re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict.

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Pokrovsk is still holding.

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Ukraine is really investing in retaking it considering how unimportant it supposedly is.

Still fighting in Pokrovsk. Russia still wants a complete Ukrainian capitulation, Russia still committing atrocities while calling out the US and Russian industry still getting punished.

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Key Takeaways

Russian forces continue to advance and to intensify offensive operations in the Hulyaipole and Velykomykhailivka directions, exploiting the effects of battlefield air interdiction (BAI) and poor weather that hampers Ukrainian drone observation.
Russian forces continue to advance in the Pokrovsk direction as Ukrainian forces continue counterattacks. A Russian milblogger complained that recent footage of Russian forces conducting logistics into Pokrovsk under the cover of fog allowed Ukrainian forces to interdict the effort.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that the Kremlin remains unwilling to compromise on its long-held maximalist war aims that amount to Ukraine’s complete capitulation.
Ukrainian forces continued their long-range strikes campaign against Russian energy infrastructure on the night of November 12 and 13 with the second known use of FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles.
Russian forces continue to commit war crimes against Ukrainian civilians.
Ukraine’s European allies continue to provide monetary aid to Ukraine, including to support military requirements.
Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Velykomykhailivka. Russian forces recently advanced in the Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical area, near Pokrovsk and Hulyaipole.

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ISW update

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wonder if the crew of these boats are forced. Word has to be out that there are Reapers circling.

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Probably holding their family's hostage.

Not at all. The Commonwealth (state owned electric utility) lowered residential rates and raise industrial rates. It's fuel for its power plants was No. 6 oil from refineries. As a result of the symbiotic relationship with the several chemical plants at Puenelas (east of Ponce) the refinery was forced to close. This impacted Union Carbide severely companywide with the loss of its largest chemical complex and eventually had to sell to Dow Chemical after cutting corners on its SAP software upgrade. It skipped a version which resulted in everything crashed so that it could not pay vendors or send out invoices to clients by around 1999.

Chevron kept its base oil and lube oil operations there as did Sun with its refinery in Yabucoa. Shell Chemical purchased that refinery around 2000 because it needed it for chemical grade naphtha for the ethylene cracker at Norco. It also purchase the Louisiana Land and Exploration refinery north of Mobile, LA as well as the old Enjet refinery at St. Rose, also for the same reason. Shell Chemical (not oil) sold the refinery at Yabucoa to Buckeye as a terminal and Brandenburg out of Chicago demolished the refinery in 2011 as it no longer needed the refinery with other sources of feedstock as well as reduced crude supply from the Brent Spar beginning to dry up. Shell never operated the lube oil plant which Sun had operated. It did sell CO2 from its hydrogen reformer for use with all of the pharma plants in Puerto Rico until all that transferred production to Asia.

Too much Vodka?

Da!!

ETA: That guy walking behind the robot will likely be learning how to fly out of an upper floor window soon...

True story:

When I was working in Moscow I was walking back to my apartment which was next door to the Hotel Ukraine (ironic, huh?). It was about 1:30 AM on a Sunday morning.

As I was walking across the Bogdan-Khmelnitsky Bridge, a pedestrian bridge over the Moscow River, there was a man walking towards me swaying from side-to-side and who almost face planted more than once.

As we were about to pass each other, he took the cigarette out of his mouth and mumbled (in Russian, of course), "Excuse me friend, it is tomorrow yet or is it still today?"

I chuckled to myself and said, "It's tomorrow."

He said, "Spa-cibo," ("Thank you") and he kept on walking, still swaying...

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I don't think the Ukrainians are counterattacking in the hopes of retaking much land. I think they are doing it to buy time. I could be wrong, but their strategy seems to be simply make the Russians pay for every inch.

And since the Russians lack the capacity to take advantage of any logistical capacities the city offers, or the ability to maneuver to leverage its geographical advantages then Russians aren't going to get their money's worth.

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The Ukrainian attacks on Russian infrastructure and bread winner exports seem to be meant to cause internal strife enough so that the front collapses much like the German western front in WWI. Russia only rules the Chechens because of being bought off and I'm sure than applies to other areas

So, the footage of the Russians entering Pokrovsk that was uploaded ended up giving away the Ruskies posiiton and as a result the Ukrainians hit them with a massive drone attack, leading to hundreds of casualties:

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According to Ukrinform, Andrii Kovalenko, Head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, reported this on Telegram.

“The Ryazan oil refinery has been attacked. Following the Saratov oil refinery, it will suspend operations,” said the Head of the Center for Countering Disinformation.

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This refinery was previously attacked last month and earlier this year.

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Reuters reported the refinery processed 13.1 million metric tons (262,000 barrels per day) in 2024, nearly 5% of Russia’s total refining throughput. It produced 2.2 million tons of gasoline, 3.4 million tons of diesel, 4.3 million tons of fuel oil, and 1 million tons of jet fuel, Reuters said, citing source-based data.

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