The Russians are continuing their aerial bombardment campaign of terror against Ukraine. Last night they attacked with 15 Iranian Shaheed drones:
Late at night on March 27, 2023, russian terrorists attacked Ukraine using drones and guided aerial bombs. 14 out of 15 attack UAVs "Shahed-136/131" were shot down.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) March 28, 2023
That’s an impressive kill rate, but all it takes is one getting through.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump:
I am grateful to everyone who reminds that Russian aggression can end much faster if the world is faster – address by the President of Ukraine
28 March 2023 – 22:12
Good health to you, fellow Ukrainians!
I have returned from our Sumy region. Today I was in Okhtyrka, Trostyanets, Sumy, in the positions of our border guards.
The impressions are special. The region is next to the enemy. The threat is constant. The shelling of our border is constant. But life, our people are obviously stronger than any fears.
Recovery continues, business is gradually returning, and people are rebuilding their lives.
I had the honor to present a special title of the hero city to Okhtyrka. A city that helped save eastern and central Ukraine with its resistance.
I congratulated Trostyanets on the anniversary of liberation from the occupier.
I held a meeting with representatives of local authorities in the Sumy and Chernihiv regions. There are issues that need to be resolved. They will be resolved.
I held a meeting with the commanders directly responsible for the defense of the Sumy and Chernihiv regions. I also had a special conversation with the Head of the Border Guard Service. We talked about the defense of Sumy and our other regions, about strengthening the border guards who, together with all the defense forces, are fighting on the frontline.
By the way, today I would like to celebrate our warriors of the Luhansk, Kramatorsk and Donetsk border guard detachments who are effectively destroying the enemy in the Bakhmut, Lyman and Avdiivka directions. Thank you guys! I would like to express special gratitude to the mortar crews and aerial reconnaissance of our border guard units in the Donetsk sector. Well done, warriors!
Of course, I thank the Sumy border guard detachment. I paid a visit to them today, had the honor to talk to them and support them. Strong positions along the entire border with the terrorist state are a consequence of the strength of our people who are ready to defend the border at any time.
Today we have a decision of the French Parliament, which recognized the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people. I am grateful for this principled and fair step, for spreading the historical truth to another European country.
And one more thing.
Today I want to thank each and every one who, at the call of heart, in different countries, on different platforms, in different words, but equally honestly and strongly reminds the world that Russian aggression can end much faster than is sometimes said. Faster, if the world is faster, if the world is more determined.
The destroyed Ukrainian cities and villages along the border of the terrorist state, Russia’s constant blackmail and threats to destroy lives in other countries as well, the constant refusal to return to real peace and the mockery of basic international norms are all sufficient reasons to put pressure and fight, to not seek compromise and to care about the values of the world in a real way… In a real way! Achieving the result for freedom every day. Achieving the result for peace every day. Forcing Russia to suffer losses every day.
I thank everyone who helps Ukraine!
Glory to all who are now in the battle against terror!
Glory to Ukraine!
Here is the machine translation of the latest operational update from the Ukrainian MOD as posted on their Telegram channel:
Here is former NAVDEVGRU Squadron Leader Chuck Pfarrer’s most recent assessment of the situations in Avdiivka, Zaporizhzhia, and Bakhmut:
AVDIIVKA AXIS /2000 UTC 28 MAR/ RU troops employed CS/tear gas to support attacks on Lastochkyne. These assaults made gains west of Avdiivka. RU losses for the period include 7 IFVs, 6 tanks and 17 artillery units, indicating strong counter-battery fire by UKR artillery. pic.twitter.com/8dvZxkMNHb
— Chuck Pfarrer | Indications & Warnings | (@ChuckPfarrer) March 28, 2023
RUSSIAN ROULETTE: International Atomic Energy Administration (IAEA) monitors report increased combat in the vicinity of the RU-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. RU security forces have taken many scientists, technicians and family members hostage. https://t.co/GqlO65PqCj pic.twitter.com/454UyuS4Ln
— Chuck Pfarrer | Indications & Warnings | (@ChuckPfarrer) March 28, 2023
BAKHMUT CITY /1920 UTC 28 MAR/ Heavy urban fighting continues. UKR conducted 9 aviation strike missions including a Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD) sortie. Russian losses for the period include 7 Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs), 6 tanks and 17 artillery systems. pic.twitter.com/2tBC5gLxY4
— Chuck Pfarrer | Indications & Warnings | (@ChuckPfarrer) March 28, 2023
Bakhmut:
Update from Bakhmut from the Ukrainian "Bakhmut Demon" on the morning of 28 March. pic.twitter.com/3YoUbsUPfR
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) March 28, 2023
Here’s the translation:
Zaporizhzhia via The Republic World:
Fighting has intensified near a nuclear power plant in Ukraine that is Europe’s largest, further increasing the possibility of a war-related nuclear accident, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday.
