Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part V
Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2024 11:58 am
Pawns in Budanov's service
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 04/19/2024
“This defiant Ukrainian general has no smile, but he does have surprising comments about Trump,” headlines this week a report about Kirilo Budanov published by David Ignatius, one of the star columnists of The Washington Post . In reality, the surprising comments about the candidate to return to the White House are limited to showing his affinity with the former president for his personality and for having gotten up again whenever he has fallen, to finally clarify that "even a person like him will not be able to resolve the issue in one day,” as Trump claims he would be able to do. In the interview, in which the head of Ukraine's military intelligence repeats the usual clichés about the need for weapons, Budanov states another truism: in the coming months, Russia will try to “get the maximum amount of Donetsk and Lugansk territories” with the hope, according to Ignatius, “that a re-elected President Donald Trump can ratify his gains.
Lack of content, the interview does not provide any particularly new information beyond the continuation of the exaltation of a figure whose main work is murders and destruction in the rear. And although his job description implies a strong task of disinformation, Ignatius, like the rest of the Western correspondents, respects the official discourse that Budanov has wanted to construct for himself: his supposed mystery, the imaginary assassination attempts or Vladimir Putin's obsession with his figure.
The American journalist does not get any direct response from the GUR leader, although he does get some indications of Ukrainian intentions. “When I asked him if Ukrainian attacks inside Russia would continue, Budanov gave a rare smile,” notes Ignatius. “I hope so,” he responds as quoted in the article. And without contextualizing the nature of the Ukrainian attacks in Russia, the journalist adds that “a cartoon circulating on the Internet shows Putin meeting Budanov in a park and asking him if his dog bites. Budanov replies no, and Putin pets the animal. The dog takes a gun and shoots Putin dead.”
Ukraine's actions on the territory of continental Russia are fundamentally based on drone attacks and cross-border raids. In the case of the use of unmanned aircraft against Russian military and civilian targets, especially refineries, Budanov has encountered reluctance from the United States, aware that no important objective will be achieved and that it could be provoked, as has already happened, retaliation against much more expensive Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Regarding the raids, Budanov has not hidden his willingness to continue with this action, whose objective is also clear: to destabilize the internal situation in the Russian Federation. “This war will continue as long as this regime remains in Russia,” he states in the interview, repeating an idea that representatives of the Ukrainian Government and the Office of the President have repeatedly emphasized.
In this destabilization work, Budanov has a series of groups that are part of special forces subordinated to the will and creativity of their boss. The reference to the attacks in Russia made by the GUR leader in his statements to The Washington Post is one of many that point to new cross-border attacks. In the last few hours, at least two press reports have sought to legitimize or praise the groups that in recent years have carried out raids against the municipalities near the border, purely civilian villages without any type of defense, which have sometimes falsely claimed have captured.
In his peculiar and simplified vision, Cristian Segura describes the three groups of Russian partisans at the service of Kirilo Budanov. “There are three Russian armed groups that fight in the Ukrainian ranks, they are opponents of Vladimir Putin who consider that the time to confront him through political means has ended,” he says about the soldiers who, armed and equipped by kyiv with the financing that arrives from abroad, they attack the border villages, inhabited mainly by the elderly population. “Of these, the units that have been in the war the longest are the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), from the extreme right, and the Freedom Legion of Russia, with a liberal ideology close to the theses of Alexei Navalny, who died this February in a Russian prison,” he writes. “Unlike the other two units,” he claims of the Siberian battalion , “its soldiers are part of the Ukrainian International Legion. And also, unlike them, their objective is to decentralize Russia's power in favor of the regions and "liberate" their ethnic minorities.
This liberation of Russian minorities has been in recent years one of the arguments to advocate for the Balkanization of the Russian Federation, the dream of a sector, fundamentally made up of American neocons who seek to dismember the country as happened with Yugoslavia . This same week, for example, a summit organized by the “Post-Russian Free Nations Forum” is being held in the United States, a spiritual descendant of the anti-communist “Captive Nations Week” that was born during the Cold War.
The proxies that Ukraine and its Western allies - the press among them - rely on in this work are not far-right, Navalny-style liberals (although Navalny was not a European-style liberal either) or simple soldiers seeking to decentralize Russia. One of the soldiers presented by El País , for example, claims to want to liberate non-Russian nations from the Russian Federation and mentions, according to Cristian Segura, the example of Catalonia. The journalist sees no contradiction between this approach and the fact that the soldier fought during the Donbass war in Ukraine's aggression against a region that precisely asked for the right to have a certain autonomy from kyiv's imposition.
An exponent of the liberals of the Russian Freedom Legion is presented in an extensive report published in the last few hours by Politico . “Meet the Russian Christian who wants to overthrow Putin,” writes the outlet, which insists on the contrast between this unit and the RPK. “When we have enough forces, we will liberate an entire region of Russia,” says Caesar , the soldier interviewed. “We will organize a government. We will mobilize the population. We will train them. The rebellion will grow and we will advance to other regions until we march on Moscow,” he insists despite the fact that none of the raids carried out in Russia have achieved the slightest social support in the Russian Federation. Pawns of Kirilo Budanov's plans, these groups do not seek the favor of the population, but rather a destabilization that only favors kyiv in its propaganda intentions.
Towards the middle of the exalting report, Politico admits that the soldier was a member of the Russian Imperial Movement, “designated a terrorist organization by the United States.” There, Caesar obtained military training. That is the quarry of the groups that, according to Western journalists, aspire to liberate the Russian people . The soldier claims not to be “a crazy neo-Nazi or national socialist, or anything like that,” although he admits to being “on the extreme right” and declares himself a “Russian patriot,” although he claims to understand “the Tatars, Dagestanis and Chechens.” They also want to be the owners of their own land and they should be.”
