TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian Z fascist invaders.
I am a 72 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
Approval from the United States is necessary to transfer the Patriots
Sullivan Says Military Aid will Help Ukraine Mount Counteroffensive in 2025
Ukraine will look to mount a new counteroffensive in 2025 after receiving a $61bn infusion of US military aid to help it stop Russia from making additional gains this year, Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser said.
Speaking at the FT Weekend Festival in Washington on Saturday, Sullivan said that he still expects “Russian advances in the coming period” on the battlefield, despite the new US funding package approved last month, because “you can’t instantly flip the switch.”
But he said that with the new aid from Washington, Kyiv would have the capacity to “hold the line” and “to ensure Ukraine withstands the Russian assault” over the course of 2024.
And pointing to the scenario for the war next year, Sullivan said Ukraine intended to “to move forward to recapture the territory that the Russians have taken from them”.
His comments about a potential counteroffensive by Ukraine represent the White House’s clearest articulation of how it views the conflict evolving if president Joe Biden wins re-election in November.
Any new offensive in 2025 by Ukraine would be dependent on more funding from Congress, and approval by the White House.
https://t.me/EveryUkraineWarVideo Subscribe
Ukrainian Weapons Makers Want to Return to the Global Arms Market. Here’s Why
Being the site of the largest European war since World War II has led to the rapid development of Ukrainians’ home-grown defense industry.
Privately owned factories are sprouting up across the country and taking over what had largely been strictly state-owned companies. Private enterprises are often quicker and nimbler in a landscape where speed is, literally, a matter of life and death.
The leading private defense manufacturers have a trade organization — the National Association of Defense Industry Enterprises of Ukraine (NAUDI).
Ukrainian arms manufacturers mostly produce armored vehicles, self-propelled howitzers, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), radars, electronic warfare systems, various shells and mines, as well as surveillance, and guidance and reconnaissance systems.
This year, according to Forbes, which referenced high-ranking officials in the Defense Department, the enterprises are able to produce products worth about $15 billion – five times more than in 2023, and twice as much as was purchased.
*That said, they only have one customer – the Ukrainian government. Since the beginning of the introduction of martial law, Kyiv has suspended any exports.*
"This is quite a big problem for private enterprises,” Maksym Polyvyany, executive director of NAUDI, tells KyivPost.
“For example, an enterprise can produce products worth Hr.170-180 billion hryvnias ($4.25-4.5 billion) per year, while the [cash-strapped] state buys only 50 percent of what is produced for Hr.90 billion ($2.25 billion). Because of this, production is forced to be reduced due to a lack of funds for the payment of wages to employees and taxes. There is stagnation because profit does not allow us to create new types of weapons.”
Read more:
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/32118
SBU special forces "minus" more than fifty armored vehicles and 430 occupants
Soldiers of the Security Service continue to pelt the occupiers with explosive "gifts" straight from the sky.
In just two weeks, the losses of the Russians amounted to:
▪️ 25 tanks
▪️ 65 BBM
▪️ 59 artillery systems
▪️ 13 air defense systems
▪️ 251 units of military transport
▪️ 119 enemy positions and fortifications
▪️ 6 warehouses with ammunition and fuel and lubricants
▪️ and 458 occupants
North Korean Weapons are Killing Ukrainians. The Implications are Far Bigger
On 2 January, a young Ukrainian weapons inspector, Krystyna Kimachuk, got word that an unusual-looking missile had crashed into a building in the city of Kharkiv. She began calling her contacts in the Ukrainian military, desperate to get her hands on it. Within a week, she had the mangled debris splayed out in front of her at a secure location in the capital Kyiv.
She began taking it apart and photographing every piece, including the screws and computer chips smaller than her fingernails. She could tell almost immediately this was not a Russian missile, but her challenge was to prove it.
