Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

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

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

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

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

The words do not have to be perfect.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Republicans don’t trust women.

Motown is Joe-Town!

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War for Ukraine Day 864: Russia Sends the Shaheds Against Sumy Oblast

War for Ukraine Day 864: Russia Sends the Shaheds Against Sumy Oblast

by | 26 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , ,

A painting by Ukrainian artist NEIVANMADE. The words "NEVER AGAIN" are repeated over and over, from left to right and top to bottom, in a faded, washed out black against a white background. Red, the color of blood, runs and drips down across 2/3rds of the painting. "WHILE YOU TOLERATE TYRANTS" is written/painted in the bottom white corner below the three rows of "NEVER AGAIN".

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

A quick housekeeping note: Rosie is still doing well. She starts round 3 of chemotherapy on Monday. Thank you all, again, for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Last night Russia launched a drone attack against Sumy Oblast, as well as other parts of Ukraine.

Here’s the full text of the first tweet:

⚡️Russian drones damage energy infrastructure in Sumy Oblast.

A Russian drone attack overnight on July 6 caused damage to energy infrastructure in Sumy Oblast, leaving several communities in the region without power, the Sumy Oblast Military Administration reported.

The Kyiv Independent has the details.

Editor’s Note: This is a developing story and is being updated.

A Russian drone attack overnight on July 6 caused damage to energy infrastructure in Sumy Oblast, leaving several communities in the region without power, the Sumy Oblast Military Administration reported.

In recent months, Russia has intensified its attacks against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure in a renewed assault against the country’s energy grid.

Explosions were heard in Sumy Oblast shortly after midnight local time, Suspilne reported, as the Air Force warned of the threat of Russian Shahed-type drone attacks.

Emergency crews are currently on scene and are investigating the extent of the damage, the military administration said.

Earlier in the night, local officials in the city of Sumy said that a Russian drone attack temporarily cut off power to the local water system and disrupted the water supply. Water usage was restored by 7:30 a.m. local time, Suspilne Sumy reported.

As a result of the attacks on energy infrastructure, Ukraine began implementing rolling blackouts on May 15.

Due to dwindling energy supplies caused by Russian attacks, Ukraine’s largest privately-owned energy provider DTEK has warned that Ukrainians have only have electricity for 6-7 hours per day in the upcoming winter.

In a “worst-case” scenario in which Ukraine is unable to repair damaged energy facilities and prevent future attacks, Ukrainians could experience up to 20 hours of blackouts a day, DTEK Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk told the Kyiv Independent in an interview on June 9.

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

We Are Working on a New Strategy for Our State at Sea, It Will Soon Be Approved by the National Security and Defense Council – Address by the President of Ukraine

6 July 2024 – 19:28

Dear Ukrainians!

Briefly about this day and week.

First, I am grateful to all the warriors who enable the strikes of our Ukrainian drones. The Russian state must feel the response to its actions against our state and people, and this response to them is now evident. Ukrainian drones are already a global brand.

Second, we are working on a new strategy for our state at sea – the Ukrainian Maritime Strategy. This strategy will soon be approved by the National Security and Defense Council – its points are being finalized now. We understand clearly that the war has altered the power dynamics across our entire Black Sea region, and that the Russian fleet will never dominate these waters again. We are securing our interests, taking into account Ukraine’s new technological capabilities and our new relations with partners. From now on, Ukraine will always stand as a nation capable of defending its own maritime interests, transportation arteries, and the interests of our allies and partners. I am grateful to all our people who make this possible. The Ukrainian Navy, all defense and security agencies involved, and the defense industry – public and private companies working for Ukrainian strength.

Third, international communication. This week we have already significantly bolstered our air defense capabilities, and next week will be the time to continue such steps. Every day, together with our team, we meticulously work with partners on pertinent agreements – both within the Air Defense and F16 Coalitions, and on a bilateral basis – in particular, with America. We are preparing the result that Ukraine and our joint security with partners need.

And one more thing. Unfortunately, a terrible accident occurred today in the Rivne region near the village of Verkhiv. A truck collided with a minibus, carrying many people. As of now, fourteen people, including a child, are reported dead. My condolences to all the families and friends. All the circumstances are being investigated – how and why this happened. All the necessary services are there, on the site. As soon as more details emerge, law enforcement and regional authorities will provide further updates to the media.

Glory to Ukraine!

The cost:

On 24 June 2024, Colombian volunteer “Centauro” was awarded a medal “For Defence of Ukraine” for the successful combat near Liptsy.

