Posted on 01/18/2023 5:34:13 PM PST by UMCRevMom@aol.com
Update from Ukraine | USA gave green light to aim Crimea | Rescue Helicopter crashed in Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7aVZniCrU0
Follow on Instagram up to date uploads. https://www.instagram.com/denys_pilot/
SUMMARY Military MAPS & COMMENTS here:
https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-328-summary/
https://militaryland.net/maps/deployment-map
Update from Ukraine | USA gave green light to aim Crimea | Rescue Helicopter crashed in Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7aVZniCrU0
Follow on Instagram up to date uploads. https://www.instagram.com/denys_pilot/
SUMMARY Military MAPS & COMMENTS here:
https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-328-summary/
https://militaryland.net/maps/deployment-map
Putin Betrayed by Close Ally Who Helped Out Ukraine Behind His Back
By Ellie Cook
1/18/23 11:15 a.m. EST
https://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin-close-ally-ukraine-bulgaria-military-aid-1774756
Bulgaria’s former government covertly offered assistance to Kyiv in the initial stages of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to new reports.
The Balkan nation, geographically separated from Ukraine by Romania, is both an EU and NATO member state, but has also historically maintained closer ties to Moscow than many of its neighbors.
Yet the government based in Sofia in the spring of 2022 “became one of the largest exporters of diesel to Ukraine and at times covered 40 percent of Ukraine’s needs,” former Bulgarian finance minister Assen Vassilev told German newspaper Die Welt.
“We estimate that about a third of the ammunition needed by the Ukrainian army in the early phase of the war came from Bulgaria,” former prime minister Kiril Petkov told the publication.
The claims were corroborated by Kyiv, with Ukraine’s foreign minister recounting how the Ukrainian armed forces were struggling to maintain ammunition supplies in the spring.
“We knew that Bulgarian warehouses had large quantities of the ammunition needed so President [Volodymyr] Zelensky sent me to obtain the necessary material,” Dmytro Kuleba told the German daily.
Kuleba said the move showed Petkov’s “integrity,” before adding he would “always be grateful to him for using all his political skill to find a solution” to the fuel and ammunition shortages.
He commented he believed the then-government in Sofia “decided to be on the right side of history, and help us defend ourselves against a much stronger enemy”.
The foreign minister then said Petkov had promised to do “everything in his power” to aid Kyiv, although the Bulgarian leader had conceded it was “not easy” to accomplish.
The deliveries of supplies largely came via intermediaries authorized by the government, Petkov told Die Welt. This was then echoed by Kuleba.
Just days after the Russian invasion began on February 24, 2022, Petkov sacked defense minister Stefan Yanev after he opted to use Moscow’s description of the “special military operation,” rather than the term “war.”
“My defence minister cannot use the word operation instead of the word war. You cannot call it an operation when thousands of soldiers from the one and the other side are already killed,” the former prime minister said in a televised statement, according to Reuters.
“The Bulgarian interest is not in bending our heads down. When we see something we do not agree with, something so obvious, we cannot keep quiet,” he continued.
A poll released in April 2022 showed a sharp dip in support for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the small Balkan state, seeing his popularity halve compared to research carried out the previous year.
In May, Bulgaria’s parliament voted to approve sending technical support to Ukraine’s armed forces but stopped short of sending military aid directly to Kyiv.
“We’ve supported the incoming refugees, we have sent all kinds of humanitarian aid, we have also been involved with repairing Ukraine’s heavy weapons and we’re in line with all sanctions against Russia,” he told local media in June.
VIDEOS
VIDEO Shows Wagner Soldiers Attacked by Dive-Bombing Drone: Researcher
By Nick Mordowanec
1/18/23 1:20 p.m. EST
https://www.newsweek.com/video-shows-wagner-soldiers-attacked-dive-bombing-drone-researcher-1774809
8. VIDEO “Russians scattered across the forest” - wounded Russians tried to escape by hiding among trees
Kanal13
1-18-2023 12:30 p.m. EST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejik5mhhv8E
9. VIDEO Russian Command RAN AWAY FROM KREMINNA | War in Ukraine Explained
1-18-2023 6:30 p.m. EST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPcuzx5_vVE
aim Crimea? arm Crimea? WTH?
