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The Russian war effort depends on pounding targets from a safe distance then moving in with tanks and troops.

Yes, that's the one, and only recipe which worked for them.

Why they pour troops then to where they have the least of such advantage? This is the biggest riddle for me now.

The only insane theory I came up with is they want to stuff Kherson with as much troops as possible, to hold it for as long as possible once their supply line will be destroyed.

The current rock-paper-scissors in the south is air-artillery-sam.

Artillery kills SAM, SAM kills air, air kills mobile arty. Infantry, and armour do little here.

M270 will let Ukraine to move s300 in complete security from enemy tube arty, and most rocket artillery. Once s300 will cover the bridge + 20-30kms, there is really nothing I can imagine they can do. The Ukrainian south is very flat, and any small hill will max the s300 range.
 
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He needed water for Crimea from Kherson that Ukraine cut off. Odessa is the only objective that looks impossible to get
 
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Unconfirmed Ukrainian news - Russians went for a sudden meeting engagement in Kryvyi, and got wiped - 1 battalion completely lost.

Something strange going there. Either Ukr side is incorrect, propaganda exaggerating, or Russians did something going against Strategy 101 again

1 lone battalion went all the way from Kakhovka just to get slaughtered 50km away?

Hard to believe knowing that they lost a lot of troops there trying to break Ukrainian bridgehead just a week ago, and they knew how much forces Ukraine has there.

"Western-supplied artillery systems are already making a difference on the ground for Ukraine and it is “just a question of time” before its forces win back significant ground in the south, the governor of the Mykolaiv region said on Wednesday.
Governor Vitaliy Kim, whose region is partially occupied by Russia but remains just one of two that retains significant access to the Black Sea, told Reuters that Ukrainian forces had “some success” in recent weeks in a counterattack in the neighbouring Kherson region.
Asked when western weapons would start to make a difference on the ground against Russian forces, he said: “It is already happening ... and we will have (more) success.”
“We are talking about artillery,” he said. “It is already working in our region.” He declined to say what specific western artillery systems were working there."

- in The Guardian, about 1 hour ago...
 
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Lies! Boris Yeltsin signed Chechnya independence.

1) No he didn't.

1.jpg


2) Chechen forces launched an aggression on Russia in 1999, provoking the second Chechnya war.

These are pure blasphemes!!!

Christians don't condone war...

Of course Christians condone war, given legitimate circumstances. Major Christian theologians such as St. Augustine and especially St. Thomas Aquinas are famous for their theories of Just War. But we all know that.

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12/17/2018

JUST-WAR THEORY

The classic Just-War Theory has its origins in Christian theology. Saint Augustine is usually indentified as the first individual to offer a theory on war and justice. The Saint referred to the Bible and regarded some wars as necessary to amend an evil. Saint Thomas Aquinas revised Augustine's version, creating three criteria for a just war: the war needed to be waged by a legitimate authority, have a just cause, and have the right intentions. The moral justifcations for a war are expressed in jus ad bellum; whereas, the moral conduct of the war is expressed in jus in bello. The Just-War Theory is a set of rules for military combat.


Russian so-called Orthodox church is led by an ex-KGB roach who even has nuclear weapons baptized... Last time a clergy posing as Christian baptized weapons was under the Nazi regime...

More blatant misinformation.

1) They're not "baptizing" but blessing the weapons.

2) National-Socialist Germany was not the only place where weapons blessings used to take place.

Polish Catholic priest blessing a TK-3 tank in Krakow, 1939:

sm6nrzf6qpf31.jpg


Polish Catholic priest blessing grenade launchers, 1938:

RExIhEr.jpeg


3) No, WW2 was not "the last time" such scenes were witnessed.

