Just a quick update tonight as I spent the day cooking and baking. As I texted both TaMara and Tom Levenson around 7 or so: “the turkey is resting, I’m exhausted!”
Let’s start with Mariupol where Russia has upped the rhetoric:
Mariupol defenders are fighting at one against six, according to Zelensky, and they need heavy weapons as soon as possible, he said.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 16, 2022
And President Zelenskyy’s response from his address today to the Ukrainian people:
The situation in Mariupol remains as severe as possible. Just inhuman. This is what the Russian Federation did. Deliberately did. And deliberately continues to destroy cities. Russia is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there in Mariupol.
There are only two ways to influence this. Or the partners will give Ukraine all the necessary heavy weapons, planes, and, without exaggeration, immediately. So that we can reduce the pressure of the occupiers on Mariupol and unblock it. Or ā a negotiating path, in which the role of partners should also be decisive.
I want to be heard right now: there has not been a single day since the blockade of Mariupol that we have not sought a solution. Military or diplomatic ā anything to save people. But finding this solution is extremely difficult. So far, there is no one hundred percent valid option. This applies to both military options and the negotiation process.
Although we have heard many intentions from those who wanted to help and who really in positions of international influence, none of them have been realized yet. However, we will not abandon these efforts. And every day either I, or Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valeriy Zaluzhny, or other military, or head of our negotiating team David Arakhamia ā in touch with our defenders of Mariupol. Every day.
Much more at the link!
Here’s today’s operational update from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense:
The operational update regarding the russian invasion on 06.00 on April 16, 2022
The fifty-second day of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people to a russian military invasion continues. A russian federation continues its full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine.
The most active actions of a russian enemy are recorded in Slobozhansky and Donetsk directions.
In the Volyn, Polissya and Siversky directions, the enemy did not take active action. There is a relocation of presumably separate units of the 35th and 36th Combined Arms Armies of the Eastern Military District. Trucks and special vehicles and refuellers move to loading areas.
In the Slobozhansky direction, the russian occupiers continue to fight involving separate units of the 6th and 20th Combined Arms Armies, the 1st Tank Army of the Western Military District, the 35th and 36th Combined Arms Armies, and the 68th Army Corps of the Eastern Military District. , airborne troops, coastal troops of the Baltic and Northern Fleets.
The main focus of the russian enemy is on the regrouping and strengthening of troops, continues the partial blockade of the city of Kharkiv and its shelling with artillery.
In the area of āāthe city of Izium, the russian enemy concentrated up to 22 battalion tactical groups. The main efforts of the enemy are focused on maintaining the previously occupied positions and achieved boundaries. In order to strengthen the group in this direction, the deployment of additional units from the Combined Arms Army is noted.
It is possible that the russian enemy will intensify its actions in the direction of the settlements of Izium and Barvinkove in order to reach the rear of the Joint Forces units near the town of Slovyansk.
In the Donetsk and Tavriya directions, the russian enemy is trying to hold the occupied territories. Focuses the main efforts on taking control of the settlements of Popasna and Rubizhne, establishing full control over the city of Mariupol. Takes measures to restore combat capability and replenish ammunition. Trying to improve the tactical position. Continues shelling in most directions.
There were no significant changes in the situation in the Siverodonetsk area, the russian enemy increased the intensity of the fire in order to inflict losses, deplete our troops and possibly prepare for offensive operations.
In the Popasnyansky direction, the russian enemy exerts constant fire on the units of Ukrainian troops. With the help of motorized infantry units, in cooperation with the battalion of one of the private military companies, russain enemy is trying to improve the tactical situation, to advance deep into the settlement of Popasna. It is not successful.
In the area of the city of Toretsk, russian enemy continues to carry out periodic fire in order to deplete our troops. Prepares for the intensification of hostilities in the area of Avdiivka.
