Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Let me file that under fuck it.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

… gradually, and then suddenly.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War for Ukraine Day 770: Kharkiv Is Under Attack!

War for Ukraine Day 770: Kharkiv Is Under Attack!

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Screen shot of new artwork by NEIVANMADE. The background is black. In the bottom foreground are grey Ukrainian homes and apartment buildings being bombarded by red Russian missiles with the Special Military Operation "Z" symbol on them. Above the missiles, written in red is the word "Ruzzians". Below the buildings being attacked is the statement "Turns Homes Into Graves".

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

As I write this Kharkiv is under attack!

Right now all of eastern Ukraine is under air raid alert.

 

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

We clearly understand what Russia is preparing for; we and all our partners must have a clear response to Russian operations – address by the President of Ukraine

3 April 2024 – 21:47

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

There is a new security agreement for our country. This is the eighth one – now with Finland. Today we signed it in Kyiv during the visit of the new President of Finland. He arrived together with the Speaker of the Parliament, and this is the first time such a joint visit has been made, moreover, the first visit of the new President has been made specifically to Ukraine. It is very symbolic, and we appreciate this symbolic support. Just as we appreciate all the practical support provided by Finland for our defense and our people. Today we have a new package of defense support. We talked in great detail about the need to bolster air defense. We also talked about defense production – about joint projects on weapons, on shells. This is where our countries can do much more together. And we have agreed today that the teams of our countries will work together as actively as before.

It is important to say that Finland clearly understands the necessity of Ukraine’s integration into the European Union and NATO. I thank you for your willingness to help, to provide arguments in favor of an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO. In general, we can say that the entire Finnish society, all political forces equally understand the importance of our defense in this war for our entire region, for the whole of Europe. And we must not waste time, we must interact more, do more together, and convince other partners to be more active. It’s all about our common security, about protecting millions of people from Russian murderers.

I also had several phone calls today. The first was with Prime Minister Kishida. I thanked him for the comprehensive assistance provided both for our security and for our economic resilience. And for the political support. Japan is among the global leaders in assisting Ukraine and upholding international law. I briefed Mr. Prime Minister on the situation on the battlefield, its prospects, and our needs, including everything that would help us repel Russian attacks. It was a fruitful conversation. And after the recent decisions of the Japanese government, Japan’s total support for Ukraine has already exceeded $12 billion.

Today I also spoke with the new Prime Minister of Portugal. We coordinated our work and, in particular, instructed our teams to start preparing a security agreement between our countries. Of course, we will continue to implement the existing agreements.

We are gradually planning our work with our partners for the coming months – both May and June should be a time of activity for the sake of Ukraine, for the sake of achieving our goals in this war. We clearly understand what Russia is preparing for, what they want, and what they will be drafting soldiers into their army for. And we, all of us, our partners, must have a strong response to Russian operations – any Russian operations. We must win this war. This is Ukraine’s historic chance to thwart Russian revanchism, and we must seize it. For the sake of reliable security for our children.

Today, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi delivered a long and detailed report. Our actions in key directions. Defense of our positions. Fortification of our positions. Our pressure on Russian positions. Our key plans for defense and active operations in the near future.

I thank everyone who is fighting on the frontline now, who is in combat positions and on combat missions. I thank everyone who trains our warriors, everyone who volunteers. I am proud of our people. And I thank everyone in the world who helps.

Glory to Ukraine!

During a presser with the Finnish president, Zelensky responded to the UN’s “condemnation” of the strikes on Shahed drone manufacturing plant in Tatarstan: “To truly grasp how people survive in Kharkiv without light and water, you must come, see, and then decide whether to condemn something or not. Russia understands nothing except force”

Politico EU reports on the munitions and weapons system famine in Ukraine. (emphasis mine)

According to Zelenskyy, unless the stalled multibillion-dollar package is approved soon, his forces will have to “go back, retreat, step by step, in small steps.” He also warned that some major cities could be at risk of falling.

Obviously, Zelenskyy’s warnings are part of a broad diplomatic effort to free up the military aid his forces so desperately need and have been short of for months — everything from 155-millimeter artillery shells to Patriot air-defense systems and drones. But the sad truth is that even if the package is approved by the U.S. Congress, a massive resupply may not be enough to prevent a major battlefield upset.

And such a setback, especially in the middle of election campaigns in America and Europe, could very well revive Western pressure for negotiations that would obviously favor Russia, leaving the Kremlin free to revive the conflict at a future time of its choosing.

