re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Shaping up to be another nice weekend for Ukrainian news. Here's the cherry on top:

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The head of a Russian private militia has called on the army to overthrow Vladimir Putin in what is potentially shaping up to be the biggest threat of revolt the Kremlin has faced since the Wagner mutiny last year.

Georgy Zakrevsky is the founder of the Paladin PMC, one of many shadowy military groups like the former Wagner militia, that are loosely linked to the Kremlin.

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Paladin is much smaller than Wagner but a threat like this will get all of Putin's attention. We'll see what happens.

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Random tweets

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Russian Army is now 9 Km from Prokrovsk & 3,6 Km from Myrnohrad.

As an interesting fact on this front, Russian forces are now closer to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast than to the city of Donetsk.

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LINK

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115 Russian conscripts have been exchanged today through Belarus it seems

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LINK

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BREAKING ???? ??All Ukrainians exchanged today were captured in the first months of the full-scale invasion, - Coordination Headquarters of Ukraine

Among them are 82 military personnel who defended Mariupol, including about 50 defenders of Azovstal, naval sailors, three border guards and conscripts, national guardsmen from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant garrison, military personnel who defended the Kyiv region and took part in the battles near Gostomel, etc.

Nine illegally convicted prisoners of war were also released.

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LINK

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??Lithuania will hand over 5,000 drones to Ukraine, – Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonyte said.

Theses from the joint briefing:

??The kursk operation was a preventive strike that prevented russian intentions to occupy Sumy and part of the Sumy region, — Zelenskyy.

??"putin is now bombing his villages. Just bravo. His people there are shocked that they believed in this demon", — Zelenskyy.

?? NATO is still debating the protection of the Ukrainian sky, — Duda.

??Only the russian federation is to blame for what is happening on its territory, – Šimonyte.

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LINK

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Ukrainian-Russian war. Day 911:
Situation southwest of Donetsk: During the last 36 hours #RussianArmy took captured a series of positions between the localities of Pobjeda & Paraskoviivka.

Situation west of Donetsk city: During the last week #RussianArmy secured again the farm southwest of the town of Krasnogorivka.

Situation northwest of Donetsk city: During the last two days #RussianArmy restarted the advances around Karlivka & managed to capture new dachas in the outskirts of the locality & the first houses inside it.

Situation on Pokrovsk front: #RussianArmy made new advances south and southeast of Ptyche aproaching to Kalynove. In addition, Russian forces expanded their control inside to the streets of Likarniana, Parkova, Molodizhna & Tsentralna (places such as Kindergarten 16 & Snezhinka, Holy Protection Church & several high buildings were taken). Moreover, Russian troops entered in the first houses of Krasnyi Yar & advanced south of Hrodivka.

Situation on Toretsk front: #RussianArmy entered in Toretsk city from a new axis that allowed troops to capture "Dzerzhinsk City TB Dispensary" & the School Nº2 in Zabalka district.

At Sudzhansky axis #RussianArmy recaptured the locality of Spal'noe.
Clashes with #UkrainianArmy continue in the rest of the front without changes.

Situation on eastern front: During the last four days #RussianArmy expanded their control over the railway & Vyimka trainstation from north & west.

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LINK

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It's a drone with a jet engine.

Earlier in the war, Ukraine had converted its few remaining Soviet Tu-141 recon drones into payload-carrying attack drones, and they had used those to reasonably good effect.

Obviously, Ukraine decided that those results were promising enough to design their own jet-powered attack drone.

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Maybe not. I should clarify. Ukraine has previously displayed prototypes of jet-powered attack drones. When Zelensky announced the Palyanytsia today, people assumed that it was the new name of those jet-powered drones. All of the supposed pics that you may have seen are of those prototypes.

But there's no confirmation that the Palyanytsia is in fact derived from those prototypes, and no pics have been released. And in any case, a jet engine is very much not the same thing as a "rocket." So, if the Palyanytsia is a "rocket drone," it might be something completely different.from the jet-powered drone prototypes that have previously been displayed.

Zelenskyy: Ukraine's Palianytsia missile is a way to act while partners are slowing down

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO — Saturday, 24 August 2024, 17:06

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that Ukraine's new weapons solutions – particularly the Palianytsia missile, the first use of which he announced earlier – are a way for Ukraine to take practical action while its partners are "slowing down" in making decisions. ["Palianytsia", a type of bread, is a Ukrainian word that Russians find difficult to pronounce properly. Since the full-scale Russian invasion started, Ukrainians have used the word as a means to identify Russian military or saboteurs – ed.]

Source: Zelenskyy at a press conference in Kyiv on 24 August

Quote: "Our new weapons solutions, particularly the Palianytsia missile, are a real way we can act while some of our partners, unfortunately, are slowing down with their decisions.

Our solutions and those of our partners must work together and only in such a way that we achieve our common victory together."

Details: The president stressed that Ukraine is constantly increasing the capabilities of its defence industry.

"I have already mentioned today that our new long-range weapons have been used for the first time. We are preparing some more effective solutions, and we need no less determination from our partners in these matters," he added.

Ukrainska Pravda

This is new footage just released today and is claimed to be test footage of the new "rocket drone." It's a jet-powered drone, as was originally suspected. I don't think that this is any kind of game-changer or anything -- this particular drone isn't going to carry a large payload. It's interesting, though.

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All Ukrainians exchanged today were captured in the first months of the full-scale invasion, - Coordination Headquarters of Ukraine

Among them are 82 military personnel who defended Mariupol, including about 50 defenders of Azovstal, naval sailors, three border guards and conscripts, national guardsmen from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant garrison, military personnel who defended the Kyiv region and took part in the battles near Gostomel, etc.

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The three border guards were supposedly captured by Russia in the very first minutes of the invasion. They have been POWs since February 24, 2022.

Bluffing about what? Using nukes?

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Ukraine keeps crossing Russia’s red lines. Putin keeps blinking.

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I mean to be honest

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If Russia’s territorial integrity were threatened, “we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. It’s not a bluff,” he said a few months later in September. “The citizens of Russia can be sure that the territorial integrity of our Motherland, our independence and freedom will be ensured — I emphasize this again — with all the means at our disposal,” making a clear reference to Russia’s nuclear weapons.

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Russias "territorial integrity" has been in jeopardy ever since they annexed territory they didn't occupy so this "red line" has been crossed for a long time.

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["Palianytsia", a type of bread, is a Ukrainian word that Russians find difficult to pronounce properly. Since the full-scale Russian invasion started, Ukrainians have used the word as a means to identify Russian military or saboteurs – ed.]

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The term for words like this is a "shibboleth"

"A word or pronunciation that distinguishes people of one group or class from those of another."

"Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many societies as passwords, simple ways of self-identification, signaling loyalty and affinity, maintaining traditional segregation, or protecting from real or perceived threats."

It's from ancient Hebrew history/mythology (included in The Torah/Old Testament):

"And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay; Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.

— Judges 12:5–6"

Funny to see it used these days...

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Russia has certainly been bluffing about that. Drunkle Medvedev has been doing that for over 2 years now. Russia's own military doctrine prescribes nukes whenever its own territory is invaded. 2 weeks later not a single nuke mobilized

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Putin himself has been threatening it... and nothing.

He would have to be suicidal. A tactical nuke would result in all-out destruction of his military by NATO using conventional means in hours... a ballistic nuclear exchange would result in the assured end of Russia, and we have to guess that the Russian nuclear arsenal has been as crippled by corruption and negligence as the rest of their military assets, so it might be very one-sided.