TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org

🦅  Operators of the 🦁 71st Brigade destroyed/damaged a Russian turtle tank

"Don't wear black. We say goodbye to the little angel."

In Odessa, they said goodbye to 4-year-old Zlata, who was killed by the Russian army.

The girl was wounded during shelling on April 29. Then the enemy hit the city with a ballistic missile, killing 7 more people.

Zlata was hospitalized in a very serious condition. She underwent heart surgery and was in a coma. The girl died on May 23.

Before saying goodbye, Zlata's father published a video on social networks with an appeal not to wear black clothes to the funeral, because his daughter did not like this color.

"I want to ask you not to wear dark clothes, because we are saying goodbye to a little angel, the angel is white," Vyacheslav's father wrote.

"You saved and united many, our little angel. Your ringing laugh is forever etched in everyone's heart. Fly away with a cloud, return to us with rain. My dear, the softest clouds and eternal memory for you," the parents wrote.

📸 Nina Lyashonok, Ukrinform‌‌

A video of the moment when fighters of the 110th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down a Russian Su-25 aircraft

CONTINUED…
Given the fact they have had so many advantages - preparing unmolested because Ukraine cannot fire over the border, that their artillery is safe over the border for the most part (except from Ukrainian made drones), their logistics likewise, that they can retire to home territory for rotations and repair just a few kilometres away, and this is the best they can manage? These forces were building up for the best part of ten months. Rumours of an attack here have been long suspected. The Russians even built a new airstrip.
The fact is the Ukrainians left the open fields undefended for good reason - and the Russians paid the price crossing them and continue to do so, having grossly underestimated their vulnerabilities (which at this stage of the war is frankly incomprehensible). The number of troops allocated to the attack was clearly insufficient.
Now they are stuck and in effect draining their own resources for no real gain. Even more galling for the Russians is that on many sectors of the front the Ukrainians have stopped their advances or even retaken small sections in places in just a few days.
Only in Robotyne do the Russians appear to have made a significant but small gain.
Once again, let’s just remember that for months, Ukraine was almost on its knees. The shortages of weapons and artillery shells has been almost crippling. The winter was nowhere near as bad as expected and the mud of the autumn and spring has been minimal. Russia had all the advantages and it made some gains - but they’re relatively small other than Avdivka. If with all their advantages that’s the best they can do then they really have a problem. You cannot but start to wonder if the tide has reached its peak and is starting to turn. The Kharkiv offensive isn’t yet over but it’s stuck in a rut of its own making, dragging resources into a fight that should have never happened and certainly wasn’t in the plan. That sounds like the description of this entire war from Russia’s perspective.

It is Memorial Day tomorrow in the US . Maximum credit to the Ukrainian forces and people for defending their country and all of ours against such an evil enemy. An outstanding job. We should all be eternally grateful.

Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦!

From "The Analyst":

KHARKIV STRATEGY

The Russians started the operation with attacks on more of the bridges over the Seversky-Donetsk river (running south) and the Vovcha which runs east-west through the town of Vovchansk into the former.
Their targets, designed to prevent Ukraine from crossing back and forth and reinforcing either of the two offensive zones, were primarily the main dam on which they used a HH-38 guided missile with a 200kg warhead. This bridge is crucial as it links Kharkiv with Vovchansk.
The missile was impossible to intercept as it came from inside Russia and was fired at just 30km so nothing could stop it at such short notice.
The only remaining crossing is much further south and doubles the distance Ukrainians will have to travel from Kharkiv to Vovchansk.
The whole point of doing this was to make it easy to seize Vovchansk - that was the main goal of this operation and would allow further expansion down the river and towards Kupiansk, slicing the whole section of front off from Ukraine.
The original plan was to encircle the town and capture it intact rather than do what they usually do and flatten it. To this end they began an encircling operation.
Many forget that Russian tanks and BMP’s are technically amphibious with the right kit in use and would have no trouble, if properly prepared, in crossing the narrow Vovcha river to its west.
The plan was to take the forest on the south side of the river. Artillery prepared the crossing point, but it seems the Russians really didn’t think about what they were about to do. To reach the crossing point, the amphibious prepared armour had to cross 5km of open farmland - the very reason then Ukrainians didn’t bother defending it because it was so exposed. The Russian armour was hunted down by drones and artillery; the entire assault group of five T-90 and five BMP, along with two supply trucks never reached the river bank.
With Ukrainian forces surging into Vovchansk area, the idea of encirclement rapidly fell apart.
The Russian combat troop allocation for the operation is around five thousand - far fewer than needed, and while they got into the town and appeared to take much of the northern sector (it is just 5km from the border), as soon as the Ukrainian reinforcements arrived it became clear the Russians hadn’t got as far as was imagined or they were claiming. That’s when the artillery turned itself on to the town, the Russians gave up on capturing it intact and began their usual practice of destroying everything to deny it to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians have sufficient force to stop the Russians and the northern section is more of a contested zone than under Russian control, not at all how this was supposed to go at this point in their offensive.
Baring in mind the relatively light forces the Ukrainians had, right at the start, the Russian failure to encircle Vovchansk is extraordinary. Add to that they didn’t expect Ukrainian reinforcements to be so rapidly deployed and stop them in their tracks.
This shows that rumours the Ukrainians had gained intel on what was planned was likely true, that their own plans, rather then being chaotic as western media tried to make out, suggesting unpreparedness, were in fact a series of options based on what happened in the opening phase, and they reacted accordingly.
The result was the Russian strategic plan to swoop in to Vovchansk after surrounding it in a lightning attack went totally wrong, leaving them undermanned and stuck in a battle they never wanted or expected for the town.
The distraction attack towards Kharkiv itself - aiming for Liptsy, a key village due to its being in tube artillery range of the city, also ground to a stop.
Yet again we see the Russian ‘what’s in the box’ mentality play out. The commanders are given x amount of resources and as they get used up there’s no more. As resources and losses mount at a staggering and unexpected level Russia is faced with persisting and doubling down on it or withdrawing and returning to the border status quo. CONTINUES…

