Kiev Is Burning

[crazyinsane105]

3 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

The problem is that  the same intelligence service for over a year and a half has had a really good record at predicting the deaths of many Russian commanders, which the Russians then acknowledge. Its a little unfair not to make note of that.

Ultimately the Russians have a really easy way to demonstrate the good admiral is still alive, and thats put him on TV answering questions about it. And of course being completely unharmed they will undoubtedly do this to put down this cruel and unnecessary Ukrainian hoax. Right? Right?

 

If the Russian media or some paper announces the funeral of some commander, then it’s more than enough of a confirmation (and that has happened repeatedly throughout the war). So I’ll wait a little bit for that rather than what Ukraine’s intelligence is claiming 

Not to mention that the very critical Russian pro bloggers who seem to loathe the MoD and don’t hold back on criticism aren’t really mentioning this very much either.

All of this makes me hold some reservations

[Stuart Galbraith]

Oh dear. I need a cold shower, again.

[mkenny]

 

The Times Sat Sept 23rd.

 

 

‘Go back to the front? I would rather shoot myself in the leg’

Anger at corruption in the Ukrainian army is growing, Anthony Loyd writes in Lviv

Prosecutors say Yevhen Borysov took $5 million in “white ticket” bribes

 

The first wound Andrii suffered was a shot in the shoulder fired by a Russian infantryman in eastern Ukraine last spring. The second came minutes later, as the 20-year-old sergeant lay writhing in pain in the mud: he was hit in the back by shrapnel from an exploding Russian shell.

If he is ever wounded again, he says, it will probably be by his own hand.

“I am absolutely ready to shoot myself in the leg rather than ever go back to the front,” said Andrii, who deserted from his unit after he was discharged from hospital with bullet fragments in his left shoulder and ordered to return to the front.

“I was a contract soldier, a professional,” he said from his refuge in Lviv, speaking on condition that his full name was withheld. “But after seeing so much corruption and incompetence involved in the system that paid no attention to me or my wounds, why should I go back to be meat in a trench?”

His voice is rare in a society whose civilians and soldiery remain largely committed to President Zelensky’s aim of driving Russian forces out of Ukraine. But his account of disaffection and desertion highlights the problem Ukraine faces as it tries to preserve its veteran units and mobilise thousands more soldiers for a long war ahead, while public anger over corrupt officials, draft dodgers and the treatment of exhausted soldiers grows.

Andrii, who saw repeated action until he was wounded, with all but one other man in his six-man team killed in action, blamed much of his anger on the way he was handled by a Ukrainian military medical commission.

Most of the bullet passed in one side of his shoulder and out the other, but it fragmented against bone, leaving shards of metal pressed against the joint. An operation to remove the fragments at a hospital in Vinnytsia was only partially successful, and months later he still had persistent pain and numbness down his left arm.

A doctor suggested he pay a bribe to have himself released from the army.

“The doctors said that they couldn’t take all the bullet fragments out without the risk of damaging nerves so badly that I’d lose the use of my arm,” said Andrii, who had joined the army as an 18-year-old volunteer. “One doctor offered to write me a certificate saying I was unfit for future service if I paid him $1,500. But I didn’t take his offer. At the time I was still angry, keen to fight the Russians and to get my revenge for my dead friends.”

Ukraine’s military medical commissions, which assess the fitness of mobilised men for active service, became the focus of a corruption scandal this year.

It is alleged that a system of kickbacks paid by unwilling draftees or soldiers to doctors to issue “white ticket” exemptions from service enabled the head of Odesa’s regional military mobilisation office, Yevhen Borysov, to buy a $4.35 million villa in Marbella.

Borysov was arrested in July and is under investigation.

Ukraine’s National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption said Borysov acquired illegal payoffs totalling $5 million — and he was far from alone.

Subsequent investigations have caused Zelensky to sack the head of every regional mobilisation office.

Anti-corruption activists investigating the military’s medical commissions after Borysov’s arrest were appalled at what they found. Valeriy Bolhan, an associate at the Centre for Public Investigations, an anti-corruption NGO in Odesa, told The Times that more than 50,000 white tickets exempting men on medical grounds had been issued by commissions under Borysov’s jurisdiction.

“We don’t know how many of these have been issued illegally,” said Bolhan.

“Until the scandal broke, the price for an illegal white ticket was around $7,000. Now it’s more like $20,000.”