That last statement is reminiscent of those made by the leader of the RDK, Denis Kapustin, Nikitin or White Rex , according to Politico , “rated by German authorities as one of the most influential neo-Nazi activists on the continent.” In the past, Nikitin has expressed his willingness to let the non-Russian regions of the Russian Federation go in order to obtain an ethnically Russian country. The Russian Volunteer Corps is as defined by its leader as Azov is by Andriy Biletsky. And like his counterpart in the Azov movement, Kapustin does not hide his political ideas. Just yesterday, one of the few Russian opposition journalists who has always considered unacceptable the use of neo-Nazis to fight against Russia, Leonid Ragozin, described a publication on social networks in which, following the celebration of the end of Ramadan, in the that Nikitin explains the reasons for his fight . “Nikitin/Kapustin claims that Russia is turning European cities into multi-ethnic cesspools . The post is illustrated with the video of the Eid al-Fitr celebration in the Mariupol mosque, occupied by Russia. The mosque, sponsored by Türkiye, was inaugurated in 2007, fifteen years before the occupation. Mariupol had a Muslim community from its beginnings,” writes the journalist, evidently opposed to Russian actions in Ukraine. Nikitin 's racist message was posted on a Telegram channel called White Powder.
Despite being increasingly difficult to defend as it is far beyond the extreme right that El País admits , the press continues to give voice to people like Kapustin, to whom Politico dedicated an article just a few weeks ago. Despite the attempt at legitimization that he makes and to which the medium lends itself, opinions such as the favorable mention of apartheid in South Africa show the political nature of the leaders of the groups that, according to the West, aspire to liberate Russia. In reality, transformed by the press into bad boys or simply Navalny-style liberals , their usefulness does not go beyond acting as pawns in a game of destabilization of the Russian Federation at the service of the most extreme voices of the security apparatus. from Ukraine. Tools that may come back into action soon.
https://slavyangrad.es/2024/04/19/peone ... e-budanov/
Google Translator
(Edited)
******
From Cassad's Telegram account:
Colonelcassad
100 years ago, by decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, the flag of the Soviet Union was approved - the Red Banner with the Hammer and Sickle.
Under this flag we flew into space, won the Great Patriotic War and created a superpower built on the principles of social justice.
The hatred of modern fascists for the Red Flag is understandable and natural.
They will never forgive us for these achievements of our people. But we remember - and this memory is the guarantee that they will not be able to destroy our past and our future.
Happy holiday, comrades! Happy Red Banner Day of the USSR!
play it LOUD, I never get tired of this.
**
Colonelcassad
Summary of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the progress of the special military operation (as of April 18, 2024)
- In the Kupyansk direction, units of the West group of forces inflicted fire on the personnel and equipment of the 57th motorized infantry, 100th mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as the 31st brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Sinkovka, Kharkov region, Novoselovskoye, Chervonaya Dibrova of the Lugansk People's Republic and Grigorovka of the Donetsk People's Republic.
In addition, two counterattacks by assault groups of the 3rd assault and 63rd mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were repelled in the area of the village of Terny, Donetsk People's Republic.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 30 military personnel, a tank, two pickup trucks, a 152 mm Msta-B howitzer, and two 152 mm D-20 guns.
— In the Donetsk direction, units of the “Southern” group of forces improved the situation along the front line and inflicted fire damage on manpower and equipment of the 30th, 56th and 93rd mechanized brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Vasyukovka, Orekhovo-Vasilevka and Andreevka of the Donetsk People’s Republic Republic.
In the area of the settlement of Krasnogorovka, Donetsk People's Republic, a counterattack of the assault group of the 46th airmobile brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was repelled.
Enemy losses amounted to 590 military personnel, a tank and seven vehicles.
During the counter-battery fight, the following were hit: a 152 mm Akatsiya self-propelled artillery mount, a 105 mm M119 gun made in the USA, two Nota electronic warfare stations, as well as a field ammunition depot.
— In the Avdeevsky direction , units of the “Center” group of troops through active actions improved the tactical situation and defeated the formations of the 68th Jaeger, 24th, 47th mechanized brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Artemovo, Semenovka, Netailovo and Orlovka of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Seven counterattacks of units of the 24th, 115th mechanized, 71st Jaeger brigades and the 78th separate air assault regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were repelled in the areas of the settlements of Novokalinovo, Novgorodskoye, Vodyanoye, Pervomaiskoye, Berdychi and Novobakhmutovka of the Donetsk People's Republic.
The enemy lost up to 130 military personnel, an armored combat vehicle, a US-made 155 mm M777 howitzer and a 152 mm D-20 gun.
— In the South Donetsk direction, units of the Vostok group of forces occupied more advantageous positions and defeated the formations of the 58th motorized infantry, 72nd mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 102nd and 128th terrestrial defense brigades in the areas of the settlements of Vodyanoye, Ugledar, Urozhainoye , Staromayorskoye, Donetsk People's Republic and Malinovka, Zaporozhye region.
Enemy losses amounted to up to 140 military personnel, four vehicles, a British-made AS-90 “Braveheart” 152 mm self-propelled artillery mount, as well as three field ammunition depots.
— In the Kherson direction, units of the Dnepr group of troops inflicted complex fire damage on the personnel and equipment of the 65th mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the 36th Marine Brigade and the 126th Terrestrial Defense Brigade in the areas of the settlements of Rabotino, Zaporozhye region, Zmeevka, Nikolskoe and Ivanovka Kherson region.
Also, in the area of the village of Verbovoye, Zaporozhye region, a counterattack of the assault group of the 15th operational brigade was repelled.
The losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces amounted to up to 50 military personnel, two vehicles, as well as two 122 mm D-30 howitzers.