🕯 9:00 - minute of silence

Junior Sergeant Oleksiy Garyachuk died on July 24, 2022 while performing a combat mission in the area of ​​Vuglehirskaya TPP in Donetsk region. The defender was 36 years old.

Oleksiy comes from the city of Berezan, Kyiv region. He had his own business in the trade sphere. He loved his work very much. In his free time he went fishing.

After the start of the full-scale invasion, he served in the 5th separate assault brigade.

"Thanks to my husband's act and for his sake, I consciously feel what it is to be Ukrainian," said Inna, the wife of the deceased.

Parents, brother, wife and daughter were waiting for Oleksiy at home.‌‌

A comparison

A bunch of wackadoodles in robes.

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/extreme-court-strikes-again-2/56262/

Standing in a parking lot waving at nobody

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/senile-donald-trump-waves-at-no-one/56282/

Trump found out people hate him.
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/donald-trumps-ugly-encounter-with-reality/56283/

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/president-biden-is-just-getting-started-on-this-one/56263/

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/new-trouble-for-matt-gaetz-5/56274/

France to open plant for production of 155mm shells in Belgium.

France plans to open a new plant for the production of 155mm artillery shells in Belgium.

The plant will be opened next week by KNDS Mecar in Belgium, a subsidiary of the French company Ouest-France. In the long run, this will provide a significant increase in the production of artillery shells, which are now so much needed by both Ukraine and European militaries.

The Petit-Roeulx-les-Nivelles plant will specialize in producing the artillery shells, which will be filled with explosives at other enterprises in Belgium and France.

Despite the opening, the plant’s full operation will begin no earlier than 2025, but the increase in production rates will be noted earlier.

In addition to expanding the production of 155-mm shell casings, France is also expanding the production of special modular artillery charges used to fire artillery shells. The French gunpowder and explosives manufacturer Eurenco will increase production of modular powder charges for artillery to 500.000 units per year. The company will launch production and produce up to 1,200 tons of artillery powder per year at its facilities in Bergerac, in which it has invested over €500 million.

The new Eurenco gunpowder production line, which was laid in mid-April 2024, should to meet the growing needs of the EU and Ukraine. The new production line of the plant should begin work in early 2025. Currently, the bottleneck in the production of artillery ammunition for Europe is the supply of gunpowder.

In parallel with this investment, EURENCO is also increasing its production capacity at its other sites in Europe, said the company in a press release.

Two planes of Yamal Airlines broke down in the air in a day

Russian airlines continue to face technical problems in the transportation of citizens. On Wednesday, May 22, two Yamal planes were forced to urgently land in Tyumen due to breakdowns, according to the Ural Transport Prosecutor's Office.

In the morning, the crew of the Sukhoi Superjet 100, which was flying from Ufa to Novy Urengoy, reported an automatic failure. The aircraft commander decided to proceed to the alternate airfield of Roshchino in Tyumen.

In the afternoon, another aircraft of Yamal Airlines, an Airbus 320, with 93 passengers on board following the route Ufa - Noyabrsk, made an emergency landing at the same airport due to depressurization of the cockpit.

The day before, due to a technical malfunction, the SSJ-100 aircraft of the Red Wings airline could not fly from Chelyabinsk to Novy Urengoy. The flight of 38 passengers was delayed for 16.5 hours.

The number of air incidents and more serious accidents caused by technical malfunctions has increased after the Russian aviation industry came under EU and US sanctions for the war in Ukraine. In 2023, at least 74 different aircraft breakdowns in the air were recorded, which is 38 more than in 2022, according to the German research company Jacdec. For every 100 thousand flights, there were almost 10 air accidents, while a year earlier - only five, according to an analysis by the research company Cirium.