The flaws with Ukraine’s military medical commissions and mobilisation departments cut both ways. On the one hand, corrupt officials take money to allow men to escape the draft; on the other, eager to retain experienced troops, they often ignore legitimate medical concerns among wounded soldiers like Andrii.

“We’ve discovered many instances of soldiers who should have been released due to their injuries being asked to pay bribes to get out,” Bolhan said. “In some cases men who want to fight but are not healthy enough pay bribes to be allowed into the army.”

Since martial law was declared in February 2022, most men between 16 and 60 are forbidden from leaving the country. Theoretically, any man in that category can be drafted to fight.

Exceptions include parents with three or more children under 18, carers of disabled dependents, and those deemed medically unfit. However, last month a change in the law extended military eligibility to Ukrainians with viral hepatitis, thyroid gland diseases, clinically cured TB, mild mental and neurotic disorders, and those with HIV but no symptoms. From next month, Ukrainian women in selected medical professions will also become eligible.

Since the Russian invasion, this policy has allowed Ukraine to gather an army of 700,000 soldiers, in addition to a force of border guards, police units and National Guard units of about 250,000. But the need for fresh troops is constant: in August, US officials estimated that nearly 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 120,000 wounded so far.

“I had heard that I could get my arm properly operated on in Germany to regain its full use,”Andrii said. “I started planning to go there. But then I was not allowed clearance to leave the country.”

The authorities considered Andrii to be neither badly wounded enough to be discharged, nor deserving of extensive surgery abroad. Instead, he was ordered to return to his combat unit on the front in Donbas.

He asked his battalion commander for help. “But he told me to f*** off and not to bother him about my injuries,” he said. “My wounds were not being properly dealt with. My commander couldn’t care. That’s when I started to question ‘why am I doing this?’ “That finished it for me. I suddenly realised that of the six friends I had joined up with, all but one was dead. My arm was messed up, my home lost.

Some doctors wanted money I didn’t have to let me out. Others insisted I was good to fight despite my injuries.

“So why should I go back to the front? I stopped caring. They know where I am.

Let them come for me. I’ll never fight again. I won’t be their meat anymore.

[Ssnake]

You're easily excited, my friend.

[Roman Alymov]

Lancet vs. M777 https://t.me/infomil_live/180

[Roman Alymov]

Back to "human waves" claims https://t.me/milinfolive/106974

[seahawk]

"BREAKING: Russia claims to have destroyed a Leopard tank with a German regular army crew and captured the German mechanic, who then died shortly after.

Russian soldier tells the story:

The mechanic, when he woke up and saw us, started shouting "nicht schießen" (don't shoot - in German).

‘The legend’ stressed that the mechanic of the damaged tank ‘said several times that he was not a mercenary, but a Bundeswehr serviceman and the entire crew is from one company.’

The scout specified that while the German serviceman was being provided with first aid, he named his brigade and the place of its deployment.”

https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1705548 ... 17757?s=20
https://x.com/djuric_zlatko/status/1705 ... 74524?s=20

 

NATO is at war with Russia and the Western empire of lies is crumbling. This day could be a turning point in history.

Edited September 24, 2023 by seahawk

[Roman Alymov]

ATGM vs Bradley abandoned in between two Leopard tanks immobilized back in early summer. The fact this place is still within reach of ATGMs is quite telling about the success of NATO offencive https://t.me/infomil_live/181

[Stuart Galbraith]

46 minutes ago, Roman Alymov said:

ATGM vs Bradley abandoned in between two Leopard tanks immobilized back in early summer. The fact this place is still within reach of ATGMs is quite telling about the success of NATO offencive https://t.me/infomil_live/181

How do you know the missile shot was taken recently?

[Stuart Galbraith]

57 minutes ago, seahawk said:

"BREAKING: Russia claims to have destroyed a Leopard tank with a German regular army crew and captured the German mechanic, who then died shortly after.

Russian soldier tells the story:

The mechanic, when he woke up and saw us, started shouting "nicht schießen" (don't shoot - in German).

‘The legend’ stressed that the mechanic of the damaged tank ‘said several times that he was not a mercenary, but a Bundeswehr serviceman and the entire crew is from one company.’

The scout specified that while the German serviceman was being provided with first aid, he named his brigade and the place of its deployment.”

https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1705548 ... 17757?s=20
https://x.com/djuric_zlatko/status/1705 ... 74524?s=20

 

NATO is at war with Russia and the Western empire of lies is crumbling. This day could be a turning point in history.

