re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Where will you get your talking points from if the St. Petersburg troll farm has a massive layoff?

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CNN. The exact same place you got all of yours today.

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. Or does he deploy a tactical nuke when he realizes that he's out of options?

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Putin isn't stupid, and we have let him know just how much access we have to his exact location, and the supposedly 'secret' inner communications of his leadership cadre, often releasing them publicly and commenting on them within hours of their occuring.

He knows that if he wants actual Western intervention, nuclear weapons means a regime decapitation.

ISW Update

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Key Takeaways

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a speech on June 26 seeking to persuade as many Wagner fighters and leaders as possible to join the Russian military and continue fighting against Ukraine and to cause individuals most loyal to Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin to self-identify.

The Kremlin indicated that Russia aims to retain Wagner forces to sustain its operations in Ukraine and other international engagements.

Prigozhin attempted to downplay his armed rebellion on June 26 in his first statement since the rebellion failed, likely in an attempt to shield himself from accusations of attempting a coup against Putin.

Prigozhin’s efforts to convince Putin of his loyalty clearly failed as Putin characterized the armed rebellion as a blackmail attempt and denounced its organizers as traitors following Prigozhin’s statement.

The Kremlin is likely attempting to signal that Shoigu will maintain his position for now and that Putin will not give into Prigozhin’s blackmail attempt.

The future of the Wagner Group is unclear, but it will likely not include Yevgeny Prigozhin and may not continue to exist as a distinct or unitary entity.

Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations and advanced on at least two sectors of the front as of June 26.

Russian forces conducted limited ground attacks northwest of Svatove and south of Kreminna.

Ukrainian and Russian forces continued ground attacks around Bakhmut, and Ukrainian forces reportedly advanced as of June 26.

Russian forces conducted limited ground attacks along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line.

Ukrainian and Russian forces continued to skirmish in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia oblasts administrative border area and Ukrainian forces made gains as of June 26.

Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces continued limited ground attacks in western Zaporizhia Oblast.

Geolocated footage confirmed that Ukrainian forces maintain positions near the Antonivsky Bridge in east (left) bank Kherson Oblast as of June 26.

The Russian State Duma passed a law prohibiting private military companies (PMCs) from recruiting prisoners.

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Random tweets

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#Putin's main henchman in Europe came out with a new scandalous statement.

It was directed, of course, against #Ukraine.

"Ukraine is no longer a sovereign state. It has no money and no weapons. It can only fight thanks to aid. The U.S. decides when peace will come," said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor #Orban.

In addition, Orban said he did not consider #Putin a war criminal and opposed sanctions.

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LINK

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We want Wagner commanders to share their experience with us. We have nothing to fear from Wagner, however, we will keep a close eye on them, President of Belarus Lukashenko says - BelTA

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LINK

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Judging by Lukashenko's claims, Wagner is indeed going to be based in Belarus. Luka wants them to help train the Belarusian army. "Nothing to be afraid of about them. We're keeping an eye out" - he says.

I don't envy those who put their bets on Wagner a few days ago, but we've also seen footage from the street of Rostov where people booed the police and cheered the mercenaries. Prigozhin still has some civil credit behind him that he may use in the future.

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LINK

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The Full Speech with English Subtitles given today by Russian President, Vladimir Putin to Security Forces at the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square in Moscow.

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LINK

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Russian President, Vladimir Putin stated during his Speech to Security Forces in the Capital of Moscow today, that the Army and the People weren’t on the side of the Mutineers and that the Russian Armed Forces should be Proud it was able to practically Halt the beginning of a Civil War.

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LINK

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Viktor #Zolotov: "The National Guard of #Russia will receive heavy weapons and tanks, this issue was discussed with #Putin".

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LINK

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?? putin in an address to the military personnel of the russian federation:

- during the mutiny attempt, it was not necessary to remove combat units involved in the "special operations" zone;

- russian military actually stopped the civil war;

- the pilots who died on June 24 fulfilled their duty with honor.

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LINK

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Putin said that the "Wagner" PMC was funded by the state. From May 2022 to May 2023, 86 billion rubles from the budget was spent on its maintenance.

"I hope that no one has stolen anything or stolen less, but we will deal with it all," commented the bunker tsar.

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LINK

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Putin's statement regarding the "Ukrainian losses just in the past 7 days" - "280 vehicles, including 41 tanks and over 100 armoured cars".

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LINK

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Putin said that the "Wagner" PMC was funded by the state. From May 2022 to May 2023, 86 billion rubles from the budget was spent on its maintenance.

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I wonder if this won't eventually lead to additional war crimes charges against Putin, as this involves him taking responsibility for Wagner's massacres of civilians in Syria, Africa, etc.

What's so crazy is that, two years ago, Prigozhin was suing people like the guys at Bellingcat for saying that he was running Wagner, and the Russian government was insisting up and down that it had nothing whatsoever to do with Wagner.

Times Radio - youtube

Interesting Interview with former GRU officer on why Priggy went to Rostov, what his intentions were, implications and possible aftermath.

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Orban is a menace and I cant understand why certain people in this country support him.

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Tucker loves Orban, but then again Tucker's father has been Orban's lobbyist for over 2 decades in DC

This is Aleksandr Kamyshin, perhaps Ukraine's greatest administrator. I've talked about him before.

When appointed to run Ukraine's rail system, he quickly rooted out corruption and built a system that, despite bombings and the shortages of war, had a better on-time record than many rail systems in Western Europe. When Ukraine took new territory in the Kharkiv offensive, his men would work 24/7 to quickly restore rail service to liberated cities. With no air travel since the start of the war, the rail system had to take on massive expansion, and it did it flawlessly. He opened new routes (such as the Kyiv-Chisinau train), refurbished old carriages, and managed special trains for people such as President Biden.





