« People in the West have this very curious notion that Russia is invincible and can’t be defeated. Complete nonsense. We see from history: Russia can lose, and it’s quite possible that would catalyze longer-term, desirable change inside Russia. »
— British historian and author Timothy Garton Ash speaking at the 10th annual Lviv Media Forum. Via Euromaidan Press.
Yep, Russia can be defeated and its failure to overwhelm Ukraine in its three-day "special operation" has put its glaring weaknesses on full international view for all to see.
And we have seen several times this year how Putin's obsession with Ukraine has caused the Kremlin to neglect the threat of domestic terrorism. Just this past weekend Dagestan was hit with a terror attack. Putin is unable to keep Russians safe within Russia.
Gunmen target religious sites in Russia’s Dagestan region in ‘terror attacks’
Anybody who thinks that these stats represent a win for Russia probably is a member of the official Putin fan club.
EDIT: Ukraine just severely damaged a Russian drone base in the town of Yeysk on the Sea of Azov. Don't be misled by Russian/MAGA disinformation on social media.
Strike on military unit in Yeysk damages barracks and hangar
The death toll from a military jet crash in the Russian town of Yeysk has risen to 14, including three children, and dozens more are injured.
Thirty percent of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed in just over a week, leading to “massive blackouts” across the country, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, as the Kremlin steps up attacks on critical energy infrastructure.
Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface to surface missiles, in addition to more drones, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters, a move that is likely to infuriate the United States and other Western powers.
NATO will deliver anti-drone air defence systems to Ukraine in coming days to help the country defend itself against the wave of Iranian-made drones with which Russia is targeting critical infrastructure, the alliance's secretary-general said.
The new commander of the Russian army in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, said on Tuesday that civilians were being “resettled” from the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, describing the military situation in Ukraine as “tense.”
“The death toll from a military jet crash in the Russian town of Yeysk has risen to 14, including three children, and dozens more are injured.
The SU-34 figher-bomber crashed into a nine-storey residential building on Monday evening, with Russia’s investigative committee putting the collision down to a “technical malfunction”.
It has launched a criminal inquiry into possible violations of flight rules, and investigators are questioning the pilots who managed to parachute out of the plane before it made impact with the building.
Airfield staff are also being talked to, while fuel samples and the flight recorder box are being seized.
President Putin has expressed his “deep condolences to those families who lost their loved ones” in the disaster.”-via The Guardian
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“Thirty percent of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed in just over a week, leading to “massive blackouts” across the country, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, as the Kremlin steps up attacks on critical energy infrastructure.
“Another kind of Russian terrorist attacks: targeting energy & critical infrastructure. Since Oct. 10, 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country,” Zelensky tweeted Tuesday.
He added that there was “no space left for negotiations with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s regime.”
The Russian Defense Ministry later confirmed that the country’s military had launched high-precision strikes on “energy systems” in Ukraine.
“During the day, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued to strike with long-range high-precision air and sea-based weapons on military command and energy systems of Ukraine, as well as arsenals with foreign-made ammunition and weapons, all designated targets were hit,” Lieutenant-Colonel Igor Konashenkov said Tuesday.
The death toll in Kyiv continues to climb this week, officials said. At least five people were killed Monday following Russian attacks with Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones and at least three people died in separate strikes on Tuesday.
Moscow has targeted key Ukrainian power facilities in recent days, leaving areas in at least three cities without power.
A residential neighborhood in the capital Kyiv is experiencing power cuts and water outages, local energy company DTEK said on Facebook Tuesday.
“Russian shelling has damaged a critical infrastructure facility in the Desnyansky district, causing interruptions in the electricity supply to the residents of the Troyeshchyna residential district and the water channel that supplies water to the Left Bank of the capital,” the company said.
In Dnipropetrovsk region, at least three areas, including parts of Dnipro city, experienced electrical outages and a water pumping facility lost power after Russia launched two missiles at an energy facility, causing “fire and severe destruction,” according to local authorities.
A CNN team in Dnipro saw from a distance the aftermath of a hit on a power plant in Dnipro and smoke rising from the facility.
Further west, the mayor of Zhytomyr said in a statement that the city was experiencing power and water cuts, with hospitals running on back up energy.