Well that sounds convincing. Did they capture a Polish lancer with his Cavalry horse as well?

 

[BansheeOne]

I was thinking when I first read the TASS report yesterday "so they've run out of imaginary Poles to kill, now they've proceded to imaginary Germans." 😁

[Stuart Galbraith]

They could do better. They could say they immobilised a Tiger with a really old crew, who popped the hatch and asked if the war was over yet.

 

[Yama]

2 hours ago, seahawk said:

"BREAKING: Russia claims to have destroyed a Leopard tank with a German regular army crew and captured the German mechanic, who then died shortly after.

Russian soldier tells the story:

The mechanic, when he woke up and saw us, started shouting "nicht schießen" (don't shoot - in German).

‘The legend’ stressed that the mechanic of the damaged tank ‘said several times that he was not a mercenary, but a Bundeswehr serviceman and the entire crew is from one company.’

The scout specified that while the German serviceman was being provided with first aid, he named his brigade and the place of its deployment.”

This has all the markings of a 'war story'. Most tanks are knocked out kilometres away and dfending infantry seldom gets a chance to inspect the wrecks. Foreign volunteers are mostly kept at their own outfits, or sometimes part of Ukrainian special forces units, or as instructors in trainer units. I could maybe believe that some German with working knowledge of Russian/Ukrainian could operate as a part of Leopard crew, but all-German Leopard crew? Unlikely.

Also no photographs of this groundbreaking discovery. Usually if Russians have found dead foreign fighters, their ID's are photographed and spread in (social) media.

[Stefan Kotsch]

The German crew wore Wehrmacht uniforms and sang Nazi songs.  And everyone had a Hitler tattoo on their chest.

BREAKING: The information has been confirmed.  The gunner of the Leopard-2 tank actually survived and was able to escape to Germany.  He is injured but is in stable condition.
 But he can't remember anything anymore.

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by Stefan Kotsch

[BansheeOne]

😄

Even people on pro-Russian German-language propaganda sites are doubting this. Me, I'm doubting they got to talk to any dying Leopard crew, of any nationality, for the reasons stated; when Russian scouts get to inspect any Western AFVs, they usually had to sneak out into the grey zone long after the battle which knocked them out, and any casualties have been evacuated, then make off before anyone spots them and calls in fire in turn; though I remember one instance where bodies were still lying around. Serious milbloggers aren't even touching this. Not to speak of how Russian government officials would be trumpeting it if it was real.

In fact I have yet to see proof that anyone got killed in a Leopard at all. Some time ago bojan said there were rather graphic pictures that you could find if you wanted; but afterwards I spent over an hour using different search engines and search modes, even Russian search terms, plus going through Oryx, Lost Armour, Rybar, topwar.ru, and even the Telegram channel of German-Russian propagandist Alina Lipp who will post any half-baked pro-Russian fake news, including the image of the bogged-down Swedish Leopard with a Russian flag photoshopped on top to claim it was captured at Bakhmut. I expected to find at least some "proof" like that, but got bupkis. So for me, the jury's still out on that question.

[Stuart Galbraith]

57 minutes ago, Stefan Kotsch said:

The German crew wore Wehrmacht uniforms and sang Nazi songs.  And everyone had a Hitler tattoo on their chest.

BREAKING: The information has been confirmed.  The gunner of the Leopard-2 tank actually survived and was able to escape to Germany.  He is injured but is in stable condition.
 But he can't remember anything anymore.

 

'Moshe' Scholz has some explaining to do.

 

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

Yes, that is pretty much my stance on it as well.

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

[txtree99]

Key Takeaways:

ISW is now prepared to assess that Ukrainian forces have broken through Russian field fortifications west of Verbove in western Zaporizhia Oblast.

Ukrainian forces have not overcome all prepared Russian defensive positions near Verbove.

Ukrainian forces are deepening their penetration in Zaporizhia Oblast and are assaulting Novoprokopivka – a frontline village 1.5 km immediately south of Robotyne.

Ukrainian military officials stated that the Ukrainian counteroffensive would continue in the winter.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive in western Zaporizhia Oblast has likely destroyed the Russian 810th Naval Infantry Brigade (Black Sea Fleet).

A senior Ukrainian official explicitly confirmed that Ukraine’s objective in Bakhmut is to fix Russian forces. Ukraine’s fixing of Russian forces in Bakhmut may be alleviating pressure on the Kupyansk frontline.

