Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

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

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

People are weird.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

It’s a doggy dog world.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

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

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

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Fuck that bum, let’s go Joe!

In after Baud. Damn.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War for Ukraine Day 808: Kharkiv & Sumy Under the Gun

War for Ukraine Day 808: Kharkiv & Sumy Under the Gun

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Not much new to report with Rosie. She’s still tolerating her third dose of chemo well. She goes for her fourth treatment on Monday. Tomorrow, I’m going to (try to) train her on the ramp I bought to help her get on and off the bed. Thoughts and/or prayers appreciated.

Russia is still hammering parts of Kharkiv and Sumy Oblasts:

The Kyiv Independent has the details:

Russian forces struck 10 communities in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy Oblast in 21 separate attacks throughout the day, the regional administration reported on May 11. At least 93 explosions were reported in Sumy Oblast over the past 24 hours.

A missile attack against the outskirts of the northeastern city of Sumy killed a woman aged around 37 earlier in the day, the regional military administration reported. The strike was aimed against local infrastructure, officials said without providing further details on the target or the consequences.

Apart from the regional capital, the communities of Khotin, Yunakivka, Myropillia, Bilopillia, Krasnopillia, Velyka Pysarivka, Esman, Shalyhyne, and Seredyna-Buda were targeted.

Throughout the day, Russia assailed the border communities with mortar, artillery, and drone attacks. At least two communities saw mines dropped onto their territories on May 11.

Local authorities didn’t provide any information on the damage to civilian property.

Sumy Oblast borders Russia’s Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod oblasts. Russian attacks against the region have become increasingly destructive in recent months, killing and injuring civilians.

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

Disrupting the Russian Offensive Intentions is the Number One Task Now – Address by the President of Ukraine

11 May 2024 – 19:26

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

Today, the focus is primarily on the frontline – on the situation in our regions where the risks of the Russian offensive actions are the highest. Our defensive operations are underway in the Kharkiv region, near the villages of Strilecha, Krasne, Morokhovets, Oliinykove, Lukyantsi, Hatyshche, Pletenivka. These are border villages. For two days now, our troops have been conducting counterattack actions there, defending Ukrainian territory.

The situation in the Donetsk region also remains especially tense, particularly in the Pokrovsk direction – it’s Semenivka, Netailove. More than thirty combat engagements occur there every day. It’s extremely difficult. Of course, we also pay attention to all the other directions of our defense actions. Kupyansk, Lyman, Siversk, Kramatorsk, Vremivka directions.

I am grateful to every brigade of ours that bravely defends their positions, repels assaults, and destroys the occupier. Disrupting the Russian offensive intentions is the number one task now. The accomplishment of this task depends on every soldier, every sergeant, every officer. I thank all the commanders who actually do everything necessary to ensure that our warriors are properly motivated and clearly know how to act.

This week’s results show that the warriors of the 47th separate mechanized brigade deserve our special gratitude – of all Ukrainians. They are fighting in the Pokrovsk direction – and they are doing it effectively. Well done, guys! The Donetsk region, 110th separate mechanized brigade, 1st battalion. Thank you for shooting down another Russian Su-25 aircraft!

I also want to thank every warrior from our various combat units defending the Kharkiv region. Each of those who already has the achievements we all need: destroyed Russian machinery, defeated occupiers. The invader must feel that it won’t be easy for them anywhere in Ukraine. Our Defense Forces of Ukraine must everywhere give the maximum result in destroying the enemy. This morning and just now, there were reports by the Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi. We are strengthening our positions, in particular, in the Kharkiv region – by adding forces there. The artillery is working exactly as it should.

And one more thing. I would also like to praise our police officers – those who, despite all the threats and strikes, work to ensure the safety and rescue of people in the Kharkiv region. Vovchansk, District Police Department: Maksym Stetsyna, Oleksiy Kharkivskyi, Vladyslav Yefarov, Ihor Kharchenko, Dmytro Mozharskyi and Yuliia Keleberda. Thank you for your service! Lyptsi village, Kharkiv district, Police Department: Viktor Yena, Vasyl Siahlo, Roman Tsepelenko, and Vyacheslav Sokolskyi. Thank you!

I thank everyone who cares about people and our state, who defends Ukraine, and does their best to ensure more opportunities for our Defense Forces.

Glory to Ukraine!

Canada:

Latvia:

Georgia:

The Kyiv Independent has the details:

Around 50,000 protesters marched through Georgia’s capital on May 11 in the latest of the series of demonstrations against the government’s “foreign agents” bill, Deutsche Welle reported.