Essentially, everything now depends on where Russia will decide to target its strength in an offensive that’s expected to launch this summer. In a pre-offensive pummeling — stretching from Kharkiv and Sumy in the north to Odesa in the south — Russia’s missile and drone strikes have widely surged in recent weeks, targeting infrastructure and making it hard to guess where it will mount its major push.

And according to high-ranking Ukrainian military officers who served under General Valery Zaluzhny — the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces until he was replaced in February — the military picture is grim.

The officers said there’s a great risk of the front lines collapsing wherever Russian generals decide to focus their offensive. Moreover, thanks to a much greater weight in numbers and the guided aerial bombs that have been smashing Ukrainian positions for weeks now, Russia will likely be able to “penetrate the front line and to crash it in some parts,” they said.

They spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“There’s nothing that can help Ukraine now because there are no serious technologies able to compensate Ukraine for the large mass of troops Russia is likely to hurl at us. We don’t have those technologies, and the West doesn’t have them as well in sufficient numbers,” one of the top-ranking military sources told POLITICO.

According to him, it is only Ukrainian grit and resilience as well as errors by Russian commanders that may now alter the grim dynamics. Mistakes like the one made on Saturday, when Russia launched one of the largest tank assaults on Ukrainian positions since its full-scale invasion began, only to have the column smashed by Ukraine’s 25th Brigade, which took out a dozen tanks and 8 infantry fighting vehicles — a third of the column’s strength.

However, the high-ranking Ukrainian officers reminded that relying on Russian errors is not a strategy, and they were bitter about the missteps they say hamstrung Ukraine’s resistance from the start — missteps made by both the West and Ukraine. They were also scathing about Western foot-dragging, saying supplies and weapons systems came too late and in insufficient numbers to make the difference they otherwise could have.

“Zaluzhny used to call it ‘the War of One Chance,’” one of the officers said. “By that, he meant weapons systems become redundant very quickly because they’re quickly countered by the Russians. For example, we used Storm Shadow and SCALP cruise missiles [supplied by Britain and France] successfully — but just for a short time. The Russians are always studying. They don’t give us a second chance. And they’re successful in this.”

“Don’t believe the hype about them just throwing troops into the meat grinder to be slaughtered,” he added. “They do that too, of course — maximizing even more the impact of their superior numbers — but they also learn and refine.”

The officers said the shoulder-fired anti-tank missiles supplied by the U.K. and U.S. in the first weeks of the invasion came in time, helping them save Kyiv — and so, too, did the HIMARS, the light multiple-launch rocket systems, which were used to great effect, enabling them to push Russia out of Kherson in November 2022.

“But often, we just don’t get the weapons systems at the time we need them — they come when they’re no longer relevant,” another senior officer said, citing the F-16 fighter jets as an example. A dozen or so F-16s are expected to be operational this summer, after basic pilot training has been completed. “Every weapon has its own right time. F-16s were needed in 2023; they won’t be right for 2024,” he said.

And that’s because, according to this officer, Russia is ready to counter them: “In the last few months, we started to notice missiles being fired by the Russians from Dzhankoy in northern Crimea, but without the explosive warheads. We couldn’t understand what they were doing, and then we figured it out: They’re range-finding,” he said. The officer explained that Russia’s been calculating where best to deploy its S-400 missile and radar systems in order to maximize the area they can cover to target the F-16s, keeping them away from the front lines and Russia’s logistical hubs.

The officers also said they now need more basic traditional weapons as well as drones. “We need Howitzers and shells, hundreds of thousands of shells, and rockets,” one of them told POLITICO, estimating that Ukraine needed 4 million shells and 2 million drones. “We told the Western partners all the time that we have the combat experience, we have the battlefield understanding of this war. [They] have the resources, and they need to give us what we need,” he added.

Much more at the link.

In March alone, Russian terrorists used over 400 missiles of various types, 600 “Shahed” drones, and over 3,000 guided aerial bombs against Ukraine.

This terror is wreaking havoc on cities and villages throughout Ukraine, and Russia is particularly relentless in bombarding frontline and border areas.

Our city of over a million people, Kharkiv, has been subjected to missile and drone strikes since the full-scale war began. Recently, Russian terrorists also began to use aerial bombs against Kharkiv. The city sees daily humiliation and pain, as well as daily losses. Critical infrastructure has been destroyed, and ordinary residential buildings are being demolished on a daily basis.

