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Tag: ukraine
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Markarova says global response if Russia uses nuclear weapons has to be
Markarova says global response if Russia uses nuclear weapons has to be “very harsh” – CBS News
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In Pictures: Russian Forces Assault World War I Hellscape At Bakhmut
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View from an entrenched Ukrainian machine gun position overlooking the approaches to Bakhmut.
In October, the city of Bakhmut is now virtually the sole focus of major Russian offensive operations in Ukraine. Last Saturday, Ukraine’s military reported repelling eleven separate attacks on Bakhmut and Avdiivka to the south.
For months, Russian tanks and troops have repeatedly assaulted the Donetsk Oblast city and its approaches, inching gradually forward even after Ukrainian forces liberated large swathes of territory to its northeast.
After five months of shelling and direct attacks that began in May, Bakhmut and its surrounding towns and farmland have come to resemble a war-torn World War I battlefield. Ukrainian soldiers repel waves of Russian Wagner mercenaries and tanks backed up by massive artillery barrages from the cover of complex trench systems, surrounded by a shell-torn landscape of leafless trees, mud and impact craters.
On October 13, Russian troops managed to penetrate into Bakhmut’s outlying southern suburbs of Ivanhrad and Optyne, only to be ejected by counterattacks by Ukraine’s recently rotated-in 93rd Brigade.
The town of Bakhmut itself is thoroughly shelled out and no longer has running water or electricity. On October 14, a fresh Russian bombardment destroyed its historic College of Transport and Infrastructure.
Other landmarks damaged or destroyed by Russian shelling and missiles include a machine-building plant, a trolleybus depot, the Metalurh stadium, a hotel, the Martynov Palace of Culture, the city’s central market, and many shops and residences.
TOPSHOT – A local resident pulls a cart past a damaged building in the town of Bakhmut on October … [+]
Destruction of a bridge in Bakhmut has made resupply of its defenders difficult. Ukraine has established a pontoon bridge to ease the flow of supplies.
Only 20,000 civilians remained in Bakhmut, out of 80,000 prior to the war, when the Russian siege began in earnest in May. While even more have evacuated, some—particularly the elderly—refuse to leave.
BAKHMUT, UKRAINE – OCTOBER 12: A member of a Christian charity distributes aid packages to people on … [+]
The battle has been costly for both sides. A Ukrainian medic told Estonian journalists he and his colleagues were having to stabilize 130 wounded personnel daily, of which 90% can be saved.
Recently, elements of five Ukrainian brigades have held the defensive positions around Bakhmut including:
- 30th Mechanized Brigade (one T-72AMT tank battalion and three mechanized battalions)
- 57th Motorized Infantry Brigade (three motorized infantry battalions)
- 58th Motorized Infantry Brigade (one tank and three infantry battalions)
- 80th Air Assault Brigade (three air assault battalions mounted in BTR-80 APCs)
- 93rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade (one tank, three mechanized (BMP-1) and one motorized infantry battalions)
In the clip below you can see infantry and a T-64BV tank of the 93rd mechanized engaging Russian forces near an asphalt plant.
At least two artillery brigades provide fire support:
The Russian attacks are primarily spearheaded by Wagner mercenaries and separatist troops (many forcibly conscripted) of the Luhansk People’s Republic. Some identified units involved in these assaults include:
- LPR 6th “Cossack” Motor Rifle Regiment
- LPR 14th “Prizrak” Territorial Defense Battalion (decimated in June)
- 27th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade (1 T-90A tank battalion, 3 motor rifle battalions with BMP-3s, BTR-82As, BTR-80s)
- 31st Air Assault Brigade (3 airborne battalions, BMD-2 and BMD-4)
- 137th Air Assault Regiment of 106th Airborne Division (decimated September)
- 144th Motor Rifle Division (1 tank and 2 rifle regiments with T-72 tanks, BTR-82A APCs)
- 150th Motor Rifle Division (2 tank and 2 rifle regiments, T-72B3s, BMP-3s, BTR-82As)
- 45th Engineering Camouflage Regiment
These frontal wave assaults have incurred heavy losses.
In mid-October, Russian TOS-1A vehicles unleashed extremely destructive thermobaric rockets on Ukrainian positions.
Videos also show Russian kamikaze drones have actively targeted Ukrainian artillery and armored vehicles near Bakhmut.
Presently, Russian units appear to be positioned a short distance outside southern and eastern Bakhmut but have yet to secure a lasting foothold in the city itself.
The Big Picture: Offense, Defense and Bakhmut
By October, it’s clear Russian forces are dangerously overstretched and vulnerable to counterattacks in multiple sectors across Ukraine. In September, Ukrainian forces overran a weak Russian garrison in Kharkiv province forcing Russian troops concentrated in Izium and (eventually) Lyman to retreat. Then in October in southern Ukraine, another surprise offensive forced Russian troops to fall back 20 miles out of northeastern Kherson province.
Thus, it has mystified Western military analysts why Russian forces doggedly, even “robotically”, continue to assault heavily entrenched Ukrainian positions around Bakhmut at great cost and for only marginal gain.
True, before Ukraine’s offensives in September-October, the fall of Bakhmut seemed inevitable. But now that Russia’s situation is so precarious nearly everywhere else, the continued expenditure of men and materiel for marginal gains seems foolish.
Ukrainian tank T-64 fires in Russian troops’ positions direction, in Bakhmut, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. … [+]
Yes, in theory Bakhmut’s fall would open a corridor down the M03 highway to attack the strategically and symbolically important cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk 20 miles to the northwest. However, Russia’s ability to exploit that seems doubtful as other Russian forces previously threatening Slovyansk from the north (from Izium) and east (from Lyman) were driven out in September.
Nonetheless, while most attacks are repelled, Russian forces have inched closer and closer to Bakhmut, even as the armies covering their flanks seem more and more vulnerable.
Perhaps Russia’s military is desperate to claim any sort of offensive victory at a time it’s mostly compelled to be on the defensive. Online, pro-Russian bloggers and propagandists excitedly seize on reports of progress towards Bakhmut, emphasizing the rosy news (from their perspective) amidst grim reports coming from all other fronts. On multiple occasions, pro-Russian sources have falsely reported the fall of Bakhmut.
Despite the huge strain on Bakhmut’s defenders, Ukraine’s military seems to believe Russia’s assault there is barbed lodestone bleeding resources away from more critical fronts. Despite Ukraine’s declared intention to hold Bakhmut, some commanders have admitted they’re willing to risk losing the city if it comes at sufficiently heavy cost to Russian forces and tolerable casualties for its own.