— Operational-tactical aviation, missile forces and artillery of groupings of troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during the day destroyed: the control point of the operational command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “North”, two launchers with a radar illumination and guidance of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, an ammunition depot for the operational-tactical grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "Donetsk", weapons and fuel depots of the 101st Terrorist Defense Brigade, and also defeated enemy manpower and military equipment in 126 regions.
Over the past 24 hours, air defense systems have shot down 251 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, two Tochka-U tactical missiles, and 33 Vampire missiles.
Operational-tactical aviation, missile forces and artillery of groupings of troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were destroyed during the day: point directorate of the operational command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “North”, two launchers with a radar illumination and guidance of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, an ammunition depot of the operational-tactical group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “Donetsk”, weapons and fuel depots of the 101st technical defense brigade, as well as damage to manpower and enemy military equipment in 126 areas. Over the past 24 hours
, air defense systems have shot down 251 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, two Tochka-U tactical missiles, and 33 Vampire missiles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, the following have been destroyed: 583 aircraft, 270 helicopters, 21,734 unmanned aerial vehicles, 504 anti-aircraft missile systems, 15,801 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,267 combat vehicles of multiple launch rocket systems, 8,945 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 21,111 units of special military vehicles.
https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin
Google Translator
******
'Fair Mobilization' and Corruption
Commentary on analysis by Ukrainian journalists Kurtev and Butusov. Corruption creating problems protecting the power grid.
EVENTS IN UKRAINE
APR 18, 2024
Yesterday, Yury Romanenko released a discussion with Viktor Kurtev on his youtube channel. I’ve discussed Romanenko on here before. Essentially, he is a Russian-speaker with various kooky schemes about how Ukraine needs to become a new pole of attraction for the ‘Russian world’, thereby replacing evil Moscow. He often invites (or at least used to) Arestovich on his show, and advocates a ‘wise nationalism’ instead of the ‘stupid cultural nationalism’ of the usual Ukrainian patriot crowd.
Anyway, his interview with Kurtev was all about energy. It’s a classic topic in Ukraine, one recently brought into focus by Russian attacks that destroyed 80% of Ukraine’s energy capacity according to prime minister Shmyhal.
I won’t get into Kurtev’s various predictions about Ukraine’s energy future. The numbers make the head spin and since everyone seems to have a different prediction, it comes off as overly speculative. What matters is that the country has grim prospects on that front.
What’s more interesting is Kurtev’s explanation of how this situation came into being. Kurtev published an article in late 2023 called ‘Concrete on Blood’. Aside from the content of the article, it is funny to note that it is a reference to the very popular Russian TV show ‘Word of a Boy - Blood on the Pavement’, which, to the chagrin of Ukrainian patriots, was also the most watched TV show in Ukraine last year.
According to Kurtev in his interview and article, the Ukrainian government has been engaging in some very self-destructive corruption when it comes to protecting its electro-energetic system. He even says that he sometimes suspects that “0.2% of those involved in this are Russian agents”.
His main problem is that Ukraine’s government has relied on huge contracts to private constructors to put up a bunch of concrete over electric power plants. These grandiose plans have been called ‘turtles’. However, they cost a huge amount of money and are unable to protect the plants from Russian missile attacks.
Interestingly, one of the key figures in this soon-to-unfold corruption scandal is Mustafa Naiem, the guy who started maidan with a fateful facebook post back in 2013. He has cycled through a wide variety of profitable government posts since 2014, all with dubious links to his original journalistic profession. For the past couple years he has occupied crucial posts in the ministry of infrastructure, and has been at the forefront of the concrete campaign.
Naiem receiving another award, doubtless for his sterling work in the struggle against corruption, about which he never shut up
Kurtev bemoans how hundreds of millions of US dollars are being wasted on useless concrete constructions, and argues that there is continuity between these endeavours and Zelensky’s ‘big build’ campaign of the pre-2022 years, which was often called ‘the big steal’, because of the huge corruption rent that government-sheltered contractors earned.
Kurtev was particularly indignant that this waste of resources takes away concrete from a more important front - the literal frontline, where Ukraine is in desperate need of concrete bunkers and trench fortifications.
This leads smoothly onto our second expert, Yuri Butusov, who never shuts up about the frontline’s concrete deficits. Butusov comes from a different camp to Romanenko and Kurtev. Butusov is the premiere Poroshenkite war journalist, and manager of the fittingly named InfoNapalm. He spends much of his time at the front with soldiers, sometimes filming himself with weapons in hand. He even uploaded a video of him personally shelling the enemy with artillery in 2021 (on ‘Holodomor day’), while the Minsk agreements were still in play as well, which even led to a criminal investigation by the Ukrainian government into the incident.
(Paywall)
https://eventsinukraine.substack.com/p/ ... corruption
**
April Events in Ukraine part 2
No demobilization, frontline poems of despair and beatings, protests against super-cemeteries, fragging attempts, memory battles
EVENTS IN UKRAINE
APR 17, 2024
Not everything is sunny on the other side of the border.
Strange events have been transpiring in Romania. A boat with explosives attached to it was discovered by Romanian officials. Romanian, Ukrainian and Russian defense analysts all have their own interpretations of what it was, with Defense Romania even claiming it was a Ukrainian drone intended to destroy a Russian ship. Make of that what you will.
Meanwhile, the Romanian government has adopted a resolution stating that Moldova will be reincorporated into Romania ‘through the EU or otherwise’. In response, the anti-NATO region of Gagauzia declared that if Moldova joined with Romania, it would declare independence from Moldova. In less unusual news, a man was ‘saved’ by Ukrainian border patrol after wandering for a week in the Carpathian forest trying to reach Romania.