The bill, which is yet to be passed in its third and final reading, would require organizations that receive foreign funding to be labeled as “foreign agents.”

The law mirrors repressive Russian legislation used to crack down on Kremlin regime critics, earning it the nickname “Russian law” by its opponents.

The protesters arrived at Europe Square and said they would spend the night from May 12 and 13 at the Georgian parliament building, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported.

Lawmakers are expected to discuss the bill in its third reading between May 13 and 14. The parliament, dominated by the ruling Georgian Dream party, has already passed the bill in the previous two readings.

The fresh wave of protests came shortly after Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said the government would push ahead with the bill despite opposition.

The proposed law drew heavy criticism from both domestic opposition and civil society groups and from abroad.

“We are deeply alarmed about democratic backsliding in Georgia,” U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.

“Georgian Parliamentarians face a critical choice – whether to support the Georgian people’s EuroAtlantic aspirations or pass a Kremlin-style foreign agents’ law that runs counter to democratic values.”

The EU has also condemned the bill, and some members of the European Parliament called for the suspension of Georgia’s EU candidate status.

The EU:

From The Guardian:

The EU has reached a deal to seize profits from Russia’s frozen assets to fund weapons and aid for Ukraine within months.

EU senior diplomats meeting on Wednesday agreed a compromise on using the estimated €4.4bn windfall profits to aid Ukraine, smoothing over a dispute about taxation and management costs in Belgium, the country where most of the frozen assets are held.

Euroclear, a clearing house in Brussels, holds €191bn of the €260bn of Russian Central Bank assets that were immobilised by western governments in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In February the clearing house reported €4.4bn interest on the Russian funds and forecast that the Belgian government would reap €1.085bn in taxes.

The final amount for Ukraine has yet to be confirmed, but should be available in July.

The EU – wary of the legal ramifications of seizing the entire cache of Russian assets – decided it could give the profits to Ukraine, after concluding Moscow had no legal right to these funds. But finding a deal has been complicated by divisions about how to spend the money, Euroclear’s management fees and Belgium’s 25% tax on corporate profits.

Belgium has now said it is “prepared to consider” a voluntary plan to transfer the collected taxes to Ukraine from 2025, according to diplomatic sources. The Belgian climbdown was first reported by Politico.

The Belgian state is already contributing aid to buy weapons for Ukraine, but other EU countries argued the Russian windfall should be additional to – not instead of – Belgium’s regular Ukraine aid. One EU diplomat had described the profits as “a windfall tax for Belgium” and said: “It is a little unfair because nobody else has Russian money to pay for their aid for Ukraine.”

Meeting on Wednesday, the diplomats also whittled Euroclear’s management fee to 0.3%, down from the original 3% proposed.

EU member states decided that 90% of the windfall profits would go on weapons for Ukraine and remaining 10% on non-lethal aid, a split designed to assuage countries including Ireland, Austria and Hungary that cannot or do not wish to fund arms.

“EU ambassadors agreed in principle on measures concerning extraordinary revenues stemming from Russia’s immobilised assets,” tweeted Belgium’s EU presidency Twitter account. “The money will serve to support #Ukraine‘s recovery and military defence in the context of the Russian aggression.”

Welcoming the agreement, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, tweeted: “There could be no stronger symbol and no greater use for that money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live.”

The EU deal opens the door to a broader discussion in the G7 about using Russia’s frozen billions of assets, but many European nations, including Germany and France, are wary of a US plan to take charge of the assets, fearing a violation of international law.

I honestly don’t believe this will actually happen despite all the talk. I’ll be very pleasantly surprised if it does.

Here’s the details:

Ukrainian sources have speculated in recent weeks about Russian forces’ rationale for combining kinetic and cyber operations.

In late April, Serhii Prokopenko, the head of operations at Ukraine’s National Cyber Security Coordination Center, speculated to The Record that Russia used cyber operations in tandem with missile attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure to collect information about the damage caused by those strikes.

This isn’t a new practice. In January, Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, warned Russia was compromising webcams, possibly to target missile strikes and assess damage.

Last week, Ukraine’s CERT (CERT-UA) published its report on Russian cyber operations in the second half of 2023 and discussed cyber-kinetic coordination.

It says Russia continues to use what it calls “hybrid attacks that combine cyber elements with missile strikes, aimed primarily at exacerbating the psychological impact on civilians”.