That’s likely why rather than diverting additional reserves to counterattack around Bakhmut, it’s seemingly husbanding reserves for an offensive elsewhere. If such a new attack meets with sufficient success, it may finally compel Russia’s military to give up its ceaseless assaults, giving Bakhmut’s defenders brief respite.
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Sebastien Roblin, Contributor
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Gunmen kill 11 at Russian army base in new blow to Moscow’s Ukraine campaign
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Russian citizens drafted during the partial mobilization begin their military trainings after a military call-up for the Russia-Ukraine war in Rostov, Russia on October 04, 2022.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Gunmen shot dead 11 people at a Russian military training ground, the defense ministry said, in the latest blow to President Vladimir Putin’s forces since the invasion of Ukraine.
RIA news agency cited the ministry as saying 15 others were wounded in the shooting on Saturday, in Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region that borders Ukraine, when two men gunned down a group who had volunteered to take part in the war.
It said the two assailants – nationals from an unspecified former Soviet republic – had been shot dead. Some Russian independent media outlets reported that the number of casualties was higher than the official figures.
“A terrible event happened on our territory, on the territory of one of the military units,” the governor of Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov said early on Sunday.
“Many soldiers were killed and wounded … There are no residents of the Belgorod region among the wounded and killed,’ Gladkov said in a video post on the Telegram messaging app.
The attack took place a week after a blast damaged a bridge in Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014. Earlier in the war, Russia’s flagship in the Black Sea blew up and sank.
“During a firearms training session with individuals who voluntarily expressed a desire to participate in the special military operation (against Ukraine), the terrorists opened fire with small arms on the personnel of the unit,” RIA cited a defense ministry statement as saying.
Mobilization
Just a day earlier, Putin said Russia should be finished calling up reservists in two weeks, promising an end to a divisive mobilization that has seen hundreds of thousands of men summoned to fight in Ukraine and huge numbers flee the country.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a YouTube interview that the attackers were from the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan and had opened fire on the others after an argument over religion.
Tajikistan is a predominantly Muslim nation, while around half of Russians follow various branches of Christianity. The Russian ministry had said the attackers were from a nation in the Commonwealth of Independent States, which groups nine ex-Soviet republics, including Tajikistan.
Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the comments by Arestovych, a prominent commentator on the war, or independently verify casualty numbers and other details of the incident.
Elsewhere, Zelenskiy said that Ukrainian troops were still holding the strategic eastern town of Bakhmut despite repeated Russian attacks while the situation in the larger Donbas region remained very difficult.
Russian forces have repeatedly tried to seize Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Both are situated in the Donetsk region.
Attacks
In the 24 hours to Sunday morning, Russian forces targeted more than 30 towns and villages across Ukraine, launching five missile and 23 air strikes and up to 60 rocket attacks, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Sunday.
In response, Ukraine’s air forces carried out 32 strikes, hitting 24 Russian targets.
Fighting is particularly intense in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, and the strategically important Kherson province in the south, three of the four provinces Putin proclaimed as part of Russia last month.
Shelling by Ukrainian forces damaged the administration building in the city Donetsk, capital of the Donetsk region, its Russian-backed administration said on Sunday.
Kirill Stremousov, a Russian-installed official in the Kherson region, said on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday that Russian forces had quashed an offensive by Ukrainian troops in the area and that the situation there was “under control”.
Ukraine’s Southern Command said its forces’ positions had come under repeated attack on Saturday and a small “shooting battle” had taken place near the village of Tryfonivka in the Kherson region.
Russian forces also fired nearly 20 Russian-made Grad rockets on the right bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region, it said.
Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday its forces had killed more than 50 Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed five tanks near the Kakhovka Reservoir on the Dnipro River.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the battlefield reports.
Although Ukrainian troops have recaptured thousands of square miles of land in recent offensives in the east and south, officials say progress is likely to slow once Kyiv’s forces meet more determined resistance.
Ukrainian forces and civilians are relying on Starlink internet service provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket company. Musk said on Friday he could no longer afford to fund the service but on Saturday said he would continue to do so.
Zelenskiy said almost 65,000 Russians had been killed so far since the Feb. 24 invasion, a figure far higher than Moscow’s official Sept. 21 estimate of 5,937 dead. In August the Pentagon said Russia has suffered between 70,000 and 80,000 casualties, either killed or wounded.
Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Telegram on Sunday that Ukraine would prevail in the war because of the continued military aid it is receiving from the West and the cumulative impact of Western sanctions on Russia’s economy.
“Ukraine’s offensive is strategic and the defeat of Russia is inevitable,” Yermak said.
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Iran denies supplying Russia with weapons for use in Ukraine | CNN
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CNN
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Iran has denied supplying Russia with weapons for use in Ukraine, saying it “has not and will not” do so.
The denial, reportedly made in a phone call between Iran’s Foreign Minister and his Portuguese counterpart on Friday, follows claims by Kyiv and US intelligence that Russia is using Iranian-made “kamikaze drones” in its attacks on Ukrainian territory.
The Iranian government said its Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian emphasized in the call “once again” that Tehran “has not and will not” provide any weapon to be used in the Ukraine war.
“We believe that the arming of each side of the crisis will prolong the war, so we have not considered and do not consider war to be the right way either in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria or Yemen,” Amir-Abdollahian said, according to an Iranian readout of the call.
The Portuguese government said its Foreign Minister João Gomes Cravinho had expressed concerns about the “recently reported evidence on the use of Iranian drones by the Russian Federation in Ukrainian territory” and “stressed the need for the Iranian authorities to ensure that this equipment is not supplied to Russia.”
Ukrainian authorities say Russia has used Iranian-supplied kamikaze drones in strikes against Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and other cities in recent weeks, and has pleaded with Western countries to step up their assistance in the face of the new challenge. The Ukrainians themselves have been using kamikaze drones to strike against Russian targets.
Drones have played a significant role in the conflict since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February, but their use has increased since the summer, when the United States and Kyiv say Moscow acquired the drones from Iran.
On Saturday, just hours after the call between the foreign ministers, the Ukrainian military said the city of Zaporizhzhia had been hit by four kamikaze drone strikes overnight.
Kamikaze drones, or suicide drones, are a type of aerial weapon system. They are known as a loitering munition because they are capable of waiting for some time in an area identified as a potential target and only strike once an enemy asset is identified.
They are small, portable and can be easily launched, but their main advantage is that they are hard to detect and can be fired from a distance.