Residents in the Ukrainian capital were also urged by local officials to limit electricity and water usage, after two key infrastructure complexes were hit on Tuesday.”-via CNN
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“Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface to surface missiles, in addition to more drones, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters, a move that is likely to infuriate the United States and other Western powers.
A deal was agreed on Oct. 6 when Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, two senior officials from Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and an official from the Supreme National Security Council visited Moscow for talks with Russia about the delivery of the weapons.
"The Russians had asked for more drones and those Iranian ballistic missiles with improved accuracy, particularly the Fateh and Zolfaghar missiles family," said one of the Iranian diplomats, who was briefed about the trip.
A Western official briefed on the matter confirmed it, saying there was an agreement in place between Iran and Russia to provide surface-to-surface short range ballistic missiles, including the Zolfaghar.
One of the drones Iran agreed to supply is the Shahed-136, a delta-winged weapon used as a "kamikaze" air-to-surface attack aircraft. It carries a small warhead that explodes on impact.
Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar are Iranian short-range surface to surface ballistic missiles capable of striking targets at distances of between 300 km and 700 km (186 and 435 miles).
The Iranian diplomat rejected assertions by Western officials that such transfers breach a 2015 U.N. Security Council resolution.
"Where they are being used is not the seller's issue. We do not take sides in the Ukraine crisis like the West. We want an end to the crisis through diplomatic means," the diplomat said.
Ukraine has reported a spate of Russian attacks using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks. Iran's foreign ministry on Tuesday dismissed as baseless reports of Iran supplying drones and other weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine, while the Kremlin on Tuesday denied its forces had used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.
Asked if Russia had used Iranian drones in its campaign in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin did not have any information about their use.
"Russian equipment with Russian nomenclature is used," he said. "All further questions should be directed to the Defence Ministry."
The ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.”-via Reuters
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“NATO will deliver anti-drone air defence systems to Ukraine in coming days to help the country defend itself against the wave of Iranian-made drones with which Russia is targeting critical infrastructure, the alliance's secretary-general said.”-via Reuters
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“The new commander of the Russian army in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, said on Tuesday that civilians were being “resettled” from the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, describing the military situation in Ukraine as “tense.”
“The enemy continually attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” Surovikin said in his first televised interview since his appointment last week, adding that the situation was particularly difficult around the occupied southern city of Kherson.
“Further actions regarding Kherson will depend on the developing military and tactical situation, which is not easy, and difficult decisions cannot be ruled out,” he said.
Surovikin’s statements come amid Ukraine’s ongoing counter-assault against Russia in which Kyiv has recaptured 450 square miles of land since late August.
Shortly after Surovikin’s statements, the Russian-installed head of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said that some civilians were being “evacuated” in anticipation of a “large-scale offensive.””-via The Guardian
Ukraine has announced that 108 prisoners have been swapped with Russia in what it said was the first all-female exchange with Moscow after nearly eight months of war
At least four people have been killed after a Russian military plane crash into a residential area of Yeysk, near Ukraine, Russian news agencies have reported.
Police in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk says that they continue to exhume up to 10 to 15 bodies per day in previously Russian-occupied areas of the region. Exhumations in Lyman have so far revealed 35 members of the military and 152 civilians. 40 hard-to-reach graves have yet to be exhumed.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Monday’s barrage of 28 drones came in successive waves, killing 4, including a woman who was six months pregnant.
At least three people were killed, nine injured and others remain trapped in the rubble after rocket attacks on critical infrastructure in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, according to the regional head of the military administration.
"The published news about Iran providing Russia with drones has political ambitions and it's circulated by western sources. We have not provided weaponry to any side of the countries at war," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Oct. 17, according to Reuters. The statement came after Russia's deadly attack with Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones on central Kyiv on Monday morning.
“Ukraine has announced that more than 100 prisoners have been swapped with Russia in what it said was the first all-female exchange with Moscow after nearly eight months of war.
“Another large-scale exchange of prisoners of war was carried out today ... we freed 108 women from captivity. It was the first all-female exchange,” the Ukraine presidency’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on social media.
The head of the breakaway region of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Denis Pushilin, confirmed the exchange, saying that out of 110 people agreed in the swap, two people had decided to remain in Russia.
