(Image by NEIVANMADE)
Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is doing great. Her next treatment is tomorrow. It is the second of the final four. She’s almost done. Thank you for all the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.
Second, I’ve caught up on a bit of sleep, but am still fried. So, I’m going to hit the basics, hit publish, take care of a couple of things, and rack out.
Right now – 7:20 PM EDT/2:20 AM local time in Ukraine – all of northern central and central Ukraine is under air raid alert.
Russia opened up on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv again today.
Russians just hit Kharkiv with guided bomb. They keep targeting houses, hospitals, and schools. And we’re still waiting for the permission to hit back pic.twitter.com/WTeIT7T12e
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) September 15, 2024
Tragically, at least one person has died. The body was recovered from the 9th floor and cannot be identified without a DNA test
— Kate from Kharkiv (@BohuslavskaKate) September 15, 2024
Here’s the full text of the first tweet:
Today, on the last warm and sunny Sunday of the year, as Kharkiv citizens enjoyed their day off with their families, russia struck Kharkiv with at least four guided aerial bombs.
One of the bombs hit an apartment building, setting it ablaze.
At least 41 people were wounded, punished for simply being Ukrainians at their homes. Among them are three children. Unfortunately, this number is likely to rise.
It happened before, and it will happen again. We are locked in some devilish loop of being denied the range to defend ourselves, trying to live between the strikes and being hit again. Again and again and again.
And no decisions are made. Again.
More on this after the jump.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
We Have Already Explained to All Our Partners Why Ukraine Truly Needs Sufficient Long-Range Capabilities – Address by the President
15 September 2024 – 19:09
Dear Ukrainians!
Rescue operations are still underway in Kharkiv. A Russian aerial bomb hit a house. An ordinary multi-storey residential building. There was a fire, ceilings collapsed. It is known that people are trapped under the rubble. As of now, 35 people are reported injured, including three children. All emergency services, rescue teams, medics, and utility workers quickly arrived at the scene, and aid is being provided to all those affected. In total, four aerial bombs were used in this strike on the Kharkiv region alone. One targeted Kharkiv, the house, and the other three targeted villages in the Kharkiv region. Today, Russian forces also hit our Sumy and Donetsk regions with such bombs. In total, there are no fewer than a hundred airstrikes of this kind every day. Just in the past 24 hours, 128 guided aerial bombs were used. The only way to counter this terror is with a systemic solution, and that solution is long-range capabilities – enabling us to destroy Russian military aircraft at their bases. This is an obvious, sensible decision. We have already explained to all our partners why Ukraine truly needs sufficient long-range capabilities. And every such Russian strike, every instance of Russian terror, like today’s attacks on Kharkiv, on our Sumy and Donetsk regions, proves that long-range capabilities are necessary and the range must be sufficient. We are expecting corresponding decisions, especially from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy – everyone whose resolve can help save lives.
Today, repair crews in the Donetsk region, who were actually working under the threat of shelling, restored electricity to people in Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, and Kostiantynivka. Nearly one hundred and fifty thousand residents of the Kramatorsk district were without electricity due to the Russian attack. And, of course, this is truly the heroism of our people – everyone working for the sake of Ukraine and Ukrainians – that despite everything, basic services are being restored. There was also a report by Viktor Mykyta, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office for Regional Policy, on the situation in the Odesa region due to severe weather. Heavy rains these days, flooding in the Odesa region. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine, regional and local authorities are all involved. Unfortunately, there are also critical situations in our neighboring countries due to these extreme rains. On my instructions, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha offered assistance from the SES of Ukraine to the affected countries in our part of Europe.
And one more thing.
Today, there was a report from Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi. Every day, unwavering attention is paid to the frontline and our operation in the Kursk region. The Pokrovsk, Kurakhove, Toretsk, and Kupyansk directions – I want to thank every unit that is truly defending their positions. The 46th separate airmobile brigade, the paratroopers of the 79th brigade, the 25th separate airborne brigade, the 54th separate mechanized brigade, and the 35th separate marine brigade. I am grateful to all of you, warriors! In the Kursk region, we continue our active operations, and it is crucial that the “exchange fund” for us, for our state is being replenished.