Ukraine’s simultaneous counteroffensives in Bakhmut and southern Ukraine are impeding Russia’s long-term force generation efforts as Russia redeploys its new reserves to defend against Ukrainian advances.

A Ukrainian intelligence chief stated that the September 22 Ukrainian strike on the Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) Command headquarters in Sevastopol injured senior Russian commanders.

Russian forces conducted a series of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine on the night of September 22 to 23.

Zaporizhia Oblast occupation governor Yevgeny Balitsky appointed former Roscosmos (Russian space agency) head and ultranationalist figure Dmitry Rogozin as a Russian Federation Council senator representing occupied Zaporizhia Oblast

A Russian insider source argued that the Russian military should reintroduce military officers for political affairs (zampolits) to address the Russian military’s problems with political and ideological commitment– a problem that Russian military thinkers identified in September 2018.

Disjointed Wagner Group contingents reportedly returning to fight in Ukraine are likely to have a marginal impact on Russian combat capabilities without bringing the full suite of effectiveness Wagner had had as a unitary organization under financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin’s and founder Dmitry Utkin’s leadership.

Russian forces conducted offensive operations along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line, near Bakhmut, along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line, in western Donetsk Oblast, in the western Donetsk-eastern Zaporizhia Oblast border area, and in western Zaporizhia Oblast but did not make any confirmed advances on September 23.

Russian authorities are reportedly embezzling funds from military facilities near the border of Ukraine.

Russian government programs continue to forcibly deport children in occupied Ukraine to Russia.
 

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-september-23-2023

 

[seahawk]

6 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Well that sounds convincing. Did they capture a Polish lancer with his Cavalry horse as well?

 

The battle surely happened in the forest of coincidence, hours after Lavrov gave the speech at the UN, saying Russia actively fighting NATO, German troops are captured and Russian social media is buzzing.

The only thing I really find disturbing is for how stupid they are seeing their own population.

[Stuart Galbraith]

20 minutes ago, seahawk said:

The battle surely happened in the forest of coincidence, hours after Lavrov gave the speech at the UN, saying Russia actively fighting NATO, German troops are captured and Russian social media is buzzing.

The only thing I really find disturbing is for how stupid they are seeing their own population.

Its truly remarkable the dive in Russian propaganda these days. Its been noted on twitter that even the most ideologically reliable propagandists seem to be losing heart. Everyone is a drunk Law Haw Haw these days it seems, so sad.

[mkenny]

50 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Its truly remarkable the dive in Russian propaganda these days. Its been noted on twitter that even the most ideologically reliable propagandists seem to be losing heart.

 

 

Not the ones I read. I suspect that limiting one's sources to those with which you agree with may be the source of the confusion.

 

 

 

50 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

 

 How do you know the missile shot was taken recently?

Because that Bradley is not in any of the many 'old' films of the area. Note the soldiers casually  walking about in the shrubbery behind it

 

The location of this Bradley is between the two Leopards at  A.   A, B & C are the high-water marks of the first day of the attack and C seems not to be as well known as the other two locations. 

 

 

 

A

B

 

C

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/8608/2A0Ju0.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

[mkenny]

2 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Yes, that is pretty much my stance on it as well.

Must be uncomfortable knowing your ideological bedfellows are  'rootin for Putin'

[glenn239]

8 hours ago, BansheeOne said:

I was thinking when I first read the TASS report yesterday "so they've run out of imaginary Poles to kill, now they've proceded to imaginary Germans." 😁

What TASS report?  I saw this,

https://tass.com/defense/1679629

But it only says,

"In the course of combat operations, personnel of the battlegroup West destroyed two Leopard tanks, two 152mm towed howitzers 2A65 Msta-B and a mortar crew in the areas of Stelmakhovka, Krinichki, Peschanoye and Petropavlovka," he said.

According to the spokesman, the enemy attempted to rotate units of the 25th Airborne Brigade in the forward positions in the Berestovoye area, which is part of the defense line of the 1st Tank Army. Artillery fire from the battlegroup thwarted the rotation.

The enemy’s total losses were more than a company of personnel, two pickup trucks and one unmanned aerial vehicle.

Also, according to Zybinsky, the operational-tactical aircraft of the battlegroup inflicted an air strike on temporary bases of the 44th mechanized and 68th jager brigades near Kopanka and Pershotravnevoye in the Kupyansk area.