U.S. Warms to Helping Ukraine Target Crimea - The New York Times
Today
Jan. 18, 2023 Updated 5:43 p.m. ET.
WASHINGTON — For years, the United States has insisted that Crimea is still part of Ukraine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/18/us/politics/ukraine-crimea-military.html
Bulgaria knows what Russia is.
Well, it has been since 1954. If Russia has a beef about that, it can take it up with Nikita Kruschev.
Pray for us all
ARTICLES
1. Russian Troops Flee Ukraine, Order Taxi to Take Them 300 Miles Back Home
Newsweek
Isabel van Brugen
1/18/23 11:53 a.m. EST
https://www.newsweek.com/russian-troops-flee-ukraine-war-taxi-1774784
Eight mobilized Russian soldiers who fled the front lines in Ukraine and ordered a cab to take them 300 miles back home, are now facing desertion charges.
The men, who were conscripted in Russia’s Kaliningrad region under President Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilization order, face up to 15 years in jail after being charged with “armed desertion in wartime.”
The serviceman who organized their escape in December is Junior Sergeant Yevgeny Kravchenko, who has been arrested by a garrison military court, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant. The others who fled with him from a training camp in Ukraine’s Luhansk region are corporal Dmitry Medvedev, sailor Alexander Babenko, and privates Nikolai Kolmachev, Alexander Eliseev, Igor Medvedev, Alexander Bogachenok and Denis Balakhin. They remain in the custody of their unit commander.
According to their testimonies, the men were mobilized on September 24 and were transferred to a field camp near the village of Gladkovo in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region. They said that instead of receiving training to fight in the conflict, commanders used them to build dugouts. They also claimed they weren’t provided with quality uniforms or sufficient food.
The group decided to flee “for the sake of saving their lives and health” after being told by their superiors in early December that they would be deployed to the front line of the war.
On December 23, the mobilized bought some food and civilian clothing and ordered two taxis to bring them to Russia’s Lipetsk region, located some 333 miles away.
They spent the night in Lipetsk before taking minibusses to the town of Podolsk in the Moscow region, where they voluntarily surrendered their weapons to local police.
Kravchenko’s attorney told that none of the mobilized intended to desert from the front lines in Ukraine, but they didn’t want to fight unprepared either.
According to their testimonies, the men were mobilized on September 24 and were transferred to a field camp near the village of Gladkovo in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region.
They said that instead of receiving training to fight in the conflict, commanders used them to build dugouts. They also claimed they weren’t provided with quality uniforms or sufficient food.
The group decided to flee “for the sake of saving their lives and health” after being told by their superiors in early December that they would be deployed to the front line of the war.
On December 23, the mobilized bought some food and civilian clothing and ordered two taxis to bring them to Russia’s Lipetsk region, located some 333 miles away.
They spent the night in Lipetsk before taking minibusses to the town of Podolsk in the Moscow region, where they voluntarily surrendered their weapons to local police.
Kravchenko’s attorney told that none of the mobilized intended to desert from the front lines in Ukraine, but they didn’t want to fight unprepared either.
There have been multiple reports of Russian soldiers and military officers fleeing from battle in Ukraine in recent months.
In November, a group of untrained Russian troops, who were drafted after Putin announced a partial mobilization in September, fled from the frontline in Ukraine and hid in a forest. Relatives of the five mobilized men said they did not undergo the required military training, and that they were deployed to Ukraine’s Luhansk region without ammunition or food.
And another mobilized soldier claimed in November that even Russian military officers are fleeing from battle in Ukraine.
The soldier, identified in the report as Oleksiy Agafonov, who told independent news outlet Verstka that he survived shelling by Ukrainian forces near Makiivka in the Luhansk region, said his unit’s commanders fled from the front line on November 2 while his entire battalion was ordered to dig trenches and hold defensive positions.
Newsweek reached out to Russia’s foreign ministry for comment.