I thank everyone who fights and works for Ukraine, for the sake of all of us, for the sake of all Ukrainians!
Glory to Ukraine!
President Zelenskyy on the danger that guided bombs present.
The President explained that Russia now started moving its jets still further from the border, so even longer-range weapons would be needed. pic.twitter.com/dRqQUPwJmW
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 15, 2024
The cost:
Svitlana is 34 years old. One day, she was getting her kids ready for school when a strong explosion split her life into “before” and “after”. Glass fragments injured her entire body.
The injured children were bleeding. Svitlana felt dizzy and panicked. She rushed to save the… pic.twitter.com/CsgnnqscXU
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 15, 2024
Svitlana is 34 years old. One day, she was getting her kids ready for school when a strong explosion split her life into “before” and “after”. Glass fragments injured her entire body.
The injured children were bleeding. Svitlana felt dizzy and panicked. She rushed to save the children. In a few minutes, an ambulance arrived and provided assistance. The 9-year-old girl, 11-year-old son and mother were taken to the hospital.
Svitlana was taken to the intensive care unit. She suffered a concussion, eye injuries, multiple cut wounds to her face, chest, upper and lower extremities. Trauma surgeon Kyrylo Suprunenko wasted no time in performing the surgery.
Svitlana is waiting for her husband, who has been defending Ukraine since 2019, and keeps asking about their daughter, who is in a children’s hospital.
The reason:
I wanted to tell you about a Ukrainian historian Leonid Marushchak who rescued about 2 million works of art from frontline museums.
This is the kind of work that often goes unnoticed. But this is true heroism of its own kind. This story deserves to be known.
During the war,… pic.twitter.com/ngg0GeRRol
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 15, 2024
I wanted to tell you about a Ukrainian historian Leonid Marushchak who rescued about 2 million works of art from frontline museums.
This is the kind of work that often goes unnoticed. But this is true heroism of its own kind. This story deserves to be known.
During the war, Russia had already destroyed an incalculable number of valuable works of art. Hundreds of thousands were stolen and taken to Russia.
Since the first days of the full-scale war, 38-year-old historian Leonid Maruschak has been rescuing museum expositions in front-line cities and villages. Often risking his life, being under constant shelling or not far from the line of combat, for 2.5 years, he managed to save about 2 million exhibits.
Leonid and his team do all the evacuation on their own: they get permission from the Ministry of Culture for the removal, order special boxes for transportation, pack the exhibits in them and take them out in parts by minibus. In some museums, such as Bakhmut museum, it took dozens of trips to get everything out.
🔸 in the first days of the war, when Russian occupiers were advancing on Kyiv, Maruschak saved Alla Horska’s works, collecting them from various Kyiv museums, galleries and even an abandoned military factory;
🔹 from Sloviansk, he took out the works of ceramist Natalia Maksymchenko;
🔸 he moved works by Ivan Aivazovsky, Tetiana Yablonska and Arkhip Kuindzhi from a museum in southern Ukraine to the Ministry of Culture’s archives;
🔹he evacuated exhibits from the Bakhmut Local History Museum, including a massive (weighing several tons) stone statue of a 13th- to 14th-century lion;
🔸 despite the loss of a minibus, the team transported the collection of the museum of the city of Beryslav, Kherson region;
🔹 after the de-occupation of Kherson, Leonid took away everything that remained from the looted local history and art museums;
🔸 from Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, he rescued a park sculpture Deer by modern sculptor Zhanna Kadyrova.Leonid will return to Pokrovsk in September to evacuate more statues.
He says he is motivated by anger to fight for cultural heritage and return to the frontline territories.
“Because you go and realize that only your arrival can change everything. Otherwise, all the works will stay where they are. So they will simply be stolen or destroyed,” the historian says.
