Posted on 02/24/2024 5:59:01 AM PST by SpeedyInTexas
“Azerbaijan has been approached by Ukraine and the European Union to supply natural gas to Europe via Ukraine after an existing contract with Russia expires”
Those pipelines will likely refill with non-Russian gas over the next several years, unless someone in Russia can fix Putin’s mess. If Ukraine’s large proven reserves get developed and connected, they could supply the full capacity, for decades to come.
Reporting From Ukraine:
https://www.youtube.com/@RFU/videos
Reporting From Ukraine Uncensored Combat Footage (from this and past Reports) is found on Telegram:
https://t.me/RFUEnglish or @RFUEnglish
[ You need to have the Telegram app to view. ]
The complete transcript.
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[ Phenomenal MaxxPro Drive-By Raid: Ukrainian Forces Crush Russians! ]
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Today [ July 20 ], the most interesting developments come from the Toretsk direction.
Here, Russians attempted to continue their spearhead offensive in Niu-York but were fiercely countered by Ukrainian fire from all sides.
Firstly, Russians are trying to deepen their breakthrough, and drive a wedge in the Ukrainian lines. After that, Russians will try to link up with their offensive efforts in Pivnichne to the north and outflank Ukrainian defenses to the west.
Russians will prioritize a northern advance, however, as they can then support their current advance toward Toretsk, a crucial Ukrainian fortress city and logistics hub in the region.
Before they can do this, Russians must first take complete control over the fortified Ukrainian settlement of Niu-York. Russians had intensely bombed Ukrainian fortifications here beforehand but lost their momentum as the strength of Ukrainian defenses only increased the deeper they advanced.
Now, Russians continue to bomb the industrial zone with FAB glide bombs, as this is the central defensive position still entirely under Ukrainian control, where manpower and ammunition are stored, and the defense is coordinated. Russian drone detachments are also active here, dropping grenades on Ukrainian positions and providing overwatch for Russian assault groups.
Despite intense Russian bombing, Russian forces have not been able to make any advancements since last week for multiple reasons. The first being is that Ukrainians constantly target these Russian assault groups with FPV drones and drone-dropped grenades of their own.
Geolocated footage shows a Ukrainian FPV drone hitting a building a Russian assault group was sheltering in. The footage, taken from an observation drone, also shows that at least one soldier had been wounded, indicating this group had already been hit earlier by Ukrainians and that these soldiers were those that had survived the initial attack.
The second reason becomes clear after Russians released geolocated footage from a Russian FPV drone, showing a hit on a Ukrainian MaxxPro armored vehicle mounted with a 50-millimeter-caliber heavy machine gun.
While the footage shows the armored truck was hit from the top and destroyed, the presence of the MaxxPro continues to show how Ukrainians use their positions on top of the hills surrounding Niu-York to fire down and into advancing Russian units.
Geolocated footage also shows that Ukrainians had advanced their area of control toward the south of the settlement. In these cases, Ukrainians don’t have to physically counterattack in order to gain ground, as they can expand their FPV fire control and deny Russian units entry to an area, saving Ukrainian soldiers’ lives.
Despite both sides not posting combat footage due to the high intensity of fighting, both Russian and Ukrainian sources implicate that Russians are losing the fight for the high-rise district in Niu-York. They note that Ukrainian fighters had counterattacked and retaken control over several streets, isolating Russians in and to the apartment complexes.
As you remember, Russians dug a tunnel from Novoselivka to here that was only big enough to move one soldier through at a time, also making it impossible to evacuate their wounded.
As such, Russian losses in the high-rise district have quickly mounted. Russians were also unable to properly connect their forces here to the rest of the spearhead, meaning the only thing they could do to continue the fight was pour more men into the one-way deathtrap of the high-rise.
It is important to note that while Russians are practically isolated in the apartment complexes, it will still be a tough fight for Ukrainians to push them out. The interconnected rooms, hallways, many windows, stairways, and no possibility of retreat for Russian fighters, will make it an urban combat hell for everyone involved.
In general, Russian forces have committed most of their reserves to the frontline to put pressure on Ukrainians, who have trouble defending against multiple such offensives. Ukrainian analysts note that the Russian high command has done this to undermine international support for Ukraine and force Ukraine into negotiations with Russia.
However this series of offensives do not come without a price. The Institute for the Study of War states that while Russian forces are able to make slight territorial gains, these come at a high cost in human life and have led the Russian forces committing underequipped units to reinforce
these grinding assaults.
They state that the Russian military industrial complex is unable to meet the rising demand for Russian forces fully.
This all out approach has also led one Russian officer to come forward, stating that his brigade had actually lost over 12,000 men throughout the war, while the official number is only 6,000. He finishes by saying, that if there are already 12,000 casualties in one brigade, how many Russian soldiers have died over the entire front?
While Russian forces are rapidly draining their combat capabilities. Ukrainians, in turn, are strengthening theirs. Western military aid continues to flow into the country and the Kiev Independent reported that over 4 million Ukrainian military aged men have already signed up for the draft.
Additionally, Polish authorities have signed a bilateral security agreement stating that the Polish Armed Forces will train and equip Ukrainian volunteers under a Polish Legion, further bolstering Ukrainian armed forces in the future.