According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, in just 11 months of last year, 670 air incidents occurred in the country, of which 400 were related to the failure of equipment, including engines. The problems are obvious: carriers cannot legally purchase new foreign aircraft and original spare parts, and the aviation authorities allow parts to be used longer than safety standards allow, which leads to accidents, said the head of RunAvia Andrey Patrakov.

Russia has not yet been able to establish its own production. According to the forecast of the consulting company Oliver Wyman, by 2026 the country's fleet will be reduced by more than half.

Source

@freerussia_report

German AfD candidate steps down after SS comments as EU's far right splits.

The leading candidate for Germany's far-right party in the European election stepped back from campaigning on Wednesday to try to quell the backlash after declaring that the SS, the Nazis' main paramilitary force, were "not all criminals".
Maximilian Krah said in a statement that he would not attend future campaign appearances and also resigned from the senior leadership team of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party with immediate effect.

The move comes as French far-right leader Marine Le Pen announced her party was making a "clean break" with the AfD, suggesting the German party had become too toxic an ally ahead of the European election in June.

The AfD, which has slipped in the polls in recent weeks, said it had suffered "massive damage" and that Krah had taken full political responsibility.
In an interview published last weekend, Krah told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that "SS were not all criminals". The SS, or "Schutzstaffel", was the main paramilitary force of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, and, among its many roles, took a leading part in the Holocaust, the slaughter of 6 million Jews and other groups targeted by the Nazis.

It appeared to be the last straw for Le Pen, who in a radio interview on Wednesday morning accused the AfD of being rudderless and in hock to radical elements within it.
Le Pen told Europe 1 her party urgently needed to sever its ties with the German party. "The AfD goes from provocation to provocation," she said.

Le Pen's comments come a day after the RN, leading the race for the EU election in France, said it will no longer sit with the AfD in the European Parliament.

Anders Vistisen, the lead candidate for Denmark's far-right DF who is also representing the group in pre-election debates, wrote on X on Tuesday evening that "Maximilian Krah from the AfD has shown with his statements and actions that he does not belong in the ID group.If the AfD does not take advantage of the situation and get rid of Krah, the DF's position is that the AfD must leave the ID group," he added.

The AfD has also faced mass street protests after senior figures attended a meeting where the deportation of Germans with immigrant backgrounds was discussed, and over allegations that it harbours agents for Russia and China.
Krah's own aide was charged with spying for Beijing, putting more pressure on the politician, who tops the list of AfD candidates and would be the first to get a seat in the European parliament after the election.
Last week, a German court ruled that domestic security services could continue to keep the AfD under surveillance as a potentially extremist party.

Read more

🇪🇺@EU_Report 🇩🇪

Astra keeps counting.
Another 4 FABs dropped by ruZZian planes on the Belgorod region in 2 days

On May 22, FAB-250 was found near a residential building in Yasnye Zori, Belgorod District. Residents of the street were evacuated. On May 23, a FAB-250 fell on the territory of a hunting farm in Polyana (Shebekinsky urban district). On the same day, two more FAB-500s were found in a field near Pristen in the same district.

Thus, over the past 3 months, the russian Fuckeration has dropped 59 FABs on its own regions and the occupied territories of Ukraine. According to the count of The Insider (May 13th) the Belgorod region had the dubious honor to receive the main share of Z-strikes in 2024: 38 different modifications of the FAB and one Kh-59 missile. At least twice FABs fell in Belgorod city.

As this turns into a regular event, (nothing to see folks, just another FAB) perhaps we should only publish only every 25th or even 50th case of self-bombing...

@freerussia_report

Deluded much?
Georgia wants to reintegrate Abkhazia and South Ossetia to its composition and become a member of the EU by 2030, wrote Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.

After forcing the ruZZian "foreign agent" law through against the wishes of the Georgian people, he tries to make a gain move with EU?
It seems the GD politicians are remembering that they got their votes because people want to join EU, and now try again to bait them with that.

Well, forget EU, it has enough problems as it is with pro-Kreminal assholes like Orban and Fico. No need for more. And any accession talks have to include an automatic "get-kicked-with-immediate-interruption-of-all-EU-money-and-payback-obligation"-clause if the candidate strays off the rule of law.

@freerussia_report

I don't know what is going on in the Eastern part of the county, but two ambulances have gone West in the last hour. The Eastern part has no cities. The towns are less than 100 people.

https://mil.in.ua/en/news/lithuania-plans-to-purchase-iris-t-slm-air-defense-systems/

I am currently resting from weeding. I filled an 8 cubic foot two wheel wheelbarrow. After I rest I take it down the hill to my burn pile. Then I start to fill it again. There are about two more wheelbarrow loads in that section. The bed I am weeding is 140 feet long and 8 feet wide.