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Russia suffered another setback during Ukraine's counteroffensive, confirming it withdrew troops from the eastern town of Lyman, within the newly annexed Donetsk region. Ukraine’s armed forces on Saturday said they had "liberated" five settlements in the Donetsk region and encircled thousands of Russian soldiers. "Due to the risk to be encircled, the allied forces were withdrawn from Krasny Liman to more advantageous frontiers," Russia's Ministry of Defense said Saturday. "The Russian troops in the area of Lyman are encircled. Yampil, Novoselivka, Shandryholove, Drobysheve, and Stavky settlements are liberated. Stabilization measures are being conducted there," Serhii Cherevatyi, Speaker of the Eastern...

Russian forces were on the verge of a major military defeat Friday as Kyiv’s Armed Forces closed in on the occupied Ukrainian city of Lyman and appeared hours away from trapping thousands of Russian troops in an encirclement. “Even if the city isn’t already enveloped, all the routes or roads out of the city are under Ukrainian artillery fire,” said military analyst Konrad Muzyka at Poland-based Rochan Consulting. “Without Russian reinforcements, the city and the entire area is going to fall to Ukraine,” he told The Moscow Times. A key supply hub for Russian forces, the stronghold of Lyman, which...

Why Russia will lose this war? Much of the "realist" discourse is about accepting Putin's victory, cuz it's *guaranteed*. But how do we know it is? I'll argue that analysts 1) overrate Russian army 2) underrate Ukrainian one 3) misunderstand Russian strategy & political goals🧵 Consider a timely paper on Russian army by Bismarck Analysis. It's good & informative. It's correct on its land-based and artillery-centric character. It's also correct that Minister of Defence Serdyukov greatly increased army's efficiency in 2007-2012. But it's still misleading Yes, Minister Serdyukov indeed reformed the army. He increased its efficiency, fought with corrupt and...

Russian President Putin:- We're witnessing sheer satanism in West - Do we want our children to be offered operations on sex changes? It's unacceptable! - Our future is different. We're fighting for a great, historic Russia… Vladimir Putin: “We are witnessing Satanism”

Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has defended Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, saying Russia's leader was "pushed" into the conflict."The war in Ukraine is the tip of the iceberg of a conflict aimed at reshaping the world order," she said earlier this month. "So we have to fight this battle."

The Kremlin this summer scrambled to form a new army corps, seeking replacements for 80,000 troops injured or killed in Ukraine and 5,000 wrecked or captured vehicles. ...As Russian casualties exceeded 50,000 this spring, the Kremlin began scraping together fresh battalions by raiding the training and garrison establishment of existing brigades. At the same time, the army announced an initiative to form scores of new regional volunteer battalions—and even offered elevated salaries of up to $5,000 a month. This should come as no surprise. The recruitment drive behind the 3rd AC collided with Russia’s unhappy demographics and conscription practices. Roughly...

Vladimir Putin today made a speech announcing that the conflict in Ukraine would be escalated, resulting in citizens attempting to leave the country. In Putin's speech, he said there would be a partial mobilization of the military. Reservists and ex-military personnel with "certain military specialties and relevant experience" will be subject to conscription, he said. Following this, according to the Russian online newspaper Lenta, flights to Armenia, Turkey and Georgia sold out. "All tickets for direct flights to Istanbul and Yerevan were sold out in a few minutes after Putin's address," the publication's Twitter page wrote in a caption. It...

Russia’s State Duma stated that enacted "military" laws do not mean the announcement of a general mobilization. It was stated in "Parlament newspaper" by Andriy Kartapolov - Head of the State Duma Defense Committee and one of the authors of the amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation introducing the concepts of "mobilization," "martial law" and "wartime", informs Censor.NЕТ. "There will be no general mobilization. The president has said this more than once, and directly says it through the mouth of his press secretary Dmitry Peskov and many other politicians at the federal level. "The law" does not...

The Russians find themselves out of options in their collapsing effort to overrun Ukraine. Not only did they fail to keep territory they seized in the invasion over the late winter and spring, Russia has begun to lose ground it held before the war. They’re running out of resources, and more importantly, running out of troops as Ukraine’s counteroffensive threatens to collapse their lines. What better time than now to hold a plebiscite, eh? Unfortunately, Russia may see that as their only recruitment option in Luhansk and Donetsk:(snip) Er … keep dreaming. Vladimir Putin has no concerns over even the...