“There is an increased level of combat, active combat” in the area of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano, Grossi told The Associated Press in an interview. “My teams there report daily about the attacks, the sound of heavy weaponry. This is practically constant.”
Speaking a day before he was to cross the front lines for a second time to visit the plant, Grossi said he felt it was his duty to ramp up talks aimed at safeguarding the facility. He met Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and said he would probably head to Russia in the coming days.
Grossi has long called for a protection zone to be set up around the plant, which is very near the front line of the war. But so far, an agreement has been elusive.
“It is a zone of extreme volatility. So the negotiations are, of course, affected by the ongoing military operations,” Grossi said. “I would not characterize the process for the last few months as one that has not led to any progress.”
The U.N.’s atomic energy watchdog, which is based in Vienna, Austria, has a rotating team permanently based at the plant. The power station’s six reactors are in shutdown and the plant has received the electricity it needs to prevent a reactor meltdown through one remaining functioning power line.
Plant personnel have had to switch to emergency diesel generators several times during the 13-month war to power essential cooling systems.
Military analysts expect the fighting between invading Russian troops and Ukrainian forces will further escalate as spring progresses and the ground hardens, allowing heavy military machinery to advance on the battlefield.
“There is talk about offensives, counter-offensives,” Grossi said. “The concentration of troops, concentration of military equipment, heavy weaponry has grown exponentially in the area near to the plant, which of course, makes us believe that the possibility of an accident, of a renewed attack … could grow.”
More at the link!
Vuhledar:
A conversation of Ukrainian soldiers with two prisoners of the 155th Marine Banzai Brigade of the RF Armed Forces, taken prisoner near Vuhledar. No comment.
Source: "I want to live" project. pic.twitter.com/bU6E3WqWBS
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) March 28, 2023
Sloviansk:
2 people killed and 29 injured in Russian attack on Sloviansk. Two S-300 hit the city center.
Sloviansk was the first Ukrainian city captured by Russia in 2014, it was liberated after three months and has been on the radar of Russian assault ever since. pic.twitter.com/uZmVSet2ij
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) March 27, 2023
If you’re wondering why so many companies have yet to wind down, close their operations, and leave Russia, The Financial Times has your answer:
Every western company seeking to leave Russia and sell its assets in the country will now be obliged to make a direct donation to the Russian state, a commission on foreign investments in the country has said.
The ruling, published on Monday, raises the pressure on western groups that have yet to make a complete exit from Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began 13 months ago.
Under the revised rules, any decision to quit would leave companies facing the criticism that they are funding Russia’s war effort by making direct payments to the state budget.
Nataliia Shapoval, chair of the Kyiv School of Economics’ analytics centre, the KSE Institute, said the move had been “looming” since the summer. Foreign companies seeking to sell their Russian businesses have faced a growing number of restrictions.
“It just highlights that companies should be making decisions faster, because it won’t be getting any easier in the future,” Shapoval said.
Previously, companies leaving Russia could choose between making a “voluntary contribution” to Russia’s state budget — set at 10 per cent of the value of the sale — or acquiesce to having the payment from the sale deferred by several years.
“Many companies were eager to exit Russia as fast as they could, so they opted for this 10 per cent tax and cash straight away, instead of the uncertainty of deferred payment,” a person involved in a recent exit transaction said.
The tighter regime will leave executives seeking to exit with no option but to make a direct contribution to Russia’s budget. “The main difference between the new rules and the previous ones is that the companies do not have a choice any more,” said Ilya Rachkov, a partner at Nektorov, Saveliev & Partners. “It is a real property seizure.”
The decision by the commission affects hundreds of western companies that have indicated plans to withdraw from Russia but have not yet completed their exit.
A person involved in one of the ongoing exit negotiations said that about 2,000 applications were waiting for approval.
“The commission meets three times a month and considers not more than seven applications per meeting — so you can do the maths,” the person said. The finance ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
More at the link!
That’s enough for tonight.
