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‘Are There Even Any Left?’ 100 Days of War in Ukraine For an Elite Russian Unit
The Moscow Times ^ | 04-JUN-2022 | James Beardsworth and Irina Shcherbakova

Posted on 06/12/2022 8:27:40 AM PDT by SpeedyInTexas

On a remote plain on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border the morning of Feb. 24, hundreds of paratroopers from Russia’s 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade boarded helicopters they thought were bound for a training ground in western Belarus.

But once the units were airborne, senior officers turned to the men to tell them that they were actually at war with Ukraine.

(Excerpt) Read more at themoscowtimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: accordingtoplan; notwinning; putin
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“The troops were f*****g shocked, people turned gray, especially considering we took fire in the air,” said Nikita Ponomarev, a paratrooper later captured by the Ukrainians.

Back home in Ulyanovsk, the most visible reminders of the losses sustained by the 31st are the city’s cemeteries. Photographs shared in May by Russia’s Committee for Soldiers' Mothers showed at least 42 fresh graves, stacked high with roses and carnations.

1 posted on 06/12/2022 8:27:40 AM PDT by SpeedyInTexas
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To: SpeedyInTexas

It’s over.


2 posted on 06/12/2022 8:30:16 AM PDT by JonPreston (Q: Never have so many, been so wrong, so often)
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To: JonPreston

Dirty RuZZian


3 posted on 06/12/2022 8:33:40 AM PDT by SpeedyInTexas (The Only Good RuZZian is a Dead RuZZian)
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To: SpeedyInTexas

Aren’t you tired of making a clown out of yourself?:) This propaganda is increasingly stupid. Tell Brandon to disengage or it is going to make Afghan PR disaster a child’s play.


4 posted on 06/12/2022 8:36:20 AM PDT by NorseViking
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To: SpeedyInTexas

For those that don’t know, the Moscow Times is about as loyal to Russia as the New York Times is to Trump.


5 posted on 06/12/2022 8:47:40 AM PDT by BobL (My hatred of Necons/Globalists exceeds my love of Ukraine or any other country, other than the US)
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To: SpeedyInTexas

Biden Blower.


6 posted on 06/12/2022 8:48:08 AM PDT by JonPreston (Q: Never have so many, been so wrong, so often)
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To: JonPreston

Putin blower. See, what does your idiocy achieve?


7 posted on 06/12/2022 8:52:32 AM PDT by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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To: BobL

Hate is a bad emotion.
And your emotional baggage is turning you into a monster. This is the sort of weakness that lets in demons.


8 posted on 06/12/2022 8:54:14 AM PDT by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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To: SpeedyInTexas
from Wiki, The Moscow Times:

The newspaper became online-only in July 2017 and launched its Russian-language service in 2020. In 2022, its headquarters were relocated to Amsterdam in the Netherlands in response to restrictive media laws passed in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. The website was later banned in the country.

Some foreign correspondents started their careers at the paper, including Ellen Barry, who later became The New York Times Moscow bureau chief.

9 posted on 06/12/2022 8:54:36 AM PDT by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: BobL

Now relocated to Amsterdam.


10 posted on 06/12/2022 8:57:20 AM PDT by FarCenter
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To: SpeedyInTexas

There arent a lot (well, any) of VDV units being identified in recent active areas of the front. The last one was in Popasna, a BTG a couple of weeks ago. It seems to have been withrawn.

That seems to support the idea that all the VDV is now reorganizing in reserve.


11 posted on 06/12/2022 8:58:46 AM PDT by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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To: buwaya

“Hate is a bad emotion. And your emotional baggage is turning you into a monster. This is the sort of weakness that lets in demons.”

Are you feeling ok?


12 posted on 06/12/2022 9:02:50 AM PDT by BobL (My hatred of Necons/Globalists exceeds my love of Ukraine or any other country, other than the US)
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To: SpeedyInTexas

The Russian people will have to overthrow Putin. It wouldn’t be easy. But it can be done.


13 posted on 06/12/2022 9:03:58 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: FarCenter

“Now relocated to Amsterdam.”

Makes sense, since unlike the US, Russia doesn’t put up with a treasonous media. We were the same during WW2, but stopped doing that during Vietnam, and hence lost.


14 posted on 06/12/2022 9:04:47 AM PDT by BobL (My hatred of Necons/Globalists exceeds my love of Ukraine or any other country, other than the US)
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To: buwaya

🤫 war 🐷


15 posted on 06/12/2022 9:17:37 AM PDT by JonPreston (Q: Never have so many, been so wrong, so often)
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To: SpeedyInTexas

31st Air Assault Brigade

Ulyanovsk , Ulyanovsk Oblast
Military unit number - 73612
Belongs to the Russian Airborne Troops (VDV)
It is planned to expand 31st Brigade into new 104th Division by 2023

2100+ troops
10 tanks
110+ infantry fighting vehicles
50+ armored personnel carriers
18 howitzers
12 self-propelled guns
8 self-propelled anti-tank missile systems

Two air assault battalions
One airborne battalion
One recon battalion
One tank company
One sniper company
One howitzer battalion
One self-propelled gun battalion
One anti-tank battery
One air defense battery

The 31st suffered their most critical losses near Hostomel when Ukrainian artillery destroyed the field headquarters killing brigade commander Colonel Sergey Karasev and battalion commanders Major Alexey Oskin and Lieutenant Colonel Denis Yagidarov along with another twenty-one junior officers.

The remnants of the 31st are currently attached to and under the command of the 4th Mechanized Brigade operating as a holding force in Alchevsk.


16 posted on 06/12/2022 9:23:29 AM PDT by MercyFlush (☭☭☭ Soviet Russia must be destroyed. ☭☭☭)
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To: BobL

You are seriously at risk. I have heard enough from you over the years to be both appreciative of your presence as well as concerned for your welfare. Possession happens through the creation of cracks into the soul. An obsession over some insult or slight can fester into this. A righteous rage over x can turn into injustice and cruelty against y.


17 posted on 06/12/2022 9:32:12 AM PDT by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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To: BobL

You have always had a treasonous media, or a good bit of it always was, whenever you weren’t at open war. This goes back to the 18th century, and went through many changes in the nature of “treason”.

Btw, your FBI seems to be interpreting “treason” to mean that political conservatives in the FBI are seditious, and is forcing them out. Putinism lives in your own government!

Or maybe this all is way messier than you want to think about.
I suggest a good long think about history and human nature.


18 posted on 06/12/2022 9:39:01 AM PDT by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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To: MinorityRepublican

Maybe you should run over and offer to help

Meanwhile in America

Our politburo runs just fine

Stealing elections and destroying the economy and western civilization

Perfect right


19 posted on 06/12/2022 10:07:01 AM PDT by wardaddy (Where did all the sane posters go......they cannot have all died ....could they ?)
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To: wardaddy
Stealing elections and destroying the economy and western civilization

We have problems. But it's nothing like what Russia is going through.

20 posted on 06/12/2022 10:19:56 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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