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The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

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People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War for Ukraine Day 454: Touch Not the Cat Bot a Glove!

War for Ukraine Day 454: Touch Not the Cat Bot a Glove!

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(Image by NEIVANMADE)

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1660993994283778049?cxt=HHwWgoC8tZnPhI0uAAAA

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

The key task of our state is to strengthen Ukraine and enhance our defense capabilities – address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

23 May 2023 – 22:24

Good health to you, fellow Ukrainians!

Today I was in the Donetsk region, at our frontline positions near Vuhledar and Maryinka. I had the honor to congratulate our marines on their professional holiday, the Day of the Ukrainian Marines.

I presented state awards to the warriors and ribbons “For Courage and Bravery” to the best units defending this part of the frontline. I’m sure you remember these units – in my evening addresses, I often thank them for the extraordinary results they ensure for Ukraine in combat. Today I have awarded them personally. These are the 35th separate marine brigade named after Rear Admiral Mykhailo Ostrohradskyi, the 406th separate artillery brigade named after Brigadier General Oleksiy Almazov and the 140th separate reconnaissance battalion. These are very powerful units, and I am grateful to each of you, warriors!

And thank you for the chevrons, it’s really a great honor!

Today, exactly on the frontline, it was the right thing to announce the creation of a Marine Corps in Ukraine. New marine brigades will be added to our existing units, and we will provide them with modern weapons and equipment.

In fact, this trip to the frontline was the final component after numerous meetings and negotiations with partners that took place these days and in the previous weeks.

Everyone should understand this: the key task of our country and the purpose of virtually every international communication of ours is to strengthen Ukraine, to bolster our defense, to increase the capabilities of our warriors and our country as a whole. Every foreign visit and almost every negotiation allows Ukraine to become stronger.

Of course, I would also like to thank our 36th separate marine brigade named after Rear Admiral Mykhailo Bilynskyi. This unit, fighting now, often deserves gratitude for its strength and efficiency. And it is fair to mention them now as well. Thank you and congratulations on your day!

Warriors from the 137th separate marine battalion – I thank you today personally – every soldier – for the very good results you are achieving on the frontline. Well done! And congratulations on your holiday!

Congratulations to everyone who is gaining respect for the title of Ukrainian marine!

Today I also have the honor to thank other units of our defense forces who are fighting in the most violent areas…

The 55th separate artillery brigade “Zaporizhzhia Sich” is always good, always effective. Thank you, warriors!

The 59th separate mechanized infantry brigade named after Yakiv Handziuk is, as always, the strongest! Thank you!

The 74th separate reconnaissance battalion – thank you, warriors!

The 5th separate Slobozhanska brigade of our National Guard, which is fighting in the Luhansk region together with other units of the defense forces, defending its positions and destroying the Russian occupiers in the way that is necessary… Thank you, our warriors!

I thank everyone who gives Ukraine strength! The strength of our state now, the strength of our defense now, is the basis of the strength of the rules-based international order.

We will win together!

Glory to Ukraine!

Today is Ukrainian Marine Corps Day.

https://twitter.com/oleksiireznikov/status/1660900337740283905?cxt=HHwWgoCw5dWD2owuAAAA

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1660949692669378561?cxt=HHwWgoDS1cC88IwuAAAA

I looked, but could not find any reporting on the flavor of the crayons served as refreshments.

https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1660935661858291712?cxt=HHwWgIC8_eaL6owuAAAA

Bakhmut:

(Adjacent…)

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1661109071099863040?cxt=HHwWgICxwcb5uI0uAAAA

 

Vuhledar-Maryinka:

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1660981401624391681

Avdiivka:

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1661122966334197760?cxt=HHwWgMC-ia6iv40uAAAA

Here’s more on Belgorod:

https://twitter.com/maria_avdv/status/1661094140950487046?cxt=HHwWjICxncCUso0uAAAA

https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1661078179329523712

From The Financial Times:

Far-right militias who stormed a Russian region bordering Ukraine this week used US-made tactical vehicles in the attack, raising questions over Kyiv’s support for the Ukraine-based Russian extremist groups.

Ukraine has denied direct involvement in the raid on Monday, but one military official acknowledged “co-operating” with the nationalist groups, who on Monday entered Russian territory to “liberate” a village.

Denis Nikitin, leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps, told the Financial Times that his fighters assaulting the Belgorod region were in possession of American-made military vehicles. These included at least two M1224 MaxxPro armoured vehicles and several Humvees, he said, while declining to disclose how they were obtained.

Some but not all images of US-made vehicles in the raid were taken on the Russian side of the border, according to FT analysis of the videos and photos. Russian defence ministry footage separately showed the US-made tactical vehicles damaged by gunfire and apparently abandoned.

Ukraine has received the same military vehicles from the US as part of the $37bn worth of assistance provided to the country in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion.

American officials have repeatedly stressed that they are not encouraging or enabling Ukrainian forces or their allies to attack inside Russia using US equipment. One US official said: “We are sceptical about the veracity of such reports and remain in close contact with our Ukrainian counterparts.”

State department spokesman Matthew Miller said it was up to Ukraine to decide how to conduct their military operations but that the US opposes attacks in Russian territory. “We have made very clear to the Ukrainians that we don’t enable or encourage attacks outside Ukrainians’ borders,” he said.

Initially, Ukrainian officials publicly kept their distance from the Russian sabotage units.

But on Tuesday, Andriy Chernyak, an official from Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate, HUR, acknowledged for the first time some form of co-operation with the Russian Volunteer Corps and Free Russia Legion.

“Of course, we communicate with them. Of course, we share some information,” Chernyak said. “And, one might say, we even co-operate.”

However, he said that Ukraine’s military was not directly involved in the attack, suggesting that it was the Russians’ own initiative.

“They are rebelling,” he said. Chernyak also denied having supplied the militias with any equipment. All western weaponry obtained by the Ukrainian armed forces remains “under . . . the toughest control”, he said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office declined to comment on the Belgorod incursion and the use of American equipment.

The Russian Volunteer Corps, founded by Nikitin last summer to fight against his home country’s invading army, includes self-avowed neo-Nazis. Born in Moscow, Nikitin also uses the surname Kapustin and goes by the call sign White Rex. This is also the name of his white nationalist clothing brand, which is popular among western far-right extremists.

“Nikitin is a real self-promoter, an intelligent, educated man who seems to be primarily interested in his own power, image, and standing,” said Michael Colborne, a journalist at the open-source investigative group Bellingcat who leads its research on the global far-right.

Colborne identified another member of the Russian Volunteer Corps in photographs posted by the group during its Belgorod operation as Russian Aleksandr Skachkov, a rightwing extremist. Skachkov was arrested in Ukraine in 2020 during a raid on people selling translations of the manifesto of the gunman behind the 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, according to Bellingcat.

The Free Russia Legion says it was formed after the full-scale invasion in spring 2022, “based on the desire of Russians to fight against [Vladimir] Putin’s armed gang”. The legion claims to be officially recognised by the Ukrainian military “and under the leadership of the Ukrainian command”.

Much more at the link!

And if anyone is still unclear, the plan is to not stop with Ukraine. It is to also take the Baltics and Finnland and Poland and Moldova and Romania, etc, etc, etc.

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1661049774194278432?cxt=HHwWwIC-kYL-nY0uAAAA

Here is the full text of the first tweet:

Self-proclaimed “fighter against nazis”, the president of the so-called Russian Federation had a lackey bring him a 17th-century map to show that no Ukraine existed back then. Typically, this is enough grounds for him to kill several hundred thousand of foreign and own people in the 21st century. After over a year of getting beaten, having ran his country into the ground, and leaving it with no future, the accused child kidnapper continues pushing the line he made up just to stay in power for the rest of his life.

And of the second:

Notice the words “quasi-state developments” he used: he is not just talking about Ukraine, he is also talking about the Baltic countries, perhaps Finland, Central Asia, and other nations and territories that were fully or partially annexed by the Russian Empire. For this individual, none of these states should exist, they should be eliminated and annexed back to Russia.

That’s enough for tonight.

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Open thread!

Reader Interactions

90Comments

  1. 1.

    Roger Moore

    I looked, but could not find any reporting on the flavor of the crayons served as refreshments.

    These are Ukrainian marines, not USMC.

  9. 9.

    Jay

    Lots of news today,

    One OSINT poster ripped apart Mordor’s claims of captured and damaged equiptment and the “dead” bodies, noting that the Orc’s dragged previously destroyed equiptment that had been filmed elsewhere, added in 2 fakes, and the “bodies” were wearing Orc pattern pixellated camo, not Woodland like the Rebels wear.

    Doc on the 93rd’

    The 93rd brigade is on the frontlines of this war since 2014. If you want to learn more about their heroic past I highly recommend this 3 part documentary by Lidi Ya Films: t.co/gN3ZjRJApMEternal glory to Heros! 🫡❤️🕯️/4— Scaniaha 🇺🇦 (@scaniahaha) May 17, 2023

    and me LMAO,

    The biggest mystery is how on earth they were able to advance through most advance russian pyramid defenses pic.twitter.com/uqCUhCe0QI— sichꑭsirko (@kozaksho) May 22, 2023

  11. 11.

    Devore

    So how did a handful of troops punch through the ‘massive’ Russian defenses at their border and then quickly get close to Belograd?   Imagine what trouble a couple of armor brigades could cause.

     

    seems more like a pre offensive shaping operation to throw the Russians off guard

  14. 14.

    Jay

    Oh, and the Orc’s are still shelling Belgorod, to defeat the rebels that have long since left.

  17. 17.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: You’ll get a kick out of this. I used FROG in a discussion with a PSYOPer the other day and then had to translate from Red Leg as they had no idea what I was talking about.

  19. 19.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Devore: This was a raid, pure and simple. In Native American terms they were counting coup. Remember what I keep writing about revolutionary warfare. The guerrilla warfare/small war component is important, but is not the key component. You don’t need to kill that many of your own people. What you really need, the real key components are political action and civic action. You have to out administer the enemy. What these guys did yesterday was the guerrilla warfare element. Use focused and limited kinetic action to create an opening. They will need to do many more of these. But if they do and they’re successful, then there will be an opportunity for subversion; to out administrate the enemy.

  23. 23.

    Jay

    You’ve heard the saying that Russia were thought to be the 2nd army of the world.

    Then we found out they’re the second army in Ukraine.

    But…. Now, they’re the second army in Russia also! 😂

    The Legion Freedom of Russia are doing well!

    They’ve also managed to capture a T90 pic.twitter.com/bQdDvfxMg9— Sytheruk (@Sytheruk) May 23, 2023

  27. 27.

    Anonymous At Work

    @Adam L Silverman: I’ve viewed the end-game as Russian packs up and heads home, back to 2020 borders if not 2014 borders, and UA follows.  One step in that path is Putin being deposed by another strongman.  If guerilla raids help deflate the macho image of Putin and make it more likely he’ll take a clip to teh back of the head, then more guerilla raids.
    That said, any chance with their apparent gear and abilities that they could do anything of consequence to the Russian infrastructure  in the meantime?

  29. 29.

    OverTwistWillie

    You gotta give it to the boys working Russian propaganda. They got that photo shoot staged and the pics on putin’s desk in no time.

  31. 31.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Adam L Silverman: Adam, thank you for your many writings over the years, preparing us for understanding all this.  And of course, for your writings nightly during this war, but really, the seminar you’ve been running for the last …. 7+ years is what’s really done it.

    I know you feel there’s no room for a book, but I still gotta wonder ….

  32. 32.

    japa21

    @Jay: ​
      Compare the group at the ending of that clip (the anti-putin group) with pictures of the home grown militias here in the US. One actually looks competent and it ain’t the US ones.

  33. 33.

    Jay

    @Anonymous At Work:

    We used to get  6″ “fig bars” in ours. (NoName Fig Newtons) Peaches were gold, Chili Con Carne was death to be avoided, and we would carve our numbers and the date into the fig bar, because if we didn’t eat it, they would repackage and reissue it.

    Earliest I ever found was 1961, same year I was born, from a Black Watch guy on the other side of the country.

    Got dressed down once on an exercise for feeding my guys “country food”.

  35. 35.

    Anoniminous

    In order to free Russia Russians attacked Russia which was stopped by Russians who then pushed back the Russians so that Russians could liberate Russia from Russia.

    Is that where we stand?​

  37. 37.

    Grumpy Old Railroader

    So if Putin is using a 17th Century map to infer Ukraine never existed, I guess he plans on giving Crimea back to the Tartars. Also good-bye to Kaliningrad

    Also somebody here a month or so ago posted a link to Timothy Snyder’s Yale course on Ukraine history and I have been wading through it. Fascinating and thank you whoever that was. It is a fantastic journey through Eastern European history and bonus points because I get to brag about being educated at Yale

  38. 38.

    Dan B

    So it seems that the Belgorod invasion forces are far right.  I’m not feeling good about this.  Sparking a right wing revolt seems like out of the frying pan and into the fire.  And they managed to get American equipment.  Does this seem bad news to anyone besides me?

  39. 39.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Dan B: I noted last night that is I was getting a little Finland Station vibe from it.  Unintended consequences….

  41. 41.

    Captain C

    @Grumpy Old Railroader:

    So if Putin is using a 17th Century map to draw the Ukraine never existed, I guess he plans on giving Crimea back to the Tartars. Also good-bye to Kaliningrad

    Also St. Petersburg and environs would go back to Sweden, IIRC.

  42. 42.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Anonymous At Work: They can do some damage. They’re not really equipped to do a lot at once or to sustain doing a bit at a time over an extended period. These are get in, create damage and chaos and fear, and get out.

  43. 43.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Chetan Murthy: The debt showdown, it’s subversion. Biden’s going back on no negotiation, that’s being out administrated. Prigozhin’s activities in Africa: subversion. The PRC’s Belt and Road Initiative, as well as their defense and cultural equivalents: subversion. What ISIS and AQ and Boko are doing: subversion. All different flavors with different contexts, but all of them are attempts to out administrate to gain influence and control.

  44. 44.

    Jay

    @Dan B:

    one group is “Far Right”, the other is not, but,………

    the “Far Right” group is formed from Football Ultra’s and their “Far Right” rep is pre-2013.

    Kinda like NAFO, Azov and Saint Javelin are also “Nazi’s”.

  45. 45.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Anoniminous: Don’t forget the Russians shooting down the Russian attack chopper responding to the Russians who had invaded Russia.

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Dan B: One group is – the Russian Volunteer Corps – the other is not – the Free Russian Legion/Legion Svoboda.

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jay: I haven’t seen any more, but I’ve been so busy I also didn’t have a chance to look. I’ll try to check for tomorrow night.

  49. 49.

    Adam L Silverman

    That’s it for me, got a 4 AM start tomorrow. Don’t ask! Catch everyone on the flip!

  56. 56.

    Jay

    The border between Russia and Ukraine might be long but the border station here is not what a small and forgotten outpost looks like. It is revealing that Russia hasn’t any sufficient defense capabilities here.

    Russia finds herself now in a very awkward situation. Moscow… pic.twitter.com/mtQ6IvlOI7— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) May 23, 2023

  57. 57.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Jay: I think those HUMVEE copies had been sold to Belarus, so probably where the Russian propagandists obtained them from.

  58. 58.

    Another Scott

    re NEIVANMADE’s picture up-top and the thread title:

    Coral 🦉
    @[email protected]

    My spouse claims (statistically correctly) that not everyone has seen this meme, and given how often I repeat it to myself (out of order, admittedly), I am here to help. This is from a veterinary training guide.

    (via mastodon.social/@delong )

    Good advice!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  61. 61.

    Jay

    @OverTwistWillie:

    NAFO doesn’t have any Foo Fighters.

    Aliens offered one back in April, near Kiev, but the NAFO ERA crew shot it down before communication could be made, properly.

  67. 67.

    The Pale Scot

    To see the extent of RU’s corruption of global media, google “zaluzhny missing”.

    RU has been the only source that Zaluzhny is missing, it’s being repeated on hundreds of websites

  68. 68.

    Another Scott

    @Chetan Murthy: Yes, but he was wrong.  ;-)

    They're not yellow seas (first image), and they're definitely not XZLs (second image), while it's a close resemblance, the actual tires on that particular chassis above are Belshina-95s (third image) Belarusian made, the tread pattern is exactly that of the third image pic.twitter.com/omJARYXWTZ

    — Jessa'Leih V. V'oudescu (Shojannah) (@ShojannahTuriri) March 3, 2022

    (via Adam’s thread from March 4, 2022 )

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  70. 70.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Adam L Silverman:

    They can do some damage. They’re not really equipped to do a lot at once or to sustain doing a bit at a time over an extended period. These are get in, create damage and chaos and fear, and get out.

    They are going to find the “get out” part pretty much unachievable. These guys are not guerrillas, but rather Garibaldi-style-liberators-in-their-own-minds. They actually believe that they are liberating Russian territory. Their force probably has less than another two days to live, and that’s also the current life expectancy of most of their recruits.

    The only difference between this op and the Bay of Pigs is that the Pentagon and the CIA expected the Cuban “liberators” to be greeted with open arms and spark an uprising against Castro. I’m pretty sure the Ukrainians have no comparable delusions concerning the fate of these poor dumbasses. The few that survive will be in the Gulag by Saturday.

  71. 71.

    Chetan Murthy

    I got around to reading the Luke Mogelson piece in The New Yorker: he embeds with a couple of units on the outskirts of Bakhmut, and chronicles their lives and their histories.  Oof.  Gut punch.  You read it, and it seems clear that they’re really taking the brunt without really any sort of rotation/relief, and not very much in the way of equipment.  It’s ….. difficult to contemplate.  The death toll is staggering.

  72. 72.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Carlo Graziani:

    Their force probably has less than another two days to live

    It will be interesting to see if you’re right about this, Carlo.  I have a much more cynical POV, but hey, I’m also a terrible judge of human systems, so ….  I figured they’d understand that to actually succeed at their goal, they need to *inspire* many thousands (tens, hundreds of thousands) to rise up all over Russia: that there’s no way they can do it in just one small region.  But hey, like I said, I’m a terrible judge of humans and their motivations.  You might be right, that they’re that high on their own supply.  It’d be a terrible waste of fighters, if so.

  73. 73.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Carlo Graziani: Considering at least the Russian Volunteer Group is made up of Russian ethnonationalists/white supremacists, & they have already served their purpose of diverting some Russian resources & attention for a bit, getting crushed & the few survivors sent to Gulags in Siberia is a good outcome.

  74. 74.

    Jay

    @Carlo Graziani:

    they are already out, lost one MRAP, got a T-90 and a BTR, in exchange, no casualties, as of early this AM. Ruzzia is still shelling and bombing Russia to repel the invaders who arn’t there.

  75. 75.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Chetan Murthy: If you want a cynic-off: in my opinion, it’s not impossible that these Russian “fighters” were so unmanageable, incompetent, and neuralgenic to their UA commanders that they were given a few vehicles and weapons and told to choose their own mission, just so that the UA could wash their of them.

  77. 77.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Jay: If I had their Twitter feed and 2 pounds of salt on a plate, I’d eat the salt, and leave their “information”.

    But whatevs. In a couple of days the bullshit clouds should settle a bit, and we’ll have a better idea of what went down.

  79. 79.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Jay: I saw rumint of another partisan incursion in Kursk ?  Picadors planting barbs in the bull’s sides, wot.

  81. 81.

    Jay

    @Chetan Murthy:

    some is, some is not, eg. Train derailments

    It’s an old NVSD/KGB thing, encourage people to do shit so you can crack down and genocide a local population.

  83. 83.

    Sebastian

    Just wanted to drop this off quickly. Looks like some of the raiders are back in Ukraine.

     

    After the raid in the Belgorod People’s Republic, russian volunteers (RDK) return to Ukraine.
    Waiting for new raids. pic.twitter.com/pIHxRybkpo
    — Ukraine Front Lines (@EuromaidanPR) May 23, 2023

  84. 84.

    The Pale Scot

    CRAZY…

    I don’t even want or know how to comment this insanity… The student began to cut the throat of a classmate right during the last call. It all happened in the village of Ilovlya, Volgograd region at an end of year celebration.

    Lucky girl, if this was was over here, a dozen bodies easy.. Send this kid to the front.

  85. 85.

    Chetan Murthy

    @The Pale Scot: i’ve read that crime is increasing  dramatically all over Russia, and this was happening even before the prisoner survivors finished their contracts.

  87. 87.

    Mallard Filmore

    @Sebastian: 

    Looks like some of the raiders are back in Ukraine.

    One of my favorite YouTube channels has a nice description of a somewhat up to date situation.

    link: youtu.be/vAOXAepQnns
    title: ” 23 May: FREE ENTRY. Russians Have No Reserves to React | War in Ukraine Explained”

    The rebel Russians have retreated somewhat, to get behind a defensive line.

  89. 89.

    Kyle Rayner

    @YY_Sima Qian: Still think the whole idea of them going to Gulags is the least likely scenario. Their options are retreat to Ukraine, be KIA, or be tortured to death somewhere quiet where it will take decades to find what’s left of the bodies. Chest-beating Russians just won’t know what else to do with all the humiliation and embarrassment that these guys have stirred up in them.

  90. 90.

    Another Scott

    nycsouthpaw points us to this:

    Full disclosure up front: McCain provided me with my nomination to the Naval Academy.

    He was an irascible goat, and wrong on a number of things, but he was absolutely prescient on Ukraine and other things (including who Donald Trump was)

    When he died, it was the end of the GOP. t.co/1AHaGLa81s

    — Brynn Tannehill (@BrynnTannehill) May 24, 2023

    She’s right.

    It includes a tweet with a great short “Hardtalk” interview segment with McCain (from 2015).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

Comments are closed.