Catholic priest blessing rifles manufactured by Beretta:

ESIE8YWXUAAUzh3.png


Protestant USA pastor blessing a military aircraft in Fort Riley, 2013:

2.jpg


https://www.chron.com/life/houston-...yed-Army-pastor-combines-missions-4646937.php

Collective gun-blessing ceremony at USA Protestant church:

3.jpg

_100224798_mediaitem100219926.jpg

_100224921_mediaitem100224920.jpg


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43231638

Christianity doesn't calls for genocide, patriarch Kyrill does...
View attachment 852504

1) There's no guarantee of the pictured document not being fake and of the translation being fully accurate.

2) "To erase a nation from the face of the Earth" does not necessarily imply genocide. The noun nation can abstractly refer to a nation-state in the legal sense. If annexed by another entity, for instance, one will be able to consider that nation as having ceased to exist even if none of its inhabitants are killed.

Pompeo didn't got involved in the CIA before 2017 and guess what? The modus operandi of any intelligence agency is ALL ABOUT DECEPTION !!!

In other terms CIA-concocted stories about Russia, portrayed as "truth" by NATO mouthpieces, are to be rejected.

FSB blew two residential buildings, killing about 300 in Moscow, as a false flag for an invasion...

:lol:

That's your FSB narrative,

It's the narrative of western sources themselves:

Revisiting our secret role in Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution​

Yves Engler / March 17, 2022 / 8 min read

In the last two decades Ottawa has ploughed sizable resources into anti-Russian, nationalist elements of Ukrainian civil society


and even tho, Ukraine is a sovereign nation,

A sovereign nation whose head of state is determined as a result of outside intervention isn't exactly sovereign.

it's NOT Russia's business

The moment a CIA-orchestrated "color revolution" achieves to install rabidly anti-Russian elements at the helm of the Ukraine state, it becomes Russia's business.

Just invading the country in absolute violations of all international laws...

Kiev previously breaking the ceasefire stipulated for by the Minsk agreements represents a violation of international law.

Yanukovych was impeached by the Ukrainian parliament, this wasn't a coup,

The so-called "Maidan" movement was, and it enabled impeachment in the first place.

Yanukovych was elected with a program of entering the EU. The Euromaidan protests started the day Yanukovych abruptly changed his mind on an Association Agreement with the European Union, deciding to strengthen economic ties with Russia instead.

The signature and ratification process of the Association Agreement came to a standstill because the EU conditioned it upon a revision of verdicts passed by Ukrainian courts in past affairs unrelated to the agreement itself.

This pretty much warrants a change of mind on the part of any rational head of state mindful of their country's sovereignty and independence.

It has to be noted that Yanukovych was jailing all his political opponents, started to enforce anti-fee-speech laws, control the press and all the shit Putin previously did into Russia to put his lasting tyranny in motion...

Peanuts compared to the terror brought upon Ukrainian citizens by the post-"Maidan" regime. A regime that practices censorship, has de facto legalized torture and more.

Nothing says anti-Nazi like scaring a chief-rabbi out of your country...
And... View attachment 852520
View attachment 852521

No serious person will seek out random, V- or Z-shaped symbols in use by National-Socialist Germany and try to peddle the fairy tale that V and Z letters painted on Russian weaponry today are meant as a reference to those National-Socialist ones.

Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS badges happened to feature many other letters such as for instance F, S, P, G, W, N, TS, FP, GU and so on. Does that mean any army on whose insignia one or more of these letters appear, is part of a state adhering to National-Socialist ideology? Preposterous, below kindergarten-level "logic".

800px-thumbnail.jpg


Here's the actual meaning of the Z and V symbols seen on Russian military equipment:

11.jpg



As for the coat of arms of the Russian Federation, this isn't "Putin's" brainchild at all, rather it's a symbol whose origins in Russia reach back as far as the Middle Ages, since variants of it have been utilized since the reign of Ivan III (1462-1505). It has historic antecedents older than the Byzantine Empire.

22.jpg



Moreover, the double-headed eagle in essence has nothing to do with National-Socialism - and never was a prominent nor a widespread symbol in the Third Reich. Earliest examples found belong to Bronze Age Illiria and Greece, followed by ancient Hittites of Anatolia. Subsequent users include the Roman Empire, Islamic Spain, medieval France, the Serbian principalty of Raška, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, the Mamluk Sultanate, the Holy Roman Empire, Serbia, Albanian nobility.

