Don's Weekly, 29 January 2024, Part 2
(Continued from Part 1….)
Kherson
The Kherson area is, probably, the ‘best’ (or worst) example for continuous Russian interdiction campaign in this war of the last 12-14 months. Essentially, the Russian Air-Space Force (VKS) is bombing Ukrainian positions and communications with ‘KAB’ (or MPK and UMPK) glide bombs for over a year now. Sure, Ukrainian air defences then slowed down - even: ‘temporarily interrupted’ - this effort, by deploying some of their long-range surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) in the assault mode and made them pay. For something like a month, the number of Russian air strikes decreased significantly.
However, Ukrainian Air Force and Air Defence Force (PSU) simply lacks the sufficient number of long-range SAMs to keep these close to the frontline for any extended periods of time. And the VKS is not dumb, nor lacking aircraft for electronic reconnaissance. So, for about a month, the number of Russian air strikes decreased: only for long enough for the VKS to find out that the PSU is ‘back to normal’. The last week at least 18 air strikes were recorded: indeed, the area north of the mined Nova Kakhovka Dam, no less than 63 were recorded, and the same was also hit by lots of artillery- and drone strikes.
Unsurprisingly considering the Russian aerial supremacy - and also demonstrating what happens when one attempts to cross a river and then maintain a bridgehead amid the same - the Ukrainians continued losing boats, too. At least seven are known to have been hit the last week.
Arguably, Ukrainians are hitting back at every opportunity, too: at an island by the mouth of a river, a Russian boat is hit at night by a drone…
https://twitter.com/EjShahid/status/1750508307842752787
A long-ranged Russian self-propelled gun is destroyed by a drone…
https://twitter.com/sternenko/status/1747884948541882821
A Russian vehicle on the Kinburn spit is hit by a drone…
https://twitter.com/EjShahid/status/1749800515888902248
Russia
Back in August, Ukrainian special forces operators have covered 600 km on foot and attacked Soltsi airbase with drones. One Tu-22M3 was destroyed and two were damaged. 11 days later, while trying to cross the border with Ukraine, one of them was killed. It was not the only mission he conducted…
https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1749940123800568262
In Bashkortostan, near the border to Kazakhstan, the locals are angry at mining that destroyed one of their four limestone mountains, and for so many of their men being sent to Ukraine to die. A local was sentenced to four years for protesting. 10,000 people protested the sentence and snowballs were thrown at policemen. There is a limit to these protests, though. As with many situations, they appealed to Putin for the wrongdoings of the local leader. It is not the czar’s fault, the blame is always on the boyars…https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/21/2218460/-Bashkortostan-in-turmoil-and-not-for-the-first-time
An Il-76 was shot down in the Belgorod region. Russia claims that 65 Ukrainian POWs were on board. The only evidence they presented was a list of names, many of which were prisoners already exchanged and safe in Ukraine. They also said that in addition to the crew, there were three Russian soldiers on board. A former Ukrainian POW said he was one of 50 aboard a similar aircraft and the Russians had 20 military police on his flight. Russia did not tell Ukraine that a POW flight was in the area and they did not allow outside observers to inspect the crash site. Videos from the site do not show a lot of bodies…https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-plane-crash-il76-recorders-ddb5c098a69d6f93c468953efa3eca16
An oil refinery in Krasnodor was attacked by drones…
The drone attack on the Ust-Luga fuel export terminal caused operations there to be suspended. The giant complex, located on the Gulf of Finland about 170 km (110 miles) west of St. Petersburg, is used to ship oil and gas products to international markets. It processes a type of light oil into light and heavy naphtha, kerosene and diesel to be shipped by sea…https://www.reuters.com/world/fire-erupts-russias-novatek-baltic-sea-terminal-after-explosions-heard-2024-01-21/
An excavator just inside Russia is hit by a drone…
https://twitter.com/EjShahid/status/1750152389435273378
In Rostov, a residential building partially collapses without any external causes…
https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1751539292306808903
There is a lot of pro-Russian sentiment in Africa, in part because of the anti-Western feelings…
https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1751666773579993344
(…to be continued…)
The Bashkortostan case is a little more complex. The protests were caused by the Russian-installed government sentencing a prominent eco-activist to 4-years in the prison for his speech in his native tongue. He told something like that "everyone should go back to their homeland: Russians to the Russia, and the black people to their homes then we will live happily". The judges mistranslated the "black people" as a hate speech and that was what he got the 4 years prison term for. However, they say that "black people" is a stable phrase for any low-paid worker in Bashkiria and there was no hate speech in that case.
When a couple of thousands rallied under the court, police arrested several men; one of them is now dead (the police told that it was alcohol overdose, but he did not drink alcohol), and another one is in a hospital with a broken bone in his spine.
Regarding the prisoner list and the plane: they say there was only one person on the list who was already exchanged last year.
Thanks Tom!