Ukraine Invasion: Part 40

[MagicFox]

40 threads, still here 🇺🇦

Live: Ukraine Telegram

There were explosions in occupied Melitopol. This was confirmed by the mayor Ivan Fedorov. Meanwhile, local publics are publishing a video showing a column of smoke over the city.

The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, agreed to meet with fighters from the RVC and the Freedom of Russia Legion on June 5. They offered to meet him in a church in Novaya Tavolzhanka, which is being fought over.

The RVC and the Freedom of Russia Legion reported that Governor Gladkov did not show up for the meeting they had arranged.
During this time, the number of captured Russian soldiers increased. They will all be transferred to Ukraine to replenish the exchange fund.

In the occupied Crimea, cable TV channels were hacked and a video of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry about the upcoming counteroffensive was broadcast.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre De Croo confirmed (https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/belgium-investigating-whether-its-weapons-were-used-russia-pm-says-2023-06-05/) that the country's Defense Ministry and special services have launched an investigation into the use of Belgian weapons in Russia.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will use his visit to Washington this week to urge Biden to support Defense Secretary Ben Wallace's nomination for NATO Secretary General - The Telegraph

Meduza is a liberal Russian media. Some of its readers justify the invasion of Ukraine. The publication asked (https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/06/03/the-only-thing-worse-than-war-is-losing-one) them to explain why.

Dear subscribers, we would like to remind you that there are five interesting videos available on our YouTube channel
1️⃣Interview with Bohdan Krotevych, call sign Tavr. Deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, who defended Mariupol and survived Russian captivity (
2️⃣Interview with Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, about 2023 (
3️⃣A conversation between two Ukrainian philosophers Volodymyr Yermolenko and Vakhtang Kebuladze about the Russian Bestiary. Anatomy of Russian Evil (
4️⃣A movie about the first year of the war in Ukraine. Chronology of the main events (
5️⃣A video about Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (

🇸🇰🇧🇬 Only 40% of Slovaks and 46% of Bulgarians believe in Russia's attack on Ukraine, while Hungary's figure has improved
A public opinion poll has shown an extremely negative change in the public opinion of certain European societies about who is to blame for the war in our country - GLOBSEC (https://www.globsec.org/sites/default/files/2023-05/GLOBSEC%20TRENDS%202023.pdf).
Over the year, in most of the countries surveyed, the share of those who agree that Russia is primarily responsible for the attack on Ukraine has increased or remained almost unchanged.
However, in Bulgaria, the belief in Russia's guilt for the attack on Ukraine fell from 50% to 46%, while in Slovakia the dynamics are even more frightening - this figure fell from 51% to 40% and became the lowest among the countries surveyed.

The Russian Volunteer Corps and Freedom of Russia Legion are taking more and more territory from the Russian Army in the Belgorod region of Russia.

I wonder if Ukraine will massage the numbers of Russians lost downwards? Since they want to keep things quiet about the counteroffensive.

They frequently Don't Say Things, but what they do say seems to be true generally, so far.

Worrying and inexplicable news from Bulgaria and Slovakia about public opinion.

I wonder if Ukraine will massage the numbers of Russians lost downwards? Since they want to keep things quiet about the counteroffensive.

Keep in mind that the Ukrainian attack the Russian MoD is reporting may be entirely fictitious. It doesn't make much sense to me even as a diversion, especially not with the large force the Russians describe heroically defeating so completely. The usual Russian tosh, in other words.

I'm wondering if the -Ukrainians- will change the figures actually. They really want opsec, so might they downplay the number of Russian dead to make it seem the op hasn't started?

On the other hand they have tried to build a reputation for honesty when they do speak. Just wondering, really!

Impossible to trust the Russian reporting!

Wagner has gotten into a firefight with a Russian army unit, captured its commander and beaten him.

https://twitter.com/FinestYew/status/1665561184504881152

This is what happens when desperation sets in and there is no unity of command.

I think we can say that the Russians now have the third best army in Ukraine. 😀

That's exactly how I'm feeling.

https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1665759958225264645 the Freedom of Russia Legion and Russian Volunteer Corp are saying that they have killed the commander off the Russian forced in Belgarod

*of not off

• Prigozhin seized on general Russian discontent with security on the Belgorod Oblast border to threaten that Wagner Group forces may operate in Russian territory without approval from the Russian military command.