Ukraine is going to receive GLSDB.
It is cheap, powerful and accurate.
It will replace HIMARs as RuZZians worst nightmare.
RUSSIAN POLITICAL INFORMATION:
1- Russian Military Rift Grows as Kadyrov Calls Rival ‘General Blah Blah’
By Brendan Cole
newsweek
1/18/23 at 8:50 AM EST
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-chechnya-kadyrov-1774631
The strongman president of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has mocked a former top Russian military commander during a spat between the pair over Moscow’s military conduct in its invasion of Ukraine.
Kadyrov has always professed fierce loyalty to Vladimir Putin, but has been critical of his forces’ military effort in the war. He has taken particular aim at Russia’s commanders, without directly impugning the Russian president.
In October, following the withdrawal of Russian troops from Krasny Liman in the Donetsk oblast, Kadyrov described General Alexander Lapin, who was dismissed as commander of Russia’s Central Military District, as “mediocre.”
But Vladimir Boldyrev, who was commander-in-chief of Russia’s ground forces until his discharge in 2010, defended Lapin, telling the news outlet NSN on January 10 that he had been “criticized by people who had no right to. Who are civilians to criticize the Colonel General?”
Kadyrov hit back in an interview with Chechen news outlet Grozny Inform published on Monday, insisting he was not a civilian and had been given the rank of colonel general by Putin himself. He also called Boldyrev “a failed commander” who had been “demoted and transferred.”
“Whoever criticizes should look at experience,” Kadyrov said. “I have not yet been kicked out..but he was immediately transferred. Which of us is better, Colonel General Blah Blah Blah or Colonel General Kadyrov.”
Boldyrev responded by telling the news outlet RBK that he had never been demoted and after commanding the North Caucasus District, which he was appointed to in 2002, he was transferred to “an equivalent position” commanding the Volga-Ural military district, in July 2004.
Boldyrev reiterated his point about not criticizing commanders like Lapin. “Only two people can evaluate and even criticize him—the minister and the president.
“No other officials can give an assessment, everything else is just empty words,” Boldyrev said. “Let God be his judge, I’m not going to enter into a debate with him here.” Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.
Chechen troops fighting on the side of Moscow in Ukraine are known as “Kadyrovtsy” or “Kadyrovites,” named after their leader, who has tried to take a prominent role in Russia’s war effort.
Human rights activists say many Chechen soldiers were recruited against their will, following threats against their families. Before the war, Kadyrov’s forces were accused by rights groups of extrajudicial killings, kidnappings and torture.
Kadyrov has emerged as a critic of Russia’s military losses, along with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the financier of the Wagner Group of mercenaries, who played a key role in the reported capture of the Donetsk town of Soledar following a bloody battle.
2. War in Ukraine strains ties between Putin and his old Serb ally
Straits times
1-18-2023 6:41 a.m. EST
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/war-in-ukraine-strains-ties-between-putin-and-his-old-serb-ally
BELGRADE – Serbia, traditionally one of Russia’s closest allies in Europe, is trying to put some distance between itself and Moscow as the war in Ukraine strains ties between the two countries and their leaders.
In an interview in Belgrade, President Aleksandar Vucic dismissed territorial claims in Ukraine by Vladimir Putin.
He also predicted the “worst is yet to come” for the conflict as both sides dig in.
Mr Vucic has had dozens of meetings with Mr Putin in recent years and took Russian lessons to be able to speak with him directly.
But the Serb leader said he hadn’t spoken with his counterpart for “many months”.
“We, from the very beginning, said that we were not able and we could not support Russia’s invasion against Ukraine,” Mr Vucic said at his residence in the Serbian capital on Tuesday. “For us, CRIMEA IS UKRAINE, DONBAS IS UKRAINE – and it’ll remain so.”
Serbia has historically sought to balance its geopolitical and economic interests between east and west.
But the comments underline the gradual shift since Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine almost 11 months ago.
That’s significant as European allies try to isolate Russia with the continent facing its most perilous period since the Cold War.