The name “kamikaze” refers to the fact the drones are disposable. They are designed to hit behind the enemy lines and are destroyed in the attack – unlike the more traditional, larger and faster military drones that return home after dropping missiles.
US officials told CNN in July that Iran had begun showcasing Shahed series drones to Russia at Kashan Airfield south of Tehran the previous month. The drones are capable of carrying precision-guided missiles and have a payload of approximately 50 kilograms (110 pounds).
In August, US officials said Russia had bought these drones and was training its forces how to use them. According to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia has ordered 2,400 Shahed-136 drones from Iran.
According to Portuguese accounts of the foreign ministers’ call, the pair also discussed the protests that have been sweeping Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died after being detained by morality police in September and accused of violating the country’s conservative dress code.
Amini’s death has sparked an outpouring anger over issues ranging from women’s rights and freedoms in the Islamic Republic to the continuing and crippling impacts of sanctions.
“Minister João Cravinho reiterated that the existence of Iranian legislation repressive to women’s rights is at the basis of the recent events in that country and appealed to the Iranian authorities to give a positive signal in the promotion of women’s rights,” read the Portuguese readout of the call.
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Ukrainian ballet company remains stranded abroad due to war
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Chicago — When the dancers of the Kyiv City Ballet went on tour in February, they had no idea they would be stranded abroad for eight months due to war. They remain in limbo, determined to save their culture through dance.
In Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre, under the rumble of the “L” train, the ballet’s dancers have more on their minds than just choreography. Dancers Sasha Moroz and Maryna Apanasenko, both 19, say most of their family members are still in Ukraine.
“All my family are in Kyiv now,” Moroz told CBS News. “My mother, father, sister.”
“I’m lucky to hear the voice of my mother, to see them only by phone,” Apanasenko said. “But I hope everything will be okay.”
Getty Images
The dance company left Ukraine on Feb. 23 to perform in Paris. Company director Ivan Kozlov said they were only supposed to be gone three weeks. However, Russia invaded Ukraine the following day.
“We woke up and realized that our country is under attack,” Kozlov said.
To keep them safe, Paris granted the dancers a long-term residency. They are now traveling on their first ever U.S. tour.
“It is a difficult period for all of Ukrainians, but when you understand the main aim, to represent your country, you become more strong,” Apanasenko said.
“I feel stronger when I dance, because I know the main reason, and the main aim of that: to show the world our light, our energy,” she added.
When asked if the company feels any kind of guilt for not being in Ukraine, Kozlov responded: “It’s not guilt. We feel sorry that we cannot be in two places at the same time, you know? We are doing our best from the field of war, from the stages. You know, we represent our country. We’re trying to show how brave we are, how strong we are.”
Their U.S. tour features a new work created after the war started, called “Tribute to Peace.”
“It’s our place to fight, because our task is to save Ukrainian culture, to save Ukrainian dancers, to serve Ukrainian artists,” Apanasenko said. “Because culture is the country. Culture creates the country, I think. And Ukraine has a great history. And our task is to save it.”
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Saturday, October 15. Russia’s War On Ukraine: News And Information From Ukraine
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KYIV, UKRAINE – OCTOBER 14: A view of Scientific Library Maksymovych inside Taras Schevchenko … [+]
Dispatches from Ukraine. Day 234.
As Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues and the war rages on, reliable sources of information are critical. Forbes gathers information and provides updates on the situation.
By Polina Rasskazova
The Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine announced serious consequences the morning after Russia launched a missile attack on the Kyiv region. As a result of the Russian attack, an energy infrastructure facility was severely damaged. There were no deaths or injuries. Residents were urged to use electricity rationally, limiting use from 5 to 11 p.m. “But, if this advice is not followed, we will have complications and will have to take out the candles again and suffer all the consequences associated with the lack of electricity.”
Dnipropetrovsk Region. The Russian army once again struck the city of Nikopol. The attack was carried out with an BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system, the BM-27 Uragan and heavy artillery on three communities — Nikopolska, Marganetska and Chervonogrigorivska. “More than 50 Russian shells were fired at Nikopol at night. Two people were injured — a 35-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman. Both are in hospital, in serious condition,” wrote the head of the Dnipropetrovsk State Administration, Valentin Reznichenko. More than 10 high-rise and private buildings, a transport company, several shops, a garage cooperative, cars and several offices were destroyed in the city. Reznichenko later announced that 3 more people had been injured.
Zaporizhzhia Region. At night, Russian forces bombarded Zaporizhzia during four airstrikes by drones, and in the morning another 10 S-300 missiles were aimed at the regional center. “The enemy continues the systematic terror of our region,” reported the head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration. As a result of the Shahed-136 UAV attack, infrastructure in the city of Zaporizhia was destroyed. “Fires broke out, which were contained in time by rescuers.” There no information about the victims at this time.
Kharkiv Region. As a result of Russian shelling of the region over the past day, a 66-year-old civilian was killed and a 74-year-old man was hospitalized with injuries in the Kupyansk district, reported Oleh Synyehubov, the head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration. “Pyrotechnic units of the State Emergency Service continue demining the territory of the region. During the day, 558 explosive objects were neutralized.” Synyehubov added that mine danger in the Kharkiv region remains very high. In the Chuhuiv district, a 65-year-old man was seriously injured when his car drove over a Russian mine.
Joe Biden announced the allocation of a package of military aid for Ukraine in the amount of $725 million, stated a memorandum on the website of the White House. This decision was made following the meeting of US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin with Defense Ministers of 50 countries within the framework of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine in Brussels. The aid package includes: additional ammunition for HIMARS; high-precision artillery shells and shells for remote anti-tank mine (RAAM) systems; 5 thousand units of anti-tank weapons; high-speed anti-radar missiles (HARM); more than 200 high-mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWV) and others.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine thanked the Allies for the powerful military assistance. “This weapon in the hands of the Armed Forces is the best and most effective contribution to establishing peace in Ukraine, restoring the territorial integrity of our state within internationally recognized borders, and protecting the civilian population from attacks by terrorist Russia.”
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Katya Soldak, Forbes Staff
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Musk: SpaceX might keep funding satellite service in Ukraine
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NEW YORK — Billionaire Elon Musk suggested in a Saturday tweet that his rocket company SpaceX may continue to fund its satellite-based Starlink internet service in Ukraine. But Musk’s tone and wording also raised the possibility that the irascible Tesla CEO was just being sarcastic.