Buried amidst the mess of metal and spouting wires, Ms. Kimachuk spotted a tiny character from the Korean alphabet. Then she came across a more telling detail. The number 112 had been stamped onto parts of the shell.
This corresponds to the year 2023 in the North Korean calendar.
*She realised she was looking at the first piece of hard evidence that North Korean weapons were being used to attack her country.*
But it wasn't until after she had finished photographing the wreckage of the missile and her team analysed its hundreds of components, that the most jaw-dropping revelation came.
It was bursting with the latest foreign technology. Most of the electronic parts had been manufactured in the US and Europe over the past few years. There was even a US computer chip made as recently as March 2023.
- BBC
Read the full article here:
ISW Daily Frontline Updates (May 4th, 2024)
Luhansk Oblast
Russian forces continued to launch ground attacks on the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line on May 4 but did not make confirmed advances.
Positional battles continued east of Kupyansk near Petropavlivka; southeast of Kupyansk near Pishchane, Kyslivka, and Kotlyarivka; northwest of Svatove near Berestove and Stelmakhivka; and west of Svatove near Andriivka.
Positional battles also continued southwest of Svatove near Novovodyane, Makiivka, and Nevske; west of Kreminna near Terny and Torske; southwest of Kreminna near Dibrova; and south of Kreminna near Hryhorivka, Serebryanske forest, and Bilohorivka.
Donetsk Oblast
Northern Bakhmut Direction
Positional engagements continued in the Siversk direction (northeast of Bakhmut) on May 4, but there were no confirmed changes to this frontline.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces unsuccessfully attacked southwest of Siversk near Rozdolivka.
Chasiv Yar
Ukrainian and Russian forces continued to fight near Chasiv Yar on May 4, but there were no confirmed changes to this frontline.
*A Russian source claimed that Ukrainian control over Hryhorivka and Kalynivka (both north of Chasiv Yar) and counterattacks in their vicinity are preventing Russian forces from advancing north of Chasiv Yar.*
The deputy commander of a Ukrainian brigade operating near Chasiv Yar stated that Russian forces are trying to bypass Chasiv Yar from Bohdanivka (northeast of Chasiv Yar) and Ivanivske while also trying to attack the settlement head on.
Avdiivka Direction
Russian forces continued ground attacks west and southwest of Avdiivka on May 4, but there were no confirmed changes to the frontline in this area.
*However, Russian forces made a notable tactical advance northwest of Avdiivka near Arkhanhelske on the night of May 3 to 4, likely following a Ukrainian decision to withdraw from the area on May 3.*
Donetsk City Direction
Russian forces recently made confirmed advances west and southwest of Donetsk City amid continued fighting in the area on May 4.
Geolocated footage published on May 4 indicates that Russian forces advanced in the northern part of the brick factory in central Krasnohorivka (west of Donetsk City), and Russian milbloggers claimed that elements of the Russian 5th Motorized Rifle Brigade (1st DNR AC) seized the factory.
Russian forces advanced west and southwest of Novomykhailvika (southwest of Donetsk City).
Vuhledar
Russian forces reportedly recently conducted a series of unsuccessful mechanized assaults near Vuhledar, likely over the past several weeks.
Southern Axis
Zaporhizia/Robotyne Directions
Russian forces continued to attack Ukrainian positions in Robotyne and its vicinity on May 4, but the frontline did not change.
Positional battles continued in the Robotyne area and northwest of Verbove (east of Robotyne).
*One milblogger observed that Russian forces are having difficulties securing positions north of Robotyne and northwest of Verbove because of the destruction of positions and buildings in the area.*
The milblogger also claimed that Russian forces operating on the Robotyne-Verbove line require additional electronic warfare (EW) systems to repel Ukrainian drones.
Kherson/Krynky Directions
Positional engagements continued in the east (left) bank of Kherson Oblast near Krynky and on the Nestryha Island in the Dnipro River Delta on May 3 and May 4.