No shortage of morbid events
The government has been trying to construct a super-cemetery for fallen AFU soldiers in the Kiev region. Local villagers have protested against it, supposedly because they are against logging. The minister of veteran affairs has been quite displeased with their reaction, saying ‘they don’t want to listen, only shout’.
‘The National Military Memorial Cemetery’, as envisioned by its designers.
Villagers don’t like how 260 hectares of forest need to be cut down for the cemetery, and point out how money should be spent on drones rather than memorials.
If the chance to be buried in brand-new super-cemeteries isn’t enough, AFU officers have shared some new methods for how they motivate the newly-mobilized to fight. A well-known Ukrainian marine who goes under the name ‘Night Stalker’ on facebook revealed that he sometimes shoots over their head in the trenches. He mentioned at a range of other methods, including beatings, and more specific ‘methods’ that he didn’t go into. He also said that they can simply be sent to prison, ‘where they won’t fuck around for 10 seconds’. ‘If they don’t want to dig a trench, they have a slightly worse alternative, and that works quite well’.
While the government has announced some monetary and mortgage benefits for the mobilized, they and the ~$500 dollar fine for draft-dodging is unlikely to have much effect when the likely result of heading to the front is well-known. Uncharacteristically for the Ukrainian government, human rights ombudsmen Lubinets even said that there ‘have been shameful cases’ where unprepared men were sent to the front. Who would have thought.
(Paywall)
https://eventsinukraine.substack.com/p/ ... ine-part-2
******
US Aid to Ukraine Not to Change Situation in the Front: Russia
Ukrainian soldier carrying U.S. military material. | Photo: X/ @UATV_en
Published 18 April 2024
This week the U.S. House of Representatives will consider a new 61-billion-aid bill for Ukraine.
On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov warned that US assistance to Ukraine would not influence the situation on the battlefronts.
"The U.S, aid cannot in any way affect the outcome of the situation on the fronts. All experts, both specialized and not so specialized, can now clearly see the situation on the battlefield, which is far from favorable for the Ukrainian side," he said.
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives announced that it will consider a new US$61 billion aid bill for Ukraine.
"In any case, whatever the form of this aid, it is indeed about provoking Ukraine to continue fighting until the last Ukrainian, ensuring benefits for the United States," Peskov pointed out.
The Russian official added that Americans ensure that "a very important part of the allocated resources remains in the U.S. military-industrial complex."
"Ukraine now not only has to fight for the aid by providing gains to Americans, but it also has to fight until the last Ukrainian. They also burden it with debts. It's the favorite colonial policy of the United States," he emphasized.
Although the package to be considered in the U.S. House of Representatives is of equal value to the one approved in the Senate in February, the new proposal differs in how the aid to Ukraine is delivered, with the funds being provided as part of a loan.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/US- ... -0006.html
******
Poland’s Latest Russian Spy Scandal Might Be A Case Of Ukrainian Entrapment
ANDREW KORYBKO
APR 19, 2024
This case isn’t as clear-cut as the media has made it seem if one reads between the lines of the National Prosecutor’s official statement about what allegedly happened.
Poland’s National Prosecutor claimed that a Polish citizen was detained in cooperation with the Ukrainian secret police on suspicion of “reporting his readiness to act for foreign intelligence” against his homeland. According to their official statement, the individual “established contacts with citizens of the Russian Federation directly involved in the war in Ukraine” and was tasked with providing information on the security of the Rzeszow Airport, which the state claimed could have been used to kill Zelensky.
This case isn’t as clear-cut as the media has made it seem if one reads between the lines. For starters, the National Prosecutor’s statement makes it appear like this person was the one that approached what they believed to be representatives of the Russian military and intelligence community, not vice-versa. Although it’s claimed that this wannabe agent successfully made contact with them and was then given specific tasks, the involvement of the Ukrainian secret police raises questions about all of this.
While there’s a chance that they might have intercepted secret communications between the now-detained Polish citizen and what are presented as his Russian-based handlers, it also can’t be ruled out that they set the entire thing up. To elaborate, some pro-Kiev Ukrainians speak Russian as a native language, which enables them to easily impersonate representatives of the Russian military and intelligence community after some basic training to learn their lingo.
They might therefore have been running certain Telegram channels that post pro-Russian content but are really run by the Ukrainian secret police with the intent of entrapping those naïve members of their audience who might reach out to them asking how they can help that country’s cause. In this case, that Pole might have messaged someone from one of those channels, after which they were given tasks by a person who they wrongly assumed was a representative of Russia’s military or intelligence community.
That would account for why they were reportedly told to provide information about Rzeszow Airport’s security for the possible purpose of assassinating Zelensky. The reason why this is so odd is because Russia never made an attempt to take Zelensky out during his many visits to the front lines. It’s therefore extremely unlikely that the first time that they’d try to do this would be when he’s on NATO soil and Russia’s assassination of him there could spark World War III due to it being an attack on Poland.
The Ukrainian secret police have a political interest in fearmongering about the aforementioned scenario, however, which is yet another argument in favor of the theory that this case isn’t as clear-cut as it seems. Moreover, if they weren’t involved in a significant capacity, then the National Prosecutor wouldn’t have applauded their role in its official statement. Quite clearly, they weren’t just passive bystanders who simply passed along information, but active participants in this operation.