This week alone, Russia launched around 30 missiles, over 800 guided bombs, and nearly 300 Shahed drones against Ukraine, according to President Zelensky. The video shows the aftermath of these Russian attacks. pic.twitter.com/dyD9D5ZSZq
— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) September 15, 2024
Mass graves visible from space – not escalation
Blowing up Nova Kakhovka dam – not escalation
Destroying 80% of the energy infrastructure of a country of 40 million people – not escalation
Ukraine hitting military targets inside russia – escalation🙃
— Лeksa 🇺🇦 (@lexa_lrnt) September 15, 2024
Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the actual russian response to long-range strikes, in real time and confirmed by various sources. Withdrawing.
Even the discussion about this has had them withdrawing naval and air assets for months.
So they had no appetite for World War 3, eh? https://t.co/kT0WYsCWwh
— Paul Niland (@PaulNiland) September 15, 2024
Your escalation management is not working as you thought it would, @JakeSullivan46 & @Bundeskanzler pic.twitter.com/gsECG0OlCS
— Darth Putin (@DarthPutinKGB) September 15, 2024
Lithuania:
The people who need protection are not getting enough. The people they need protection from are getting plenty. It’s time to switch that around. pic.twitter.com/giDlzFCzHL
— Gabrielius Landsbergis🇱🇹 (@GLandsbergis) September 15, 2024
Ukraine needs security guarantees, and the only security guarantee I believe in is Article 5.#YES2024 pic.twitter.com/pzAUJfgUuD
— Gabrielius Landsbergis🇱🇹 (@GLandsbergis) September 15, 2024
Denmark:
The Armed Forces of Ukraine received 18 new 2S22 “Bohdana” self-propelled howitzers of the Ukrainian production, which were financed by Denmark.
Only 2 months passed from the moment of signing the agreement to the moment of handing over the ordered equipment.
According to… pic.twitter.com/mlQRrBNb8e
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) September 15, 2024
The Armed Forces of Ukraine received 18 new 2S22 “Bohdana” self-propelled howitzers of the Ukrainian production, which were financed by Denmark.
Only 2 months passed from the moment of signing the agreement to the moment of handing over the ordered equipment.
According to @TarasChmut, in total, Ukraine is now capable of producing 16 “Bohdana” self-propelled howitzers per month.
https://mil.in.ua/uk/news/zsu-otrymaly-18-sau-bogdana-profinansovanyh-daniyeyu/
Germany:
What “we” is @Bundeskanzler talking about? The Greens & FDP, his defense minister, & most of parliament want to give #Ukraine Taurus. Everyone in Berlin knows he’s unilaterally blocking this. Scholz is a weak, stubborn leader threatening 🇩🇪&🇪🇺 security by hindering 🇺🇦 defense. pic.twitter.com/sjtDqHONom
— Jessica Berlin (@berlin_bridge) September 14, 2024
The US:
The message @NATO and @POTUS are sending the world is don’t rely on the US. Pick russia or some other dictatorship as your patron because the US and its allies will micromanage your own defense. https://t.co/0W0I9SHWol
— SK Media🇺🇦 (@SpaghettiKozak) September 15, 2024
The Sunday Times: US won’t authorize long-range strikes on Russia until Zelenskyy presents ‘victory plan’
The publication quoted sources as saying that during a recent visit to Washington by the British PM to discuss the issue, Biden and his team made it clear that they wanted to go into “standby mode” until Zelenskyy presented a plan before giving the go-ahead for strikes deep into Russia.
Kharkiv:
The footage from Kharkiv is devastating – 41 injured, including four children, the youngest just a year old. These are innocent casualties of war, victims of indifference. How much more suffering will the world allow? pic.twitter.com/GaVhVPlPGV
— Iryna Voichuk (@IrynaVoichuk) September 15, 2024
Russian air bases stand secure with Western restrictions, while Ukrainian homes burn.
