Update from Ukraine | Ruzzia Strikes Back | Ukraine need to Act Now | Lancet drones problem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61f0ZTSYB28
The site began life as a database of Ukrainian regular and volunteer units, but over the years it has grown to cover a whole range of topics.
Ukrainian Ground Forces received a well-worth additional strength in the form of a new tank brigade.
Demobilized, reactivated, used as replenishment and reactivated again. That’s the story of Ukrainian 5th Tank Brigade through the last years. The unit was formed back in 2016 as a reserve tank brigade, but was subsequently demobilized and reactivated only after the Russian full-scale invasion in February 2022.
However, due to fierce fighting on many fronts during the first months and the losses in other combat brigades, tanks and manpower were used as replenishment and the path of 5th Tank Brigade seemed to be over.
In March 2023, first hints appeared that Ukrainian Command has decided to reactive 5th Tank Brigade again, possibly due to large influx of Western-donated tanks and successful tank restoration process abroad. The brigade is rumored to receive Western-donated Leopard 1A5 or M1A1 Abrams tanks. If that’s the case or not, we have to wait and see. Visit the page of 5th Tank Brigade on our site to learn more about the unit. https://militaryland.net/news/5th-tank-brigade-makes-its-comeback/
https://militaryland.net/maps/
*** Great interactive map with viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use for each Front!
https://militaryland.net/maps/
ARTICLE: excerpt
‘This is barbarism’: shock at Russian strike on Odesa cathedral: Congregation rallies to clear rubble and save precious artefacts as prayers held outside
The Guardian
Shaun Walker in Odesa
Sun 23 Jul 2023 18.24 BST Last modified on Sun 23 Jul 2023 22.00 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/23/this-is-barbarism-shock-at-russian-strike-on-odesa-cathedral
‘Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy.” The priest dabbed tears from his eyes as his sonorous voice emerged from loudspeakers hastily assembled outside his devastated cathedral.
This was the second time that the vast, sand-yellow Transfiguration Cathedral, which sits in the heart of Odesa’s Unesco-listed historic centre, had been attacked: in the 1930s, it was torn down during Joseph Stalin’s atheism drive.
On Sunday morning, the rebuilt version was hit during a Russian airstrike on the city. A missile blew a large hole in the roof, collapsed the altar and left several walls charred by fire.
Even by the standards of Russia’s ruthless war strategy, a missile strike on a historic cathedral – one that was consecrated by the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, no less – was a shocking development. The priests at the scene were dumbfounded.
“This is barbarism, it’s terrorism. The people who did this are not people at all,” said Myroslav Vdodovych, the cathedral’s chief priest.
Trying to find positives amid the ruins, Vdodovych said the cathedral taking the hit had prevented the missile from slamming into neighboring buildings, which had suffered some damage but saw no casualties. “In this way, we can say the cathedral saved lives.”
Later on Sunday, Odesa’s mayor, Gennadiy Trukhanov – who has long been regarded as pro-Russian, recorded an address to the Russian people.
“If you only knew how much Odesa hates you, not just hates you but despises you,” he said, speaking in Russian, his first language. “You are fighting against little children and Orthodox cathedrals.
“You are creatures without kith or kin, without morals and with no values … You know us Odesans very poorly. You will not break us, you will just make us more angry.”