Putting the pieces together, the argument can compellingly be made that Poland’s latest Russian spy scandal is probably a case of Ukrainian entrapment. That country’s secret police impersonated members of the Russian military and intelligence community, likely on pro-Russian Telegram channels, with the intent of naïve followers reaching out to them asking how they can help that country’s cause. That Pole who presumably messaged them was then set up to create the latest anti-Russian media sensation.
https://korybko.substack.com/p/polands- ... py-scandal
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 04/19/2024
“This defiant Ukrainian general has no smile, but he does have surprising comments about Trump,” headlines this week a report about Kirilo Budanov published by David Ignatius, one of the star columnists of The Washington Post . In reality, the surprising comments about the candidate to return to the White House are limited to showing his affinity with the former president for his personality and for having gotten up again whenever he has fallen, to finally clarify that "even a person like him will not be able to resolve the issue in one day,” as Trump claims he would be able to do. In the interview, in which the head of Ukraine's military intelligence repeats the usual clichés about the need for weapons, Budanov states another truism: in the coming months, Russia will try to “get the maximum amount of Donetsk and Lugansk territories” with the hope, according to Ignatius, “that a re-elected President Donald Trump can ratify his gains.
Lack of content, the interview does not provide any particularly new information beyond the continuation of the exaltation of a figure whose main work is murders and destruction in the rear. And although his job description implies a strong task of disinformation, Ignatius, like the rest of the Western correspondents, respects the official discourse that Budanov has wanted to construct for himself: his supposed mystery, the imaginary assassination attempts or Vladimir Putin's obsession with his figure.
The American journalist does not get any direct response from the GUR leader, although he does get some indications of Ukrainian intentions. “When I asked him if Ukrainian attacks inside Russia would continue, Budanov gave a rare smile,” notes Ignatius. “I hope so,” he responds as quoted in the article. And without contextualizing the nature of the Ukrainian attacks in Russia, the journalist adds that “a cartoon circulating on the Internet shows Putin meeting Budanov in a park and asking him if his dog bites. Budanov replies no, and Putin pets the animal. The dog takes a gun and shoots Putin dead.”
Ukraine's actions on the territory of continental Russia are fundamentally based on drone attacks and cross-border raids. In the case of the use of unmanned aircraft against Russian military and civilian targets, especially refineries, Budanov has encountered reluctance from the United States, aware that no important objective will be achieved and that it could be provoked, as has already happened, retaliation against much more expensive Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Regarding the raids, Budanov has not hidden his willingness to continue with this action, whose objective is also clear: to destabilize the internal situation in the Russian Federation. “This war will continue as long as this regime remains in Russia,” he states in the interview, repeating an idea that representatives of the Ukrainian Government and the Office of the President have repeatedly emphasized.
In this destabilization work, Budanov has a series of groups that are part of special forces subordinated to the will and creativity of their boss. The reference to the attacks in Russia made by the GUR leader in his statements to The Washington Post is one of many that point to new cross-border attacks. In the last few hours, at least two press reports have sought to legitimize or praise the groups that in recent years have carried out raids against the municipalities near the border, purely civilian villages without any type of defense, which have sometimes falsely claimed have captured.
In his peculiar and simplified vision, Cristian Segura describes the three groups of Russian partisans at the service of Kirilo Budanov. “There are three Russian armed groups that fight in the Ukrainian ranks, they are opponents of Vladimir Putin who consider that the time to confront him through political means has ended,” he says about the soldiers who, armed and equipped by kyiv with the financing that arrives from abroad, they attack the border villages, inhabited mainly by the elderly population. “Of these, the units that have been in the war the longest are the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), from the extreme right, and the Freedom Legion of Russia, with a liberal ideology close to the theses of Alexei Navalny, who died this February in a Russian prison,” he writes. “Unlike the other two units,” he claims of the Siberian battalion , “its soldiers are part of the Ukrainian International Legion. And also, unlike them, their objective is to decentralize Russia's power in favor of the regions and "liberate" their ethnic minorities.
This liberation of Russian minorities has been in recent years one of the arguments to advocate for the Balkanization of the Russian Federation, the dream of a sector, fundamentally made up of American neocons who seek to dismember the country as happened with Yugoslavia . This same week, for example, a summit organized by the “Post-Russian Free Nations Forum” is being held in the United States, a spiritual descendant of the anti-communist “Captive Nations Week” that was born during the Cold War.
The proxies that Ukraine and its Western allies - the press among them - rely on in this work are not far-right, Navalny-style liberals (although Navalny was not a European-style liberal either) or simple soldiers seeking to decentralize Russia. One of the soldiers presented by El País , for example, claims to want to liberate non-Russian nations from the Russian Federation and mentions, according to Cristian Segura, the example of Catalonia. The journalist sees no contradiction between this approach and the fact that the soldier fought during the Donbass war in Ukraine's aggression against a region that precisely asked for the right to have a certain autonomy from kyiv's imposition.
An exponent of the liberals of the Russian Freedom Legion is presented in an extensive report published in the last few hours by Politico . “Meet the Russian Christian who wants to overthrow Putin,” writes the outlet, which insists on the contrast between this unit and the RPK. “When we have enough forces, we will liberate an entire region of Russia,” says Caesar , the soldier interviewed. “We will organize a government. We will mobilize the population. We will train them. The rebellion will grow and we will advance to other regions until we march on Moscow,” he insists despite the fact that none of the raids carried out in Russia have achieved the slightest social support in the Russian Federation. Pawns of Kirilo Budanov's plans, these groups do not seek the favor of the population, but rather a destabilization that only favors kyiv in its propaganda intentions.
Towards the middle of the exalting report, Politico admits that the soldier was a member of the Russian Imperial Movement, “designated a terrorist organization by the United States.” There, Caesar obtained military training. That is the quarry of the groups that, according to Western journalists, aspire to liberate the Russian people . The soldier claims not to be “a crazy neo-Nazi or national socialist, or anything like that,” although he admits to being “on the extreme right” and declares himself a “Russian patriot,” although he claims to understand “the Tatars, Dagestanis and Chechens.” They also want to be the owners of their own land and they should be.”