In the South Buh direction, the enemy’s actions were characterized by measures to restore combat readiness, replenish reserves, engineering equipment positions in the areas of Lyubymivka, Petrivka, Khreschenivka and strengthen their advanced positions, probably units of the mobilization reserve of the 1st and 2nd Army Corps.
It is expected that the enemy will continue to fight to reach the administrative borders of the Kherson region and will try to resume the offensive.
In the waters of the Sea of Azov, the enemy’s naval group continues to carry out tasks to block the port of Mariupol and provide fire support in the coastal direction.
Due to the presence of russian warships in the Black Sea, armed with naval cruise missiles “Caliber”, there is an increased level of threat of use of missile weapons by the russian occupiers at the defence industry and logistics infrastructure of Ukraine.
In the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, ten russian enemy attacks were repulsed last day, three tanks, one armoured personnel carrier, one unit of special equipment, two cars and three enemy artillery systems were destroyed. One armoured personnel carrier of the invaders was captured.
The Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has hit seven air targets in the previous day: one plane, one helicopter, three UAVs and two cruise missiles.
We believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine! Let’s win together!
Glory to Ukraine!
More after the jump.
Here’s the latest British MOD assessment update:
And here’s the most recent mapping from the British MOD:
Still not a lot of change over the previous several days.
Russia targeted World Central Kitchen’s operations in Kharkiv!
An update I hoped Iād never have to make. Iām at a @WCKitchen restaurant in Kharkiv, where less than 24 hours ago I was meeting with their amazing team. Today, a missile stuck. 4 staff were wounded. This is the reality hereācooking is a heroic act of bravery. #ChefsForUkraine ?? pic.twitter.com/AyU4fUnA61
— Nate Mook (@natemook) April 16, 2022
Given that Nate Mook has tweeted out video from the World Central Kitchen kitchen in Kharkiv several times over the past week and Chef Jose Andres has retweeted every one, I highly doubt this was an accident or coincidence or incidental. They weren’t hiding where they were undertaking their relief work and I expect that the Russians targeted them for it.
While this was during a different war against fascism, I’m sure there are Ukrainian forces, as well as Ukrainian citizens celebrating Passover:
As Allies liberate Germany, three hundred American soldiers celebrate Passover at confiscated house of Joseph Goebbels, 1945: pic.twitter.com/cnXJPmv0Xe
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) April 15, 2022
Just as I know there will be Catholic/Latin Rite Ukrainians celebrating Easter tomorrow amidst the war to repel Putin’s reinvasion of Ukraine. And there are and will continue to be Ukrainian Muslims celebrating Ramadan too.
And we’ll finish with a musical message from Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s Minister of Defense, to Russian forces in Ukraine:
Follow the moskva… or be smart and go home. And wait for an invitation for a free trip to the Hague.
It is a now-or-never, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Don't miss it.
Be smart – go home.
Music by @scorpions pic.twitter.com/X5iCm2XfAt
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) April 16, 2022
A happy Passover/hag sameach Pesach, a happy and healthy Easter, and a continued easy fast to those celebreating Passover, Easter, or Ramadan. If you’re trying to do all three, please pace yourself!!!
Open thread!
Mallard Filmore
from here:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/4/16/2092383/-Ukraine-update-Goodbye-to-Moscow
Martin
Happy Passover, Adam.
Yutsano
Sameach Pesach Adam!
topclimber
Happy Passover and continued thanks to our military mensch.
Betsy
A happy Passover to you.
It feels a bit strange to say the word āhappyā in a comment to a post about this awful, horrific war, but I am grateful for your reporting and analysis, and the following pertains:
āBe joyful, though you have considered all the facts.ā
Scott P.
Ukraine has some Catholics but Orthodox Easter is April 24.
JAFD
A few decades ago, I lived a few blocks north of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, near St. Nicholas’ Ukrainian Rite Catholic Church. Catholic, but they ‘reported to’ the Pope thru the Ukrainian Rite Bishop in Jersey City, not thru the Archbishop of Philadelphia.