A move in occupied territories in Ukraine to hold ‘votes’ on joining Russia could be a sign of Vladimir Putin realizing that he has to do radical things to save face and be able to declare victory in what is increasingly seen as a failed war. Votes being held in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson may indicate a move to annex these Ukraine territories into Russia. These moves are generating speculation on potential escalation of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Sources tell NetNewsLedger that Russian President Putin is planning a major escalation including conscription. Over past weeks the Russians...

Vladimir Putin appeared poised to go all-in on his war in Ukraine today, sparking fears of an escalation in fighting that could drag in NATO and spark World War Three. In a day of rapid-fire developments, Kremlin stooges in Ukraine's Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions simultaneously announced referendums on becoming part of Russia between September 23 and 27, with the sham votes expected to easily pass. Dmitry Medvedev, a staunch Putin ally, then vowed 'all forces of self-defence' will be used to protect what he called 'Russian territory' - teeing up a new phase in the conflict involving weapons...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPvwzeOY0uM

This is my vanity update on the Ukraine-Russian war. My information is primarily sourced from the many Russian accounts I follow on telegram and Scott Ritter. The Ukraine made a successful counter attack on Russia and reclaimed vast tracts of land. This attack was organized by NATO and it had Ukrainian troops who were NATO trained and equipped. In particular, the HIMARS systems provided by the Americans have been critical to helping Ukraine. My rough understanding is that these allow for longer range attacks on Russian positions. The good news for Russia is that they lost very few troops…the bad...

Russian troops are pulling back from key areas in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region as Ukrainian soldiers advance, following a major counteroffensive that was launched on Sept. 1. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy championed troop success on the front lines in the north and said that some 30 settlements had been "liberated" from Russian occupation during his nightly address Friday. Russia state-owned media outlet Tass announced Saturday that Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said troops would being "regrouped" from areas around Balakliya and Izyum to the Donetsk region, though Fox News Digital could not locate the report, suggesting it may have been...

Filatiev published “Zov" on the Russian social network VK in early August. The human rights organization Gulagu helped him leave the country a few weeks later, moving him from one place to another until finally helping him reach France. He spent two days inside the Charles de Gaulle airport, waiting to be approved for entry. In Russia, he said, “I understood that no lawyer could defend me,” he said, a muscle in his jaw twitching. On his wrist, he wore a silver bracelet adorned with a crucifix. Filatiev said Russia's army is degrading by the day, unable to replace the...

Vladimir Putin has approved a 31-page "humanitarian policy" which says Russia should "protect, safeguard and advance the traditions and ideals of the Russian World". The foreign policy concept of a "Russian World" is a notion that hardliners have used to justify intervening abroad to support Russian speakers, such as in parts of Ukraine. It means that the idea is now enshrined in official policy, though it was presented as a soft power strategy. The new policy stated that Moscow should further deepen its ties with the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic - two breakaway entities in...

More than six months of war in Ukraine have led to huge losses of manpower and military equipment of the terrorist state of Russia. By the end of this year, the Russian Federation will run out of shells for artillery and armored vehicles, there are also very few guided missiles, and the state of military aviation does not allow for a full-scale air campaign. According to the Insider, due to Western sanctions, Russia cannot continue full-fledged industrial production of weapons and replenish supplies that are rapidly being depleted. It is noted that the Arsenal left in the Russian Federation since...

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has been side-lined by President Putin according to the British Ministry of Defence, as reported on Monday, August 29..... “Recent independent Russian media reports have claimed that due to the problems Russia is facing in its war against Ukraine, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shogun is now being side-lined within the Russian leadership, with operational commanders briefing President Putin directly on the course of the war.”...

A BARRAGE of Ukrainian missiles has hammered the strategically crucial Antonovsky Bridge in the east of Ukrainian in another massive blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin. News website Visegrad 24 tweeted: "The Antonivsky bridge near Kherson looks very crisp this morning. Reports say that up to 10 Ukrainian missiles have hit the bridge." Another poster shared a different image, commenting: "RIP, Antonovsky Bridge!" A third suggested heavy casualties were inevitably, posting: "Ukraine hit the Antonovsky bridge just as nine Russian ammunition trucks drove onto it." Twitter user Eric Korsas said: "Seems that during the night #Ukrainian #HIMARS have visited #antonovskybridge...

On Thursday, August 18, for the first time since July 6, Russia did not declare "territorial achievements in Ukraine. Ukrainian official sources also did not declare new losses of territories. This is reported by the American Institute for the Study of War (Institute for the Study of War, or ISW). At the same time, it is noted that Russian troops continue to make limited and unsuccessful ground assaults in eastern Ukraine. Also, the Institute for the Study of War draws attention to Russian reports of explosions throughout the Crimea on the night of August 18, probably caused by Russian air...