That last statement is reminiscent of those made by the leader of the RDK, Denis Kapustin, Nikitin or White Rex , according to Politico , “rated by German authorities as one of the most influential neo-Nazi activists on the continent.” In the past, Nikitin has expressed his willingness to let the non-Russian regions of the Russian Federation go in order to obtain an ethnically Russian country. The Russian Volunteer Corps is as defined by its leader as Azov is by Andriy Biletsky. And like his counterpart in the Azov movement, Kapustin does not hide his political ideas. Just yesterday, one of the few Russian opposition journalists who has always considered unacceptable the use of neo-Nazis to fight against Russia, Leonid Ragozin, described a publication on social networks in which, following the celebration of the end of Ramadan, in the that Nikitin explains the reasons for his fight . “Nikitin/Kapustin claims that Russia is turning European cities into multi-ethnic cesspools . The post is illustrated with the video of the Eid al-Fitr celebration in the Mariupol mosque, occupied by Russia. The mosque, sponsored by Türkiye, was inaugurated in 2007, fifteen years before the occupation. Mariupol had a Muslim community from its beginnings,” writes the journalist, evidently opposed to Russian actions in Ukraine. Nikitin 's racist message was posted on a Telegram channel called White Powder.
Despite being increasingly difficult to defend as it is far beyond the extreme right that El País admits , the press continues to give voice to people like Kapustin, to whom Politico dedicated an article just a few weeks ago. Despite the attempt at legitimization that he makes and to which the medium lends itself, opinions such as the favorable mention of apartheid in South Africa show the political nature of the leaders of the groups that, according to the West, aspire to liberate Russia. In reality, transformed by the press into bad boys or simply Navalny-style liberals , their usefulness does not go beyond acting as pawns in a game of destabilization of the Russian Federation at the service of the most extreme voices of the security apparatus. from Ukraine. Tools that may come back into action soon.
https://slavyangrad.es/2024/04/19/peone ... e-budanov/
Google Translator
(Edited)
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From Cassad's Telegram account:
Colonelcassad
100 years ago, by decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, the flag of the Soviet Union was approved - the Red Banner with the Hammer and Sickle.
Under this flag we flew into space, won the Great Patriotic War and created a superpower built on the principles of social justice.
The hatred of modern fascists for the Red Flag is understandable and natural.
They will never forgive us for these achievements of our people. But we remember - and this memory is the guarantee that they will not be able to destroy our past and our future.
Happy holiday, comrades! Happy Red Banner Day of the USSR!
play it LOUD, I never get tired of this.
**
Colonelcassad
Summary of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the progress of the special military operation (as of April 18, 2024)
- In the Kupyansk direction, units of the West group of forces inflicted fire on the personnel and equipment of the 57th motorized infantry, 100th mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as the 31st brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Sinkovka, Kharkov region, Novoselovskoye, Chervonaya Dibrova of the Lugansk People's Republic and Grigorovka of the Donetsk People's Republic.
In addition, two counterattacks by assault groups of the 3rd assault and 63rd mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were repelled in the area of the village of Terny, Donetsk People's Republic.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 30 military personnel, a tank, two pickup trucks, a 152 mm Msta-B howitzer, and two 152 mm D-20 guns.
— In the Donetsk direction, units of the “Southern” group of forces improved the situation along the front line and inflicted fire damage on manpower and equipment of the 30th, 56th and 93rd mechanized brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Vasyukovka, Orekhovo-Vasilevka and Andreevka of the Donetsk People’s Republic Republic.
In the area of the settlement of Krasnogorovka, Donetsk People's Republic, a counterattack of the assault group of the 46th airmobile brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was repelled.
Enemy losses amounted to 590 military personnel, a tank and seven vehicles.
During the counter-battery fight, the following were hit: a 152 mm Akatsiya self-propelled artillery mount, a 105 mm M119 gun made in the USA, two Nota electronic warfare stations, as well as a field ammunition depot.
— In the Avdeevsky direction , units of the “Center” group of troops through active actions improved the tactical situation and defeated the formations of the 68th Jaeger, 24th, 47th mechanized brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Artemovo, Semenovka, Netailovo and Orlovka of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Seven counterattacks of units of the 24th, 115th mechanized, 71st Jaeger brigades and the 78th separate air assault regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were repelled in the areas of the settlements of Novokalinovo, Novgorodskoye, Vodyanoye, Pervomaiskoye, Berdychi and Novobakhmutovka of the Donetsk People's Republic.
The enemy lost up to 130 military personnel, an armored combat vehicle, a US-made 155 mm M777 howitzer and a 152 mm D-20 gun.
— In the South Donetsk direction, units of the Vostok group of forces occupied more advantageous positions and defeated the formations of the 58th motorized infantry, 72nd mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 102nd and 128th terrestrial defense brigades in the areas of the settlements of Vodyanoye, Ugledar, Urozhainoye , Staromayorskoye, Donetsk People's Republic and Malinovka, Zaporozhye region.
Enemy losses amounted to up to 140 military personnel, four vehicles, a British-made AS-90 “Braveheart” 152 mm self-propelled artillery mount, as well as three field ammunition depots.
— In the Kherson direction, units of the Dnepr group of troops inflicted complex fire damage on the personnel and equipment of the 65th mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the 36th Marine Brigade and the 126th Terrestrial Defense Brigade in the areas of the settlements of Rabotino, Zaporozhye region, Zmeevka, Nikolskoe and Ivanovka Kherson region.
Also, in the area of the village of Verbovoye, Zaporozhye region, a counterattack of the assault group of the 15th operational brigade was repelled.
The losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces amounted to up to 50 military personnel, two vehicles, as well as two 122 mm D-30 howitzers.