He spoke to Ukrainian military journalist Butusov about his service for Ukraine, in this video.

On 26 June 2024, serviceman of the “Khartiya” Brigade “Centauro” died fighting for Ukraine near Kharkiv.

Rest in peace.

DC:

⚡️White House: Biden may hold bilateral meeting with Zelensky during NATO summit.

U.S. President Joe Biden may hold a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the upcoming NATO summit, a senior White House official said during a background press call on July 5, as cited by the White House. “And while the president will have quite a busy schedule given his commitment as the host of the summit, we’re working to set up several bilats and meetings with various world leaders on the margins of the summit, including President Zelensky, again, as I mentioned earlier,” the official said. “And we’ll have more information on those to share in the coming days.”

Estonia:

⚡️Estonia delivers Mistral air defense systems to Ukraine.

Estonia has delivered several Mistral air defense systems to Ukraine, the country’s defense ministry said on July 6. “Let’s keep supporting Ukrainian freedom fighters. Together, we can stop Russian aggression,” it said in a post on social media.

Turkey:

This is what the new Hetman Ivan Mazepa corvette, built in Turkey for Ukraine, looks like.

Turkey, in an unnoticing manner, is building a new Ukrainian Navy. When a squadron gathers in the Mediterranean Sea, it will start hunting for the Russian fleet and will mercilessly sink it.

The home port for the Russian fleet in the Med is in Tartus, Syria. I’d start there.

France:

From The Kyiv Independent:

French far-right politician Marine Le Pen said in an interview with CNN on July 5 that her party is against continuing to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles and the possibility of sending French troops to Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron has long supported providing Ukraine with long-range missiles, and France already supplies Ukraine with long-range SCALP missiles, the equivalent of the British Storm Shadows.

Macron said in May that he would not rule out the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine. Kyiv has not appealed to the West to send its troops to Ukraine, instead asking for increased arms supplies to help its soldiers fend off Russia.

After months of discussion, Macron said on June 7 that France was finalizing a coalition of countries to send military instructors to Ukraine.

Le Pen spoke with CNN ahead of France’s second round of elections on July 7. Le Pen’s party, National Rally, emerged as the most popular party in the first round on June 30.

Prior to February 2022, Le Pen openly expressed her admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and said she did not believe Russia’s annexation of Crimea was illegal.

Le Pen told CNN she recognized that Russia has violated Ukraine’s territorial integrity and “we have condemned Russia in this matter,” but claimed that Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 was “more complicated than it is made out to be.”

“We have two red lines, sending French troops to Ukrainian territory…and the delivery of long-range weapons that could hit Russia, and therefore make France a co-beligerent in this conflict,” Le Pen said.

Le Pen is the president of the National Rally grouping in the French Parliament, but the leader of the party is Jordan Bardella, a 28-year-old member of the European Parliament.

Bardella said on June 19 that he would continue supporting Ukraine if elected prime minister, but also ruled out sending French troops or supplying the country with long-range weapons.

Ukraine’s partners are divided on to what extent Kyiv should be allowed to use Western-supplied weapons to carry out strikes on military targets in Russia.

The U.S. gave Ukraine permission on June 1 to use American-supplied weapons, including HIMARS rockets, to strike targets in Russia located near the border with Kharkiv Oblast after Russia launched a renewed offensive in the region on May 10.

Ukraine is still prohibited from using ATACMS and other long-range U.S.-supplied weapons for strikes deeper inside Russia.

No, Marine Le Pen didn’t just say she would forbid the Ukrainian use of French-made weapons on Russian military targets in Russian territory if her party wins elections.

What she really says by saying this is that she will go on populistically impeding the defense effort of a country under attack that stands between the militaristic expansionist Russia and the rest of Europe in the largest European war of aggression since WWII — and if this country falls particularly as a result of Le Pen’s obstruction, the French people and the French military will have to do deal with the militaristic expansionist Russia by themselves — but Le Pen and her little proud party will not be there with France to face the consequences, that’s it.

That’s your daily translation from pro-Kremlin bullshit into the human language.

Also, I love this brilliantly shameless weaseling out from reality — it’s been months since a dozen nations, even the United States, directly authorized Ukraine to use their weapons against Russian territory after years of irrational fears of “escalation” – and guess what, last time I checked, the sky did not fall on the earth because of that.

