Ukraine War, 9 July 2024: (yet another) Russian Bestiality (updated)

Hello everybody!

In the light of yet another mass-murder instigated by the Russian ‘geroy’, I cannot but wonder how proud they all must be: the ‘Russian World’ and the ‘leaders of the Western civilisation’.

The former for explaining the strike on the Okhmatdyt Hospital with, ‘secret meeting of the Ukrainian GenStab’, or (according to Sergey Markov), ‘we’ve had precise intelligence that the main headquarters of the Ukrainian Army was inside the hospital’….

…the other(s) for enabling this though own systemic corruption and incompetence…

There are few… ‘slightly more damning’ statements coming to my mind in this regards - especially to the address of literal armies of (Western) politicians and specific Ukrainian top military commanders - but… sigh… do not find that ‘fitting’, right now.

***

As far as is known by now (quote from official explanation by the Ministry of Defence in Russia, widely copy-pasted and distributed by all of leading Pudding’s PRBS-industrialists), ‘in response to attempts to cause damage to Russian energy- and economic facilities’, late on 7 July, the Russian GenStab initiated its – so far – best-coordinated-, yet poorest-targeted missile strike on Ukraine.

This began when four Tu-95MS bombers of the 22^nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division launched from Olenya AB. They released their Kh-101 cruise missiles around 01.30hrs of 8 July. The first of these entered the Ukrainian airspace around 02.30hrs. AFAIK, the PSU reported just 4 Kh-101s, and 3 of these as shot down over the Zhytomyr and Cherkasy Oblasts. Couldn’t find any reports about where did the fourth end.

The main blow followed in the morning of 8 July, when another formation of Tu-95MS launched from Olenya AB. They have released at least 12 of Kh-101s around 08.30hrs. These reached Ukrainian airspace about 09.30hrs, and hit home around 10.00hrs. In coordination with this strike, and according to official Kyiv, the Russians also released:

-          1 Kinzhal by 1 MiG-31K;

-          4 Iskander-M (two of these earlier in the morning);

-          2 Kh-22 by 2 Tu-22M-3s;

-          3 Kh-59/69 by 2 Su-34s;

-          14 Kalibr cruise missiles.

The PSU claimed the following:

-          1 Kinzhal;

-          3 Iskander-M;

-          11 Kh-101;

-          12 Kalibr;

-          3 Kh-59/69.

That said, I have strong doubts about these claims, simply because the list of what they’ve hit is ‘too long’:

-          Kyiv, Sirec District: 5-storey residential building demolished;

-          Kyiv, Shulyavka District: another residential building damaged;

-          Kyiv, Lukyanivka District: residential skyscraper damaged;

-          Kyiv, Lukyanivka District: ‘3 or 4 missiles’ (so PSU/ZSU)( hit the Artyom Works (main Ukrainian designer and manufacturer of tactical missiles);

UPDATE for those still hornily debatting ‘whether it was a Kh-101 or NASAMS’, here a still from a video clearly showing a Kh-101:

….and mind: as obvious from the following two sills, this was already the second or even the third hit by a Kh-101 visible on the same video…

….and then another one (at least a third, probably 4th or even 5th missile that hit the same area):

….and another one:

….oh, and yet another one (at least the fifth, if not the seventh…. in the lower right corner):

(….all of which, of course, also means that the PSU’s ‘kill count’ is a pile of rubbish.)

-          Kyiv, National Children’s Specialised Hospital Okhmatdyt was hit by one Kh-101 (around 600 patients were inside, plus as many medical workers);

UPDATE: here a still from one of two videos showing a Kh-101 diving for the Okmatdyt Hospital:

Why am I so sure it’s a Kh-101 (no ‘NASAMS’ or ‘AIM-120’)?
Because I drew Kh-101s for my colour profiles of Tu-95MS’ and Kh-101s - to illustrate different of my books. Thus, I can insert a profile of the Kh-101 to this video still and see this:

Pay attention at following details: an AIM-120 (as used by NASAMS) would have a wing not only at the top of the rear fuselage, but also at its bottom. Instead, what we can see there - at the bottom of the fuselage - is the external turbojet engine, like on Kh-101. An AIM-120/NASAMS would also have its fins at the top and the bottom of the centre fuselage: the video is showing none at all. But, it’s showing the (relatively small) flip-out wings of the Kh-101 in their cruise position. Finally, an AIM-120/NASAMS has a round shape and a pointy nose: the shape visible on this video is clearly not round, and the nose is blunt. Finally, in the video you can hear the typical whistling sound of the Kh-101’s turbojet engine (AIM-120/NASAMS is rocket powered).

UPDATE: the wreckage of the Kh-101 that hit the Okhmatdyt Hospital was eventually found underneath the rubble, too.

-          Kyiv, Dnipropetrovski District: Isida Maternity Hospital was ‘partially’ destroyed (7-8 killed here alone);

-          Kyiv, Cokolivka District: one missile demolished the upper floors of another skyscraper with apartments…

-          Also hit in Kyiv – and either damaged or completely destroyed – were the DTEK substations in the Goloseevsky and Shevchenkivskyi Districts;

-          Dnipro: 2 missiles hit the Yuzhmash Works;

-          Dnipro: 1 missile hit a high-rise building, killing one civilian and injuring two;

-          Pokrovsk: 1 missile hit the town, killing three and injuring three;

-          Kryvyi Rih: 2 missiles hit the ‘administrative building’ of one of factories there: at least 10 were killed, 31 injured.

As far as is known by now, 33 people were killed (22 in Kyiv and 11 in Dnipro), and 140 injured.

Tragically, this kind of targeting is either intentional (which, gauging by all the Russian bestialities committed in Syria since 2015, wouldn’t even surprise me any more), or a direct result of utmost military dilettantism of the top brass of the GRU and the Russian General Staff.

….where dilettantism wouldn’t surprise me the least, because the typical ‘source of intelligence’ for the GRU (and thus for the GenStab’s Targeting Cell) are characters like these three young ladies detained by the SBU in Odesa, two days ago. (Essentially, that’s like if somebody pays me to tour Ukraine, and then asks me – who has never been there and thus has no clue where is what in Ukraine - to tell them what to target…).

…and because not only the Russians, but entire hordes of Pudding-fans in the social media too - are all insistent on babbling about that ‘secret meeting of the Ukrainian GenStab’, and ‘main headquarters inside the hospital’, and how it was ‘Ukrainian NASAMS missile that hit the Okhmatdyt Hospital, and because I know officers of the GenStab in Moscow are reading this blog almost since it came into being, I’ll now be indiscrete with a ‘special message’ for them, the dilettantes of the GRU, and their Targeting Cell:

THIS is the HQ of the ZSU, you bunch of crazed mass-murderers (Dehtiarivska Street 19/7, 02000 Kyiv). You’re all so ultimately incompetent, you’ve managed to miss even that one (closest reported damage is some 200 metres away), and hit the Domino business centre near the Lukyanivska metro station ‘instead’’.

….and regarding the PSU, and its practices of wildly exaggerating Russian losses, exaggerating numbers of Russian missiles and attack UAVs for shot down, counting damaged Russian equipment as ‘lost’, and covering up incompetence of specific top commanders…. Out of piety, I’ll not go into that today. But, I’ll come back to that, too.

That’s a promise.