Speaking of Albania, the bicephalic eagle is present on that country's national flag as well:

albania-flag-with-eu-flag.jpg



In short, the choice of the twin-headed eagle by contemporary Russia does not even remotely hint at any ideological connection with Nazi Germany whatsoever. While regular commemoration by Russia of the USSR's WW2 victory over Germany in fact demonstrates the opposite.

1. Putin has a hard time replacing the Orcs killed in Ukraine, even by no more limiting induction age in a country of 145M. Putin is recruiting Syrians, etc, as canon-fodder.
2. Ukraine, despite 6-7M people on 42M having fled the country to dodge the war, has no need to rely on forced draft : they even have to reject voluntary enlistments due to lack of equipment, voluntaries are on waiting lists!
There is no need for CIA for this : since 2014 invasion, Ukrainians are done with Russia, and the despicable acts committed by the Orcs since Feb.24 have achieved to demolish any pro-Russian feelings even in Crimea, DPR and LPR. DPR and LPR puppet rulers even have to block locals from entering Russia or else, theses will move to the EU or return to Ukraine to fight on the Ukrainian side...
There is even partisan warfare into Orc-controlled areas

:lol:
 
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He needed water for Crimea from Kherson that Ukraine cut off. Odessa is the only objective that looks impossible to get

It will be cut off anyways.

Bringing up Crimea... maybe they are really believing Ukraine can push into it through Kherson, and they are there to delay/thwart it?
 
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Some definite change in Russian stance in the last week has happened which I cannot yet understand

A lot of troop moves in the South, and Centre, a futile counterattack on Davydiv

Maybe a preparation for pullout, maybe the opposite: they surrender Zaporizhzhia in exchange for reinforcing Kherson (which will be really, really hard to keep anyways, once they can MLRS the bridge)
M270 launchers & High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems will stop russians from advancing I think.

And, Why announce what we are sending. Let the Russians find out and learn the hard way.


The M270s and HIMARS rockets are going to be hell for Russia. Extremely accurate and nearly impossible to shoot down. We're talking entire grid square eliminators. Those are going to clear a lot of Russian artillery and supply lines.
 
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1) No he didn't.

View attachment 852545

2) Chechen forces launched an aggression on Russia in 1999.



A prankster with zionist and islamophobic persuasions pretending to "pontificate" on Christian theology... Can it get any more comical?

Of course Christians condone war, given legitimate circumstances. Major Christian theologians such as St. Augustine and especially St. Thomas Aquinas are famous for their theories of just war. But we all know that.

___

12/17/2018

JUST-WAR THEORY

The classic Just-War Theory has its origins in Christian theology. Saint Augustine is usually indentified as the first individual to offer a theory on war and justice. The Saint referred to the Bible and regarded some wars as necessary to amend an evil. Saint Thomas Aquinas revised Augustine's version, creating three criteria for a just war: the war needed to be waged by a legitimate authority, have a just cause, and have the right intentions. The moral justifcations for a war are expressed in jus ad bellum; whereas, the moral conduct of the war is expressed in jus in bello. The Just-War Theory is a set of rules for military combat.





More blatant misinformation.

1) They're not "baptizing" but blessing weapons.

2) National-Socialist Germany was not the only place where weapons blessings by clerics used to take place.

Polish Catholic priest blessing a TK-3 tank in Krakow, 1939:

sm6nrzf6qpf31.jpg


Polish Catholic priest blessing grenade launchers, 1938:

RExIhEr.jpeg


3) No, WW2 was not "the last time" such scenes could be witnessed.

Catholic priest blessing rifles manufactured by Beretta:

View attachment 852533

Protestant USA pastor blessing a military aircraft in Fort Riley, 2013:

View attachment 852534

https://www.chron.com/life/houston-...yed-Army-pastor-combines-missions-4646937.php

Mass gun-blessing ceremony at USA Protestant church:

View attachment 852536

_100224798_mediaitem100219926.jpg

_100224921_mediaitem100224920.jpg


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43231638



1) There's no guarantee of this not being fake and of the translation being fully accurate.