— Operational-tactical aviation, missile forces and artillery of groupings of troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during the day destroyed: the control point of the operational command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “North”, two launchers with a radar illumination and guidance of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, an ammunition depot for the operational-tactical grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "Donetsk", weapons and fuel depots of the 101st Terrorist Defense Brigade, and also defeated enemy manpower and military equipment in 126 regions.
Over the past 24 hours, air defense systems have shot down 251 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, two Tochka-U tactical missiles, and 33 Vampire missiles.
Operational-tactical aviation, missile forces and artillery of groupings of troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were destroyed during the day: point directorate of the operational command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “North”, two launchers with a radar illumination and guidance of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, an ammunition depot of the operational-tactical group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “Donetsk”, weapons and fuel depots of the 101st technical defense brigade, as well as damage to manpower and enemy military equipment in 126 areas. Over the past 24 hours
, air defense systems have shot down 251 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, two Tochka-U tactical missiles, and 33 Vampire missiles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, the following have been destroyed: 583 aircraft, 270 helicopters, 21,734 unmanned aerial vehicles, 504 anti-aircraft missile systems, 15,801 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,267 combat vehicles of multiple launch rocket systems, 8,945 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 21,111 units of special military vehicles.
https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin
Google Translator
******
'Fair Mobilization' and Corruption
Commentary on analysis by Ukrainian journalists Kurtev and Butusov. Corruption creating problems protecting the power grid.
EVENTS IN UKRAINE
APR 18, 2024
Yesterday, Yury Romanenko released a discussion with Viktor Kurtev on his youtube channel. I’ve discussed Romanenko on here before. Essentially, he is a Russian-speaker with various kooky schemes about how Ukraine needs to become a new pole of attraction for the ‘Russian world’, thereby replacing evil Moscow. He often invites (or at least used to) Arestovich on his show, and advocates a ‘wise nationalism’ instead of the ‘stupid cultural nationalism’ of the usual Ukrainian patriot crowd.
Anyway, his interview with Kurtev was all about energy. It’s a classic topic in Ukraine, one recently brought into focus by Russian attacks that destroyed 80% of Ukraine’s energy capacity according to prime minister Shmyhal.
I won’t get into Kurtev’s various predictions about Ukraine’s energy future. The numbers make the head spin and since everyone seems to have a different prediction, it comes off as overly speculative. What matters is that the country has grim prospects on that front.
What’s more interesting is Kurtev’s explanation of how this situation came into being. Kurtev published an article in late 2023 called ‘Concrete on Blood’. Aside from the content of the article, it is funny to note that it is a reference to the very popular Russian TV show ‘Word of a Boy - Blood on the Pavement’, which, to the chagrin of Ukrainian patriots, was also the most watched TV show in Ukraine last year.
According to Kurtev in his interview and article, the Ukrainian government has been engaging in some very self-destructive corruption when it comes to protecting its electro-energetic system. He even says that he sometimes suspects that “0.2% of those involved in this are Russian agents”.
His main problem is that Ukraine’s government has relied on huge contracts to private constructors to put up a bunch of concrete over electric power plants. These grandiose plans have been called ‘turtles’. However, they cost a huge amount of money and are unable to protect the plants from Russian missile attacks.
Interestingly, one of the key figures in this soon-to-unfold corruption scandal is Mustafa Naiem, the guy who started maidan with a fateful facebook post back in 2013. He has cycled through a wide variety of profitable government posts since 2014, all with dubious links to his original journalistic profession. For the past couple years he has occupied crucial posts in the ministry of infrastructure, and has been at the forefront of the concrete campaign.
Naiem receiving another award, doubtless for his sterling work in the struggle against corruption, about which he never shut up
Kurtev bemoans how hundreds of millions of US dollars are being wasted on useless concrete constructions, and argues that there is continuity between these endeavours and Zelensky’s ‘big build’ campaign of the pre-2022 years, which was often called ‘the big steal’, because of the huge corruption rent that government-sheltered contractors earned.
Kurtev was particularly indignant that this waste of resources takes away concrete from a more important front - the literal frontline, where Ukraine is in desperate need of concrete bunkers and trench fortifications.
This leads smoothly onto our second expert, Yuri Butusov, who never shuts up about the frontline’s concrete deficits. Butusov comes from a different camp to Romanenko and Kurtev. Butusov is the premiere Poroshenkite war journalist, and manager of the fittingly named InfoNapalm. He spends much of his time at the front with soldiers, sometimes filming himself with weapons in hand. He even uploaded a video of him personally shelling the enemy with artillery in 2021 (on ‘Holodomor day’), while the Minsk agreements were still in play as well, which even led to a criminal investigation by the Ukrainian government into the incident.
(Paywall)
https://eventsinukraine.substack.com/p/ ... corruption
**
April Events in Ukraine part 2
No demobilization, frontline poems of despair and beatings, protests against super-cemeteries, fragging attempts, memory battles
EVENTS IN UKRAINE
APR 17, 2024
Not everything is sunny on the other side of the border.
Strange events have been transpiring in Romania. A boat with explosives attached to it was discovered by Romanian officials. Romanian, Ukrainian and Russian defense analysts all have their own interpretations of what it was, with Defense Romania even claiming it was a Ukrainian drone intended to destroy a Russian ship. Make of that what you will.
Meanwhile, the Romanian government has adopted a resolution stating that Moldova will be reincorporated into Romania ‘through the EU or otherwise’. In response, the anti-NATO region of Gagauzia declared that if Moldova joined with Romania, it would declare independence from Moldova. In less unusual news, a man was ‘saved’ by Ukrainian border patrol after wandering for a week in the Carpathian forest trying to reach Romania.