But when it comes to France’s contribution to helping Ukraine save itself and stop Russia, it’s suddenly again “a red line” and France “becoming a fighting side in the war” in Le Pen’s world.

Support my work: https://buymeacoffee.com/saintanger
PP: [email protected]

Kharkiv Oblast:

Lyptsi, Kharkiv Oblast:

Here’s the full video from Magyar’s Birds:

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast:

We have an updated on that Russian strike on Ukrainian Air Force equipment.

The Kyiv Independent has the details.

Russian forces hit mock-ups of warplanes and Patriot air defense launchers during recent missile attacks that Russian sources claimed had destroyed a Mig-29 aircraft and two Patriot batteries, Ukraine’s Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said on July 6.

The statement follows the publication of videos filmed by Russian reconnaissance drones showing missile strikes on the Dovhyntseve airfield in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and a base of Patriot air defense systems near Yuzhne in Odesa Oblast.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that a Ukrainian Mig-29 fighter jet was destroyed as a result of Iskander missiles hitting the Dovhyntseve airfield on July 3.

Russian pro-war Telegram channels published a video showing another Iskander strike near Yuzhne on July 6, claiming that two Patriot batteries and a Giraffe radar system were destroyed. The Russian Defense Ministry has not reported on the attack.

Oleshchuk reshared the footage on his Telegram channel, saying that Ukraine’s Air Force personnel “successfully conducted passive defense measures.”

“Thanks to everyone who helps with quality mock-ups of aircraft and air defense systems. The enemy has fewer Iskanders, and more mock-ups will arrive,” he added.

“Of course, both we and the enemy have losses of equipment and people. But neither side is talking about it publicly. It is clear why!”

The Kyiv Independent is unable to verify the claims immediately.

Ukraine’s airfields have recently faced an uptick in Russian strikes as Kyiv gets ready to receive the first batch of Western F-16 fighter jets.

Over the past week, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have destroyed five Su-27 Soviet-made jets and damaged two more stationed at the Myrhorod airfield, a Mi-24 helicopter at the Poltava airfield.

Reports of the attacks drew outrage on social media, with some criticizing theAir Force for failing to properly protect the airfields despite advance warnings and the expected arrival of F-16 fighter jets.

Air Force spokesperson Illia Yevlash refused to give any comments to the Kyiv Independent on reported Russian attacks against Ukrainian airfields.

Alushta, Russian occupied Crimea:

Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast:

Chasiv Yar:

Krasnodar Krai, Russia:

Omsk Oblast, Russia:

On Friday, July 5, it became known that Vladimir Kara-Murza was moved from the IK-6 corrective colony in Omsk to the regional hospital №11 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Omsk region, due to a sharp deterioration in his health. His lawyers were not allowed to visit him. Vladimir Kara-Murza is an absolutely decent and intelligent person, which means that he is alien to modern Russia and Putin. I have repeatedly heard that Putin will kill Kara-Murza. And now he is being killed.

Evgenia Kara-Murza, Vladimir’s wife, recalls that he suffers from polyneuropathy, a disease caused by two severe poisonings committed by Russian special services, which is on the list of diseases that prevent him from serving his sentence.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, previously recognized as a “foreign agent” by the Russian authorities, has been in custody since April 2022 – he was arrested for spreading “fakes” about the Russian army after he condemned the war unleashed by Russia while in the United States. So, he was persecuted for telling the truth. In July 2022, a case was initiated against him for participating in the activities of an “undesirable organization.”

On April 17, 2023, the Moscow City Court sentenced opposition politician and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in a maximum security penal colony. This was the punishment requested by the prosecutor. The verdict was handed down by Judge Sergei Podoprigorov (who is on the Magnitsky list, which was created thanks to Kara-Murza’s efforts). The hearings in the Moscow City Court were closed due to the conclusion that the case was a “state secret.”

The Russian authorities consistently fight and destroy all those who tell the truth and pose a threat to Russia.

If you can, spare a good thought for Vladimir Kara-Murza and his family.

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron.

A new video from Patron’s official TikTok!

@patron__dsns

Я знаю, що вам подобається це відео 🤭 #песпатрон

♬ lucy by corbon amodio unreleased – Corbon Amodio

Here’s the machine translation of the caption:

I know you like this video 🤭 #песпатрон

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

26Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    Patron is right. I liked that video of him as a puppy!

    Adam, you really don’t get enough credit for the yeoman’s work you do in helping us at least bear witness. I can only hope there will be peace soon, with Ukraine having its territorial integrity completely restored. It’s a lot to think about now, what with no end in sight. But right now that’s all I have.