Your daily Patron!
A new video from Patron’s official TikTok!
@patron__dsns Не віддам🙃 #песпатрон
I’m still unable to highlight anything on the TikTok page, so no machine translation of the caption.
Open thread!
Another Scott
I don’t know why Tikitoki won’t let one grab the text. But it shows up in the page source.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
japa21
They can just close their doors. All business is a risk. They lose.
Alison Rose
[insert this-is-fine-dog gif] Every time this shit ticks up again, it terrifies me. Are the orcs really too stupid to understand that if they cause a meltdown or whatever, it’s gonna affect them too??
Speaking of orcs: “It’s not putin, it’s you.” Yep.
Fun little video: Oleksii Reznikov, Ukrainian Minister of Defense: “It was a pleasure to take the first Ukrainian Challenger 2 MBT for a spin”
Thank you as always, Adam.
Gin & Tonic
Can’t decide who’s covered themselves in more shit today: the IOC, or Amnesty International. For perspective on the latter, here is the former country director for AI in Ukraine:
ETA: And here’s a guy you may have heard of commenting on the IOC
Alison Rose
@Gin & Tonic: That AI video, what the actual fuck. Was it scripted by the kremlin??
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
Fuck the IOC and Amnesty. Amnesty is literally whatabouting a war
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: Oh, barf, barf, barf from that video! Too bad I haven’t given AI a cent in a number of years. I’d love the satisfaction of stopping my contributions.
MomSense
Jesus Christ this is terrifying.
MomSense
@Gin & Tonic:
The IOC has been terrible for years. Shame on them for this. But Amnesty International – what the hell are they doing? This is infuriating.
Alison Rose
@zhena gogolia: I wish I’d get one of their donation appeals in the mail, so I can fill the return envelope with sunflower seeds.
japa21
@Alison Rose: No, if it had been scripted by Russia it would have talked about how the support for Ukraine violated Russia’s rights. Look, there is no doubt that there are a lot of things screwed up in the world, and many of the things she mentioned are serious. But to equate them to Ukraine is ludicrous from the onset. And, in fact, many of them have been addressed in various ways. Of course she ignores that.
I lost my feelings of support for AI a while ago. There is a sense of religiosity to their pronouncements and a sense of we know better than anyone else.
As to the IOC, I expect to see countries pull out. And even when some countries don’t pull out, I expect some individual athletes to do so.
japa21
@Alison Rose: That would be beautiful. They must have an address donations can be sent to. Maybe we should start a drive to send them seeds.
Gin & Tonic
BTW, remember that staged video from last night from russia’s MFA? They’ve deleted that tweet without comment.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@japa21:
A strong sense of sanctimony is something that video radiated for sure
If this happens, could the Olympics as we know them end? I.e. The West would have our own Olympic games vs the East/others having theirs?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
What was that video about?
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
Which Klitschko is that — Vitaliy, the mayor of Kyiv, or his brother Vladimir?
Alison Rose
@Gin & Tonic: LOL pathetic
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose: I still get them (they never give up). Good idea!
japa21
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There have been Olympics in the past where countries have refused to attend. It would take a massive boycott.
zhena gogolia
@japa21: Anyone remember 1980?
japa21
@zhena gogolia:
I do.
But then I’m old
Alison Rose
@zhena gogolia: Only half of it.
(I was born in July that year :P)
japa21
@Alison Rose:
Damn you’ve got a good memory. Most people remember little if anything before age 4.
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It appears the russian embassy in the UK still has it up:
It is fake.
NutmegAgain
That Patron bit brings back memories of a Jack Russell Terriorist I used to know; I feel conflicted! So cute and yet so much trouble on 4 legs. Adorable & astonishing little bundles of energy & willpower.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: That appears to be Volodymyr, as Vitaliy’s Twitter handle includes his first name.
Alison Rose
@japa21: I was born under a propitious star, apparently.
(My actual earliest memory is at four and a half, screaming to be let off the kiddie roller coaster at a carnival in New York. Never got on another one my whole life.)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@japa21:
@zhena gogolia:
The 1980 boycotts did cross my mind. I guess increasing tensions around the world over the last couple of years made me think that the Olympics could end. I can’t put my finger on why though
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
I guess that embassy didn’t get the memo. Also, it’s pretty rich coming from russia, considering how Islamophobic that country is. I’m guessing it was completely staged or was some old video from a different context?