2) "To erase a nation from the face of the Earth" does not necessarily imply genocide. The noun nation can abstractly refer to a nation-state in the legal sense. If annexed by another state, for instance, a nation will cease to exist even if none of its inhabitants are killed.



In other terms, CIA-concocted stories about Russia being portrayed as "truth" by NATO mouthpieces, are to be rejected.



:lol:



It's the narrative of western sources themselves:

Revisiting our secret role in Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution​

Yves Engler / March 17, 2022 / 8 min read

In the last two decades Ottawa has ploughed sizable resources into anti-Russian, nationalist elements of Ukrainian civil society




A sovereign nation whose head of state is determined as a result of outside intervention isn't exactly sovereign.



The moment a CIA-orchestrated "color revolution" installs rabidly anti-Russian elements at the helm of Ukraine, it becomes Russia's business.



Kiev previously breaking the ceasefire stipulated for by the Minsk agreements represents a violation of international law.



The so-called "Maidan" movement was, and it made impeachment possible in the first place.



The signature and ratification process of the Association Agreement came to a standstill because the EU conditioned it upon a revision of verdicts passed by Ukrainian courts in past affairs not related to the agreement.

This pretty much warrants a change of mind on the part of any rational head of state mindful of their country's sovereignty and independence.



Peanuts compared to the terror brought upon citizens by the post-Maidan regime. A regime that practices censorship, that has de facto legalized torture and more.



No serious person will seek out random, V- or Z-shaped symbols in use by National-Socialist Germany and try to peddle the fairy tale that the V and Z letters painted on Russian weaponry today are meant as a reference to those National-Socialist ones.

Many other letters were featured on Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS badges such as for instance F, S, P, G, W, N, TS, FP, GU and more. Does that mean any other army on whose insignia one or more of these letters appear, belongs to a state which follows National-Socialist ideology? Totally preposterous, below kindergarten-level allegation.

800px-thumbnail.jpg


Here's the actual meaning of the Z and V symbols seen on Russian military equipment:

View attachment 852542


As for the coat of arms of the Russian Federation, it is "Putin's" idea at all but a symbol whose origins reach back as far as the Middle Ages, since variants of it have been utilized since the reign of Ivan III (1462-1505). It has antecedents older than the Byzantine Empire.

View attachment 852544


Moreover, the double-headed eagle has nothing much to do with National-Socialism - and never was a prominent nor a widespread symbol in Nazi Germany. Earliest examples found belong to Bronze Age Illiria and Greece, followed by ancient Hittites of Anatolia. Subsequent users include the Roman Empire, Islamic Spain, medieval France, the Serbian principalty of Raška, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, the Mamluk Sultanate, the Holy Roman Empire, Serbia, Albanian noble families.


In short, the choice of the double-headed eagle by contemporary Russia does not even remotely hint at any ideological connection whatsoever to Nazi Germany. While regular commemoration by Russia of the USSR's victory of Germany in fact demonstrates the opposite.



:lol:
_100224921_mediaitem100224920.jpg

This guy looks like he robbed burger king.
 
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The M270s and HIMARS rockets are going to be hell for Russia. Extremely accurate and nearly impossible to shoot down. We're talking entire grid square eliminators. Those are going to clear a lot of Russian artillery and supply lines.
And what about Russian MLRS/MBRLs ?
 
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"Western-supplied artillery systems are already making a difference on the ground for Ukraine and it is “just a question of time” before its forces win back significant ground in the south, the governor of the Mykolaiv region said on Wednesday.
Governor Vitaliy Kim, whose region is partially occupied by Russia but remains just one of two that retains significant access to the Black Sea, told Reuters that Ukrainian forces had “some success” in recent weeks in a counterattack in the neighbouring Kherson region.
Asked when western weapons would start to make a difference on the ground against Russian forces, he said: “It is already happening ... and we will have (more) success.”
“We are talking about artillery,” he said. “It is already working in our region.” He declined to say what specific western artillery systems were working there."