  3. 3.

    bjacques

    Thanks as always, Adam.

    Over here in Foreign-Speaking Nation we’re happy the new government nominally headed by the human troll doll is fighting itself, and we’re holding our collective breaths in advance of tomorrow’s elections in France.

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    @bjacques: Which country is this?

    Over here in Foreign-Speaking Nation we’re happy the new government nominally headed by the human troll doll

  7. 7.

    Joy in FL

    @Yutsano: You said it so well. Bearing witness is the least I can do. It’s so easy to let myself forget, and then my heart forgets others’ pain and danger. These posts help me pay attention, and those who are suffering deserve that.
    Thank you, Adam 🙏🏼

  8. 8.

    Gin & Tonic

    The Bacon Theorem

    Earlier I mentioned Fr. M. and his museum, part of which scratches an itch for my dear wife. She had, in fact, visited it before, and was connected via social media with him (I am not a social-media person.) Additionally, he had been a sort of spiritual adviser to my dear wife’s late cousin, someone whom English literature might refer to as a “spinster” – unmarried, childless, deeply religious. He visited with her often as she was dying, and provided comfort. The point is he knew my dear wife and part of her family, but was only dimly aware that I existed. So when we got there I introduced myself and we made small talk, but at some point something I saw there made me mention my connection with a family member of some (minor) historical note, let’s call him Mr. D. Not much was made of this and we moved on.

    That evening my dear wife was contacted on social media by someone she had never met or heard of, living far away in the capital, inquiring about a different family member of mine, Mr. J. You’d have to be fairly knowledgeable to make a connection between Mr. D. and Mr. J., who didn’t share a last name with each other or with me. So she gave him a way to contact me (I prefer e-mail) and he sent me an e-mail asking for my WhatsApp info (everyone there uses WhatsApp.) I supplied that, and shortly received a picture of a book about yet another family member of mine, let’s say Mr. S. My new correspondent asked if I’d seen or read the book, and I replied in the negative, so then he asked if I’d like him to send me a copy, signed by the author (who was a friend/colleague of my correspondent.) So I said, sure. But back to the main thread – he wanted to know what my family knew about the fate of Mr. J., so I told him the two stories I’d heard, both of which ended in 1944, with no further contact or information. Turns out that my correspondent, a medical doctor by training, was an amateur historian, and was researching the fate of Mr. J., and had information. You see, the legal successor organization of the NKVD here is the SBU, which does not share all of russia’s interests in secrecy, so my correspondent had unearthed files pertaining to Mr. J’s interrogation by the NKVD in Moscow in 1941, and some more events in the next couple of years. Next time my phone buzzed, there were 12 pages of typed notes from 1941 – they are extremely challenging, being scans of something typed on a very bad typewriter, in partially coded russian.

    But where do we get to the title of this piece? The next day my correspondent called me, and we talked for about a half-hour. In the process, he asked where I lived, so I told him, then told him where I grew up and lived in early adulthood. So he asked me if there was any chance I knew Mrs. C., his grandfather’s cousin (or something like that.) I said sure, not only did I know her, I was good friends with her son back in the day, before everyone got families and responsibilities and scattered. Here’s someone I’ve never heard of until two days before, who was put on my track due to a throw-away remark, who’s researching one of my family members and is fairly closely related to a guy I was friends with ~40 years ago. This kind of stuff happens in our community all the time, and is hard to explain to outsiders – to give another example, B-J commenter Another Scott has mentioned his grad school adviser, and gave a few very brief biographical details, and without doxxing anyone, I can say with >99% certainty that I know him, personally.

    Postscript to this, I guess. Yesterday my correspondent e-mailed me a link to a site popular over there for sharing large files, saying something about a work in progress, so I downloaded a 1.6 GB(!) .rar file containing about 850 pages of declassified NKVD/KGB files. Looks like I have my work cut out for me.

  11. 11.

    J. Arthur Crank

    @Adam L Silverman:   I think @bjacques is in the Netherlands.  Years ago they mentioned this on a comment on one of my “One The Road” posts that featured a few places in the Netherlands.

  12. 12.

    Jackie

    Adam:

    Rosie is still doing well. She starts round 3 of chemotherapy on Monday.