Yermak said that some of the people exchanged were mothers and daughters who had been held together. Thirty-seven, he said, had surrendered at the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol.
Images released by Yermak showed dozens of women - some wearing coats and military fatigues - disembarking from white buses.
Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov in southeastern Ukraine, withstood weeks of relentless Russian bombardment, with resistance concentrated in a dense network of underground tunnels at its Azovstal steel plant.”-via The Guardian
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“At least four people have been killed after a Russian military plane crash into a residential area of Yeysk, near Ukraine, Russian news agencies have reported.
Previous updates had confirmed that at least two people died as a result of the crash.
Images circulating social media showed a nine-storey residential building on fire. A criminal investigation into the crash, which reportedly occurred during a training flight, has been launched. The pilots had ejected.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has been informed and ordered “all necessary assistance be given to casualties from the military plane incident,” the Kremlin told the state-run news agency Tass.
“On 17 October 2022, while taking off to carry out a training flight from the military airfield of the southern military district, an Su-34 aircraft crashed,” the ministry said. Its statement said the military jet had malfunctioned after “one of its the engines caught fire during take-off”.
“At the site of the Sukhoi Su-34 crash, in the courtyard of a residential area, the aircraft’s fuel caught fire,” the ministry said.
The blaze reached five out of nine floors of a residential building, according to emergency services, quoted by Russian state-run agencies. It had spread over 2,000 sq metres (21,500 sq feet), the services added.”-via The Guardian
(Note: Updated news articles say six have been found dead so far. The Guardian.)
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“Police in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk says that they continue to exhume up to 10 to 15 bodies per day in previously Russian-occupied areas of the region.
“By now, 43 mass graves are known in Donetsk oblast,” Oleksandra Havrylko, press officer for the Donetsk Oblast Police, said during a media briefing. “For example, two mass graves — with both civilians and military — were found in Lyman. Moreover, the Oblast Police receives information about spontaneous burials in human yards, where each grave may contain up to 10 people.”
Many people are believed to have died of injuries from explosives, Havrylko said, but the police also have information about citizens “who were killed through violence.”
Exhumations in Lyman have so far revealed 35 members of the military and 152 civilians, Havrylko said. He said that 40 hard-to-reach graves have yet to be exhumed.”-via CNN
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“Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Monday’s barrage of 28 drones came in successive waves – in what many fear could become a more common mode of attack as Russia seeks to avoid depleting its stockpiles of long-range precision missiles.
One strike appeared to target the city’s heating network, hitting an operations centre. Another slammed into a four-story residential building, ripping open a gaping hole and collapsing at least three apartments on top of each other.
Four bodies were recovered, including those of a woman who was six months pregnant and her husband, Klitschko said. An older woman and another man also were killed there.”-via The Guardian
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“At least three people were killed, nine injured and others remain trapped in the rubble after rocket attacks on critical infrastructure in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, according to the regional head of the military administration.
“At 5:20 in the morning, three Russian rockets hit the civil infrastructure facility. At least three people died. Nine are wounded. There are still people under the rubble,” Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, the head of the Sumy region military administration, said on Telegram.
Electricity was also impacted and 1,625 subscribers were disconnected from the electricity supply in the Sumy region, Zhyvytskyi said.
He urged people to minimize electricity use during peak hours.”-via CNN
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“"The published news about Iran providing Russia with drones has political ambitions and it's circulated by western sources. We have not provided weaponry to any side of the countries at war," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Oct. 17, according to Reuters.
The statement came after Russia's deadly attack with Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones on central Kyiv on Monday morning.
The Washington Post reported on Oct. 16, citing unnamed U.S. and allied security officials, that Iran is preparing the first shipment of Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar missiles for Russia. Five days earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia had ordered 2,400 kamikaze Shahed-136 drones from Iran for its war in Ukraine.
On Oct. 14, Reuters reported that the European Union ministers would consider future sanctions on Iran related to Russia's use of Iranian drones.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has already claimed that Tehran "had never sent and will never send" any weapons to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine.”-via Kyiv Independent
Раннее утро. Рассвет над Ейским лиманом / Early Morning. Sunrise over the Yeysk estuary #yeysk #sunrise #ейскийлиман (at Побережье Ейского лимана) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1ImOowA_Iy/?igshid=fh9e2m8dhilf