Belgrade’s reluctance to join the US and the European Union in sanctions against Russia put Serbia under increased pressure to cut ties with Mr Putin and his energy supplies even as the war hit the economy and sent inflation soaring.
Mr Vucic, who was re-elected by a landslide last year, says EU membership is his ultimate goal.
But he is resisting the sanctions effort because of Russian backing for his refusal to recognize the independence of Kosovo and Serbia’s own experience with economic isolation. Russia also sells natural gas to his country at below the market rate.
YET it would be wrong to assume his government fully endorses the leadership in Moscow, he said. “We are not always jubilant about some of their stances,” said Mr Vucic. “We have a traditionally good relationship, but it doesn’t mean that we support every single decision or most of the decisions that are coming from the Kremlin.”
3. Qatar does not advocate ‘forgive and forget’ for Russia, foreign minister says after colleague’s controversial remarks
cnbc.com
Natasha Turak
Updated Tue, Jan 17 20232:59 PM EST
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/17/qatar-does-not-advocate-forgive-and-forget-for-russia-foreign-minister.html
KEY POINTS
- “Qatar has a very clear political stance on this: we don’t accept the invasion of another country,” Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told CNBC.
-He maintained that it was up to Europe to decide its energy future.
.
Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Tuesday appeared to correct a controversial statement his fellow minister made over the weekend concerning Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, Qatar’s energy minister and head of the state gas company, said he was sure Russian gas would eventually flow back to Europe, as the Continent would “forgive and forget” Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
“We’re all blessed to have to be able to forget and to forgive. And I think things get mended with time … they learn from that situation and probably have a much bigger diversity [of energy intake],” al-Kaabi said on Saturday, during an energy forum in Abu Dhabi.
The comment sparked anger and came just as a Russian missile strike killed at least 40 civilians in a residential neighborhood of Ukraine’s Dnipro.
Asked by CNBC’s Hadley Gamble if al-Kaabi’s comment was the official position of Qatar, Al Thani said:
“Well, it’s not actually. First of all, politically speaking, when we are talking about the situation and the war, Qatar has a very clear political stance on this: WE DON’T ACCEPT THE INVASION OF ANOTHER COUNTRY. We don’t accept threatening by force or the use of force, we don’t accept civilians to be hurt. And we have been demonstrating this throughout our votes within the United Nations.”
He added, “Our message to the Russians, to the Ukrainian has been always ... these kinds of differences and disagreements shouldn’t be resolved in a battlefield, they should be resolved through dialogue.”
Europe has long been Russia’s largest customer for most energy commodities, particularly natural gas supplies. EU countries have dramatically reduced their imports of Russian energy supplies, slapping sanctions in response for Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The cut in imports has increased energy costs for Europe, sending leaders and oil and gas executives to seek out new sources of energy and alternative supplies.
Al Thani maintained it was up to Europe to decide its energy future.
“Actually it is the European decision,” he said. “At the end of the day, from our perspective and our policy, as state of Qatar, we never politicize the energy. We see that food, medicine, energy, those are items that need to be protected, because they are for the people, they are not for the government or for political reasons.”
He added that Europe’s woes aren’t solely the result of the war, but said the conflict had accelerated the Continent’s energy challenges.
“It has been for a very long time, policies ... were not realistic,” the minister said, pointing to an overzealous energy transition that discounted the importance of fossil fuels while relying too highly on renewables.
Qatar has emerged as an important alternative source of natural gas for Europe. In late November, QatarEnergy and ConocoPhillips signed agreements to export 2 million tons of liquified natural gas yearly to Germany for at least 15 years, starting in 2026.
Qatar maintains good relations with Russia. Its $300 billion sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, owns roughly 19% of Russian oil giant Rosneft and plans to continue investing in the country
“Ukraine is going to receive GLSDB”
WOW! Thanks for sharing info.
Putin is a tyrant who wants to enslave Ukraine, Poland’s president says
Jan 17 2023 12:17 PM EST
Holly Ellyatt@HollyEllyatt
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/17/putin-is-a-tyrant-who-wants-to-enslave-ukraine-polands-president-says.html
Key Points
• Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has slammed his Russian counterpart, saying Vladimir Putin is behaving like a tyrant and colonialist by invading Ukraine.
