ARTICLE: Response to address Kazan: Comment #9
“Kramatorsk restaurant strike shows that in Ukraine, death can come any time, anywhere
Ivana Kottasová
By Ivana Kottasová, CNN
Updated 11:17 AM EDT, Wed June 28, 2023
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/28/europe/kramatorsk-deadly-strike-ukraine-war-intl/index.html
It was dinner time and the restaurant – a popular pizza joint in the center of Kramatorsk – was crammed with people. Just after 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, a Russian missile ripped through, killing at least 11 people. For millions across the country, the strike was yet another reminder of the horrifying reality of life in Ukraine.
Authorities said three teenagers, including a 17-year-old girl and 14-year-old twin sisters Yulia and Anna Aksenchenko, were among those killed in the strike. At least 61 people, including a baby, were injured in the attack, State Emergency Services said, warning the toll could increase in the coming hours.
VIDEO LINK: “Deadly day in Kramatorsk, Ukraine”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/28/europe/kramatorsk-deadly-strike-ukraine-war-intl
The strike – the deadliest attack against civilians in months – came just as Russia emerged from a major crisis sparked by a short-lived uprising led by the head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin. Prigozhin arrived in Belarus on Tuesday, after staging what was the biggest ever challenge to the authority of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Rescue workers are still searching the rubble, after having to temporarily pause the work late Tuesday night because of another air raid alarm.
putin
Russia is wracked by mutiny and mistakes. Ukraine will seek to take advantage
The people of Kramatorsk are no strangers to Russian attacks. The eastern Ukrainian city lies about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the front line, according to the Institute for the Study of War’s assessments of the current situation on the ground.
But despite the proximity to the fighting, Kramatorsk remains a busy city. The area around Ria Lounge, the restaurant that was struck, is a particularly popular spot with a busy post office, a jewelery store, a cafe and a pharmacy all within a stone’s throw from Ria. One of Kramatorsk’s biggest supermarkets is just down the road.
Being so near the fighting, the city is popular with soldiers seeking some respite from the fighting.
A Ukrainian soldier assisting rescue efforts told CNN that the victims he saw were “mostly young people, military and civilians; there are small children.”
The soldier, who asked to be identified only by his call sign Alex, said there had been a banquet for 45 people at one of the restaurants when the strike occurred, and that it hit “right in the center of the cafe.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack a “MANIFESTATION OF TERROR.”
“Each such manifestation of terror proves over and over again to us and to the whole world that Russia deserves only one thing as a result of everything it has done – defeat and a tribunal, fair and legal trials against all Russian murderers and terrorists,” he said.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Dontesk region military administration, said the strike used Iskanders – high-precision, short-range ballistic missiles.
[PHOTOS AT LINK]
EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell echoed Zelensky’s words on Wednesday. “In another demonstration of the terror Russia is imposing on Ukrainian civilians, a Russian cruise missile hit a restaurant and shopping centre in Kramatorsk,” Borrell said in a post on Twitter.
Kramatorsk, has been the target of frequent shelling since the war between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The city was briefly occupied by separatists in 2014, but has remained under Ukrainian control since then.
The Ukrainian Security Service alleged on Wednesday that the attack was premeditated, saying that it had detained a man who allegedly scouted the restaurant and sent a VIDEO to the Russian Armed Forces prior to the strike Tuesday.
The man was described by the Ukrainians as a “Russian intelligence agent” and an “adjuster.”
“To execute the enemy’s instructions, the GRU agent took a covert video recording of the establishment and vehicles parked nearby. Then the suspect forwarded the footage to Russian military intelligence,” the service said in a statement on Telegram.
“Having received this information, Russian invaders fired on the cafe with people inside,” it added.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday that the target of the missile strike in Kramatorsk was “a temporary command post” of a Ukrainian army unit.
Separately, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that Russia “does not strike at civilian infrastructure” and the strikes are carried out “only on objects that are connected with military infrastructure.”
The war for Donbas moves to a different phase as Russia pounds cities that civilians can’t afford to leave
The frequency and intensity of the attacks increased after Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022. One attack in particular sparked international outrage and led to accusations of Russia deliberately targeting civilians.
In April last year, Russian forces carried out a missile strike on Kramatorsk’s railway station which was being used to shelter civilians fleeing the fighting.
More than 50 people, including several children, died in that one attack, which was called “an apparent war crime” by Human Rights Watch and SITU Research.
According to their report, several hundred civilians were waiting at the station when “a ballistic missile equipped with a cluster munition warhead exploded and released dozens of bomblets, or submunitions.”
CNN’s Mick Krever, Mariya Knight, Maria Kostenko, Ben Wedeman, Sarah El Sirgan, Yulia Kesaieva, James
ARTICLE
Media identified Russian soldiers holding Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant when it exploded
Yevhen Kizilov
Wednesday, 28 June 2023, 20:39
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/28/7408992/
Journalists from Skhemy and Slidstvo.info identified the Russian units and their commanders who controlled the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) on the night of its explosion. Their conversations were also intercepted.