None of this will be possible when Ukraine receives reliable air defense systems capable of saving lives and restoring security to our cities. “Patriots” in the hands of Ukrainians have demonstrated that all forms of Russian terror can be defeated.

This is what our Kharkiv, as well as all of our cities and communities, require right now, as Russian strikes threaten their lives.

Finland:

Finland sends the 23rd military aid package for Ukraine, worth €188 million.

The total amount of support provided by Finland since the beginning of the full-scale aggression is close to €2 billion.

Also, Ukraine and Finland have signed an agreement on security cooperation and long-term support.

We are grateful to our Finnish partners for their unwavering support. Together, we will overcome the russian evil.

Kostyantynivka, Russian occupied Donetsk Oblast:

Chasiv Yar:

Kharkiv:

 

Zaporizhzhia front:

Tonenke, Russian occupied Donetsk Oblast:

 

Powerful footage shared by DeepState shows warriors of the 25th and 68th Brigades repelling an assault by armoured group of the imperial formations using anti-tank systems, including Javelin. It is believed around 50 imperial vehicles took part in the assault on Tonen’ke several days ago. The battle rages on.

https://t.me/DeepStateUA/19161

Kreminna front, Terny, Russian occupied Donetsk Oblast:

Bakhmut front:

That’s enough for tonight.

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Reader Interactions

23Comments

  1. 1.

    Gin & Tonic

    Perhaps, in “condemning” the Ukrainian attacks on the drone manufacturing facility in Tatarstan, the UN might bestir itself to condemn the slave labor russia uses to operate that facility.

  3. 3.

    Westyny

    Thank you, Adam.  I didn’t think it was possible for me to loathe the Republican Party any more than I already do.  : /

  4. 4.

    Mike in NC

    Report today was that Ukraine lowered conscription age from 27 to 25. We drafted 18 year olds and weren’t fighting for national survival like they are.

  5. 5.

    Bill Arnold

    @Jay:
    Yes, please, everyone at least skim that 972mag piece.

    The sources who spoke to +972 and Local Call explained that there was sometimes a substantial gap between the moment that tracking systems like Where’s Daddy? alerted an officer that a target had entered their house, and the bombing itself — leading to the killing of whole families even without hitting the army’s target. “It happened to me many times that we attacked a house, but the person wasn’t even home,” one source said. “The result is that you killed a family for no reason.”
    Three intelligence sources told +972 and Local Call that they had witnessed an incident in which the Israeli army bombed a family’s private home, and it later turned out that the intended target of the assassination was not even inside the house, since no further verification was conducted in real time.

    If whoever in Israel named the “Where’s Daddy?” system, used to determine that a Hamas assassination target was home and ready for family extermination, after this from the Bakshi film “Wizards”, f#ck them; their continued existence offends me. (Note; I am not comparing Hamas to the Fairies. The appropriation of that movie in support of assassination would be offensive.)
    (Wizards, Ralph Bakshi, 1977)
    Fairy Child: Where’s Daddy? What’s he doing?
    Fairy: He is guarding our home, son. There has been a war, and this land is lost.
    Fairy Child: Why can’t we fight and win, Mommy?
    Fairy: Because they have weapons and technology. We just have love.

  9. 9.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Jay:

    @Bill Arnold:

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I am very glad to see +972Mag gaining prominence, & its latest investigation being referenced by MSM. Its reporting is unflinching in a way that not even the Haaretz can achieve, & always well sourced & leaving nothing to vagueness & interpretation (& thus allowing the reader to fully interrogate its work). Brave & admirable, in a similar vein as Tatarigami_UA & some of the Ukrainian analysts/commentators that are featured everyday by Adam in these posts.

  11. 11.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Jay: We know the U.S. is investing heavily into AI & autonomous drones for military applications, & Silicon Valley VCs are grifting after the largesse. We know the PRC is also emphasizing & furiously developing the use of AI & autonomous drones in warfare, though developments are quite opaque to open source. We have seen Israel deploy AI more quickly & more aggressively (& more recklessly) than expected in Gaza, & we have seen increasingly autonomous drones become ubiquitous on the Ukrainian battlefield. The Terminator future is less fantastical than I thought.

    At least the U.S. & the PRC are already holding meetings to discuss setting limits to the use of AI in warfare, we’ll see if these efforts go anywhere…

  13. 13.

    Jay

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    I’m not worried about Skynet  AI Terminators,

    Most of the Military onboard AI basically “gap fills” when GPS/GLONASS/Remote Control goes out, or is jammed, or when a ground based drone is navigating terrain too complex for remote control.