Nice people, should have learned more about them.
Have a blessed Easter, Passover and/or Ramadan. Pray for peace and justice.
Mallard Filmore
In response to the Russian army moving troops to the Finnish border, the Finns are moving tractors to the border.
https://twitter.com/Odessa_Journal/status/1515399841236541443
In history, this will be known as the Tractor War.
Adam L Silverman
@Mallard Filmore:
Adam L Silverman
@Scott P.: Iām well aware. I was referring to the Ukrainians who practice theĀ Catholic/Latin Rite.
James E Powell
@Mallard Filmore:
Holy moly! A link to the Great Orange Satan. Brings back memories.
James E Powell
@Adam L Silverman:
Okay, I fucking love that.
Carlo Graziani
@Adam L Silverman: You win the internet today, sir.
Carlo Graziani
@Adam L Silverman: it’s the 2022 Winter Olympics Preview event: Biathlon with live targets, and NLAWS instead of carbines.
Adam L Silverman
@James E Powell:Ā @Carlo Graziani: I can only take credit for saving it a few weeks back when I saw it and then posting it as a reply tonight.
Carlo Graziani
In the for reals department: It’s hard to tell from shaded maps, which always lie about the intermittent nature of occupied/controlled ground. But the region around Mariupol has been displayed solid shaded “Russian-controlled” for long enough that it is easy enough to believe the resupply, let alone relief, is an impossibility.
I’d really like to be wrong about this, and to discover that map shading is lying again. Is it?
Calouste
Russia today held an event where their top admiral met with a bunch of sailors that were supposedly rescued from the Moskva. Or they could just be sailors. The admiral that was on board the Moskva is rumored to have died in the explosion, and there was also a funeral in St. Petersburg for what is now the eight Russian general to have died during the ādonāt call it a warā.
Kattails
@Mallard Filmore: made me LOL, which was needed. I am becoming fascinated by the dry, sarcastic humor coming out of these countries, under really awful circumstances.
Adam L Silverman
@Carlo Graziani: It is not a particularly detailed map. You donāt get the granular the Russian units are in 5he following places and the Ukrainian ones are in these other places view with these. But most of the ones that have those details are being done and posted online by pseudonymous accounts. It bothers me if I canāt ID the person providing the info. I know these are being done by British Military Intelligence. And thatās why I use them. I donāt want to post or highlight material from sources I canāt vet.
JanieM
@Betsy:
My favorite line from one of my favorite poems. Thanks for the reminder, and thanks to Adam for these posts, which I read every night. I’m grateful to have such a trusted source of information, all the more because I have, like quite a few other people here, indirect family ties to Ukraine.
Another Scott
(via Popehat)
Happy holidays, everyone. Pray and work for peace and justice.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jay
@Carlo Graziani:
Itās not accurate.
Patrolled is probably more accurate.
There will be key villages that are garrisoned, roadblocks and rail blocks, overwatch areas, but then there are places the UA and TDF can slip through, or given reinforcement and aid, can āpunchā a route through, and maybe hold it.
Major Major Major Major
@Carlo Graziani: the map is never the territory, these āblobā maps especially, though Iāve read that this is an especially difficult concept to translate into a legible visual regardless.
Carlo Graziani
@Jay: Very good. This is what I’m looking for.
But Mariupol is (sigh, was) a dense urban area. Getting supplies in–especially to the remaining Ukrainian strongholds by the coast–has got to be a lot harder.
Kattails
OK somebody did a peeps tractor towing a thing… because of course. Ā Slava Ukraine.
Jay
@Carlo Graziani:
Oryx on twitter today noted that RU Logistics units are going āfull Mad Maxā because of UA, UA SOF and TDG raids on their supply lines behind āRussian Linesā.