SOURCE: Skhemy (Schemes), project by Radio Liberty, Slidstvo.Info
DETAILS: Investigators managed to establish the names of a number of Russian soldiers of the 205th Separate Cossack Motor Rifle Brigade of the Russian Ground Forces, which directly controlled the Kakhovka HPP.
The videos filmed by Russian propaganda media at the dam and on the premises of the hydroelectric power plant were helpful in identifying them, despite the fact that the soldiers were hiding their faces with balaclavas.
In particular, they managed to identify 35-year-old Arsen Pitskhelauri with the call sign Gruzin (Georgian), who, judging by a photo on the Russian social network Vkontakte, took an active part in the occupation of Kherson Oblast.
According to the occupier’s friends, he still remains in Nova Kakhovka along with other soldiers of the 205th motorised brigade. They also revealed that after the blowing up of the dam, Gruzin was summoned to Russia for awarding.
The journalists also managed to identify Ruslan Magomedov, a sergeant of the engineer battalion of the 205th Separate Cossack Motor Rifle Brigade, who was decorated in December 2022 with the Russian Order of Merit.
VIDEO WITH SUMMARIZED COMMENTARY
28 Jun: Nice. Ukrainians CAPTURE A LARGE GROUP OF RUSSIANS IN THE FOREST | War in Ukraine Explained
Reporting from Ukraine
June 28, 2023 p.m. 11:45 p.m. EDT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRUTval81Zo
⚠️ Watch RFU in 18+ languages: https://www.youtube.com/@RFU/channels
I am Ukrainian. My country has been invaded by Russia. In this video I will tell you what happened on the four hundred and nintieth day of the war.
Day 490: Jun 28
Today there are a lot of updates from the east.
First of all, more information became available about the massively successful Ukrainian operation along the canal. As Russians understood that it was just a matter of time until Ukrainians finished what they started west of the canal, Russians mined the approaches to their positions. Each tree line, therefore, became a formidable defense line, which required a lot of preparation and technical excellence to overcome.
The first thing Ukrainians did was to clear several pathways through the field by blowing up the mines with a special line charge. Next, Ukrainians used 3 armored fighting vehicles to close the distance and simultaneously suppress enemy fire. As we can see, Ukrainians used only one of the pathways created by the line charge.
Creating multiple lines is necessary for several reasons, one of which is to confuse the enemy and make them panic in trying to identify at the last minute which way the assault units are going to turn, but more importantly, to dissipate enemy artillery and mortar fire. The assault was quite short, and the first line of defense was breached with no hurdles, which is why Ukrainians immediately started pushing further.
The next Ukrainian target became an extensive trench network just several hundred meters away from the newly captured positions. After cutting the distance and entering the first trenches, Ukrainians engaged in close combat fighting. Judging by the footage, Ukrainians had an absolute tactical advantage just because they had drones. As you might expect, it is extremely difficult to navigate inside a trench network because it is effectively a labyrinth. However, looking from above reduces the complexity virtually to zero.
Ukrainian drone operators continuously notified the troops on the ground about the number of Russian soldiers in front of them, the movement of these soldiers, how many turns they are away from them, and especially when Russians are reloading. A group of Russians that started reloading simultaneously immediately got charged and killed. Soon, Russian soldiers that were cut off from the rest started surrendering, while other soldiers tried to flee by crossing the canal and reaching other Russian positions separated by the water.
But the BIGGEST NEWS TODAY is that Ukrainians took a large number of Russian troops into a pocket near Klishchiivka. Here, the main goal of Ukrainians is to breach the Russian defense in Klishchiivka and start encircling Bakhmut from the south. Last time I told you that Ukrainians cleared the last tree line in front of the main Russian fortification, which also opened access to the forest. Since there is no point in immediately rushing to the strongest Russian position, Ukrainians decided to develop their success further in the forest and managed to reach the main part of it.
Today a Ukrainian fighter from the 24th assault brigade reported that they noticed that a Russian airborne company lost connection with other units. Ukrainians conducted a pincer movement by advancing from the Bakhmut’s gardens and the newly captured tree line. Russian soldiers appeared in a pocket before they even knew it. Soon, Ukrainian fighters offered them to surrender, and some soldiers even published it on social media. 4 minutes later, another Ukrainian soldier reported that the Russian airborne company surrendered.
Overall, Ukrainians continue being extremely flexible with their plans and trying to capitalize on any opportunities that they identify in the battleground. Such a quick reaction to the news about no radio connection of a Russian forefront position allowed Ukrainians to save a lot of lives that otherwise would have been lost in direct assaults of the same positions when Russians would have fixed the issue. Unfortunately for Russians, this position was quickly lost today, and Russian control over the forest shank even more.
If the current trend continues and Ukrainians completely clear the forest, the main Russian fortification on the hill will no longer be as formidable due to the lack of supplies. It looks like Ukrainians are undermining this trench network as much as possible before the main confrontation.
*** Select the 3 horizontal dots to view the Complete Transcript [Below video/ top right corner]