World Politics

[Tracker]

Wagner’s Desensitized Prison Fighters Keep Staggering Into Bakhmut Like This Is a Zombie Apocalypse

BAKHMUT, Ukraine—In the smoke-filled basement of a nondescript building in the city center of Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, the men of the SKALA intelligence battalion are getting ready for a risky reconnaissance mission. One of them is burning a last cigarette in the dimly lit hallway. Clad in a bulletproof vest and helmet, a bearded soldier wraps yellow tape around both his arms—a sign used by Ukrainian soldiers to identify each other on the battlefield. “Be careful out there, there are snipers in this area,” a portly officer warns him, rising from his office chair facing a flatscreen TV that intermittently broadcasts the live feed of a drone flying over carnage in the city. “I can’t die, my mom won’t let me,” quips the soldier with a weary smile, checking his gear one last time before heading out.

The previously muffled sound of outgoing artillery becomes sharper and louder as the door to the street swings open. They take off.

“The situation is pretty tense, but we’re controlling it,” says 23-year-old Alexander, clutching his American-made M4 assault rifle. “We’re holding.” With his buzzcut and boyish looks, the young man wouldn’t look out of place in a trendy nightclub in downtown Kyiv. Yet, for weeks, Alexander and the grizzled soldiers of the SKALA battalion have been weathering the storm of daily Russian assaults and shelling on Bakhmut, hunkering down in the basement and doing daily sorties in the gray zone—the stretch of land between Ukrainian and Russian positions. Named after its founder and leader Iurii Skala, the SKALA battalion is tasked with conducting air and ground reconnaissance, as well as “cleaning operations”—a euphemism meaning assaulting enemy positions and taking out the Russian soldiers manning them.

“The drones are our eyes out there,” says Alexander. Out there is Bakhmut—a salt-mining town of 70,000 inhabitants known for its sparkling white wine—that has been devastated by months of relentless Russian shelling, and gruesome trench warfare that has prompted comparisons with the Battle of the Somme or Passchendaele. The town is a major transport hub and sits on a strategic highway that runs through Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Yet, some—including one of Ukraine’s top generals—have argued that the town’s strategic value is dubious at best. However, it is one of the few frontline areas where the Russians are still on the advance, and the success-starved Russian high command is desperate to claim a victory, at any cost. Some have theorized that the capture of Bakhmut would constitute a personal prize for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the infamous Wagner paramilitary group, whose mercenaries make up most of the Russian forces in the area. The U.S. believes Prigozhin has a financial motive: Wagner has often seized lucrative gold and diamond mines in areas where it operates in Africa, and Prigozhin may have set his sights on the salt and gypsum mines around Bakhmut.

According to Rem, a former car dealer from Dnipro now correcting artillery fire with the help of his drone, most of the soldiers sent in suicidal assaults on Ukrainian positions in Bakhmut are “zeks,” or convicts, recruited by Wagner to bolster the number of Russian forces in Ukraine. “Mobiks [conscripts] are usually scared, and they scatter when they get shelled. Those guys are not scared,” he said.

Of the Wagnerites, Rem says that they’re a much more effective fighting force than they’re usually given credit for: “They’re making progress, after all.” Desensitized to violence and with nothing left to lose, the prisoners—many of whom are violent criminals including murderers and rapists—are considered by Ukrainian soldiers a tougher enemy than the average army conscript.

The Russian tactic of sending prison recruits to attack Ukrainian positions—allowing them to identify defenses for the artillery to pummel afterwards—has proven effective, though slow and deadly. While no major breakthrough has occurred, they have been slowly eroding Ukrainian defenses, and creeping ever closer to the eastern outskirts of the city.

This assessment was echoed in late December by Oleksandr Danylyuk, a former national security adviser for Ukraine currently working on military planning, who said of the prison conscripts: “They are—I cannot say fearless—but they have nothing to lose pretty much. So, they are attacking constantly and they’ve been killed in big quantities as well.”

Yet those incremental gains on the eastern approach to the city have come at a cost for Russian forces, as evidenced during Prigozhin’s well-publicized visit to the frontline over the New Year. In a series of videos released by Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the Wagner boss first visits a basement filled with the bodies of his fighters, many of them convicts, killed during the battle for Bakhmut, before complaining that “every house [in Bakhmut] has become a fortress”—and that it sometimes takes a week of fighting to take a single house.

According to a U.S. official quoted by The Guardian on Thursday, out of an initial force of nearly 50,000 Wagner mercenaries, more than 4,100 have been killed in action, and 10,000 have been wounded, including over 1,000 killed between late November and early December near Bakhmut.

