re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Nah Im not that committed to the point. Just seems like the vibe around here is a little more tense than it used to be.

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I know I have responded a bit more to trolls recently which is why I have gone back to ignoring them, though generally I tried to limit myself to calling out rubbish information.

Back in winter there was a similar uptick in the thread's responses to trolls due to the slowing down of new information, and there has been a similar slowing in pace over the last couple of weeks, so I put it down to this downtime rather than any increase in tension.

There are claims the Chongar bridge has reopened.

https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1691743171452031476

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The Chongar bridge is open again.
-> That victory lasted not that long

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I know I posted about the Ruble breaking the 100 mark against the USD. It has bounced back almost 5% today and is at 95 to USD

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I suspect this rally is most likely a response to this news from Russia's Central Bank as they attempt to get ahead of inflation.



https://www.cbr.ru/eng/press/pr/?file=15082023_103000Key_eng.htm

Edit: Clarity

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/08/14/ukrainian-cluster-shells-massacred-russian-troops-fleeing-urozhaine/?sh=5525ecdd3d94

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I think the lack of progress in the Ukrainian counteroffensive is really starting to break some of you guys. Why do y’all take everything so personally?

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Nah, we're fine. The people rooting for the nation with 5000 nuclear weapons aimed at us, though? Those people are absolutely broken, both mentally and morally.

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That said, I find many of the posters who come into this thread wildly misrepresent it such as this post from Colt a few days back

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How many did we point back? You’re dramatic.

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What a nonsensical comeback. Russia considers the US its rival and has considered the US as such since the 90's. See the entirety of Dugin's work as a dispositive example. What would you have the US do? Sing Kumbaya with the Russians?

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Russia wanted to be a part of nato.

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Nonsense. It wasn't a real possibility at any point. By 1998, it was a complete impossibility. It's just a talking point that is repeated without any thought.

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Do you think if we allowed that this would be happening?

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What? You guys work extremely hard to make sure the Russians themselves have no agency. That isn't the way the world works.

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Wait until the next guy, you may have been blessed with Putin. It’s no different than the hundreds of countries were in. But somehow you justify that.

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I have no idea what you are saying here.

ISW Update

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Key Takeaways:

Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations on at least three sectors of the front on August 16 and advanced in western Zaporizhia Oblast and on the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border.

Ukrainian reports and video released by Ukrainian troops confirm that Ukrainian forces liberated Urozhaine, on the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border, on August 16.

Russian sources are prematurely asserting that Ukrainian forces have committed their entire “main reserves” to counteroffensive operations in western Zaporizhia Oblast based on scattered observations of western-equipped Ukrainian units.

Russian forces conducted a series of drone strikes against Ukraine on the night of August 15 to 16, primarily targeting grain and port infrastructure in Odesa Oblast.

The first civilian vessel traveled through a Ukrainian-created temporary corridor for civilian vessels in the Black Sea on August 16 as part of Ukrainian efforts to circumvent Russian attempts to further curtail maritime traffic.

Russian ultranationalists are increasingly criticizing Russian military command for failing to recruit and train effective middle-level military officers to lead Russian forces on the frontlines in Ukraine.

Russian senators proposed an amendment to ban the distribution of photos and videos containing information about Russian military activities and locations on August 16, amplifying a recent trend of cracking down on public imagery of the war.

The Russian MoD may be using the Army-2023 Forum in Moscow to coerce countries into refusing to cooperate with the Wagner Group and to advertise Russian MoD-controlled private military companies (PMCs).

Russian sources claimed that the Russian military command placed nominal Russian deputy theater commander in Ukraine and notable Wagner-affiliated Army General Sergei Surovikin under house arrest as of early August.

Russian forces conducted offensive operations along the Kupyansk-Svatove line, near Bakhmut, along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line, in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border area, and in western Zaporizhia Oblast and did not make any confirmed advances.

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Dmitri
@wartranslated
Interesting, a bit long, post here from Russian Colonel Shuvalov discussing the effect of the Ukrainian cluster munitions and how the Russian equivalents are not nearly as good if exist at all, showing how Shoygu's threats are empty.

Original Telegram Source

"And again about cluster munitions. It's hard for me to understand why we need to manipulate statistics if the response we’re getting for showing off results in collossal, real difficulites.

I already wrote about cluster munitions before - LINK

Basically, nothing has changed, but a lot needs to be added. Information, now in full measure, reached the authorities that everything was not as it seemed in the initial reports. It is impossible not to take into account the factor of modern Western cluster munitions - they shamelessly mow down both fighters at the front (not only at the front) and civilian infrastructure in the rear.

Civil infrastructure is a separate topic. Recently, there was an arrival in Tokmak, which terribly slashed trucks and drivers. The Defense Ministry decided not to focus on this, because there was a risk of reciprocal publication of data from the enemy with arguments that the civilian targets were not quite simple and not very civilian.

But there were comrades in the camp of military correspondents who unleashed their anger towards the vile NATO members on the heads of readers, and attached videos as proof. This is something the enemy might not have had. And now the enemy can quite boldly show that the goals were legal from a military point of view. And all by our hands...

We had to throw all our efforts into blocking the supply of cluster munitions to Ukraine: to declare that we would not use such munitions, to tear apart the Europeans, who have cluster munitions banned. There was a chance. But they played us, we happily fell for it and declared that we had these clusters munitions, whole landfills of them, not just stockpiles.

Yes, we have many. You can search for photos. For the most part, it’s an illiquid asset killed by time, the rest - is morally and technically obsolete. And things are not very good with carriers either.

Now you can’t roll back the situation, and when you are caught being weak, it’s silly to try and scare them. The General Staff already understands this, but they cannot bring the situation even higher, there is no solution. The guys on the front line are taking the beating, and it's not easy at all. In the context of problems with medicine, wounds from cluster munitions often result in death, and this is a very painful and terrible death. The enemy has learned (yes, imagine, they are also learning!) to cut off the path of reinforcements or withdrawal of forces with artillery, and trenches do not save from cluster munitions. You can’t save yourself with a bandage or a tourniquet, after being hit with cluster munitions you need solid medical care, if you managed to survive.

In the trenches, a terrible mess is formed from the living and the dying, who are sometimes completely impossible to help.

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