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Plenty of tension in the world then too. Ever read about Able Archer?
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Completely staged, and very obviously fake, since dashcams are prohibited in Ukraine and would be the very first thing seized at a military checkpoint.
NutmegAgain
@zhena gogolia: I have a bunch of the free postal return labels they send out as part of the fundraising. I get a tiny joy from tearing the AI logo off each one I use. Petty?, who me??
sanjeevs
Russia’s Economy Is Starting to Come Undone – WSJ
Jay
‘Cronies unit’ keeps Russian MPs and sons 50 miles from front line
Secretive Cascade unit, based somewhere in Donbas, was set up after Vladimir Putin gave mobilisation order in October
Jay
Bill Arnold
@MomSense:
All six reactors at Zaporizhzhia were shut down in September2022, so the cooling needs are to cover the residual radioactive decay in the reactor cores. Not sure of the decay schedule at several months after shutdown (the Ukrainian authorities would know); vaguely recalling single digit megawatts per core from Fukushima.
That is, a meltdown would happen if cooling were not possible, but it would not be catastrophic at this point.
The operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine are worrisome, though. Even with emergency shutdown (like with Fukoshima, which were shut down immediately[1]), the initial radioactive decay is a substantial fraction of the full operating heat production for the first couple of days.
[1]
[2] Learning More from Fukushima Daiichi (2011, R. Garwin)
Lyrebird
@Gin & Tonic: THat amn. international video – for real, or a deep fake? Some kind of master class:
“Here kids, let’s teach you how to do whataboutism!”
I don’t know whether “their allies” means US allies or Ukr allies, but we’re going to minimize the Ukrainians situation because of what was done by the dancing-with-the-Russian-mob Israeli govt? Saudi effing Arabia?
WOW.
Ruckus
@japa21:
For the business that may be not an unreasonable step.
But consider that it’s likely that some/many of those foreign businesses have staff that also needs to leave. In vlad’s russia that might mean pay or stay. And yes it’s ransom. Still, ransom or jail/beating/death. Or be dropped off in Ukraine with a 40 yr old rifle and 10 rounds of ammo and a life expectancy of less than one hour.
Lyrebird
@Alison Rose: Hi AR, we don’t always see things the same way, but can I say, you said exactly the words that came to mind:
I still want to believe that person just wantd to be listed in the urban dictionary under WATF. There is no other credible reason to say that crap.
ETA: full disclosure, I couldn’t stand watching any more after 40 seconds, so I don’t know what came after Yemen. The people there have been suffering grave abuses for years, YES that is true. And in Myanmar. And in Thailand. But WATF, how is minimizing the RF’s brutality in Ukr going to bring any of those people to freedom?
Gin & Tonic
For a little Olympic history, keep in mind that the USSR invaded Hungary literally eight days before the opening ceremony in 1956, and the Games, with their participation, went on unimpeded.
Those who aren’t familiar can look up the story of the USSR-Hungary water polo match in those Games.
Anonymous At Work
Jay
Jay
@Anonymous At Work:
Tear gas is cheap, yes, Ukraine will have to add modern, not Cold War gas masks to their kit.
Tear gas tends to sink, so it’s effective in a trench system when dropped by a drone. In urban areas the fighting has been mostly from inside buildings, over open spaces, where the structure of the building and the open spaces being fought across makes CS gasses less effective.
There is also, that the Moskovite units are experimenting, but as we have seen in the past, that useful tactics evolved by one unit, remain with that unit, as there is no real communication or shared evolution of tactics between units.
Jay
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2023/03/25/being-a-ukrainian-writer-is-a-long-long-tradition-and-it-means-you-are-a-fighter-already/?utm_source=
Jay
patrick II
It seems that AI is offended by Biden’s lack of omnipotence.
Prescott Cactus
@MomSense: The Orcs have control of the plant, so there are no accidents. If something happens, it’s on them.
There is a difference between the Ukraine units and the ones in Japan.
Ukraine is using Pressurized Water Reactors. These have 2 loops. One circulates radioactive steam, the other uses heat transfer to create clean steam to spin the turbine. These are easier for workers to perform duties in because the turbine build is a clean area and doesn’t require suiting up. There is generally more room as piping and equipment is spaced out more because there is less concern about footprint size of non radioactive / contamination areas.
Japan which are Boiling Water Reactors or BWR’s. These use a single loop to run radioactive steam thru the turbine.