Musk frequently tweets jokes and insults and sometimes goes on unusual tangents, such as a recent series of tweets suggesting that one of his companies has begun selling its own line of fragrances. It is not clear if SpaceX has actually established future plans for service in Ukraine.
On Friday, senior U.S. officials confirmed that Musk had officially asked the Defense Department to take over funding for the service Starlink provides in Ukraine. Starlink, which provides broadband internet service using more than 2,200 low-orbiting satellites, has provided crucial battlefield communications for Ukrainian military forces since early in the nation’s defense against Russia’s February invasion.
“The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free,“ Musk tweeted Saturday.
Early Friday, Musk tweeted that it was costing SpaceX $20 million a month to support Ukraine’s communications needs. Tesla didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The senior U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter not yet made public, said the issue of Starlink funding has been discussed in meetings and that senior leaders are weighing the matter. There have been no decisions.
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Musk: SpaceX might keep funding satellite service in Ukraine
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NEW YORK — Billionaire Elon Musk suggested in a Saturday tweet that his rocket company SpaceX may continue to fund its satellite-based Starlink internet service in Ukraine. But Musk’s tone and wording also raised the possibility that the irascible Tesla CEO was just being sarcastic.
Musk frequently tweets jokes and insults and sometimes goes on unusual tangents, such as a recent series of tweets suggesting that one of his companies has begun selling its own line of fragrances. It is not clear if SpaceX has actually established future plans for service in Ukraine.
On Friday, senior U.S. officials confirmed that Musk had officially asked the Defense Department to take over funding for the service Starlink provides in Ukraine. Starlink, which provides broadband internet service using more than 2,200 low-orbiting satellites, has provided crucial battlefield communications for Ukrainian military forces since early in the nation’s defense against Russia’s February invasion.
“The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free,“ Musk tweeted Saturday.
Early Friday, Musk tweeted that it was costing SpaceX $20 million a month to support Ukraine’s communications needs. Tesla didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The senior U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter not yet made public, said the issue of Starlink funding has been discussed in meetings and that senior leaders are weighing the matter. There have been no decisions.
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Elon Musk reverses course, says SpaceX will keep funding Ukraine Starlink service for free | CNN Business
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Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
CNN
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US billionaire Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday that SpaceX will continue funding Starlink internet service in war-torn Ukraine, apparently reversing course after SpaceX asked the United States military to pick up the tab.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet services have been a vital source of communication for the country’s military during the war with Russia, but as CNN exclusively reported earlier this week, SpaceX warned the Pentagon that it may stop funding the service in Ukraine unless the US military kicks in tens of millions of dollars per month, according to documents obtained by CNN.
The letter also requested that the Pentagon take over funding for Ukraine’s government and military use of Starlink, which SpaceX claims would cost more than $120 million for the rest of the year and could cost close to $400 million for the next 12 months. The report elicited a torrent of tweets from social media users both defending and criticizing the move.
A tweet from Musk’s verified account posted Saturday said, “The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.”
Since they first started arriving in Ukraine last spring, the Starlink satellite internet terminals made by Musk’s SpaceX have allowed Ukraine’s military to fight and stay connected even as cellular phone and internet networks have been destroyed in its war with Russia.
A Pentagon spokesperson said Friday that it had been in communication with SpaceX but did not say whether it was over the funding of the Starlink satellite communication product.
In response Saturday to a follower who replied to Musk’s tweet, “No good deed goes unpunished,” Musk said, “Even so, we should still do good deeds.”
Musk on Friday had doubled down on SpaceX’s request to the Pentagon in a series of tweets.
“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. This is unreasonable,” read one post from Musk’s verified account.
He also said that in asking the Pentagon to pick up the bill for Starlink in Ukraine, he was following the advice of a Ukrainian diplomat who responded to Musk’s Ukraine peace plan earlier this month, before the letter was sent to the Pentagon, with: “F*** off.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, responded earlier this month to Musk’s claimed peace plan for Russia’s Ukraine war by saying: “F*** off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk.”
SpaceX’s suggestion that it would stop funding Starlink also came amid rising concern in Ukraine over Musk’s allegiance. Musk recently tweeted a controversial peace plan that would have Ukraine give up Crimea and control over the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky raised the question of who Musk sides with, he responded that he “still very much support[s] Ukraine” but fears “massive escalation.”
One Ukrainian official, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, appeared to extend an olive branch in a tweet posted Friday, writing, “Let’s be honest. Like it or not, @elonmusk helped us survive the most critical moments of war.”
“Business has the right to its own strategies,” Podolyak’s tweet read. “(We) will find a solution to keep #Starlink working. We expect that the company will provide stable connection till the end of negotiations.”
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Musk: SpaceX might keep funding satellite service in Ukraine
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NEW YORK — Billionaire Elon Musk suggested in a Saturday tweet that his rocket company SpaceX may continue to fund its satellite-based Starlink internet service in Ukraine. But Musk’s tone and wording also raised the possibility that the irascible Tesla CEO was just being sarcastic.
Musk frequently tweets jokes and insults and sometimes goes on unusual tangents, such as a recent series of tweets suggesting that one of his companies has begun selling its own line of fragrances. It is not clear if SpaceX has actually established future plans for service in Ukraine.
On Friday, senior U.S. officials confirmed that Musk had officially asked the Defense Department to take over funding for the service Starlink provides in Ukraine. Starlink, which provides broadband internet service using more than 2,200 low-orbiting satellites, has provided crucial battlefield communications for Ukrainian military forces since early in the nation’s defense against Russia’s February invasion.
“The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free,“ Musk tweeted Saturday.
Early Friday, Musk tweeted that it was costing SpaceX $20 million a month to support Ukraine’s communications needs. Tesla didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The senior U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter not yet made public, said the issue of Starlink funding has been discussed in meetings and that senior leaders are weighing the matter. There have been no decisions.
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As the Russian Army Digs In, A Pro-Kremlin Mercenary Company Goes On The Attack in Ukraine—And Begs For Credit
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The Wagner Group in Ukraine.
Via social media
Six weeks after the Ukrainian army launched twin counteroffensives in northeastern and southern Ukraine, Russian forces all across the country are digging in—and bracing for the next attack.
There’s only one place in Ukraine where the Russians still are on the offensive. The area around Bakhmut, a town in the center of a cursed rectangle formed by occupied Donetsk, Luhansk and Severodonetsk and the free city of Slovyansk in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.
Only it’s not really the Russian army that’s still mounting attacks toward Bakhmut, it’s the armies of the pro-Russian separatist “republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk and, more notably, The Wagner Group, the notorious and shadowy Russian mercenary firm whose for-profit soldiers have been on the front lines since the beginning.
