies are expected to be authorised as these big resources companies struggle to protect their interests.
Generally speaking most Russian PMC’s are designed for combat operations, standing in for state military forces.
Wagner was of course the largest and best known, causing mayhem across Africa, Venezuela and Afghanistan.
The oil and gas companies however have a different requirement. For them this more about self-security.
Russia has a problem with this already. It requires men that should be mobilised, it doesn’t help defend the oil and gas facilities from air and drone strikes.
Yet there are also serious issues over who controls them and how they might eventually be used. Corporate armies capable of threatening the government - individually or jointly could be a problem all of their own.
The whole concept may have existed for some time - but Ukraine sending streams of drones has been the catalyst for security. And the irony is these armies have no more ability to protect these facilities than the hapless Russian army does. The most likely outcome is that the private armies grow, both as a hedge against Ukrainian attacks, but also to defend their assets in the event of a federal collapse and the need to protect physical assets. In many ways these armies tell you how deeply flawed the Russian political and economic systems is, that it needs to permit corporations to protect themselves with their own armies. You can’t help but think these are eventually going to be more trouble than anyone bargains for. Prighozhin should have been warning enough.
🤡 Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed an amendment to the US House bill on aid to Ukraine, under which all congressmen who vote "For" are sent to fight for Ukraine.
- And how about: Those who vote "Against" are sent to the front lines to fight for ruzzia? Deal?
Republicans who can't figure percentages
Good morning Resisters everywhere. It's fixing to get stormy. T-storm alert and possible rotation. But we really don't get them here. Tornadoes have an affinity for flat ground and trailer parks. Neither of those here.
Goodnight Resisters everywhere.
These guys are Resisters. Just ask DeathSantis
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian Z fascist invaders.
I am a 73 year old Covid hermit who
lives on 10 acres in a sparsely populated area of the Ozarks. I heat with wood that is leftover by the lumber industry. When cutting oak for lumber only the trunk is used.
The largest town is population 2992. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
TheOldGuy's choices:
