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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War for Ukraine Day 746: A Brief Sunday Night Update

War for Ukraine Day 746: A Brief Sunday Night Update

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Just a quick housekeeping note. Last week was very busy and I have two more – this and the one after – just like it. So updates may be briefer as I just touch the basics and important breaking news.

Last night in comments Wombat Probability Cloud asked:

Adam, you may have addressed this already, but if not can you comment on whether interdiction of Iranian munitions is possible and the potential blowback? If “we” (UKA/US/NATO) could pull that off, who would they cry to?

The answer is yes and probably not. Anything that Iran ships via ship is something we could interdict. Provided we have the resources available to do so. Anything that Iran sends overland by rail or truck or by air is much, much harder. Provided the land routes are through states that are either friendly towards Iran, Russia, or both, we would have almost no ability to stop the shipments. Anything in the air would require us to force down an Iranian or Russian cargo plane. We’re not going to do that.

West of the Rockies asked:

“Russia is using social media” as a weapon against the West.  Is the West doing the same in return?  If not, why not?  If so, can anyone point to any publicly known examples?

NATO has a Strategic Communication Center of Excellence (COE). Their 2016 report on Russian information warfare was linked to last night in the Foreign Policy piece I copied and pasted.

What’s America doing? This:

U.S. Cyber Command saw an opportunity to strike a blow in the meme wars last October — just in time for Halloween.

The command had identified two new pieces of Russian malware and was looking for a way to publicize the threat. A hoped-for bonus: Cyber Command wanted to land a sick burn on Russian hackers.

But according to internal communications obtained by the nonprofit open government organization MuckRock through the Freedom of Information Act, Cyber Command took more than three weeks to design and fine-tune the meme before posting it — an eternity in the fleeting world of online feuding.

And though Cyber Command intended to create something to wound Russian hackers’ egos and cause “their boss to … [lose] their s*** on them” after seeing it, as an unidentified official told CyberScoop last year, what they posted was significantly less savage: A bumbling cartoon bear trick-or-treating in stereotypical Soviet get-up, tripping over itself and spilling candy labeled with Russian malware such as ComRAT and X-Agent.

Peter Singer, a senior fellow at the think tank New America and expert on cybersecurity and cyberwar, told Military.com on Thursday that the episode shows the government is starting to take some necessary steps forward, but still has a long way to go “in the new battle of ‘likes’ that actually have real-world impact.”

Most notably, Singer said, the government needs to move a lot faster if it hopes to keep up in the fast-moving world of online discourse.

Here’s the meme:

And here’s the link to the FOIAed After Action Report (AAR). I’m sure there’s other stuff going on. I wouldn’t expect much.

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

More air defense systems and means of destruction of Russian aviation bring peace closer – address by the President of Ukraine

10 March 2024 – 22:08

Dear Ukrainians!

A few important things for this day and these weeks.

First of all, our defenders of the sky.

I would like to recognize all Ukrainian warriors who defend our sky every day and night. Only this Sunday night they managed to shoot down 35 “Shahed” drones. In total, since the beginning of March, Russian terrorists have already used 175 such killer drones against Ukraine. Fortunately, 151 of them were shot down by our warriors. And this is a very important result. Yes, not all of them. Yes, there are hits. Unfortunately, there are losses. There are casualties. But there are also people saved.

I am grateful to every warrior of our mobile firing groups in all regions of combat duty. I am grateful to every pilot and engineer of the Air Force, to all our air defense warriors. We will further enhance our firepower and Ukrainian air defense. More air defense systems and other means of destruction of Russian aviation bring peace closer. I am grateful to everyone in the world who helps us with this. Ukraine will have more air defense systems – we are working very hard on this.

Second. Our Defense Forces consist of many elements. Many brigades and units. And everyone who serves at the front, everyone who defends the state from Russian saboteurs and terror, everyone who performs combat missions deserves gratitude and respect. Russian murderers and torturers are not moving further into Europe only because they are being held back by Ukrainians with weapons in their hands and under the blue and yellow flag. In Ukraine, there were many once-white walls of houses and churches that are now scorched and ruined by Russian shells. And this speaks very eloquently about who has to stop for the war to end.

Anyone who protects life and people fulfills the most honorable possible mission amid such an inhuman invasion. And we must fully protect life in our home. And I thank everyone who supports our defense, Ukrainian defenders.

When the Russian evil started this war on February 24, all Ukrainians stood up for defense. Christians, Muslims, Jews – everyone. I thank every Ukrainian chaplain who is with the army, in the Defense Forces. They are on the frontline, protecting life and humanity, supporting with prayer, conversation, and deeds. This is what the church is – it is together with people, not two and a half thousand kilometers away somewhere, virtually mediating between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you. I thank everyone who is doing everything in Ukraine and with Ukraine to save lives, I thank everyone who is helping and who is really with us through actions and prayers.

Today I would like to recognize the servicemen of our National Guard who are fighting alongside everyone else on the frontline in the east and south of Ukraine. The warriors of the 3rd operational brigade – Junior Sergeant Viktor Ivanov and Lieutenant Kyrylo Kudinov. The 5th Slobozhanska Brigade of the National Guard – soldiers Serhiy Turilkin and Mykola Hnatyuk. I would also like to recognize the warriors of the 1st and 3rd assault squads of the Omega Special Forces Center of the National Guard. Thank you for your skills and the results Ukraine needs.

Also, following these weeks, we have reasons for gratitude to the servicemen of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine – the details should not be disclosed publicly now, but the enemy definitely feels their work. And the more the Russian state loses, the sooner all this evil of war will disappear from our land.

Today I spoke with French President Macron. The conversation lasted more than an hour. I am grateful to Emmanuel for his new initiatives in support of Ukraine, for his leadership, which gives all of us in Europe strength. I am grateful for the new defense package. We discussed the schedule and key expected results of our upcoming meeting in Ukraine.

One more thing. The holy month of Ramadan is now beginning for Muslims in Ukraine and around the world. And this year, unfortunately, Ramadan is overshadowed by ongoing war and suffering. May this month bring us all closer to a fair and just peace. Not only for Ukraine. But for all the nations that are suffering from war. Humanity is capable of achieving a level of unity where justice protects life from wars.

I am grateful to everyone who helps Ukraine and Ukrainians! I am grateful to everyone who defends life and justice!

Ramadan Mubarak! Glory to Ukraine!

The excerpt from President Zelenskyy is in the copied and pasted transcript of his address above. Here is the remainder of Foreign Minister Kuleba’s tweet:

The strongest is the one who, in the battle between good and evil, stands on the side of good rather than attempting to put them on the same footing and call it “negotiations”.

At the same time, when it comes to the white flag, we know this Vatican’s strategy from the first half of the twentieth century. I urge to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and to support Ukraine and its people in their just struggle for their lives.

Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags.

We thank His Holiness Pope Francis for his constant prayers for peace, and we continue to hope that after two years of devastating war in the heart of Europe, the Pontiff will find an opportunity to pay an Apostolic visit to Ukraine to support over a million Ukrainian Catholics, over five million Greek-Catholics, all Christians, and all Ukrainians.

 

Overnight, russia attacked Ukraine with 39 “Shahed” kamikaze drones.
Ukrainian air defenders shot down 35 UAVs.

Great work by our warriors. Thank you for your service!
We are also grateful to our partners for strengthening Ukraine’s air defense capabilities.

📷: 53rd Mechanized Brigade (Illustrative photo)

For you Oscar enthusiasts:

The southern front:

 

Germany:

Someone linked to this in the comments last night, I apologize for forgetting who.

Opposition leader of the CDU and potential next German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, delivered a fiery speech yesterday night in Stuttgart. I translated the core message.

Since I have been saying this for years and even carry this message in my signature, I approve this message by 100%.

Here is the whole address by CDU leader Friedrich Merz. I can’t vouch for the quality of the English dub.

 

Russia:

I don’t know if Putin thinks he’s god, but he’s certainly completely all in on the alternative history he used to promote, then added to and expanded on, and now seems to accept as actual fact.