 

[Tracker]

🅰️

                            

[iHeart]

hmmmm

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/09/americas/bolsonaro-hospitalized-intl-latam/index.html

[Tracker]

2 hours ago, iHeart said:

hmmmm

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/09/americas/bolsonaro-hospitalized-intl-latam/index.html

Now Bolsonaro can say that he is too ill to be deported. I'm sure its just a coincidence. Really, really sure.

[iHeart]

1 hour ago, Tracker said:

Now Bolsonaro can say that he is too ill to be deported. I'm sure its just a coincidence. Really, really sure.

isn't deportation and extradition two different things?

[Tracker]

11 hours ago, iHeart said:

isn't deportation and extradition two different things?

Yes. Brazil has not requested Bolsonaro's extradition, but the US government is considering deporting him.

[blue_gold_84]

12 hours ago, Tracker said:

Now Bolsonaro can say that he is too ill to be deported. I'm sure its just a coincidence. Really, really sure.

He's such a piece of ****.

---------------------------

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-ally-patrushev-says-russia-is-now-fighting-nato-ukraine-2023-01-10/

Quote

MOSCOW, Jan 10 (Reuters) - One of President Vladimir Putin's closest allies said on Tuesday that Moscow was now fighting the U.S.-led NATO military alliance in Ukraine and that the West was trying to wipe Russia from the political map of the world.

Putin casts the war in Ukraine as an existential battle with an aggressive and arrogant West, and has said that Russia will use all available means to protect itself and its people against any aggressor.

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev is seen by diplomats as one of the major hardline influences on Putin, who has promised victory in Ukraine despite a series of battlefield setbacks.

"The events in Ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv - this is a military confrontation between Russia and NATO, and above all the United States and Britain... The Westerners' plans are to continue to pull Russia apart, and eventually just erase it from the political map of the world," Patrushev said.

Asked about Patrushev's remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said NATO and the United States were part of the Ukraine conflict.

"De facto they have already become an indirect party to this conflict, pumping Ukraine with weapons, technologies, intelligence information and so on," Peskov told a regular news briefing.

Such disgusting rhetoric from those Russian guttermuppets.

[HardCoreBlue]

4 minutes ago, blue_gold_84 said:

He's such a piece of ****.

---------------------------

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-ally-patrushev-says-russia-is-now-fighting-nato-ukraine-2023-01-10/

Such disgusting rhetoric from those Russian guttermuppets.

Imagine if Trump was successful in overturning the results of a fair and legitimate election and what would have happened to the Ukraine.

[Tracker]

2 hours ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Imagine if Trump was successful in overturning the results of a fair and legitimate election and what would have happened to the Ukraine.

Not hard to imagine at all. Ukraine would be no more and Trump would have been given all of Ukraine's considerable gas fields.

[Tracker]

 

                                  

[Tracker]

 

                       

‘Putin’s Chef’ Humiliated by His Own Side After Bragging of Wagner Victory
-Reuters
The Kremlin finally seems to be trying to take Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin down a notch after the businessman has spent months using his band of mercenaries and ex-convicts to steal the spotlight in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

A simmering feud between Prigozhin’s outfit and the regular Russian army spilled out into the open Wednesday, as Russia’s Defense Ministry publicly rebuffed claims made by “Putin’s chef” about a Wagner win in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

In an announcement late Tuesday, Prigozhin gleefully claimed his men had taken control of a salt mine town that Russian forces are hoping to use as a stepping stone to gain control of the highly coveted city of Bakhmut, a Ukrainian stronghold for months.

“Wagner units have taken control of all the territory of Soledar,” Prigozhin said through his press service. “I want to emphasize that no units other than the Wagner fighters took part in the assault on Soledar,” he said.

While Ukrainian authorities denied Prigozhin’s claim and said battles were still underway in the town—and that the selfie the Wagner boss posted supposedly from Soledar was not even in Soledar—Russia’s two dueling armies devolved into their own war within a war.

Russia’s Defense Ministry shot down Prigozhin’s boast that his own men had single-handedly brought Putin a win, instead confirming Ukraine’s announcement that fighting was still underway in the town.

Moreover, defense officials suggested Russian airborne units and assault teams are leading the charge. The Defense Ministry made no mention of Wagner whatsoever.

The rebuff comes as praise for Prigozhin’s outfit hit a fever pitch among pro-Kremlin figures, and the notorious mercenary group threatened to outshine Putin’s regular soldiers on the battlefield.

“Why is Wagner so successful, more successful than even the Russian army?” pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov wrote on Telegram early Wednesday.

He went on to praise Prigozhin personally, calling him “very creative,” a “workaholic,” and someone who “comes up with bright, novel solutions.”

“Prigozhin’s criminal past is a plus now, because world politics is criminalized,” he said, calling Prigozhin and Wagner “a national treasure.”

Speculation about Prigozhin possibly vying for an official post in Russia’s government has mounted in recent months as his PR campaign for Wagner has gone into overdrive, with many wondering if he’s made it his personal mission to “win the damn war” for Putin so he could demand something in return.