In March, Zelensky made him Minister of Strategic Industries, a new position. It encompasses a number of responsibilities (Kamyshin tweeted today that he is now in charge of building bomb shelters), but the most important one is Ukroboronprom, the state defense manufacturing concern. Ukroboronprom has had a well-deserved reputation as perhaps the most corrupt part of the Ukrainian government.

Kamyshin immediately worked to change Ukroboronprom from a goverment-managed entity to a state-owned corporation, something that had been planned before but not enacted. This both accelerated foreign partnerships and immediately cut down on corruption.

Now, Ukroboronprom has a new leader: LINK

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State concern "Ukroboronprom" is going through another change of management. For the first time since Independence, it will be headed by a native of production. But unlike the era of "red directors", when the power was held by people who managed their factories for 20-30 years, the new head of UOP Herman Smetanin is only 31 years old.

According to EP sources, on Saturday, June 24, the Cabinet of Ministers approved him as the new head of the UOP. This decision will be published on June 26, and it will enter into force on June 28 .

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Exactly three months after the appointment of Kamyshin as the head of the Ministry of Strategy and Industry, it became known that there was no longer a place for Gusev in the "working team" of "defense".

"Problems in Gusev due to the poor performance of the concern. In all directions. Everything there is quite telling. For example, over the past three months, we have been steadily producing more projectiles of our own production per month than in the whole of 2022.

Same story with ATGMs. Over the last month, we tripled the production of "Stugn". This is a cool complex, which was simply not produced in normal quantities, although we are at war. And now they are producing, so it was possible," one of the interlocutors of EP explains the vision of the new team.

"Regarding armored vehicles, the situation in general is deplorable. Our BTR-4. We have to produce dozens of them a month, it is realistic to do. In May, the concern produced one BTR-4E. This is abnormal. The same is true of BMP. There is a development of our BMP-U. How many were made? ?Zero!

There are also no Oplot tanks , which should have become a working base for the Armed Forces alongside Western equipment. They made one, went for a ride on it, told about the purchase for the Armed Forces, but no one even inquired whether we can produce them and when , " the interlocutor adds, explaining how they see the situation at Bankova.

However, the main problem for the UOP during Gusev's time was the missile program. In 2022, ambitious updated goals were approved. Obviously, no one has made the details public. According to UP sources, according to the new plans, President Zelensky was promised that in May 2023, Ukrainian missiles "Sapsan" (export name "Grim-2") will massively destroy Russian military infrastructure deep in the territory of the Russian Federation.

If you look at the news feed for May, then massive rockets did indeed fly, but not to Russia, but from it.

"In the missile program, Gusev was not just a supervisor as the head of the concern, but a direct coordinator. There is a backlog. There is also a "drone for a thousand kilometers", but no one can find it, where it is and who launches it. And the president asks: "Where are the missiles ? Where are the drones?" – an EP source from Zelenskyi's entourage is indignant.

Against the background of such an internal situation, Kamyshin, as Zelensky's new favorite, received a non-public task to find a replacement for Gusev. But after contacts with Kamyshin, potential candidates began to experience immediate problems: someone quickly received suspicion, someone ended up in the hospital, someone's relatives who work in the defense sector began to be fired.

But despite this, the candidate to replace Gusev was still selected.

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Corruption at "Antonov" during Gusev's rule was a vulnerable spot for Ukroboronprom's management: schemes with the purchase of fuel and equipment through gasket companies, undeclared real estate of top management.

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Gusev allegedly wanted to get rid of the director of "Antonov" Sergey Bychkov in 2021 after the end of his contract, but the matter did not reach the point of dismissal. As a result, in 2022, the negligence of Bychkov's managers played a major role in the destruction of the world's largest An-225 "Mriya" aircraft and a number of other vessels in Gostomel.

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Only in 2023, with the assistance of the new head of the Ministry of Strategy and Industry, Oleksandr Kamyshin, was it possible to agree with the Ministry of Defense on more or less large orders and scale up production. Now the concern produces tens of thousands of shells per month.

Over the past year and a half, the Armed Forces have had a considerable need for drones. The Gusev concern failed to establish large-scale production of drones, despite the presence of certified developments. The Ministry of Defense and voluntary foundations still prefer private manufacturers.

A popular Ukroboronprom project in the field of UAVs is an unnamed kamikaze drone, which is allegedly capable of hitting targets at a distance of 1,000 km. However, there were no orders from the Ministry of Defense for these drones either. The concern produces them at its own expense and hands them over to the armed forces.

According to the plan, it should be a multifunctional platform that could drop explosives, carry a EW station, scout the territory or self-destruct. According to EP sources, so far the first serial batch of these drones has been produced and they work only as kamikaze.

The Ukroboronprom missile program, to which Gusev had a direct relationship, remains a controversial topic.

Before the big invasion, it was hampered by gaps in public funding. Over the second year of the full-scale war, there is still no noticeable progress in the construction of domestic ballistic missiles. Although this is not surprising, because all missile developments are kept secret.

A positive fact is the creation of a joint armored enterprise with the German arms giant Rheinmetall. However, the basis for such cooperation appeared after the transfer of large batches of German armored vehicles, which need to be serviced, to the Armed Forces. This is the first such large project in the history of Ukraine. Its implementation will go to the successor of Gusev.

Now the future of the country depends on the work of the domestic military industry. Young Herman Smetanin will not only have to integrate himself into the management of dozens of strategic enterprises, but also effectively carry out an important corporatization reform that can give the Ukrainian defense sector a second lease of life.

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CNN. The exact same place you got all of yours today.

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Having followed this thread from day one.. The only ones that seem to bring up or reference CNN is you and your ilk...