    I’m hoping the chemo works and Rosie doesn’t suffer from the side effects. ♥️🤞🏻

  15. 15.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Nukular Biskits: You’re most welcome. I think Macron called the elections for two reasons. The first is that he presumed that doing so would focus the French electorate to the threat of LePen, her party, and the extreme right the way the previous elections have done and locking her out of power. The second is that this was driven by the results for the EU parliament. Basically he misunderstood that the extreme right parties had really not done that well, despite the initial reporting, in the EU parliamentary elections. That reporting framed this huge win, but while they did increase their number of seats, they didn’t take over the EU parliament. And because he misunderstood what happened because the framing of the reporting was bad, he then made a bad decision in calling for early/snap elections.

    Now we have to wait and see how much damage this has done.

  18. 18.

    Yutsano

    @Nukular Biskits: ​There have been several snap elections in Europe lately, mostly trying to head off the far right. The Netherlands had one a few months ago that didn’t go to plan although last time I checked the far right leader didn’t make Prime Minister. I think the point is to show that these far right parties can’t govern. At least I can’t see what skills Le Pen brings to the national stage and the head of the party is a 27 year old that’s her protégé*.

    *Possibly her paramour too. It is France after all.

  21. 21.

    bjacques

    @Adam L Silverman: Netherlands. Sorry, I thought Geert Wilders was better known outside this tiny country. His far right populist party, the PVV, really a sole proprietorship, heads an unstable coalition of the former top “privatize everything” party (VVD, whose last chief Mark Rutte will head NATO), disgruntled farmers (BBB), and a relatively unknown party run (NSC) by a pretty guy who’s decent but had a bug up his ass about foreign students. None of the party leaders would support Wilders as Minister-President, as usually happens with coalitions, so they agreed on Dick Schoof, a former head of the Dutch intelligence service, the AIVD. The VVD strongly supports and the NSC does too, I think, while Wilders loves Putin and Netanyahu, and the BBB just love pesticides and nitrogen fertilizer. So these parties are getting along about as well as you’d expect. I haven’t heard anything about the F-16s, so inertia on that front may be our friend as well as our foe.

     

    EDIT: “Foreign Speaking Nation” is from that goofy weird J Geils Band spoken word “song” No Anchovies Please. That really dates me, I guess.

  22. 22.

    bjacques

    Rutte, the previous head of the VVD and four times Minister-President, cynically mishandled refugee policy and responded hamfistedly to the farmers. The former raised hackles in his own party, so he called snap elections and resigned. Now it looks like he was eyeing the exits anyway, and with Jens Stoltenberg looking to leave NATO, so Rutte literally got on his bike and rode out of ‘t Torentje (Little Tower), the Minister-President’s office in the Binnenhof, the picturesque seat of government in The Hague.

    The Wilders government has wasted no time in gutting culture and education funding. Awhile back he campaigned on lowering the retirement age but I expect him to goose it up a bit. Let’s see if he can blame potholes and an aging rail infrastructure on refugees. With such a diverse and rather miserable coalition to dilute his influence, I guess it’s as safe as it ever will be to have someone like him nominally in charge. At least fash popinjay Thierry Baudet, once considered up and coming, just gets ratioed in the parliamentary lower house for mouthing off about the Great Replacement and similar nonsense. (Fun fact: an old friend of the missus lives in France near Toulouse and is neighbors with the guy (Renaud Camus) who literally wrote the Great Replacement book and owns the nearby chateau. She doesn’t like him.)

    France can’t afford to take such chances with Le Pen and Bardella, and we’ll know tonight if all that tactical voting in the second round pays off.

  24. 24.

    dhd

    @Yutsano:

    *Possibly her paramour too. It is France after all.

    (longtime lurker here giving in to temptation…) LOL! This had quite obviously crossed my mind as well, and because it’s France, that it would be kept out of the press. But it turns out that the story on Bardella’s personal life *has* been written about. As you might expect the RN is a “political family” named Le Pen that likes to keep it in the family, and this family is full of some pretty shady characters. The extensive coverage of this we’ve been getting in Quebec could be described as “looking on in dismay”: https://www.ledevoir.com/opinion/idees/816052/point-vue-construire-facho-sympa

    It’s painfully obvious that Bardella is a pretty face, an empty vessel with the advantage of having “grown up in the 93”, but otherwise simply a mouthpiece for Marine and the rest of her gang. A university dropout who has only ever had one job in his life outside politics, it’s unclear whether he has ever had an original thought of his own. The question is how many people will vote for him exactly because of that versus some illusion that he represents some kind of youthful renewal.

Comments are closed.