Either style has the same problem if there is a Loss of Cooling Accident (LOCA).
Either style plant have refueling schedules that if need can be delayed somewhat. Somewhat. Normally the are shut down every 18 or 24 months. During the 3 to 5 weeks they are down, maintenance work that cannot be done while in operation (high radiation or thermally hot) is performed. All fuel rods are removed, reshuffled with and 1/3 replaced with new ones (Think moving briquettes in a charcoal grill).
Besides normal plant personal, an additional 1,000 to 3,000 workers are brought in depending on the size and scope of the work. Work is normally 6 or 7 days per week and 10 (but mostly) 12 hours a day. We are just over a year into the invasion and plant operations are likely being altered to adapt to possible refueling delays.
MomSense
@Bill Arnold:
I’m just as worried about the spent fuel pools in part because of the experience at Fukushima with sudden loss of power.
Jackie
@japa21: I’m one of the rarity who actually has memories of around 1 years old. They’re like snapshots, and so vivid! My Dad always confirmed my memories. My siblings can’t recall much, if anything, before 4 or 5 years old.
Kent
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Amnesty International isn’t whatabouting a war, they are whatabouting genocide.
Imagine them doing that in 1941.
“1941 is characterized by Germany’s war. But India and the Philippines still lack their freedom.”
Traveller
@Gin & Tonic:
Thank you for the two links in reference to Amnesty International and the Paris Olympics. I probably would not have seen them without your citing them. thanks again.
AlaskaReader
@Alison Rose: Here’s the address for the headquarters.
1 Easton Street, London, WC1X 0DW, UK
I’ll put some seeds in the mail, I like the idea.
Chetan Murthy
@AlaskaReader: It’s good it’s an overseas address; I can imagine the fucknuggets would call the FBI on you for sending them a dangerous substance in the mail, if it were in the US.
AlaskaReader
@Chetan Murthy: …and everyone else.
I just am rethinking the advice to send seeds, …it’s quite probably illegal.
I wouldn’t want anyone to suffer any consequences of the suggestion to send seeds.
Maybe better to send images of seed packs, just to avoid the USDA and USPS regulations against exporting ag products
Mods should remove the comment. Thanks
Chetan Murthy
@AlaskaReader: A way to achieve your goal, and stay legal, might be to order them from a seed company online, for delivery to that address.
ETA: and perhaps as a “gift”, with the card “From the Ukrainian people”. Ha!
AlaskaReader
@Chetan Murthy: …afraid it wouldn’t work, the seed companies deal with the regulations and simply wouldn’t fill the order.
Ag product bans are fairly strictly enforced, take a look at the ag and postal regs just to try to send garden materials between states.
Here’s what the USDA has to offer just for starters and that’s not to mention USPS regs:
Chetan Murthy
@AlaskaReader: Ah, so I was thinking that you could order it from an online seed company in the UK. And heck, maybe Amazon in the UK sells seeds ?
Chetan Murthy
@Chetan Murthy: Regardless, it’s still not the wisest idea, I’ll admit.
AlaskaReader
@Chetan Murthy: There you’ve got it.
I’ll find a source in the UK and share it.
AlaskaReader
https://budgetseeds.co.uk/shop/ols/products/giant-sunflower-20-seeds
It cost a couple bucks but they had PayPal. Made it easy.
Here’s that address again:
Amnesty International
1 Easton Street, London, WC1X 0DW, UK
evodevo
@japa21: AI, 311 W. 43rd St. 7th floor, NY, NY 10036
Uncle Cosmo
@AlaskaReader: How tall a building is that, and how high up are the Damnasty Internazional** orifices?
Be a real shame if any of their policy-making officials took a long walk off a 10th floor balcony, now, wouldn’t it? //
Bastards.
** Or maybe Amnazis Intentional. Anyone come up with anything pithier? Bastards I say, though that unfairly demeans those born out of wedlock…
GibberJack
@Jay: Since the Russians have shown they will use gas, I wonder if tear gas won’t be the only kind of gas they will use.
If there is a gas that kills or maims a year or two after exposure, I’d bet they’d use it. Deploy it with the tear gas for deniability. They are not trying to just defeat Ukraine, they want to annihilate it.
Chetan Murthy
This RUSI report is very, very interesting: https://static.rusi.org/202303-SR-Unconventional-Operations-Russo-Ukrainian-War-web-final.pdf.pdf