While one tends to think of the āblobā areas as ācontrolledā, as if there was a continuous line, or trench network, the reality is given the distances between villages, cities, the verge that surrounds massive farm fields, gullies, stream-beds, limited road and rail routes,
*( I would use āvastā, but I am Canadian, so I am used to routes where you fill up at every place that has a gas station, because if you donāt, you wonāt make it to the next gas station, where the closest city of any size, is 470 km away across a major mountain range, with only two direct roads/routes there.)
When General Mud goes on vacation in June, many of the RU Garrisoned positions will just become isolated pockets if the UA can mount strikes.
Jay
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: Down that thread is a new Zelenskyy tweet with a clip. Would you be able to post that please?
Chetan Murthy
@MagdaInBlack: This one?
Chetan Murthy
Over at the GOS, kos wrote about the logistics of moving heavy weaponry and ammo: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/4/16/2092453/-Ukraine-Update-Contra-some-public-sentiment-massive-amounts-of-military-gear-is-entering-Ukraine
I hadn’t realized just how big all this stuff is, how much heavy lifting is involved.Ā Ugh.
Geminid
@Chetan Murthy: Interesting that the article highlighted a recent cargo flight originationg at a Turkish airport from which the deadly TB-2 “Bayraktar” drones are shipped.
Jay
SWMBO
Happy Passover, Happy Easter, Joyous Ramadan!
This is why I voted for Joe Biden
https://twitter.com/timjhogan/status/1515408175746404355?s=20&t=AznOF0QVXTRKBUIloRQKFQ
wetzel
At the end of March, the United States sent a half dozen EA-18G Growlers to Germany along a few hundred crew and maintainers. I’ve been wondering if the EA-18G Growler isn’t the platform to transition Ukrainian pilots onto an American platform, an F-18 with a stand-back electronic warfare role. Its electronic warfare functions are ‘defensive’. Three of those can triangulate a cell phone signal and send coordinates in real time to artillery. The F-18 has advantages over F-15 and F-16 in runway requirements for both takeoff and landing, but it has a disadvantage in combat radius. It’s logistical footprint might be optimized a certain way that is advantageous given it is a Navy plane. I don’t know. Maybe they transferred them so that the Russians think the EA-18Gs are up there. I don’t have any special knowledge.
wetzel
@SWMBO:Ā Happy Passover, Happy Easter, Joyous Ramadan!
There’s got to be a term in linguistics for a statement that must have a plural audience, that cannot logically take a singular addressee, because if a person tries to do all three, Passover, Easter and Ramadan, they won’t escape eating the wrong food, and it will be at the wrong time too. I think too much.
Geminid
@wetzel:Ā How about:
Uncle Cosmo
Very late to the thread, natch, but…I smell a rat here.
All glory to the defenders of Mariupol, but I wonder if the orcs (brutal and bloody but not entirely stupid) are deliberately slow-walking the reduction of the city while ramping up the level of atrocities. They could be hoping to disturb Ukrainian forces sufficiently to provoke them into mounting a relief expedition – a drive into the city to open a corridor for civilian evacuation – in which case the Russian forces would surround and fall on them for an even bigger catch. I can only hope the folks in charge on the blue&yellow side are alert to the possibility and won’t “rush in” too hastily.
sdhays
@Uncle Cosmo: Ukrainian forces still fighting in Mariupol is a massive resource sink for the Russian army. Those are units that are already in Ukraine that can’t be sent to the eastern front for their planned westward push. They are desperate to lock it down ASAP.
They aren’t slow-walking anything.
West of the Cascades
@James E Powell:Ā Daily Kos has some of the most detailed and insightful coverage of the war in Ukraine, well worth checking out their Ukraine updates. I’m trying to avoid obsessively looking for coverage of the war by limiting myself to Adam’s daily update and the ones on the GOS. Maybe the Guardian. And a couple of …
OK, maybe I’m not doing enough to avoid obsessive attention to the war.
MagdaInBlack
@Chetan Murthy: Yes, thank you. I found it very moving.