Today thousands of Wagner mercenaries are in Ukraine.
The operations by The Wagner Group and the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics are small in scale. The separatist 2nd Army Corps “likely advanced” into the villages of Opytine and Ivangrad south of Bakhmut, the U.K. Defense Ministry reported on Friday.
At the same time, Wagner fighters “achieved some localized gains” in the same area. But at the same time, “there have been few, if any, other settlements seized by regular Russian or separatist forces since early July,” the U.K. Defense Ministry pointed out.
Russian planners aim to capture Bakhmut as a step toward capturing Slovyansk, which the British note “is the most significant population center of Donetsk Oblast held by Ukraine.”
But seizing a few villages around Bakhmut doesn’t count as taking the town itself. Slovyansk is an even tougher goal as Ukrainian forces continue to sever Russia’s supply lines, kill its increasingly unfit soldiers and capture its tanks and fighting vehicles.
The Kremlin’s “overall operational design is undermined by the Ukrainian pressure against its northern and southern flanks, and by severe shortages of munitions and manpower,” according to the U.K. Defense Ministry.
So why bother—and risk expending what little offensive combat power the Russian army and its allies have left? The separatist 2nd Army Corps is under overall Russian command, but Wagner under its financier Yevgeny Prigozhin has demonstrated a surprising degree of autonomy.
And it’s apparent, as Russia’s prospects in Ukraine diminish, that Prigozhin and his mercenaries are trying to distinguish themselves from the wider Russian military enterprise. Wagner even disputed Luhansk’s claim that its forces captured Ivangrad.
The mercenary firm insisted its fighters seized the village, according to The Institute for the Study of War in Washington, D.C. “Prigozhin’s apparent desire to have Wagner Group fighters receive sole credit for the capture of Ivangrad is consistent with ISW’s previous observations that Prigozhin is jockeying for more prominence,” the think-tank stated.
It’s no secret the regular Russian army is in a state of collapse after losing around 100,000 soldiers killed and wounded in Ukraine since late February. A power vacuum is forming around the Kremlin. A vacuum that The Wagner Group clearly intends to fill.
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David Axe, Forbes Staff
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‘The hell with it’: Elon Musk tweets SpaceX will ‘keep funding Ukraine govt for free’ amid Starlink controversy
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A smartphone with the Starlink logo displayed on the screen.
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Elon Musk said in a tweet Saturday that his company SpaceX would continue to fund Starlink satellite internet terminals for the Ukrainian government as it battles invading Russian forces.
“The hell with it,” the billionaire tweeted, “even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.”
It was not immediately clear whether Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla, was being sarcastic. In response to a tweet about the move, Musk said, “we should still do good deeds.” Responding to another tweet saying that Musk had already paid taxes that are funding Ukraine’s defense, he said, “Fate loves irony.”
The tweets follow a statement from Musk on Friday in which he said that SpaceX cannot continue fund Starlink terminals in Ukraine “indefinitely,” after a report suggested his space company had asked the Pentagon to cover the costs.
Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a letter from SpaceX to the Pentagon, the company said that the use of Starlink in Ukraine could cost close to $400 million over the next 12 months, according to a report by CNN. SpaceX has signed several contracts with the U.S. government.
SpaceX’s donated Starlink internet terminals have been crucial in keeping Ukraine’s military online during the war against Russia, even as communication infrastructure gets destroyed. Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February.
Musk drew criticism from Ukrainian officials earlier this month when he posted a Twitter poll gauging support for what he claimed was a likely outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war.
He appeared to confirm that SpaceX was planning to leave Ukraine in some capacity Friday, replying to a Twitter post that referenced the Ukrainian ambassador telling Musk to “f— off.”
“We’re just following his recommendation,” Musk said.
The SpaceX founder is also in the middle of a $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, which he had tried to get out of. A judge ruled that he has until Oct. 28 to close the acquisition if he hopes to avoid a trial.
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Lions rescued from Ukraine make Colorado sanctuary their forever home | CNN
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CNN
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Nine lions that were rescued from Ukraine have arrived safely at their new home in Colorado.
The big cats were “urgently relocated” from Bio Park Zoo in Odessa, Ukraine, when the Russian invasion first began, according to a news release from The Wild Animal Sanctuary.
A convoy transported the lions from Odessa across Moldova to Romania; their journey stretched for over 600 miles, says the sanctuary. They arrived at the Targu Mures Zoo in Romania’s Transylvania region on May 24.
The lions spent months at the zoo waiting for an emergency travel permit so they could board a rescue flight, according to the sanctuary. They finally arrived in their final homes on September 29.
Seven adult lions and two cubs from the rescued pride are now being cared for by The Wild Animal Sanctuary, a nonprofit based in Keenesburg, Colorado. The lions will live at an extension of the sanctuary called The Wild Animal Refuge, which consists of almost 10,000 acres of land near Springfield, Colorado. The facility is not open to the public, according to the sanctuary’s website.
Another two lions were sent to the Simbonga Game Reserve and Sanctuary in Eastern Cape, South Africa, says the release. On Facebook, the South African reserve said they received two lions, Mir and Simba, who had been rescued from Ukraine and then stayed in Romania.
Pat Craig, The Wild Animal Sanctuary’s executive director, highlighted the complexity of the feline rescue mission.
“International rescue operations are almost always more complex in nature, but then you are factoring in a variety of foreign governments and timelines for permitting, some of those with active war zones,” Craig said in the release. “We are thankful we could get all the lions out in time and save them. That’s what matters. They will live out the rest of their lives in pristine, large, natural habitats.”
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The Lost Souls of Bucha | Sunday on 60 Minutes
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The Lost Souls of Bucha | Sunday on 60 Minutes – CBS News
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Ukraine: Russia hits power site by Kyiv, guards seized land
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A missile strike seriously damaged a key energy facility in Ukraine‘s capital region, the country’s power system operator said Saturday as the Russian military strove to cut water and electricity in populated areas.
Kyiv region Gov. Oleksiy Kuleba said the strike did not kill or wound anyone.
Electricity transmission company Ukrenergo said repair crews were working to restore power but warned residents about possible outages.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, urged Kyiv area residents and people in three neighboring regions to reduce their energy consumption during evening hours of peak demand.
After a truck bomb explosion a week ago damaged the bridge that links Russia to the annexed Crimean Peninsula, the Kremlin launched what is believed to be its largest coordinated missile attacks since the initial invasion of Ukraine.