Despite Prigozhin butting heads with top defense officials and government officials, the Kremlin has largely allowed him to do as he pleases—but they seem to have fired their first warning shot this week in a sign of things to come.

Putin’s appointment on Tuesday of a controversial colonel-general as the new ground forces chief was done “as a snub to Prigozhin,” a source close to Russia’s General Staff told the outlet iStories.

[Tracker]

Brazil Rioters Plotted Openly Online, Pitched Huge 'Party'

MIAMI (AP) — The map was called “Beach Trip” and was blasted out to more than 18,000 members of a public Telegram channel called, in Portuguese, “Hunting and Fishing.”

But instead of outdoor recreation tips, the 43 pins spread across the map of Brazil pointed to cities where bus transportation to the capital could be found for what promoters promised would a huge “party” on Jan. 8.

“Children and the elderly aren’t invited,” according to the post circulated on the Telegram channel, which has since been removed. “Only adults willing to participate in all the games, including target shooting of police and robbers, musical chairs, indigenous dancing, tag, and others.”

The post was one of several thinly coded messages circulating on social media ahead of Sunday’s violent attack on the capital by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro looking to restore the far-right leader to power.

It’s also now a potentially vital lead in a fledgling criminal investigation about how the rampage was organized and how officials missed clues to a conspiracy that, like the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol two years ago, appears to have been organized and carried out in plain view.

And like the attack in the U.S., the Brazilian riots demonstrate how social media makes it easier than ever for anti-democratic groups to recruit followers and transform online rhetoric into offline action.
On YouTube, rioters livestreaming the mayhem racked up hundreds of thousands of views before a Brazilian judge ordered social media platforms to remove such content. Misleading claims about the election and the uprising also could be found on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms.

But even before Sunday’s riot, social media and private messaging networks in Brazil were being flooded with calls for one final push to overturn the October election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — something authorities appear to have inexplicably missed or ignored.

Most of the online chatter referred to the planned gathering at Brasilia’s Three Powers Plaza as “Selma’s party” — a play on the Portuguese word for “selva,” a battle cry used by Brazil’s military.  Participants were told to bring their own mask to protect against “pepper pie in the face” — or pepper spray fired by security forces. They also were told to dress in the green and yellow of Brazil’s flag — and not the red preferred by Lula’s Workers’ Party.

“Get ready, guests, the party will be a blast,” the widely-circulated post said.

“It was all in the open,” said David Nemer, a Brazil native and University of Virginia professor who studies social media. “They listed the people responsible for buses, with their full names and contact information. They weren’t trying to hide anything.”

[Tracker]

 

           

Terrified Draftees Expose Russia’s New Scheme to Cover Up Cannon Fodder Deaths

-Reuters
Hundreds of Russian draftees reportedly fear they have been sent on a suicide mission by top military officials who are planning to conceal their deaths through an inventive new scheme: changing records to show they are part of a regiment that doesn’t exist.

“They assigned us to regiment 228–such a regiment does not exist,” one of the men told the independent news outlet Sota. “They want to send us to a hot spot tomorrow with machine guns [to go] against tanks, drones, and mortars on minefields. We’re just cannon fodder.”

Sota reports that they’ve obtained an audio message recorded by some of the draftees, appealing for help on behalf of the 400 men who hail from the Altai Republic. In it they say they’re being sent to storm an area near Svatove in Ukraine’s Luhansk region.

“Please help in any way you can. We’ve already been given drugs, [the opioid analgesic] Promedol, in case of serious injuries,” the message said.

The men described manipulation of their official paperwork that effectively rendered them lost without a trace.

“Some colonel-generals came here, I don’t know, they couldn’t find us. We were tossed on the very front, we’re under the artillery.”

The move suggests Russian officials are desperate for some manpower after military analysts noted Ukrainian troops had gained more ground on the Svatove-Kremenna line in recent days. Draftees from Russia’s Tomsk region had also publicly appealed to the governor in November for help with a “difficult situation” near Svatove.

[Tracker]

Military analysts believe it is 'entirely realistic' that Ukraine could gain control of Crimea: report

Before Russian forces, on orders from President Vladimir Putin, launched a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, some pro-Putin pundits in Eastern Europe believed that he should be satisfied with having Crimea and leave the Ukrainian government alone. Essentially, they were worried that all all-out invasion would be more than Russia could handle militarily, and they remembered how much of a drain the invasion of Afghanistan was on the old Soviet Union during the 1980s.

