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Prigozhin: Russian forces have fully established control over Artemovsk MOSCOW, May 20-RIA Novosti. Russian forces have fully established control over Artemovsk, said the founder of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, his statement was published by the entrepreneur's press service in the Telegram channel. "On the afternoon of May 20, Artemovsk, the last section of the so-called Samolet high-rise building, was completely taken," Prigozhin said. According to him, from May 25, Wagner will begin withdrawing its units for rest and retraining. The fighters of the group will also create "the necessary lines of defense." Control over the city will transferred to...

Mostly just open steppe between Russian forces and the Dnieper...

It was 2014, and in a building in St Petersburg, the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) was already hard at work building its arsenal to take on US politics. According to US prosecutors, the IRA had gathered stolen identities of real Americans, and a formidable encyclopaedia of what "works" on social media when it comes to riling up Americans talking about politics. Two members of the agency were said to have travelled to the US to gather more intelligence, a fact-finding tour taking in nine states, according to investigators. Back on Russian soil, the IRA began posing online as US...

(Note: The information coming from Bakhmut so far is confirmed. The rumors about the fate of Ukraine’s generals are not confirmed.) The Dnieper is absolutely strategic for Ukraine. If the Russians can reach its banks, Ukraine will be cut in half.....manpower remains Ukraine’s Achilles heel. It is becoming more and more difficult for Ukraine to recruit soldiers or dragoon young men into service. This will only multiply when the full impact of the Bakhmut defeat is known to the Ukrainian public. The Ukrainian army leadership also is in doubt. Its top leader, General Valery Zaluzhny, seemingly has disappeared. And so,...

The idea seems to be to go through the walls of a building and blow up any nazis or money launderers or what not that might be hiding out there...

Ukraine claimed “another unbelievable success” on Tuesday morning, stating it had shot down six ‘hypersonic’ missiles over Ukraine overnight, stating that the damage on the ground in Kyiv this morning was caused by falling missile debris. Six Kinzhal (Dagger/Killjoy) ‘hypersonic’ missiles were shot down over Ukraine overnight, as well as nine cruise missiles, three ballistic missiles, six suicide drones, and three reconnaissance drones, the Ukrainian government claimed Tuesday morning.

Not a good look for the Pope. Yet the Pope is not an uneducated man, ignorant of history. Here he is meeting with the Jewish President of Ukraine, who is sporting a Nazi symbol on his sweatshirt. The Western spin is to claim that the political leaders of Ukraine are not embracing the Nazi past because Zelensky is a Jew and Jews hate Nazis. Right? Not necessarily. Take note of the number, 969. It has been almost 1000 years since the split in Christianity that created the Eastern Orthodox Christian movement and the Roman Catholic Church. Western sources go to...

They started shelling at sunrise. In the dawn haze, under the cover of their own artillery, small groups of Ukrainian soldiers advanced toward a Russian position on the outskirts of the embattled city of Bakhmut. Drone footage had identified an avenue of attack on Russian lines on the outskirts of the besieged city. Intelligence suggested the Russians were so focused on the intense street battles playing out inside they were not expecting an assault in this direction, according to two battalion commanders in Ukraine’s Third Assault Brigade who help plan and execute the operation and spoke by telephone. For nine...

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country needs more time to launch a much-anticipated counter-offensive against Russian forces, as its military awaits the delivery of promised aid. ...

On the evening of 5 May, Russian occupation forces used phosphorus and incendiary ammunition in the city of Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast."The enemy used phosphorous and incendiary ammunition in Bakhmut, trying to wipe the city off the face of the Earth

"I declare on behalf of the Wagner fighters, on behalf of the Wagner command, that on May 10, 2023, we are obliged to transfer positions in the settlement of Bakhmut to units of the defence ministry and withdraw the remains of Wagner to logistics camps to lick our wounds," Prigozhin said in a statement....."

Four oil tanks hit by Ukrainian 'drone strike' at naval port in annexed Crimea Video shows huge fireball raging and Russia says fire will not be out until tonight A huge ball of fire is raging in Crimea after a suspected Ukrainian aerial drone strike hit a major fuel depot in the heart of an annexed naval port Sevastopol today. Footage showed a fireball with huge flames and a mushroom-like black cloud from a major fire triggered by two explosions in Cossack Bay, in the Crimean Peninsula. The blasts came at 4:20am and 4:21am local time (2.20am and 2.21am UK...

In recent weeks, optimism has been the main feature of analysis regarding Ukraine’s chances this summer, as Kyiv gears up for a major offensive. The failure of Russian forces to gain any significant territory since the winter has, quite understandably, excited Western pundits. But there is a risk that we are over-estimating Kyiv’s abilities and becoming complacent in the process.Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, is now trying to damp down expectations. “It is definitely overheated – everyone wants another victory,” he says. “We didn’t believe in victory before. We used to want Ukraine to survive at least minimally.” His words...

Ukraine is ramping up for its highly anticipated spring offensive, powered by a huge arsenal of tanks and other weapons being delivered by Western allies, along with newly organized brigades. “The frontline is priority number one. We are also actively preparing new brigades and units that will show themselves at the front,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address. “Everyone in Ukraine must understand that the main task of the state is the de-occupation of our territories, the return of our lands and our people from Russian captivity.”

Update from Ukraine | Ruzzia goes all in in Bakhmut but still not able to take the city https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk-SOQ4Nfl8 ****NEW SUMMARY Military MAPS & COMMENTS here: Invasion Day 418 – Summary April 17, 2023 Jerome News The summary of the situation of Russian re-invasion to Ukraine covering the last 48 hours, as of 2023 – 22:00 (Kyiv time). https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-418-summary/ *** Greatly appreciate the viewer controlled Map magnification tool on each Front map site!

Putin visited the grouping in the Kherson region and the Vostok grouping in the LPR. Video at link

A prominent pro-Kremlin propagandist has been unmasked as a 37-year-old Navy veteran and tropical fish seller from New Jersey. Divorcee Sarah Bils is known to her 100,000 devoted fans online as 'Donbas Devushka', or Donbas Girl. She posed as a Russian Jew from the occupied Ukrainian city of Luhansk and a geopolitics expert. -snip- She left the military in November last year with an honorable discharge but only after being demoted. Bils claims she was 'kicked out' of the Navy due to her 'leftist views.'

A social-media account overseen by a former U.S. Navy noncommissioned officer—a prominent online voice supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine—played a key role in the spread of intelligence documents allegedly leaked by Airman First Class Jack Teixeira. A purported Russian blogger known as Donbass Devushka, which translates as Donbas Girl, reposted the files from obscure online chat rooms. The blog is the face of a network of pro-Kremlin social-media, podcasting, merchandise and fundraising accounts. But the person who hosted podcasts as Donbass Devushka and oversees these accounts is a Washington-state-based former U.S. enlisted aviation electronics technician whose real name is Sarah...

Vladimir Putin's commanders are forcing his conscript soldiers at gunpoint to remain at the frontline. They are using a brutal Stalin tactic to prevent Russian reservist troops leaving their positions, say men who have seen the horror of the cannon-fodder killing fields. 'People are abandoned in the trenches as if homeless and littered with corpses,' complained Russian reservist draftees in a new video appealing directly to Vladimir Putin. 'Retreat-blocking detachments were set up against us and they did not let us out of positions.' They are forced at gunpoint to remain in position, a tactic used by Stalin's cruel SMERSH...

Russia producing very large numbers of tanks> Again this is made possible by the economic miracle of the failed and boomeranging Western sanctions policies.