No shortage of morbid events
The government has been trying to construct a super-cemetery for fallen AFU soldiers in the Kiev region. Local villagers have protested against it, supposedly because they are against logging. The minister of veteran affairs has been quite displeased with their reaction, saying ‘they don’t want to listen, only shout’.
‘The National Military Memorial Cemetery’, as envisioned by its designers.
Villagers don’t like how 260 hectares of forest need to be cut down for the cemetery, and point out how money should be spent on drones rather than memorials.
If the chance to be buried in brand-new super-cemeteries isn’t enough, AFU officers have shared some new methods for how they motivate the newly-mobilized to fight. A well-known Ukrainian marine who goes under the name ‘Night Stalker’ on facebook revealed that he sometimes shoots over their head in the trenches. He mentioned at a range of other methods, including beatings, and more specific ‘methods’ that he didn’t go into. He also said that they can simply be sent to prison, ‘where they won’t fuck around for 10 seconds’. ‘If they don’t want to dig a trench, they have a slightly worse alternative, and that works quite well’.
While the government has announced some monetary and mortgage benefits for the mobilized, they and the ~$500 dollar fine for draft-dodging is unlikely to have much effect when the likely result of heading to the front is well-known. Uncharacteristically for the Ukrainian government, human rights ombudsmen Lubinets even said that there ‘have been shameful cases’ where unprepared men were sent to the front. Who would have thought.
(Paywall)
https://eventsinukraine.substack.com/p/ ... ine-part-2
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US Aid to Ukraine Not to Change Situation in the Front: Russia
Ukrainian soldier carrying U.S. military material. | Photo: X/ @UATV_en
Published 18 April 2024
This week the U.S. House of Representatives will consider a new 61-billion-aid bill for Ukraine.
On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov warned that US assistance to Ukraine would not influence the situation on the battlefronts.
"The U.S, aid cannot in any way affect the outcome of the situation on the fronts. All experts, both specialized and not so specialized, can now clearly see the situation on the battlefield, which is far from favorable for the Ukrainian side," he said.
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives announced that it will consider a new US$61 billion aid bill for Ukraine.
"In any case, whatever the form of this aid, it is indeed about provoking Ukraine to continue fighting until the last Ukrainian, ensuring benefits for the United States," Peskov pointed out.
The Russian official added that Americans ensure that "a very important part of the allocated resources remains in the U.S. military-industrial complex."
"Ukraine now not only has to fight for the aid by providing gains to Americans, but it also has to fight until the last Ukrainian. They also burden it with debts. It's the favorite colonial policy of the United States," he emphasized.
Although the package to be considered in the U.S. House of Representatives is of equal value to the one approved in the Senate in February, the new proposal differs in how the aid to Ukraine is delivered, with the funds being provided as part of a loan.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/US- ... -0006.html
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Poland’s Latest Russian Spy Scandal Might Be A Case Of Ukrainian Entrapment
ANDREW KORYBKO
APR 19, 2024
This case isn’t as clear-cut as the media has made it seem if one reads between the lines of the National Prosecutor’s official statement about what allegedly happened.
Poland’s National Prosecutor claimed that a Polish citizen was detained in cooperation with the Ukrainian secret police on suspicion of “reporting his readiness to act for foreign intelligence” against his homeland. According to their official statement, the individual “established contacts with citizens of the Russian Federation directly involved in the war in Ukraine” and was tasked with providing information on the security of the Rzeszow Airport, which the state claimed could have been used to kill Zelensky.
This case isn’t as clear-cut as the media has made it seem if one reads between the lines. For starters, the National Prosecutor’s statement makes it appear like this person was the one that approached what they believed to be representatives of the Russian military and intelligence community, not vice-versa. Although it’s claimed that this wannabe agent successfully made contact with them and was then given specific tasks, the involvement of the Ukrainian secret police raises questions about all of this.
While there’s a chance that they might have intercepted secret communications between the now-detained Polish citizen and what are presented as his Russian-based handlers, it also can’t be ruled out that they set the entire thing up. To elaborate, some pro-Kiev Ukrainians speak Russian as a native language, which enables them to easily impersonate representatives of the Russian military and intelligence community after some basic training to learn their lingo.
They might therefore have been running certain Telegram channels that post pro-Russian content but are really run by the Ukrainian secret police with the intent of entrapping those naïve members of their audience who might reach out to them asking how they can help that country’s cause. In this case, that Pole might have messaged someone from one of those channels, after which they were given tasks by a person who they wrongly assumed was a representative of Russia’s military or intelligence community.
That would account for why they were reportedly told to provide information about Rzeszow Airport’s security for the possible purpose of assassinating Zelensky. The reason why this is so odd is because Russia never made an attempt to take Zelensky out during his many visits to the front lines. It’s therefore extremely unlikely that the first time that they’d try to do this would be when he’s on NATO soil and Russia’s assassination of him there could spark World War III due to it being an attack on Poland.
The Ukrainian secret police have a political interest in fearmongering about the aforementioned scenario, however, which is yet another argument in favor of the theory that this case isn’t as clear-cut as it seems. Moreover, if they weren’t involved in a significant capacity, then the National Prosecutor wouldn’t have applauded their role in its official statement. Quite clearly, they weren’t just passive bystanders who simply passed along information, but active participants in this operation.
Putting the pieces together, the argument can compellingly be made that Poland’s latest Russian spy scandal is probably a case of Ukrainian entrapment. That country’s secret police impersonated members of the Russian military and intelligence community, likely on pro-Russian Telegram channels, with the intent of naïve followers reaching out to them asking how they can help that country’s cause. That Pole who presumably messaged them was then set up to create the latest anti-Russian media sensation.
https://korybko.substack.com/p/polands- ... py-scandal