This week’s wide-ranging retaliatory attacks hit residential buildings, killing dozens of people, as well as civil infrastructure such as power stations near Kyiv and other cities far from the front lines of the war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow did not see a need for additional massive strikes but his military would continue selective strikes. He said of 29 targets the Russian military planned to knock out in this week’s attacks, seven weren’t damaged and would be taken out gradually.
The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, interpreted Putin’s remarks as intended to counter criticism from pro-war Russian bloggers who “largely praised the resumption of strikes against Ukrainian cities but warned that a short campaign would be ineffective.”
“Putin knew he would not be able to sustain high-intensity missiles strikes for a long time due to a dwindling arsenal of high-precision missiles,” the think tank said.
Regions of southern Ukraine that Putin illegally designated as Russian territory last month remained a focus of fighting Saturday.
Kirill Stremousov, a deputy head of the administration Moscow installed in the mostly Russian-occupied Kherson region, reminded residents they could evacuate to Crimea and cities in southwestern Russia as Ukrainian forces try to battle their way to the regional capital.
After the region’s worried Kremlin-backed leaders asked civilians Thursday to evacuate to ensure their safety and to give Russian troops more maneuverability, Moscow offered free accommodations to residents who agreed to leave.
Ukrainian troops attempted to advance south along the banks of the Dnieper River but did gain any ground, according to Stremousov.
“The defense lines worked, and the situation has remained under the full control of the Russian army,” he wrote on his messaging app channel.
In the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said the Russian military carried out strikes with Iranian-made kamikaze drones and S-300 missiles. Some experts said the Russian military’s use of the long-range missiles may reflect shortages of dedicated precision weapons for hitting ground targets.
To the north and east of Kherson, Russian shelling killed two civilians in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Gov. Valentyn Resnichenko said. He said the shelling of the city of Nikopol, which is located across the Dnieper from the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, damaged a dozen residential buildings, several stores and a transportation facility.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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Russia bombards Ukraine with more missiles
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Russia bombards Ukraine with more missiles – CBS News
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Ukrainian deminers remove deadly threats to civilians
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HRAKOVE, Ukraine — Beside an abandoned Russian military camp in eastern Ukraine, the body of a man lay decomposing in the grass — a civilian who had fallen victim to a tripwire land mine set by retreating Russian forces.
Nearby, a group of Ukrainian deminers with the country’s territorial defense forces worked to clear the area of dozens of other deadly mines and unexploded ordnance — a push to restore a semblance of safety to the cities, towns and countryside in a region that spent months under Russian occupation.
The deminers, part of the 113th Kharkiv Defense Brigade of Ukraine’s territorial defense forces, walked deep into fallow agricultural lands on Thursday along a muddy road between fields of dead sunflowers overgrown with high weeds.
Two soldiers, each with a metal detector in hand, slowly advanced up the road, scanning the ground and waiting for the devices to give a signal. When one detector emitted a high tone, a soldier knelt to inspect the mud and grass, probing it with a metal rod to see what might be buried just below the surface.
The detector’s hit could indicate a spent shell casing, a piece of rusting iron or a discarded aluminum can. Or, it could be an active land mine.
Oleksii Dokuchaev, the commander of the demining brigade based in the eastern Kharkiv region, said that hundreds of mines have already been discharged in the area around the village of Hrakove where they were working, but that the danger of mines across Ukraine will persist for years to come.
“One year of war equals 10 years of demining,” Dokuchaev said. “Even now we are still finding munitions from World War II, and in this war they’re being planted left and right.”
Russian forces hastily fled the Kharkiv region in early September after a rapid counteroffensive by Ukraine’s military retook hundreds of square miles of territory following months of Russian occupation.
While many settlements in the region have finally achieved some measure of safety after fierce battles reduced many of them to rubble, Russian land mines remain an ever-present threat in both urban and rural environments.
Small red signs bearing a white skull and crossbones line many of the roads in the Kharkiv region, warning of the danger of mines just off the pavement. Yet sometimes, desperation drives local residents into the minefields.
The local man whose body lay near the abandoned Russian camp was likely searching for food left behind by the invading soldiers, Dokuchaev said, an additional danger posed by the hunger experienced by many in Ukraine’s devastated regions.
The use of the kind of tripwire land mines which killed him is prohibited under the 1997 Ottawa Treaty — of which Russia is not a signatory — which regulates the use of anti-personnel land mines, he said.
“There are rules of war. The Ottawa Convention says that it’s forbidden to place mines or any other munitions with tripwires. But Russians ignore it,” he said.
The deminers had cleared the road of anti-personnel mines the previous day, allowing them to search for anti-tank mines hidden beneath the ground that could destroy any vehicles driving over them.
They hoped to bring vehicles deep enough into the area to retrieve an abandoned Russian armored personnel carrier, the engine of which they planned to salvage. A vehicle would also need to be brought in by local police to retrieve the body.
The deminers reached the abandoned camp, set in a grove of trees and strewn with the remains of the months the Russian soldiers had spent there: rotting food rations in wooden ammunition boxes, strings of high-caliber bullets, a stack of yellowing Russian newspapers and trenches filled with refuse.
After a thorough scan of the area, the servicemen recovered two Soviet-made TM-62 anti-tank mines and six pneumatically armed fuses and placed them in a depression on the edge of the camp, taped into a bundle along with 400 grams of TNT.
Dokuchaev placed an electric detonator into the explosive charge and connected it to a long length of wire before taking cover with his men at a distance of more than 100 meters (yards).
When the charge was detonated — something the servicemen laughingly called “bada-boom” — the immense blast ripped through the air, causing a cascade of autumn leaves to fall from the surrounding trees and emitting a tall plume of gray smoke.
After the mines had been destroyed, Dokuchaev — a former photographer who enlisted with the territorial defense forces after the outbreak of war — said the work his brigade is doing is essential to keep civilians safe as they pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.
Despite the dangers, he said, he enjoys his work.
“I don’t know what I’ll do after our victory,” Dokuchaev said. “Life is boring without explosions.”
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 234
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As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 234th day, we take a look at the main developments.
Here is the situation as it stands on Saturday, October 15.
Fighting
- Ukrainian authorities have reported Russian shelling in several regions overnight including in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.
- Local authorities have said five enemy drones of Iranian design were intercepted over the Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine.
- The US government has announced further arms deliveries to Ukraine worth a total of $725m including HIMARs, ammunition and armoured vehicles.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed Moscow was “doing everything right” in its nearly eight-month invasion of Ukraine.