Khanty-Mansi Oblast, Russia:

St. Petersburg, Russia:

 

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

There are no new Patron tweets or videos, so here’s some adjacent material from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

19Comments

  2. 2.

    West of the Rockies

    Thank you, Adam, for the post and answering my query.   I hope the response to Russian cyber hijinks gets better, faster, sharper.

    Good luck with your next two busy weeks.

  4. 4.

    Jay

    This is what the church is – it is together with people, not two and a half thousand kilometers away somewhere, virtually mediating between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you.

    Nice dig at the Pope.

  6. 6.

    Jay

    I hope the response to Russian cyber hijinks gets better, faster, sharper.

    Hard to do when most social media has become an unmoderated swamp and some previously “esteemed” sites for mass communication have gone full Nazi.

  8. 8.

    Bill Arnold

    @Jay:

    Hard to do when most social media has become an unmoderated swamp and some previously “esteemed” sites for mass communication have gone full Nazi.

    The difficult part is doing it without taking damage to oneself.
    The influence methods used by the Fasc (and by the Russians, if one distinguishes them from the Fasc, and by other hostile forces) are generic, and can be used against them. There are plenty of fault lines among hostile forces to wedge open, etc. (But they must be well-understood and reasonably-accurately modeled.)
    Whether it is wise to engage in this way, as opposed to, say, focusing almost-entirely on defense, including rapidly (real time) and reliably identifying and disabling influence networks, is a valid question.
    Elon Musk, through making twitter API access too expensive for anyone but those with considerable funding, has basically blocked a lot of people (including academics) from hunts for influence networks, and twitter itself is quite obviously (I have observed this) practicing with tools like account shadowbanning/deboosting for use near the 2024 USA elections.
    (I used to be able to use the twitter API to do thorough checks on accounts. No more.)

  11. 11.

    Jay

    @Bill Arnold:

    When Empty Husk fired all the moderators from Shitter, they replaced them with “Community Notes”, basically crowd sourcing “fact checking”.

    In theory, (never happened), accounts that accumulated too many “Community Notes”, would be stripped of Ad revenue, rate limited, (shadow banned) or deplatformed.

    In reality, Apartheid Clyde strips community notes from his Shits, and the Shits of his favorite Nazi’s, bots and trolls.

  14. 14.

    glc

    I haven’t paid much attention to internal politics in Germany in a very long time but that speech sent me looking for context. I see there is strain in the current coalition with the FDP also strongly supporting Ukraine, but – according to something I’ve seen just now – the CDU would be prepared to step in to replace the Greens and FDP if given their current ministerial positions.

    The next federal election would normally be in October 2025. The party split also reflects a split in public opinion.  I wonder though, looking at the parties and their supporters, which is the cart and which is the horse on this issue.

  16. 16.

    JCJ

    Hi Adam.  Not sure if someone posted the German CDU leader in the comments, but I sent the X link to you in an email last night, but forgot to tell you which commenter sent it.  I will watch the full version,  but I can vouch for the subtitles in the excerpt from (((Tendar)))

  17. 17.

    Lyrebird

    Just an adjacent topic for artillery buffs and specifically for YY if they read this later: Twitter link to video from China of maybe Indian troops, h/t quaoar from DKos.  (If you don’t want to visit Xitter, click on the DKos link and scroll down to the bottom of the post, & the video should play there.)

  18. 18.

    tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)

    Thank you, Adam. I learn something from every one of your posts.

  19. 19.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Lyrebird: Ha, saw that video in my Twitter feed. It certainly shows Indian troops operating their domestic 155 mm towed howitzer in a demonstration. I think the exaggerated stepping is entirely ceremonial. That video, or those similar to it, has been floating on Chinese social media for at least 10 years.

    There is a tendency among Chinese nationalists to post videos & comments disparaging of India (military, infrastructure, urban development, standard of living, hygiene, whatever), & Indian nationalists tend to magnify whatever Falun Gong conspiracy theories about China they find on Twitter. Just sh*t flinging all the way around.

Comments are closed.