CERT-UA thinks, “with high certainty”, a disruptive cyber attack on the Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar was carried out in order to amplify the effect of missile strikes carried out before and after.

Avdiivka:

Kharkiv:

Kharkiv direction. Bombardment of Russian tanks with the help of the Ukrainian night bomber drones. Deepstate:

“Targeting of Russian equipment in the area of ​​Hatyshche, Kharkiv region

Russians are trying to break through in the area of ​​Ohirtseve-Hatyshche-Pletenivka, in addition to the Strilecha-Krasne-Pylna-Borysivka area. As we noted earlier, Russians use equipment to support the main infantry forces, but the Ukrainian Defense Forces immediately meet it with drone drops and FPV drones, which are, in fact, one of the main weapon in that area.

Today, Russians resumed attempts to advance, and also continues shelling border settlements. The repulse of the enemy continues……”

https://t.me/DeepStateUA/19453

 

For you enthusiasts of Ukraine’s defense industrial base:

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

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@patron__dsns

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Open thread!

Reader Interactions

29Comments

  3. 3.

    Jay

    Pekka Kallioniemi
    @P_Kallioniemi
    May 9
    In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Georgian politician &oligarch, Bidzina Ivanishvili. He’s best-known launching the pro-Kremlin Georgian Dream party, and for running the government from behind the scenes, slowly shifting Georgia’s course from the West back to Russia.

    1/25

    https://nitter.poast.org/P_Kallioniemi/status/1788588067130896437#m

    You might notice a pattern.

  4. 4.

    Anoniminous

    Interesting article in TPM: Tragedy and Folly

    there’s a short piece in the Times of Israel this afternoon that captures a dimension of what’s happening right now in Israel that is mostly off the radar in the U.S. The piece is about a reported blow up between Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. Specifically, it has the latter telling Netanyahu that because he refuses to make diplomatic arrangements for the post-war government of Gaza, the IDF is having to go back to fight again in areas it already took over. In some cases they’re having to go back and fight for the same ground a third time!

    Israeli’s are finding ethnic cleansing is harder than it sounds.

  5. 5.

    Anoniminous

    Hezbollah has been firing rockets into northern Israel. Israeli’s are countering with air strikes. However, the initiative is with Hezbollah. The fact is Israel doesn’t have the military strength to fight a two front war. Should Hezbollah initiate ground combat the IAF doesn’t have the troops to stop them once their defensive crust is penetrated.

    Here’s a CSIS analysis.

  6. 6.

    TeezySkeezy

    Did Putin look at the auroras or is he too paranoid that it was a western weapon ala Day of the Triffids or local58? It would please me to think he would have to deny himself such simple joys.

  10. 10.

    Jay

    @Anoniminous:

    Hezbollah might raid into The Farms, but they are not going to invade Israel.

    Their whole SOP is to deliberately or accidentally provoke Israel into invading Southern Lebanon.

    Once in Southern Lebanon, the Hezbollah fortifications, hidden bunkers and mobile strike groups negate Israel’s advantage.

  11. 11.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Anoniminous: @Jay: Jay is correct regarding Hezbullah’s strategy. As a result of their missile and rocket attacks into northern Israel, they have forced the Israelis to abandon their homes, their kibbutzim, moshavim, and towns in northern Israel. The south is empty because of Hamas’s attack on 7 OCT. The north is empty because of Hezbullah’s attacks since then. For all intents and purposes the Israelis have pulled out of, fallen back, and abandoned a significant portion of Israel. There are Israel’s official borders, the lines on the map, and there is the reality that Israel has shrunk significantly since 7 OCT.

  12. 12.

    Another Scott

    KyivIndependent.com on FAZ reporting from Germany:

    Some German lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties supported the idea of allies defending the airspace over western Ukraine from NATO territory, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reported on May 11.

    FAZ wrote that some experts like Nico Lange from the Munich Security Conference or Lieutenant General Heinrich Brauss, a former NATO deputy secretary general, had suggested shooting down Russian missiles over Ukraine’s border regions from Poland and Romania.

    Polish officials have also mentioned the possibility, but no concrete decisions have been presented.

    “Defending the airspace over Ukraine from Poland and Romania should not be ruled out in the long term,” said Anton Hofreiter from the co-ruling Green Party.

    The lawmaker nevertheless added that the matter is currently “not under discussion” as allies focus on supplying additional defense aid to Kyiv.

    […]

    Given the recent success in swatting down of 90-99+% of Iran’s volley towards Israel, larger air defense umbrellas over friends and allies – especially those under attack – should not be ruled out (certainly not without careful thought given the rapid pace of change in warfare).

