VIDEO WITH COMMENTARY
08 Apr: FOOTAGE: Ukrainians HIT RUSSIANS WITH HIMARS | War in Ukraine Explained
Reporting from Ukraine
218K subscribers
4-8-2023 9:00 p.m. DST
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“I am a Ukrainian. My country has been invaded by Russia. In this video I will tell you what happened on the four hundred and ninth day of the war.
Day 409: April 08
Today there are a lot of updates from the east. As Russians concentrated their efforts on taking the city block by block, almost all of Wagner forces elite personnel were deployed to Bakhmut. With the increased number of targets, Ukrainians started accumulating more artillery systems, and as Russians started moving in their equipment inside the city, Ukrainians started using HIMARS to target buildings that they use as warehouses.
Last time I told you that the speculations about Ukrainians conducting a tactical withdrawal toward the railways was correct. I also told you that over the course of 2 days, Ukrainians were stepping back by back by 1 or 2 streets per day, maintaining a straight front line.
The freshest reports suggest that the rate of withdrawal remained the same as in previous days because today, the front line also shifted approximately by 1 street. In the upper center, Ukrainians reportedly left the eastern part completely because staying there for a long would cost Ukrainians a lot of losses. This area is almost entirely comprised of 1- or 2-story houses, which are surrounded by the industrial zone and high-rise buildings. So, these positions were pretty weak, and Ukrainians left them in one go.
In the bottom center, the situation is more complex. Here, Ukrainians are relying on 2 lines of high-rise buildings, which allows for a slower-paced withdrawal. After Wagner forces established control over the stadium Metalurg, the line of contact moved towards the Church of all Saints. The latest reports indicate that Russians entered the high-rise building at the intersection, which allowed them to secure control over the church and half of the park.
When it comes to the territory south of this park, it is still under Ukrainians control. For now, the clashes are reportedly taking place in front of school #7. The buildings nearby help to create a powerful block, which gives a relative advantage and allows to exert significant control over the southern outskirts. Such a setting explains a slower rate of Russian advancement. Nonetheless, when it comes to the stadium Avangard, after several days of intense clashes, Ukrainians were reportedly pushed out of this area and are now holding the line along Kovalska Street.
The new setting also gives more work for Ukrainians snipers. After assuming control over new streets, Wagner forces are yet unfamiliar with which areas are under total sniper control, which leads to a higher toll when trying to cross the streets. One of the Ukrainian sniper units released a video showing how he hunts a Wagner soldier in the gardens in the suburbs.
Ukrainian Commander of the Forces in Bakhmut also released a video today and showed how 4 HIMARS are sending 24 rockets to hit Russian targets in Bakhmut. Some sources say that the targets are located on the territory of the AZOM industrial complex. As you remember, previously, Ukrainians already hit one of the workshops with a ballistic missile Tochka-U, so the use of HIMARS would indicate of continuation of this campaign.
Today a Ukrainian fighter from Aidar Battalion published a video showing Ukrainian positions, and said that they are no longer under Ukrainian control. This a very unfavorable development because it suggests that Russians finally managed to cross Korsunskogo Street and establish control over at least one block of houses. The latest updates indicate that the second block is in the grey zone, while the third one is held by Ukrainians. It is highly likely that Ukrainians are going to conduct a limited counterattack here because allowing Russians to stay means that they would have fire control over a vast area.
Overall, the most important fights are taking place in the central part of the city, where Ukrainians are trying to conduct a careful withdrawal, while Russians are trying to take advantage of the fluid setting, push Ukrainians as hard as they can and force them to retreat earlier than they are ready in order to collapse the front line. So far, Ukrainians have managed to maintain a relatively straight front line, so no Russian breakthrough is expected.”
ARTICLE
The BBC has found a company registered in London that broadcasts Russian disinformation to an Arabic-speaking audience
https://www.currenttime.tv/a/bbc-kompaniya-propaganda-kremlya/32351818.html
The BBC’s anti-disinformation department has discovered the UK-registered company Yula Group, which broadcasts Russian disinformation to an audience of millions in the Arabic-speaking world.
“Yula Group is the parent company of Yala News. The channel’s journalists, together with disinformation specialists, have been tracking the most popular Yala News videos for a year and found that almost all of them are “native” from Kremlin–controlled or pro-Kremlin sites.
Among them were fake news that the massacre of Bucha residents was staged, that the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, was drunk during a video message to the people, that Ukrainian soldiers were fleeing from the front. All of them were reproduced on the Yala News page a few hours after they appeared in Russian state publications.
Belen Carrasco Rodriguez, an employee of the British Center for Information Stability, believes that Yala News is the Kremlin’s mouthpiece in the Middle East. “Yala is popular with the Arab audience, and Kremlin–linked sources can use this to their advantage,” she says.
The Yula Group website is filled mostly with random texts and stock photos, and most of the good reviews look fake because they were written on the same dates by the same users. The company, as the BBC found out, is registered in central London, at an address shared with it by more than 65 thousand firms. Yala Group does not have a real office and staff there.
Geolocation journalists determined that the photos posted on Facebook of Yale employees and office were taken in one of the suburbs of Damascus, many of the employees themselves write in their profile that they are based there.
Experts suggest that Yala registered in the UK in order not to look like a company from a sub-sanctioned country. The director of Yale is a Syrian businessman Ahmad Moema, who lives in Dubai.
“Yala Group is a company based in the UK,– he said. – We have more than 500 clients, including public figures, representatives of the arts and young talents. We don’t have any employees in London yet, but they may appear in the near future.” When asked whether his company received money from the Russian or Syrian authorities, he said that he was “the only source of finance” and “no one can influence me.”