Overall, Russians have decided on an all out approach deploying even underequipped units to reinforce grinding offensive operations.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians are rebuilding their strength to better hold the defense and build up strong operational reserves to counterattack where possible. In Niu-York, the Russian offensive is stagnating as Russians are unable to cope with Ukrainian drone strikes and intense fire from the hills.
Ukrainians are slowly able to push forward en circling Russians in the high-rise district and condemning Russian soldiers to a one-way trip through the tunnels.
There are many examples of Russia's economic (and total) downfall unfolding. One clear example can be seen on satellite pictures from the former Volkswagen factory in Kaluga.
This factory was once the pride of Russia's car manufacturing, producing hundreds of thousands of VW and Skoda vehicles. The parking lots of new vehicles were packed, as can be seen on the first picture below, which is from 2013 and by this even before the invasion and annexation of Crimea one year later.
When Russia launched the full-scale invasion in Ukraine in February 2022, VW stopped all production. One year later, VW completely withdrew from Russia. Today, we only see a dead husk of a factory (second satellite picture below). Almost all workers have been fired. It is similar to the collapse of manufacturing after the collapse of the USSR. The promises that Chinese will replace those manufacturing jobs didn't materialize and even if they were, they will never reach the quality what VW and the West altogether was offering. Ever since then Kaluga has become like many other Russian cities, depressing and desperate. In that way, Putin has achieved another Back-to-the-USSR episode.
https://x.com/Tendar/status/1814984298555986192
Ladas for every widow or mother.
https://x.com/Tendar/status/1814912878152978675
https://x.com/igorsushko/status/1814739520191160579
Back to the USSR.
https://x.com/kromark/status/1814772482408391025
Russian bloggers have admitted that planes were damaged and personnel were killed.
https://x.com/kromark/status/1814912166589304847
The link above is for a "corrected" video.
https://x.com/NOELreports/status/1814937026665279701
Video is a clear example of an ISR drone locating targets and an FPV drone attacking that target.
This is why Russian ISR drones are a priority target.
Summary of the Israeli strike according to what is known so far:
- Approximately 25 F-15 and F-35 aircraft, accompanied by refueling planes, flew about 2000 kilometers toward the city of Hodeidah in Yemen.
- The strike was carried out in 8 waves.
- The attack destroyed fuel depots, inflicted damage on the port, and destroyed a power station north of the port.
- The fire is still burning and is expected to continue for several more days.
- There is a power outage across the entire region.
- The message of the strike is clear: this is not a strike on military targets (which has been done by the coalition over the past 9 months) but an attack on the already struggling Yemeni economy, causing significant economic damage.
- The attack on the port is a direct response to the damage Yemenis have caused to the port of Eilat.
- The message to the rest of the Middle East is also clear: the Bandar Abbas port and the Kharg Island, from where most of Iran's oil is exported, are in Israel's sights, as well as the port of Beirut.
- Israel has decided to take off the gloves; this is not a minor strike like those in Iran.
- The Houthis are threatening to retaliate, but it is unclear what the threat entails, as they have already attacked Israel 200 times. @orfialkov
https://x.com/Osint613/status/1814732586180358560
Link below has a video of the oil depot burning.
https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1814708574888628662
Unlike the US led coalition, the Israelis do good work.
Kremlin snuff box, 07/21/24
https://t.me/s/kremlin_secrets
Protests in Krasnodar are a dangerous wake-up call
The dissatisfaction of Krasnodar residents due to the lack of electricity grew into a spontaneous protest with the blocking of the street. According to local media, several hundred citizens decided to express their position in this way. Considering that problems with electricity in Krasnodar began on July 8, the dissatisfaction of residents is absolutely understandable.
We talked with several interlocutors, they explained that problems with electricity arose not only in Krasnodar. According to them, residents should respect the workers of the relevant services who are working to restore electricity supplies.
“Due to the heat and outdated equipment, it is not always possible to quickly solve problems. We appeal to residents with a request not to stir up the situation,” the deputy governor of the Krasnodar Territory told us.
An interlocutor from the security forces told us that a decision was made not to detain the protesters and to smooth out possible conflicts at such rallies as much as possible. According to him, the people who were nevertheless detained in Krasnodar were probably provocateurs.
The source noted that similar protests should be expected in Crimea and a number of other potentially hot regions. We talked about the reasons for power outages there earlier. There is a tendency towards growing discontent among the population. But in winter it can be even more difficult than now.
[ Video - Russian girls in skimpy summer clothes protesting. ]
https://t.me/news_93_ru/10834
Kremlin snuff box, 07/21/24
https://t.me/s/kremlin_secrets
In Russia, they will pay for denunciations
The authorities are inclined to make a rather interesting decision. It is proposed to pay for complaints and denunciations made by ordinary citizens. There are two options in development - to pay for all denunciations without exception, or only for those that will have serious consequences.
According to our data, in the first half of the year the Russians made over a million denunciations ( in the first three months of 2024 the figure was 575 thousand ).
Sources in law enforcement agencies fear that paying for denunciations could provoke a wave of really empty complaints and accusations. On the other hand, control over pests and enemies within society will help cleanse it, say the initiators of the idea of paid denunciations.
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