Regardless, Putin proceeded with a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian military proved to be much better fighters than Putin anticipated. Now, according to Newsweek, some military analysts believe that Russia is in danger of possibly “losing” Crimea during its war with Ukraine.
Journalist Jon Jackson, reporting for Newsweek in an article published on January 12, explains, “Crimea has emerged as a central talking point in the war in Ukraine, and as President Volodymyr Zelensky's military forces continue their momentum on the battlefield, Russia faces a legitimate threat of losing the peninsula it took by force in 2014, according to military analysts. After Ukraine surprised many experts around the globe by mounting a strong defense against the Russian invasion that began in late February, Zelensky began publicly stating that he wants Crimea to be once again considered part of his country.”

https://www.alternet.org/military-analysts-ukraine-retake-crimea/

[Tracker]

Russia Sets Ultimatum to Formally Pull a Third Country Into Putin’s War
-Reuters
Russia’s close ally Belarus could formally join the war in Ukraine in the coming days if Moscow concludes that Ukraine has “used force” against either Russia or Belarus, a senior Russian foreign ministry official warned Friday.

“Any use of force by the Kyiv regime or a Ukrainian military invasion of either Belarus or Russia would be enough to trigger a collective response," Aleksey Polishchuk, a director in Russian Foreign Ministry, told TASS, referring to the so-called Union State that Belarus and Russia formed together years ago, in which the countries have been enmeshing their banking, military, and economic sectors.

“The republic has the sovereign right to defend its territory through all means available and Minsk can count on Russia’s full support here,” Polishchuk said.

The warning comes as fears mount that Russia may be preparing a renewed offensive in the new year against Ukraine that could be launched northwest of Ukraine from Belarus. Russia has repeatedly used Belarus as a launching ground to conduct attacks against Ukraine since the war broke out last February, including Russia’s failed attempt to storm and capture Kyiv.

[JCon]

3 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Russia Sets Ultimatum to Formally Pull a Third Country Into Putin’s War
-Reuters
Russia’s close ally Belarus could formally join the war in Ukraine in the coming days if Moscow concludes that Ukraine has “used force” against either Russia or Belarus, a senior Russian foreign ministry official warned Friday.

“Any use of force by the Kyiv regime or a Ukrainian military invasion of either Belarus or Russia would be enough to trigger a collective response," Aleksey Polishchuk, a director in Russian Foreign Ministry, told TASS, referring to the so-called Union State that Belarus and Russia formed together years ago, in which the countries have been enmeshing their banking, military, and economic sectors.

“The republic has the sovereign right to defend its territory through all means available and Minsk can count on Russia’s full support here,” Polishchuk said.

The warning comes as fears mount that Russia may be preparing a renewed offensive in the new year against Ukraine that could be launched northwest of Ukraine from Belarus. Russia has repeatedly used Belarus as a launching ground to conduct attacks against Ukraine since the war broke out last February, including Russia’s failed attempt to storm and capture Kyiv.

i thought Ukraine was part of Russia? How could part of Russia, invade part of Russia? Belarus going to declare war on Russia? Shouldn't Russia defend itself against Belarus? 

[Tracker]

Sweden uncovers 1 million tonnes of rare earth minerals, largest finding in Europe 

 

[Tracker]

Today, Russia hit the largest apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Dnepr, causing massive damage and dozens if not hundreds of deaths of civilians. Upon hearing the news, Britain announced that they will be sending their most advanced tanks to Ukraine immediately. 

Edited January 15, 2023 by Tracker

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-british-tanks-sent-ukraine-will-burn-2023-01-16/

Quote

MOSCOW, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday that tanks Britain plans to send to Ukraine "will burn", warning the West that supplying a new round of more advanced weapons to Ukraine would not change the outcome of the war.

Britain said on Saturday it would send 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks as well as other advanced artillery support in the coming weeks.

 

"They are using this country [Ukraine] as a tool to achieve their anti-Russian goals," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the British tanks.

"These tanks are burning and will burn just like the rest," Peskov said.

Peskov said the new supplies from countries like Britain and Poland would not change the situation on the ground, but were an attempt to draw out the conflict which he said would ultimately bring "more troubles" on Ukraine.

[WildPath]

8 hours ago, blue_gold_84 said:

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-british-tanks-sent-ukraine-will-burn-2023-01-16/

If only other countries would be willing to match Russia's donations...

[Tracker]

                                

[Wideleft]

I'm going to miss her.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/19/jacinda-ardern-resigns-as-prime-minister-of-new-zealand?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[Tracker]

 

 

                                

[Wideleft]

37 minutes ago, Tracker said:

 

 

                                

Interesting take from the Telegraph considering they were cheerleading Johnson into this mess. 

Delusional to think the UK has the upper hand whether they rejoin or not.

[WildPath]

55 minutes ago, Wideleft said:

Interesting take from the Telegraph considering they were cheerleading Johnson into this mess. 

Delusional to think the UK has the upper hand whether they rejoin or not.

I think the point was the dates on the stories and how things have shifted.