re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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If they had taken Kyiv this war would very likely be over. And they were very close to pulling it off but allowed themselves to get bogged down and didn’t commit enough air support nor take out Ukraine’s command and control apparatus.

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This

Russia has fought a limited war when they’d (in retrospect) have probably been better served to have eliminated the military and political leaders, and in doing so been able to take physical control of Ukraine and then dealt with the horrific PR from those war crimes. Instead we now have had a year+ of war and vastly more war crimes and Russia is an international pariah all the same.

I’m literally playing devil’s advocate here, I hope Putin goes away soon.

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On Nord Stream, the British paper The Times has a very interesting story:

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Interesting. Hard to really know the source and confirmed methodology, but one thing seems certain is that they’ve successfully muddied the waters enough from an intelligence perspective.

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teresting. Hard to really know the source and confirmed methodology, but one thing seems certain is that they’ve successfully muddied the waters enough from an intelligence perspective.

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Would be a good idea. Blame it in some unknown Ukrainian saboteur.

Speaking of which, does anyone else find it odd that there hasn’t been much talk about Darya Dugina after she was assassinated by “some random Ukrainian saboteur?”

Where is the big show trial? Why haven’t the culprits been dragged int front of a firing squad yet? Surely the evidence is overwhelming.

Edited to remove my own directional confusion.

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How are those tweets conflicting?

Every major outlet is saying Ukraine has completely retreated from the East side of the river.

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Confused reporting with eastern flank with western flank. Editing my comment because I think it’s just me confusing the two

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Would be a good idea. Blame it in some unknown Ukrainian saboteur.

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But he's apparently not unknown. It seems that every NATO intelligence circle knows exactly who he is.

The thing that you have to keep in mind is that, until recently, much in Ukraine was run by powerful oligarchs, just as it was in Russia for a while (until Putin took more complete control). One oligarch would bribe one government official for a contract, another would undermine a rival a different way. The system had a real resemblance to the mafia.

For example, let's look at the Wikipedia of Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man (at least before the war), whom I have already seen speculated as the individual involved. He was a member of the Ukrainian parliament for the Party of Regions, which was the pro-Russian party overthrown in the 2014 Maidan uprising
-- definitely not an ally of Zelensky in any way. In fact, in November of 2021, just three months before Russia's invasion, Zelensky accused Akhmetov of plotting a coup.

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In his documentary book Donetsk Mafia: Anthology,[22] Ukrainian author Serhiy Kuzin claims Akhmetov held the role of a 'mafia thug' in his early years.[

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In the 1980s, Akhmetov acted as an assistant to Akhat Bragin, whom law enforcement agencies regarded as a powerful crime boss,[18] allegedly in the illegal cloth trading business.[24] Andrew Wilson, a scholar specializing in Ukrainian politics, categorized Akhmetov as an alleged former 'enforcer' and 'leader' of "[Akhat] Bragin's 'Tatar' clan", responsible for the use of "mafia methods to push aside the 'red directors' of the Industrial Union of Donbas (ISD)".[26] By the early 1990s, Akhmetov began acquiring property in Donetsk allegedly by means of extortion with the assistance of Volodymyr Malyshev, Lieutenant-General of The Head of Ministry of Internal Affairs Department in Donetsk Oblast.[24]

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In October 1995, Bragin, president of Shakhtar Donetsk football club, was killed in a mysterious bombing along with six of his bodyguards at the team's stadium during a match.[28] Some rumours associate Akhmetov with the death of Bragin.[26] Following the assassinations, Akhmetov is said to have "inherited a vast financial empire from Bragin"

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In September 1999, an official Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs report titled the "Overview of the Most Dangerous Organized Crime Structures in Ukraine" identified Akhmetov as a leader of an organized crime syndicate. The report tied the group to money laundering, financial fraud, and the control of numerous large and fictitious companies.

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In a U.S. diplomatic cable dated 3 February 2006, then U.S. Ambassador John Herbst referred to Akhmetov's Party of Regions as "long a haven for Donetsk-based mobsters and oligarchs" and called Akhmetov the "godfather" of the Donetsk clan.