Ukrainian Southern Operational Command Spokesperson Captain Third Rank Dmytro Pletenchuk stated that Ukrainian positions on the Nestryha Island do not constitute a bridgehead and noted that Ukrainian control over this island is important as it is the last island close to the shore.
A Russian milblogger observed that both Russian and Ukrainian forces are intensifying operations on the islands in the Dnipro River Delta and noted that Russian forces have an acute lack of mobile EW systems and experience problems with personnel evacuations.
*Editor/Admin note: The entire frontline is challenging for our Ukrainian defenders, but the Russians appear to have experienced more success on May 4th in the Avdiivka and Donetsk City directions than elsewhere on the frontlines.
Does it matter who is next? There has already been enough testimony to sink him.
The Ukrainian cottage industry of camouflage netting.
https://open.substack.com/pub/annabowles/p/the-war-weavers-part-1?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Gazprom sees worst loss in decades as European exports falter | Euronews
Gazprom, the Russian energy giant majority owned by the Kremlin has recently revealed the worst loss in more than 20 years, of 629 billion roubles (€6.38 billion) in 2023. This was much worse than the 447 billion roubles loss expected by the market, according to the Interfax news agency. It was also sharply at odds with the 1.2 trillion roubles profit seen in 2022.
Furthermore, the company clocked in a sales net loss of 364 billion roubles in 2023, also a disappointment from the 1.9 trillion roubles profit seen in the previous year. Total revenue also dropped to 8.5 trillion roubles in 2023, a slide from the 11.7 trillion seen in the previous year.
These disappointing figures were mostly due to Gazprom’s European exports falling significantly, as a result of Europe’s continuing sanctions on both Gazprom, and several of its individual employees because of the Russia-Ukraine war.
🇺🇦@ukraine_report 🇺🇦🔱 Liz
https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/05/03/gazprom-sees-worst-loss-in-decades-as-european-exports-falter
(📸: Roman PHILIPEY/AFP)
U.S. Weapons Are Coming To Ukraine. But Russian Forces Have The Momentum.
Last week, Russian forces broke through Ukrainian lines in the village of Ocheretyne, building on momentum from the February capture of the industrial city of Avdiyivka.
Russian forces, were “actively attacking along the entire front line with tactical successes in some areas.”--Ukraine’s commander in chief.
Ukrainian forces got a jolt of morale-boosting news last week, when U.S. lawmakers finally pushed through a $60 billion aid package.
But Ukraine’s battlefield position is bleak.
“In general, we are slowly losing territory,” said Ivan Stupak, an analyst with the Ukrainian Institute for the Future.
"A difficult situation awaits us in the near future. But it will not be catastrophic, let's be clear," Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, told the BBC. "But there will be a difficult period. Mid-May, early June."
Read more
@Ukraine_Report
🇺🇦🤝🇮🇩 Blue
Russia has opened a criminal case against Zelenskyy. The criminal case against Putin is operable in 134 countries.
https://t.me/Ukraine_Report/21873
The Bible teaches us to love our neighbor.
And today has shown us the true meaning of this word. When we all became close to each other. And the former neighbor, who constantly bullied us, is forever distant for us. He broke all the commandments, demanded our home, came to kill us. The world sees it. God knows that. And we believe: God has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder. So with such an ally, life will definitely win over death.
Happy Easter to all of you, dear Ukrainians!
Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed!
Zelensky Official
The original goal of our report was to make a report about a special group of Ukrainian Air Assault Forces, called “Kayfariki”. United 24
We went with them on a mission to the first line of defense. But the worst of all possible scenarios suddenly became a reality: The Russian army assaulted the position with a large armored convoy, including three tanks. Surrounded, the paratroopers fought a 14-hour battle for the position, for their lives, and ours.
Full story: https://youtu.be/cgJFPJ64aR0
🇺🇦@ukraine_report 🇺🇦🔱 Liz
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian Z fascist invaders.
I am a 72 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
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