    Skynet AI is going to “kill use” by using our data , flaws and all, to decide who lives and who dies, along with the people around us, it will be humans who “push the button” because the Skynet AI “said so”, with no questions asked.

  14. 14.

    Bill Arnold

    @YY_Sima Qian:
    Some alleged Israeli training slides in that 972mag “Lavender” piece suggest that they are using PU learning[1][2] to make decisions about assassinations, and consider 15-20 innocent deaths to be acceptable for the killing of a low-level Hamas fighter.
    If it is genuinely as described, their system is not being provided information to learn “innocence”. It is classifying a population into “should assassinate” and “maybe assassinate later” subsets. Coupled with human checks being limited to whether the target is male, this is a very stark and deadly example of an “unethical AI” system.
    [1]In PU learning, two sets of examples are assumed to be available for training: the positive set and a mixed set, which is assumed to contain both positive and negative samples, but without these being labeled as such. This contrasts with other forms of semisupervised learning, where it is assumed that a labeled set containing examples of both classes is available in addition to unlabeled samples.
    [2]Positive Distribution Pollution: Rethinking Positive Unlabeled Learning from a Unified Perspective (2023-06-26, pdf available at the link)

    Positive Unlabeled (PU) learning, which has a wide range of applications, is becoming increasingly prevalent. However, it suffers from problems such as data imbalance, selection bias, and prior agnostic in real scenarios.

  15. 15.

    Jay

    @Bill Arnold:

    they also “trained”  the Lavender system on profiles, data sets, communications, etc of people who worked “for” Hamas, as part of the Civilian Infrastructure,………………. resulting in drone strikes, arty and bombings on garbagemen, water and sewer workers, etc.

  16. 16.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Bill Arnold: Following up on your comment from yesterday, this is the kind of dystopian future envisioned in Captain American: the Winter Soldier, where Hydra under the guise of SHIELD planned to target & eliminate all potential threats to its totalitarian project, as identified by AI & prosecuted by automated guns from flying fortresses.

    PRC used AI in its severe repression & detection campaign in Xinjiang from 2017-19, using AI & Big Data to identify subjects suspected of the Three Evils of  “separatism/militancy/religious extremism”, which resulted in > 10% of the Uyghur population (plus many ethnic Kazakhs) being sent to the detention facilities for weeks to months for “vocational training”. Since the Big Data suggested that ~ 10% of the Uyghur had fallen under the influence of the Three Evils, some county governments went ahead & detained 10% of the Uyghurs in their jurisdictions to meet what they perceived of as a quota. To the algorithms, fairly innocuous Islamic religious practices became evidence of Salafism, practices their co-religionists elsewhere in the PRC were not being harassed for. However, AI & Big Data tools were more crude then, & the Xinjiang government did not have any greater concern about punishing innocents than the IDF currently is in Gaza. The excesses became so extreme that even Xi had to admonish the local authorities not to treat all of the ethnic minority populations in Xinjiang as enemies, although these excess developed precisely because the local authorities competed to carry out Xi’s directive to “root out the Three Evils”, & it was made clear that their careers & even personal liberties were contingent upon them doing so.

    Ironically, it appeared that the CPC regime still employed far greater human checks through the process than the IDF is doing. Not necessarily for the better though, the mass repression & detention campaign afforded abundant opportunities for low level law enforcement & regular people to settle their petty scores by accusing others of being under the influence of the Three Evils.

  18. 18.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Jay: Today it is a human pushing the button at the behest of AI, tomorrow it will be an autonomous drone prosecuting the attack.

  20. 20.

    Jay

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    Nope, all the Humans capable of getting humans out of the AI  loop, so AI can fully take over, will be dead. Only the button pushers will survive as slave labour.

  21. 21.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Bill Arnold: Thanks for the links! Well, it is clear that the IDF and most of the Israeli security apparatus do not consider any Gazan to be truly innocent (certainly not males of fighting age), so they probably could not conceive of a negative data set to train the algorithms.

  23. 23.

    Jay

    Based on the “Lavender numbers”* Israel is fine with killing 1,628,000 Gazans.

    So about twice the population of Gaza.

    * 100 civilian casualties per “officer”

    30 civilian casualties per grunt,

    based on a claim of 37,000 Hamas “fighters”

    for a total of 1,628,000 give or take 

    I guess they don’t teach math any more in Israel.

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