    Slava Ukraini!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  13. 13.

    teezyskeezy

    @Anoniminous:  Look, I just don’t think Israel is close to falling, even though they are in a tight place. This is not a judgment on the right or wrongs of how they are conducting this war.  Did I misread you? Willing to admit I jumped the gun a bit.

  14. 14.

    teezyskeezy

    @Gin & Tonic: Nah, “taking it outside” is how all these conflicts in the world have escalated beyond all hell in the first place. I’ll just say what I feel and if someone wants to make a mess of the place with me, that’s on them.

     

    But in all seriousness, I was objecting to the idea that Israel can’t fight two fronts. This is not a judgment on whether or not what they are currently doing is right or wrong, I just think they can fight two fronts.  It won’t be pleasant for anyone, but I bet they have the fight in them.

  15. 15.

    Westyny

    Thanks, as always, Adam.  Warm and healing thoughts for Rosie and, of course, Ukraine.

  16. 16.

    teezyskeezy

    @Jay: Oh I notice that pattern, and it pisses me off. But there’s one huge hiccup in US culture that their kind of despotic crackdowns haven’t yet dealt with.

    Does anyone know what it is?

    (hint: the wing nutters think its their sole fiefdom…but it isn’t)

  19. 19.

    wjca

    It kinda seems like Anoniminous needs a time out.  Lots of us here disagree about stuff.  Vigorously,  even.  But going instantly to insults is not appropriate IMHO.

  21. 21.

    teezyskeezy

    @wjca: TBF, I insinuated a personal motivation so it’s fair.  I have made moves to de-escalate though.

  23. 23.

    Jay

    So, I am watching TheHistoryofEverything coverage of the May Day Parade in Moscow.

    All my favorite shitposters about ruZZia narrating the parade.

    Digital Vagrant

    Radiaactive

    LazerPig

    History of Everything

    Kitty C

    Several regulars had to skip it this year, (commenting), because life won’t allow for them to be brutally hung over or still shit faced the next day.

    Commentary is NSFW.

  24. 24.

    Jay

    So, to sum up,

    Nobody of International importance showed up as a guest,

    Pootie Poot had two of the Butchers of Bucha stand behind him,

    Other than one Brigade of RosGuardia, all the marchers were Military Cadets or Military School, (you know, High School for Kids with Discipline Issues), and a Brigade of Female Office clerks,

    there was one T-34, (post war, Czech built, sold to the NORKs, then bought back)

    an obsolete S-300, several nuke carriers, a handful of MRAPS, followed by 3 T-14 Boomerangs, (The ruZZian Stryker).

    there were 9 ARVs, (Armored Recovery Vehicles on stand by) and the parade was guarded by marchers with hand held “drone guns”.

    There was no flyby, (heavy snow), so the footage cut in a flight of SU-27’s from 2022 and a flight of SU-25’s from 2021.

    And of course, no “March of the Immortal Regiment”, because people might carry photos of the ruZZian dead from the SMO.

  25. 25.

    bjacques

    @Jay: EDIT: a Xitter commenter said Ivanishvili looks Gary Oldman as Dracula, but I think he looks like Soviet Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin—just another Imperial lackey. Stay strong, Georgia!

    (I loved them in Eurovision. Ukraine’s entry had video effects that looked like incoming missiles, which I’m sure wasn’t lost on the audience and a reason their votes pushed Ukraine to third place.)

  26. 26.

    Jay

    @bjacques:

    Sadly, one would think of all places, Georgia would not let ruZZian Ogliarches come back.

    You make your sick fortune in ruZZia through corruption and connections, stay in ruZZia.

    Sadly, most of the West and wannabe West are corrupted.

  27. 27.

    sab

    @Jay: My brief contact with Israel is with their reaction with their immigrants.

    Ethiopeans were too good to survive there. Just very nice people.

    Georgians were so horrible that they would always be at the bottom of the list of acceptable immigrants. They are coming in but  nobody wants them or welcomes them

    ETA so they will survive.

  28. 28.

    Jay

    @sab:

    “Israel” has always been a racist judgemental society.

    When the “Zionists” started immigrating, they “second classed” the existing Jewish population,

    You know, the people who kept the faith through the Babelonians, (by some accounts, created much of the faith at that time), stuck through the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Christians, Arabs again, Ottomans, etc.

    Some how, “they” were less worthy, less Jewish.

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