- The 70-year-old Russian leader said he has no plans “for now” to launch massive air raids such as those carried out this week, in which more than 100 long-range missiles were fired at targets across Ukraine.
Debris covers an area of a heavily damaged school after a Russian attack, two days ago in the village of Velyka Kostromka, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on Thursday, October 13, 2022 [Leo Correa/AP Photo] - Ukrainian engineers have restored “much needed” back-up power to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after shelling robbed it of access to external electricity twice in the past week, Rafael Grossi, head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, said on Friday.
- Ukrainian investigators have finished exhuming soldiers in one of two mass graves discovered after Russian troops retreated from the town of Lyman in Donetsk, police said.
Diplomacy
- Saudi Arabia will provide $400m in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, according to state news agency SPA.
- Sweden has rejected plans to set up a formal joint investigation team with Denmark and Germany to look into last month’s ruptures of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, said a Swedish prosecutor investigating the leaks.
Economy
- International Monetary Fund member countries have issued a near-unanimous call for Russia to end its war in Ukraine, but Moscow again blocked consensus on issuing a joint communique on the single biggest factor fuelling inflation and slowing the global economy, officials said.
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‘They hated him.’ Former subordinate recalls serving under Russia’s new top commander in Ukraine | CNN
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CNN
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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s devastating war on Ukraine is faltering. Now, there’s a new general in charge – with a reputation for brutality.
After Ukraine recently recaptured more territory than Russia’s army took in the last six months, Russia’s Ministry of Defense last Saturday named Sergey Surovikin as its new overall commander for operations in the war.
Notably, he previously played an instrumental role in Russia’s operations in Syria – during which Russian combat aircraft caused widespread devastation in rebel-held areas – as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
CNN spoke to a former Russian air force lieutenant, Gleb Irisov, who served under him in Syria.
He said Surovikin was “very close to Putin’s regime” and “never had any political ambitions, so always executed a plan exactly as the government wanted.”
Analysts say Surovikin’s appointment is highly unlikely to change how Russian forces are carrying out the war but that it speaks to Putin’s dissatisfaction with previous command operations. It is also, in part, likely meant to “mollify” the nationalist and pro-war base within Russia itself, according to Mason Clark, Russia Lead at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think-tank.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has called for Russia to “take more drastic measures” including the use of “low-yield nuclear weapons” in Ukraine following recent setbacks, welcomed the appointment of Surovikin, who first saw service in Afghanistan in the 1980s before commanding a unit in the Second Chechen War in 2004. Praise from Kadyrov, who is a key Putin ally, is significant, perhaps, as he himself is notorious for crushing all forms of dissent.
“I personally have known Sergei very well for almost 15 years. I can definitely say he is a real general and warrior, experienced, headstrong and foresighted commander who always takes patriotism, honor and respect above all,” Kadyrov posted on social media, following news of Surovikin’s appointment last Saturday. “The united army group is now in safe hands,” he added.
Irisov, Surovikin’s former subordinate, left his five-year career in the armed forces after his time in Syria because his own political views conflicted with what he experienced. “Of course, you understand, who is right and who is wrong,” Irisov said. “I witnessed a lot of stuff, being inside the system.”
Irisov then began what he hoped would be the start of a career as an international journalist, as a military reporter with Russian state news agency TASS. His wife worked there and he felt at the time it was “the only main information agency” that tried to cover news in an “unbiased” way, with “some opportunity of freedom of speech,” he said.
“Everything changed” on February 24, 2022, when Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began and TASS received orders from the FSB security service and defense ministry “that everyone will be prosecuted if they don’t execute the propaganda scheme,” Irisov said.
He had family in Kyiv, hiding in bomb shelters, and told CNN he knew “nothing could justify this war.” He also knew from his military contacts that there were already many casualties in the first days of the war.
“For me it was obvious from the beginning,” Irisov recalled. “I tried to explain to people this war will lead to the collapse of Russia… it will be a great tragedy not only for Ukrainians but also for Russia.”
Irisov fled Moscow with his pregnant wife and young child on March 8, 2022, after standing against the invasion. He had quit his job at TASS and signed petitions and an open letter against the war, he told CNN. After traveling to Armenia, Georgia, Turkey and finally Mexico, where they contacted the US embassy to ask for help, they are now working to start a new life in West Virginia.
While serving at Latakia air base in Syria in 2019 and 2020, the 31-year-old says he worked on aviation safety and air traffic control, coordinating flights with Damascus’ civilian airlines. He says he saw Surovikin several times during some missions and spoke to high-ranking officers under him.
“He made a lot of people very angry – they hated him,” Irisov said, describing how the “direct” and “straight” general was disliked at headquarters because of the way he tried to implement his infantry experience into the air force.
Irisov says he understands Surovikin had strong connections with Kremlin-approved private military company the Wagner group, which has operated in Syria.
The Kremlin denies any connections to Wagner and insists that private military companies are illegal in Russia.
Surovikin, whose military career began in 1983, has a checkered history, to say the least.
In 2004, according to Russian media accounts and at least two think tanks, he berated a subordinate so severely that the subordinate took his own life.
And a book by the think tank the Washington DC-based Jamestown Foundation says that during the unsuccessful coup attempt against former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991, soldiers under Surovikin’s command killed three protesters, leading to Surovikin spending at least six months in prison.
CNN has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment on Surovikin’s appointment and regarding allegations about his harsh leadership.
In a 2020 report, Human Rights Watch named him as “someone who may bear command responsibility” for the dozens of air and ground attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure in violation of the laws of war” during the 2019-2020 Idlib offensive in Syria. The attacks killed at least 1,600 civilians and forced the displacement of an estimated 1.4 million people, according to HRW, which cites UN figures.
During his time in Syria, the now-56-year-old was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.
In February this year, Surovikin was sanctioned by the European Union in his capacity as head of the Aerospace Forces “for actively supporting and implementing actions and policies that undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine as well as the stability or security in Ukraine.”
Irisov believes there are three reasons why he has been put in charge in Ukraine now: his closeness to the government and Putin; his interbranch experience with both the infantry and air force; and his experience since the summer commanding Russian forces in the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea. These are areas that Putin is trying to control “at any cost,” said Irisov.
Just two days after Surovikin’s appointment on Saturday, Russia launched its heaviest bombardment of Ukraine since the early days of the war.
Surovikin is “more familiar with cruise missiles, maybe he used his connections and experience to organize this chain of devastating attacks,” Irisov said, referencing the reports that cruise missiles have been among the weapons deployed by Russia in this latest surge of attacks.