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Akhmetov founded System Capital Management Group (JSC "SCM") in 2000. SCM is the largest diversified financial and industrial group in Ukraine (for example, in 2013, the share of SCM in Ukraine's GDP was 3.9%[42]), which is also represented in 7 countries in Europe and North America. The structure of SCM Group includes more than 500 companies employing about 200 thousand people.[43][44]

SCM's main areas of interest and activities are metallurgy and coal mining, power generation, telecommunications, and banking. In various periods, Akhmetov controlled from 90% to 100% of the shares of SCM.[45][46] He has been its sole proprietor since 2009.[47]

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Losing the famous Azovstal plant in Mariupol is only one of the financial reverses that Akhmetov has suffered since the start of the war.

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In H1 2022, SCM paid about €1.2 billion in taxes to the national budget, becoming the country’s biggest private taxpayer in the wartime.[51]

Mariupol-based Azovstal and Illich Iron and Steel Works were the backbone of Akhmetov's steel business. Other steel companies, Zaporizhstal and Kametstal, had to curtail production significantly.[52]

Akhmetov's DTEK has lost 70% of renewables facilities and 30% of thermal power generation plants.

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In the war, Akhmetov has been steadfast that he supports Ukraine. He even sold his TV station, saying that he no longer wanted to be considered an oligarch.

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Financial Times reports that Rinat Akhmetov has allocated €100 million in humanitarian aid and support for the Ukrainian military during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[121]

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As a result of the invasion, Akhmetov's fortune dropped from nearly $14 billion to less than $6 billion in just two weeks, and may likely be much less, according to Forbes.

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The Saving Lives initiative established by Metinvest, in concert with the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, was meant to prevent a food crisis in Ukraine in the wartime. Contributions from the international partners and benefactors has helped provide 374,130 people with many kinds of assistance.[128] It hands over food packages, hygiene kits, and medicines to Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Kyrovohrad, Kherson, and Odessa regions, taking care of shelters, and supporting local administrations.

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In January 2023, Akhmetov announced the launch of the Heart of Azovstal project to help Mariupol defenders and the families of fallen soldiers. He donated $25 million to finance the project.[138]

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Shakhtar Donetsk, the football club sponsored by Akhmetov, opened this year Shelter Center at the Arena Lviv, since then it has received more than 2 thousand internal migrants from different regions of Ukraine. As of the end of August, there were 6,000 temporary accommodation places arranged by Metinvest at its social facilities. The shelter residents receive hot meals, food and hygienic kits. The company has arranged 850 accommodation places in six Dnipropetrovsk and Kyrovohrad communities.[140][141]

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After the power plants in Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts were hit by Russian missile strikes, causing widespread blackouts in five regions of Ukraine, Rinat Akhmetov and DTEK Group decided to start helping restore electricity supply all over Ukraine, even in the areas not covered by DTEK power grid.[148]

Since the outbreak of the war, Akhmetov's DTEK has been supplying free electricity worth UAH 350 million to medical and military facilities in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk oblasts

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In June 2022, Akhmetov filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation with the European Court of Human Rights for damages caused to his assets by Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, saying "this lawsuit is one of the first international legal steps against Russia to stop their ongoing crimes, destruction of the Ukrainian economy and the plundering of Ukrainian assets".[159][3] It was reported that Akhmetov was suing for between $17 billion and $20 billion of losses.[160]

Akhmetov has paid UAH 1.77 billion in taxes to budgets of all levels since the beginning of 2022, according to Interfax-Ukraine

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So, here's a guy who used to be pro-Russia, has experience in killing people and mafia-style operations, was accused by Zelensky of plotting a coup only 16 months ago, and who has now had much of his fortune destroyed by the same Russia that he spent so many years supporting. Oh, and perhaps coincidentally, he owns energy companies that would likely lose money if Nord Stream 2 has been activated.



And he's not the only such guy who could've done this. But I'd make him the betting favorite.

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GOP_Tiger

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TFYS

This is why people come to this thread. That’s next level digging.

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Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man

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I remember him (at least I'm pretty positive this is the same guy) when he got in some hot water in the court of public opinion when he bought some villa on the French Riviera that was the most expensive property on the market in the world at the time. The controversy arose because the villa was built by Belgium's King Leopold II back when he was subjugating the people of the Congo. Supposedly thousands of slaves and servants died on the property and it's said that a genocide took place there.

LINK

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The Bundeswehr announced the transfer to Ukraine of two more Gepard installations (total of 36), two vehicles for border guards, and also announced the transfer of 13 more armored "Biber" bridge-builders to the existing 7.

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More bridge layers for Ukraine, after the US just gave some last week. Gee, I wonder why Ukraine wants all of those.