📹place_kharkiv pic.twitter.com/VyKtw0xDPq
— Iryna Voichuk (@IrynaVoichuk) September 15, 2024
As Russia bombards Kharkiv daily with glide bombs, Opera Theater is preparing to open its season. This is the rehearsal for the gala ballet, staged deep in an underground bunker pic.twitter.com/T4x0aiQAFY
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) September 15, 2024
Pokrovsk:
The warriors from the Presidential Brigade repulsed a massive russian attack in the Pokrovsk direction and turned russian tanks into scrap metal. pic.twitter.com/Dk76gKBtl7
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 15, 2024
Минулого тижня спілкувалася з мобілізованими солдатами, які після підготовки прибули на Покровський напрямок:
– це люди переважно середнього віку;
– переважно ті, хто не зміг «порішати»;
– в абсолютній більшості за 45 днів базової підготовки вони не навчилися майже нічого;
– в…— Mariana (@marybezuhla) September 15, 2024
Here’s the machine translation:
Last week, I spoke with mobilized soldiers who, after training, arrived in the Pokrovsky direction:
– these are mostly middle-aged people;
– mainly those who could not “decide”;
– in the absolute majority, during 45 days of basic training, they learned almost nothing;
– in the absolute majority of training centers, there are instructors without combat experience, those who have “broken up”.Against this background, Syrskyi’s statement about increasing the period of basic training of the mobilized, when they cannot and do not want to fill 45 days with real content, sounds especially cynical. And then our people die untrained or run away because of fear, uncertainty and lack of basic skills, unless they themselves and the combat team undertake training in a limited time frame with a minimum of opportunities. It has come to the point that combat brigades are asking to consider conscription bypassing the centers, directly to the reserve units, in order to be able to prepare new recruits not for a tick, as in the centers. However, in some centers, they line up 6 times a day (!) . By the way, Syrsky still deliberately protects and covers the corrupt general Tkachuk, the head of the land academy. Because “own”.
I hear same accounts from senior brigade officers, reporting declining recruit preparedness, forcing brigades to run improvised training with limited resources, because training centers fail to prepare. Unless the Commander-in-Chief fix this, no number of Storm Shadows will help https://t.co/MQTIRGdSJy
— Tatarigami_UA (@Tatarigami_UA) September 15, 2024
Kyiv:
Kyiv’s botanical garden is in trouble. Russia has destroyed Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. When the power goes off the garden uses wood-burning stoves to heat its collection of 4,000 tropical plants. The garden is appealing for help to save its orchids https://t.co/gpFgo6h1uC
— Luke Harding (@lukeharding1968) September 15, 2024
From The Guardian:
Zhanna Yaroslavska showed off a barrel-shaped stove in the middle of a tropical greenhouse. Nearby was a large pile of logs. “It’s a pretty neanderthal arrangement,” she explained. “When the power shuts off we feed the stove with wood. In winter we do this round the clock. Our plants require constant temperatures. They don’t like cold and hot.”
Inside the glass nursery were dozens of rare specimens. All were bromeliads native to the Americas. Silvery wisps of beard-like Tillandsia descended from a pipe. A pineapple poked out of a stem. A screen next to the stove protected a group of starfish-like earth stars, native to Brazil. The collection needed a minimum temperature of 10C, Yaroslavska – a senior researcher – said. Below that everything would die off.
The greenhouse is one of eight in the Mykola Hryshko national botanical garden in Kyiv. Founded in 1935, it is Ukraine’s biggest garden and one of the largest in Europe. It is home to about 13,000 species of trees, flowers and other plants from around the world. The 52-hectare (130 acres) site has scientific departments and two laboratories. With its roses and camellias, it is a popular venue with wedding photographers.
But the park is now staring at disaster. In recent months, Russia has systematically destroyed most of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Power cuts in the capital and across the country are common, with the situation getting worse. The city authorities have said they will not be able to guarantee supply in the freezing months ahead. Prices for electricity have doubled, as the garden’s funding has shrunk.