- in The Guardian, about 1 hour ago...
Any news of results on UCAVs and Loitering munitions in Ukrainian hands ?
 
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RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, JUNE 8​

Jun 8, 2022 - Press ISW
ISW%20LOGO%20FINAL%20ACRONYM%20%20%20NAME_ISW%20LOGO%20FINAL%20ACRONYM%20NAME%20CMYK_505.png

Download the PDF

Kateryna Stepanenko, Karolina Hird, Mason Clark, and George Barros
June 8, 6:30 pm ET
Click here to see ISW's interactive map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This map is updated daily alongside the static maps present in this report.
Russian forces are escalating the use of psychological and information operations to damage the morale of Ukrainian soldiers.
The Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported on June 8 that Russian forces are sending threatening messages to the personal devices of Ukrainian servicemen calling on them to betray their service oaths, lay down their arms, surrender, or defect to Russia.[1] The GUR reported that Russian forces are sending messages on a variety of platforms including SMS, Telegram, Viber, Signal, and WhatsApp and that the messages use location information to threaten to harm Ukrainian soldiers or their family members. Ukrainian military expert Dmytro Snegirov additionally noted that Russian propagandists are conducting informational and psychological campaigns to spoil the morale of Ukrainian troops by disseminating information that the battle for Severodonetsk will become the “next Mariupol.”[2] These information and psychological attacks likely seek to lower the morale of Ukrainian servicemen as operations on multiple axes of advance continue to generate high causalities on both the Ukrainian and Russian sides.
Russian military commanders continue to face force generation challenges. The Ukrainian Southern Operational Command reported that Russian military enlistment offices in Crimea are falsifying the results of mandatory medical exams administered during the summer conscription period to maximize the number of recruits.[3] Russian police also arrested a man who threw a molotov cocktail and set fire to a local Crimean administration building in protest of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, likely indicating growing discontent with Russian war efforts in Crimea.[4] ISW has previously reported that forced mobilization in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DNR and LNR) is exacerbating social tensions and sparking protests in Donbas.[5] The Ukrainian General Staff also reported that unspecified elements of the 106th and 76th Guards Airborne Assault Divisions refused to participate in combat in Luhansk Oblast and returned to Russia. The 76th Guards Airborne Assault Division previously participated in assaults on Kyiv, Izyum, and Popasna, which has likely led to the demoralization of troops.[6]
Key Takeaways
  • Russian forces continued assaults against Ukrainian positions in Severodonetsk. Russian forces simultaneously seek to outflank Ukrainian positions in the region to avoid the necessity of making an opposed crossing of the Siversky Donets river.
  • Russian forces are continuing operations around Sviatohirsk and west of Lyman to link up with operations southeast of Izyum and drive on Slovyansk.
  • Russian forces are intensifying their operations in northwestern Kherson Oblast in response to recent Ukrainian counterattacks.
  • Russian forces in Zaporizhia Oblast are focusing ground and artillery attacks near the Zaporizhia-Donetsk Oblast border and likely are seeking to strengthen control of the highway between Vasylivka-Orikhiv and Huliapole to support operations in northeast Zaporizhia.
  • Russian-backed occupation authorities are attempting to set conditions for the political integration of occupied areas into the Russian Federation but are likely acting independently and in an incoherent manner due to the lack of a unifying occupation authority.
  • Russian forces intensified psychological and information operations to degrade Ukrainian morale.