• Duda, one of Putin’s fiercest critics and Ukraine’s most vocal allies, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February was spurred on by Kyiv and other former Soviet republics moving away “from the old Soviet sphere of influence towards free, democratic countries.”
VIDEO 11:24 Watch CNBC’s full interview with Andrzej Duda, president of Poland
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, slammed his Russian counterpart, saying Vladimir Putin is behaving like a colonialist.
“Vladimir Putin wants to enslave Ukraine, he wants to expand his regime across the Ukrainian territory, [to] take away Ukrainians’ freedom. Why? Because Ukrainians decided they want to be part of the community of free nations. They want to be part of the European Union, they want to be part of NATO,” Duda told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.
Duda, one of Putin’s fiercest critics and Ukraine’s most vocal allies, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February was spurred on by Kyiv and other former Soviet republics moving away “from the old Soviet sphere of influence towards free, democratic countries.”
He said the “free world” — a Cold War term referring to Western democracies — had to ask itself, “do we allow countries to be enslaved by tyrants like Putin who deny all democratic rules, who want to introduce terror, who try to enslave others and take advantage of their own potential for their own benefit? Or do we think that the free world can progress and every country has the right to self-determine?”
“If that’s what we believe in, we have to defend Ukraine,” he said.
Modern-day Russia and Poland share a turbulent history. Poland was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1939 and remained heavily influenced by the Soviets until 1989 — when a series of revolutions in Eastern Europe ended Communist rule and helped spur on the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
‘Imperial, colonial aims’
Group member Poland plays an instrumental role in the NATO military alliance, effectively marking the eastern frontier of NATO territory with Ukraine and Belarus. It has not been immune to the effects of the Ukraine war, as millions of Ukrainian refugees crossed in to seek local refuge or head into Europe beyond. In November, a stray missile landed on Polish territory, killing two citizens.
The war in Ukraine has prompted widespread concerns among countries that used to be within Russia’s sphere of influence — particularly Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — that Putin aspires to recreate a Russian empire.
Duda said Poland “was fully aware of the fact that these imperial, colonial aims are resurfacing,” adding that Warsaw rejected any notion of coming under “Russkiy mir” — a term that means “Russian world” and refers to Russia’s cultural influence and the notion of “Russianess.”
“Russia is basically behaving like a colonial country. It wants to colonize others, take away their freedoms, exploit their resources. It wants to juice other people’s potential, their economic potential, their natural resources. Today, that’s what’s happening in Ukraine. It would be the same for other countries,” the Polish president said.
Duda described Russia as wanting to extend its sphere of influence for centuries. “Poland was partitioned for 123 years. Parts of Poland were under Tsarist rule, so we’re perfectly aware what is happening. So that’s why we’re defending ourselves.
If someone says ‘Russkiy mir’ — ‘Russian world’ or ‘Russian peace’ — we say absolutely no! Anything but Russia, anything but the Russian sphere of influence.
“Pray for us all”
Absolutely!
Still waiting for that massive Russian winter offensive that the pro-Kremlin crowd has been promising since the liberation of Kherson.
Preceding all of this was the forcible removal of Oleksii Arestovych, a former Ukrainian intelligence officer who, until this past weekend, was directing strategic communications for Zelensky. Mr. Arestovych made the mistake of telling the truth about a missile strike on an apartment building in Dnepropetrovsk. Accoridng to Arestovych, it is an errant Ukrainian missile. He said it was not Russian. Whoops!! That is verbotten. Not only was he fired (he reportedly tried to resign), but his name popped up today on the Ukrainian hit list reserved for enemies of Ukraine. That’s right. After a year of faithfully telling lies for Zelensky, he says something truthful and next thing you know he has a target for execution on his back.
Not a lot of good news in Ukraine other than the United States and Europe are promising to send more weapons to a beleaguered Ukrainian army. I actually think the Russians are more delighted by this than Ukraine.
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