“Worst-case scenario is we lose a big part of our collection,” Roman Ivannikov, the head of the tropical and subtropical plant department, said. Money is so tight he and his colleagues recently took a pay cut. Last winter, £55,000 in donations kept the garden going, allowing the purchase of 242 tonnes of fuel pellets. Volunteers chopped firewood. The garden is appealing for help, under the hashtag #greenhousewarming.
Before the first chilly night of October arrives, Ivannikov said his team urgently needed additional generators. The orchid house had a unique collection of exotic specimens and was especially vulnerable. Last year, three Samsung heat pumps were fitted to maintain temperatures at 20-22C. But there was no back-up in the case of a prolonged shutdown.
Ivannikov pointed out some of the collection’s highlights. They included an egg-in-the-nest orchid from China – it has a strange white-and-purple-spotted flower – and a delicate green jewel orchid. Another example – Doritis pulcherrima – was descended from a plant sent into space in 1986. The orchid was part of a Soviet mission to the Mir space station, where the crew performed experiments in biology.
The garden collaborates with international partners. In 2014, it sent plants to Vietnam, after their original habitat was destroyed to make way for banana and coffee crops. “I travelled with 45 orchids,” Ivannikov recalled. “I watched on TV, as Russia took Crimea.” Scientific conferences with Moscow stopped. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion Ivannikov took his family out of Kyiv and returned a week later.
The Kremlin continues to fire missiles at the capital. From time to time, falling debris breaks glass in the hothouses. Blast waves from explosions have dislodged a chunk of wall and knocked over red-listed plants. “We haven’t had a direct hit. But we suffered a lot of damage,” Ivannikov said. In January, a rocket flew above the main orangery, a giant glass dome containing banks of shaggy vines and a towering king palm.
More at the link.
The Kursk cross border offensive:
Airstrike on Russian positions in Vesoloe, Kursk region.
(51.2888146, 34.5462134)https://t.co/qBYsuBo4be pic.twitter.com/8zerENx2sS— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) September 15, 2024
Village of Vesoloe is in the area of #Ukraine‘s new advance into Russia’s Kursk region. This week Ukrainian forces entered the white lined area. They’ll be hoping to link up with 🇺🇦 forces already in the Sudzha area – and also push up to the river Seym (red line). https://t.co/UdlQuuqPO8 pic.twitter.com/EWtC1wBB16
— Glasnost Gone (@GlasnostGone) September 15, 2024
Russia:
Meanwhile in Russia: Vladimir Solovyov argued with Margarita Simonyan’s husband, Tigran Keosayan, who claimed that long-range missile strikes wouldn’t be that big of a deal and ridiculed hysterical people like Solovyov for demanding nuclear strikes.https://t.co/e2taKqqFRr
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) September 15, 2024
Putin’s ability to shift the narrative and direct attention elsewhere is an important part of his strategy for fighting Russia’s war in Ukraine. To think that he won’t or can’t back down or accept defeat ignores his track record of doing precisely that. https://t.co/nA2UIrK4dJ
— Dr Jenny Mathers @jgmaber.bsky.social (@jgmaber) September 15, 2024
That’s enough for tonight.
Your daily Patron!
First, this good boy was saved in Kharkiv today.
Kharkiv , Sunday, russian attack. https://t.co/D36t2aIT7t pic.twitter.com/crroCEqfuM
— Kate from Kharkiv (@BohuslavskaKate) September 15, 2024
The owner is okay, local news reported he was rescued next.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@BohuslavskaKate) September 15, 2024
A new video from Patron’s official TikTok!
@patron__dsns Придумав челендж! Показуйте ваше літо під цей трек, будемо так обмінюватись своїми гарними спогадами🥰 #песпатрон
Here’s the machine translation:
I came up with a challenge! Show us your summer to this track, and we’ll share our good memories this way 🥰 #песпатрон
Open thread!
War for Ukraine Day 935: Russia Bombarded Kharkiv with Glide Bombs Again TodayPost + Comments (17)