We do not report in detail on Russian war crimes because those activities are well-covered in Western media and do not directly affect the military operations we are assessing and forecasting. We will continue to evaluate and report on the effects of these criminal activities on the Ukrainian military and population and specifically on combat in Ukrainian urban areas. We utterly condemn these Russian violations of the laws of armed conflict, Geneva Conventions, and humanity even though we do not describe them in these reports.
  • Main Effort—Eastern Ukraine (comprised of one subordinate and three supporting efforts);
  • Subordinate Main Effort—Encirclement of Ukrainian troops in the cauldron between Izyum and Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts
  • Supporting Effort 1—Kharkiv City;
  • Supporting Effort 2—Southern Axis;
  • Activities in Russian-occupied Areas

Main Effort—Eastern Ukraine
Subordinate Main Effort—Southern Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk Oblasts (Russian objective: Encircle Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine and capture the entirety of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, the claimed territory of Russia’s proxies in Donbas)

Russian forces continued efforts to gain control over the eastern outskirts of Severodonetsk on June 8. Luhansk Oblast Head Serhiy Haidai denied Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s claims that Russian forces have seized Severodonetsk and noted that street fighting is ongoing in the city.[7] The Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) Ambassador to Russia, Rodion Miroshnik, claimed that Russian forces took control over the Severodonetsk airport and stated that Ukrainian forces are continuing small-scale resistance at the Azot Chemical Plant on June 8, but ISW cannot independently verify these claims.[8] Ukrainian forces are continuing to conduct a flexible defense of Severodonetsk and are likely focusing on inflicting high casualties on Russian personnel rather than seeking to hold the entire city. Haidai clarified previous reports from June 5-7 that Ukrainian forces regained half of Severodonetsk during a counterattack on June 5, but stated that they then withdrew to previous positions following Russian ground, artillery, and air strikes on June 6.[9] The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian defenders repelled Russian ground assaults on Toshkivka and Ustynivka (both within 20 km southeast of Severodonetsk) that sought to secure positions on the western Siverskyi Donets Riverbank.[10] Russian forces likely seek to advance up the west bank of the Siverskyi Donets River to avoid conducting a challenging opposed river crossing from Severodonetsk.

Russian forces continued to conduct ground assaults and launch artillery and airstrikes west and east of Popasna to disrupt Ukrainian ground lines of communication (GLOCs) to Lysychansk.[11] The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian artillery continued to defend Ukraine’s GLOCs along the T1302 highway from Bakhmut to Lysychansk and pushed Russian forces out of Nahirne, less than 1 km away from the T1302, to further screen this key highway.[12] Russian forces are reportedly fighting near Berestove, a settlement just northeast of Nahirne on the T1302 highway.[13] Haidai noted that Ukrainian forces retain control of the T1302 highway.[14] Russian forces did not launch assaults west or east of Avdiivka and maintained heavy shelling in western Donetsk Oblast.[15]
Russian forces continued offensive operations southeast of Izyum on June 8. Russian forces have advanced to Sviatohirsk (approximately 27 km southeast of Izyum), but it is unclear if Russian forces have entirely seized Sviatohirsk. Geolocated videos showed Ukrainian forces conducting artillery strikes and firing portable anti-tank systems against Russian heavy artillery in the eastern part of Sviatohisrk on June 6-7.[16] NASA FIRMS data observed significant high-temperature anomalies in western Sviatohirsk over the past 24 hours, likely indicating Russian indirect fire against remaining Ukrainian forces in the settlement. A Russian journalist reporting from an unspecified location in Sviatohirsk claimed that Russian forces will soon capture the entire city on June 8.[17] Russian Telegram Channel WarJournal [Z] shared drone footage of a destroyed bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River in Sviatohirsk connecting to the southeastern settlement of Tetyanivka and claimed that Ukrainian forces destroyed the bridge, but ISW cannot independently verify these claims.[18] Russian Telegram channel Swodki also claimed that Russian forces seized Tetyanivka on June 8, but this claim is likely incorrect as Russian forces reportedly continued to shell Tetyanivka throughout the day.[19] Russian forces are likely attempting to secure Sviatohirsk to link up with other units advancing south from Izyum to further advance toward Slovyansk but may face Ukrainian resistance from the western Siverskyi Donets Riverbank. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces are continuing to set conditions for offensive operations south of Izyum but did not launch ground assaults in the area.[20]

[Source: NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System over Sviatohirsk and Bohorodychne for June 7]
Russian forces attempted unsuccessful assaults south of Lyman in an effort to secure access to the western bank of the Siverskyi Donets River on June 8. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces failed to advance to Raihorodok, approximately 12 km southwest of Lyman on the western Siverskyi Donets Riverbank, on June 8.[21] A drive on Raihorodok will support Russian efforts to reach Slovyansk, which is only 10 km from the settlement.

