Ukraine Invasion: Part 21

[MagicFox]

Another thread, thank you to all

CEO of Russia’s second biggest oil company has resigned. Unclear at this stage why but he has previously spoken against the war. He better be very careful near cups of tea or high windows.

Aaron Mehta AT AaronMehta
In newest #Ukraine announcement, DoD says it is sending "Over 121 Phoenix Ghost Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems" 1) Anyone familiar with that system? Can't say I've heard of it. 2) Why in the world would they write "over 121." Just say "over 120." I am offended.

Shashank Joshi AT shashj
Turns out that no-one has heard of the “Phoenix Ghost” drone that Biden says he’s sending to Ukraine. There the RQ-4D Phoenix (modified Global Hawk for NATO) and the BAE Systems Phoenix (recon drone retired 14 years ago), but no public Phoenix Ghost.

It's a bespoke drone for Ukraine, it turns out.

Valerie Insinna AT ValerieInsinna
DoD provides reporters a bit more info on Phoenix Ghost--it's a tactical drone similar to Switchblade rapidly developed by the Air Force specifically made for Ukrainian requirements. It's manufactured by AEVEX Aerospace.

Myroslava Petsa AT myroslavapetsa
Russian soldiers are burying the dead residents of Mariupol in mass graves in a nearby village of Manhush - aide to city mayor Petro Andryushchenko. He adds this picture of freshly dug graves.

Russian soldiers are burying the dead residents of Mariupol in mass graves in a nearby village of Manhush - aide to city mayor Petro Andryushchenko. He adds this picture of freshly dug graves.

Nathan Ruser AT Nrg8000
Satellite imagery from AT Planet from March 29th shows two bulldozers digging what appears to be long lines of graves near the Manhush village cemetery. More recent (lower resolution) imagery suggests this digging has continued since, though a high-resolution pass is required.

More recent AT Maxar imagery from April 3rd (h/t AT trbrtc) shows approximately 300 freshly dug graves in the Manhush village cemetery. This is considerably more than the (very approximate) ~170 graves visible in the March 29th Planet imagery. Around 130 graves were dug in 5 days.

Jack Detsch AT JackDetsch
NEW: Ukraine has more tanks available in country than Russia, thanks to European deliveries of Soviet-era T-72 tanks: senior defense official U.S. has NO tanks to give Ukraine because military is using Soviet-era equipment.

And it looks like MN have no intention of fixing the twitter handle issue.

Has been resigned?

yeah about the windows.

Elvira Nabiullina of the central bank can't be a happy woman either. Interesting challenge to navigate a bank through these times but she's seen a lot of gains wiped out.

Putin had a meeting today with Shoigu.

Loving the clinging to the table for dear life and a face that looks like he's trying to do a dump.

A picture of health. Its screams 'winning' to the world.

Didn’t she try to resign and was told she had to stay?

The thought of those poor people in the steel works makes me feel sick 😫

What does it mean know someone has actually come out and said what the russians are doing is genocide?

⚡️In the temporarily occupied #Kherson region, Russians announced the mobilization of men, a so-called "referendum" on May 1, and a "census" from 2 to 10

twitter.com/zaborona_media/status/1517177422285791235?s=21&t=SqimG9Yn2hNYgfhcoCLRvw

Kyiv Independent
twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1517177325263245313?t=IRHsYHMUbkhEsX5U6CJu4Q&s=19

^⚡️Satellite imagery shows 985-foot-long mass grave in village near Mariupol.

A trench that appears to be a place of mass burial was dug out between March 23 and March 29, according to satellite imagery found by RFE/RL^

Photo: RFE/RL

Earlier, advisor to the mayor of Mariupol Petro Andryushchenko has said that the Russian military had arranged a mass grave for the killed Ukrainians in a village outside Mariupol.

When the images confirmed his report, he said that even he was shocked by the scale of it.

@RedToothBrush

Putin had a meeting today with Shoigu.

Loving the clinging to the table for dear life and a face that looks like he's trying to do a dump.

A picture of health. Its screams 'winning' to the world.

Oh wow he looks absolutely terrible!

The Mariupol situation is just so, so depressing. Putin looks like he is in a bad way. I hope he drops dead tonight.

For some light relief, here is the newest Kadyrov video: twitter.com/ford_nik/status/1516626003254251523?s=21&t=pwHoDZC76ffA0yKd4CH_Mw

Phillips P. OBrien AT PhillipsPOBrien
Stat of the day that I wasn’t expecting. Russian tank losses have been so high and Ukrainian so low, (and the Ukrainians have received so many new tanks and seized so many working Russian ones) that Ukraine has more tanks available now in country than Russia.

How the heck is Russia supposed to break through Ukrainian lines with fewer tanks, especially once the Ukrainians get all this new artillery and UAVs? It’s impossible to see happening unless the Russians can gain air dominance.

Otherwise it’s hard to see the Russians being any more successful during the Battle of the Donbas than they were during the battle of Kyiv.

The Ukrainian military has shown itself to me more motivated, intelligent, resilient and adaptable than the Russians when the Russians had large advantage in equipment numbers. Now that this Russian advantage is wasting away, I wouldn’t want to be a Russian soldier.

He looks like there's an earthquake going on in the room. He almost looks sad - scared and defensive and small. My sympathy is rather limitted though.

Is that picture -definitely- from today?

He does look quite wrong somehow, in an illness kind of way. Rather cheered me up, thinking he may not have years left in him but something considerably shorter.

Think so yes.

@Natsku

He does look quite wrong somehow, in an illness kind of way. Rather cheered me up, thinking he may not have years left in him but something considerably shorter.

His legs look like they've wasted to me, he really doesn't look in a good way. I know it's wishful thinking but I hope he snuffs it.

RTB where did you find the pic? is it definitely from today?

@Ijsbear

RTB where did you find the pic? is it definitely from today?

I've just seen it on the BBC live feed. In a break with tradition, they're sitting at an abnormally short table

He looks most odd, almost as though his head has been superimposed from a different photo... it's a bit large and at a weird angle for his position.

If he died or was seriously ill, would they try to keep it quiet and fake his aliveness until they decided how to proceed?

The pic is a screengrab from this vid I posted earlier of Putin meeting Shoigu today twitter.com/kevinrothrock/status/1517037384508055555?s=21&t=bvTpwvr0gqyfmJ9D3HZ4kA

Here's a video of the exchange with Shoigu.
twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1517046534113792001?t=4MbkVZVIHZhHEcZZXFGeFA&s=19

I saw video of the beginning of the meeting somewhere, where Pootin sat down but can't find it at the mo.

What Putin is saying is the circling of the steel plant will be done to avoid Russian casualties, we won't be chasing them in the tunnels, don't let a fly get out, the life and the treatment of the people encircled will be guaranteed according to International law and they will be treated with dignity..

That video is really interesting. His chin is no longer clean cut but saggy. He's sunken into his shoulders. He's very still but his foot twitches like a cat tail when the cat isn't at ease.

This video is clearly cleared for release. But he's always gone for the fit, strong man image before and not this table-clutching defensive-hunched-postured saggy chin look. I wonder what on earth is going on.