Putin is learning the danger in keeping a dangerous breed of dog as a ‘pet’. One minute you’re playing with it and the next it’s turned on you. If Prigozhin / Wagner operates entirely independently will this trigger more resistance from disaffected regions sending disproportionate numbers of young conscripts/ recruits?

I wonder if Putin actually hears all this about Prigozhin. I'm sure Shoigu and Gerasimov tell him, but he's so used to playing each side off the other that he might well not believe his Generals.

in fact I wonder how much Putin hears of the real state of affairs full stop.

It's very hard to get bad news up the chain of command in Russia, reportedly.

It could come to this. 😁

yes, I read ... I wonder if he really think it's all going swimmingly?

Surely he must be hearing something about Belgorod? I admit, its a special kind of war where you end up with your disaffected countrymen liberating bits of their country from you...

it's truly medieval in so many ways, isn't it? The savagery, the whipping up of hysteria, the fear of everyone else to report the truth, the economic disembowelling of the country for your friends and the crumbling at the edges.

https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1665796654295908353 testimony from Russian soldiers/conscripts in Belgarod, excuse my spelling , states 80% losses

Take this with a pinch of salt. His platoon might have suffered high losses, but that doesn't mean all of the RF troops in the area did.

Something about this interview is a bit over the top. Soldiers should know that information about casualties shouldn't be made public.

I've read that roads and rail connections in that area aren't great, which is making it hard for the Russians to respond to the incursion. I also have to wonder where the troops came from. The Russians are using riot police as infantry in Ukraine, so who are these blokes?

Interesting you say that MissConductUS. I wasn’t entirely convinced- he seemed to be reading a statement rather than just ranting, which could mean it was written for him.

Back from the Tayto trip. Better weather than here I think.

>Worrying and inexplicable news from Bulgaria and Slovakia about public opinion.

Bulgaria has a longstanding traditional Russophilia. It doesn't extend to everyone (see the pro-European mantras of the GERB era). However, pro-Russian feelings run from the Liberation from the Turks through to the Soviet times and beyond. Bulgaria pitched joining the Soviet Union three times under Zhivkov, something that none of the other Warsaw Pact states ever did. It has been analysed away by some as toadyish loyalty that was not to be taken seriously, but it is hard to tell. Work contacts with Bulgarians sometimes thrown up comments that do reveal a legacy affection for Russia.

There is a lot of discourse over the importance of Russophilia in the development of Bulgarian identity. Recent manifestation from 2022:

In Bulgaria, Russophiles celebrate Putin (france24.com)

Download of a 2018 Masters Thesis if this really interests you:

www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/belensky_iris.pdf

I spent time in Slovakia in the past year. I can't say that I noticed explicit Russophilia. However, Aliaksei Kazharski, writing in 2019, suggests a headline mainstream that is both independent and pro-EU, while there is a Russophile and pan-Slav counterculture.

A Cautionary Tale ⋆ Visegrad Insight

Written for him by who? I guess we won't know

USA 🇺🇸, Australia 🇦🇺 are negotiating to send 41 decommissioned Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 Hornet Fighter Jets to Ukraine 🇺🇦 reports The Australian Financial Review

Supplying F/A-18s will significantly strengthen Ukraine’s Air Force by expanding its operational flexibility

twitter.com/ukraine_map/status/1665849667039502337?s=46&t=eNB9C4pL0g2Opkl4oCmOsQ

woohoo! Will they be easier to train UAF pilots to fly than the F-16s? Guess that would be one for @notimagain

@MMBaranova welcome back. I thought you visited Belarus for a moment there, but realised that it is that other Tayto land Ireland

Thanks for the explanation on the shift in Bulgaria and Slovakia public opinion. I thought both countries have supported Ukraine in the war and so was surprised where people were getting their news from. It makes sense there is a strand of Russophilia in their cultures. I wonder whether it tends to be the older generation.

Shit they’ve destroyed the Kakhovka dam! Flooding expected to reach a critical level within 5 hours. Considering it supplies water to the nuclear power plant this is pretty bad news.

Thorough thread on this by Max Seddon: twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1665942644432728066?s=46&t=ZRiOqYBPJdwGCarjKNzCeQ

@maxseddon: ""Destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster" like "the use of weapons of mass destruction," Zelensky previously said

Disgusting terrorism.