Supporting Effort #1—Kharkiv City (Russian objective: Withdraw forces to the north and defend ground lines of communication (GLOCs) to Izyum)
There were no significant changes on the Kharkiv front in the past 24 hours. Russian forces continued to hold their defensive lines north of Kharkiv City and conducted artillery and MLRS attacks on Kharkiv City and the surrounding settlements on June 8.[22]

Supporting Effort #2—Southern Axis (Objective: Defend Kherson and Zaporizhia Oblasts against Ukrainian counterattacks)
Russian forces conducted ground and artillery attacks along the Southern Axis but did not make any confirmed advances on June 8. Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command stated that Russian forces are intensifying operations in Kherson Oblast, specifically along the Mykolaiv-Kherson Oblast borders.[23] Russian forces are likely escalating hostilities in this area in response to recent Ukrainian counterattacks south of Davydiv Brid, where territory is still contested.[24] Russian forces are reportedly attempting to curb Ukrainian efforts to regroup and strengthen units in Kherson Oblast and prevent further Ukrainian counterattacks.[25]
Russian forces concentrated their artillery fire and ground attacks in northeastern Zaporizhia near the Donetsk Oblast border on the Orikhiv-Huliapole line.[26] Spokesperson for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Oleksandr Motuzyanyk noted that Russian forces deployed 30 T-62 tanks to “long-term” (likely meaning defensive) firing points in Vasylivka, which is a likely attempt to strengthen control over the T0812 highway that runs from Vasylivka to Orikhiv and Huliapole.[27] Russian forces additionally conducted MLRS attacks and reconnaissance operations in Mykolaiv Oblast.[28]

Activity in Russian-occupied Areas (Russian objective: consolidate administrative control of occupied areas; set conditions for potential annexation into the Russian Federation or some other future political arrangement of Moscow’s choosing)
Russian-backed occupation authorities continued to set political conditions for the integration of occupied Ukrainian territories on June 8. Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported that occupation authorities in Kherson Oblast are conducting fake “social polls” in order to set conditions for a “referendum” on accession into the Russian Federation.[29] According to the report, citizens of Kherson Oblast are receiving calls from unidentified actors that pose a series of manipulative and leading questions in order to sway their opinions on Russia, the war, the occupation, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The GUR stated that the results of these manufactured “polls” will be used by occupation authorities to argue that Ukrainian citizens think favorably of Russia in order to make the case for annexation.
The Russian-appointed mayor of Melitopol, Galina Danilchenko, announced on June 8 that Melitopol is preparing for its own referendum on joining Russia.[30] The fact that a singular city, as opposed to an entire occupied region, is preparing for a referendum may indicate that occupied territories are pursuing ad hoc annexation and integration plans without a unifying occupational body to oversee the annexation of the entire region.
Occupation authorities of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) continued to fail to provide the residents of Mariupol with basic social services or quality-of-life assurances. Advisor to the Mayor of Mariupol Petro Andryushchenko stated that DNR authorities are unable to provide water, humanitarian aid, or medical services to residents and that corruption amongst DNR collaborators is further complicating the situation.[31] Head of the DNR Denis Pushilin stated that his priority is restoring the school system in Mariupol despite continual administrative failures to provide even the most basic food and water services.[32] Pushilin additionally dismissed the chairman of the DNR‘s government on June 8, which is a likely indicator that DNR authorities have faced widespread internal challenges in efforts to occupy Mariupol and conduct the war as a whole.[33] ISW cannot currently assess the implications of this reported dismissal and will report further on any changes in the DNR’s governance structure.
 
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