But Clark, from the ISW, suggests the general’s promotion is “more of a framing thing to inject new blood into the Russian command system” and “put on this tough nationalist face.”
His appointment “got widespread praise from various Russian military bloggers as well as Yevgeny (Prigozhin), who’s the financier of the Wagner Group,” Clark said.
He believes what’s happening now is a reflection of what happened in April, when another commander, Alexander Dvornikov, was appointed overall commander of the operations in Ukraine.
“Similarly, he before then was a commander of one of the groupings of Russian forces and had sort of a master reputation in Syria much like Surovikin for brutality, earning this sort of name of the ‘butcher of Aleppo,’” Clark said.
Dvornikov was also seen at the time as the commander “that was going to turn things around in Ukraine and get the job done,” he added. “But an individual commander is not going to be able to change how tangled Russian command and control is at this point in the war, or the low morale of Russian forces.”
Andrea Kendall-Taylor, director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, also told CNN this week that Surovikin’s appointment “reflects the ascendancy of a lot of hardline voices inside Russia… calling on Putin to make changes, and to bring in someone who would be willing to execute these ruthless attacks.”
Clark reasons that “from what we’ve seen, it’s highly probable that Putin is involved in decision-making down to a very tactical level and in some cases bypassing the senior Russian military officers to interact directly on the battlefield.”
Surovikin personally signed Irisov’s resignation papers from the air force, he says. Now, Irisov sees him put in charge of operations in Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine – but what impact the general will or can have is not yet clear.
According to Clark, “there isn’t a good Kremlin option if Surovikin doesn’t perform or if Putin decides that he is also not up to the task. There aren’t many other senior Russian officers and it’s just going to lead to a further degradation of the Russian war effort.”
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Idaho man dies while fighting as volunteer in Ukraine
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BOISE, Idaho — In the days since Dane Partridge was fatally wounded while serving as a volunteer soldier in Ukraine, his sister has found moments of comfort in surprising places: First, a misplaced baseball cap discovered in her laundry room, then in a photo of a battered pickup truck with only one tire intact.
The 34-year-old Idaho man died Tuesday from injuries sustained during during a Russian attack in Luhansk.
A former U.S. Army infantryman, Partridge felt “spiritually called” to volunteer with the Ukranian military as they defend the country from invading Russian forces, his sister Jenny Corry said. He flew to Poland on a one-way ticket in April, his rucksack packed with body armor, a helmet and other tactical gear.
“Made it to the embassy, getting on a bus for the border,” Partridge wrote on his Facebook page on April 27. “From this point on I will not likely be giving locations or actions for opsec reasons. I will let you all know I’m alive.”
Partridge joined a military unit that included several volunteers from other countries, Corry said, the men mostly relying on interpreters to communicate. Partridge and his fellow soldiers were in Severodonetsk, a city in the Luhansk region, when he was hit in the head with shrapnel during an attack by Russian fighting vehicles, Corry said.
The unit had no stretchers and was still under attack, Corry said, but Partridge’s fellow soldiers carried him out on a blanket and loaded him and other injured colleagues into a drab-painted pickup truck to rush them to safety.
“I have a picture of the truck,” Corry said in a phone interview Friday. The photo shows a drab-painted pickup with shredded rubber hanging off the wheel hubs. All but one of the tires were destroyed in the grim rush to safety.
“As a family, we really like that picture of the vehicle — it speaks to the bravery of how they tried to save their men, and the way they pushed that vehicle to its last leg just to get to the hospital,” she said. “It speaks volumes.”
Partridge leaves behind five young children. Corry deflected questions about the children and some other parts of Partridge’s life, saying the family had jointly agreed to focus on his military service out of respect to those “who are still living and still affected by his personal life.”
“We want to just focus on the good that he did and don’t want to mention any personal things,” Corry said in a phone interview Friday.
Military service has been a large part of Partridge’s life. He was the youngest of five kids, and his father was a member of the U.S. Air Force. As a child, Partridge liked to dress up in his dad’s oversized camouflage uniform and play “army guy” in the dirt, Corry said.
By the time he’d graduated high school, Partridge had grown into a gregarious man with a booming voice and a joking personality, she said.
“When he showed up, you knew he was there. He had a bigger personality,” she said. “If somebody was sad, he was going to make sure he cheered them up. He liked to spend quality time with people.”
He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2006 and served in Baghdad as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2007 to 2009 before leaving the military in 2012.
He didn’t talk a lot about his experiences in Iraq, but she knew some of it weighed heavily on him throughout his life.
“He was a Humvee driver, and when he was training they told him that as the driver if he tried to save himself his men would likely be killed, but if he saved his men then he would most likely be killed,” Corry said her brother told her. “That was something that sat deeply with him.”
Still, it was the battlefield where Partridge thrived. Corry believed the adrenaline, the sense of purpose and the heightened feeling of service is what drew him in.
“It was almost as if he could tell he had a greater purpose to fulfill,” she said. “Sometimes it was harder for him to mesh in the civilian world.”
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Partridge felt a need to help the Ukranians. He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and believed that he was being spiritually called to join the fight, she said.
“He believed it with every fiber of his being, and he wanted to honor his God,” she said.
He stayed with Corry for a time before he made the trip to Ukraine. After she left, she found his camouflage baseball cap had been left in her laundry room. It was strange, she said, because he was very neat and organized, and never left things lying around.
“I just kind of set it to the side, and it sat there for a while,” she said, pausing for a shaky breath. “And the day I decided to pick it up and wear it because I wanted to feel close to him is the day that he died.”
Partridge’s family knew he might not come home. A few encouraged him to think on his decision a little longer, but Partridge was intent on serving, she said.
“We’re sad, but because of the circumstances it was already a thought that he could pass away. It wasn’t like we were blindsided,” Corry said. “In a way, it was something that we had to understand when he went over there.”
Partridge was in a coma and on life support for eight days before he died. Family members had a chance to say goodbye, long-distance, before he passed, she said.
The family is raising money to try to bring Partridge’s remains back home to be buried in Blackfoot, Idaho. They also hope to raise money to replace the truck his unit used to bring Partridge to the hospital, and to purchase other vital supplies for his unit, she said.
“We just want to do something to pay the men back,” Corry said.
At least four other U.S. citizens have been killed while fighting in Ukraine, based on reports from their families and the U.S. State Department. The Ukrainian government has recruited people with military experience to join the International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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