Russian aerospace forces are quickly whittling away at the state we once called Ukraine
Russian forces started massively attacking Kiev’s military-related assets on March 22, the date of the Crocus City Hall terror attack.
Each day since then, Russian missiles and drones struck with the same unprecedented ferocity,
Ukraine’s statehood is quickly being eroded. It’s been slowly eroding in fact since the start of the war, but Russia is now greatly accelerating the process.
The following two reports are translations with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
Use this map to locate the oblasts mentioned in the air strike reports.
https://ria.ru/20240401/krivoyrog-1937172009.html
01.04.2024
The underground reported an attack on the airport in Krivoy Rog
Underground: Russian armed forces hit Lozovatka airport in Krivoy Rog
DONETSK, April 1 – RIA Novosti. The Russian military attacked the Krivoy Rog airport; there is evidence that it was used by the Ukrainian Air Force, Nikolaev underground coordinator Sergei Lebedev told RIA Novosti, citing his colleagues from the Dnepropetrovsk oblast.
“At 16:45, the Lozovatka airport in Krivoy Rog was hit, the agents reported an explosion with a second detonation. During the day, the underground recorded the activity of the Ukrainian Air Force there, where several flights of planes and helicopters were noticed,” the agency’s source said.
[This language map of Ukraine is actually quite important because the oblasts where Russian is spoken at least by 50% of the people will be amicably inclined toward the Russian government and military.
And let’s never forget: in Ukraine, even most of those not counted as native speakers of Russian have a fairly decent grasp of Russian as a second language, which is, after all, closely related to Russian. We see here that the Dnepropetrovsk oblast has up to 50% native speakers of Russian and it also bears a red flag indicating that Russian is the regional language. It is obvious that the Ukrainian forces are at a disadvantage in this oblast – which contains Krivoy Rog – because not just a few stragglers but almost the entire oblast is willing to share the coordinates of Ukrainian military assets with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Thus we see a reference to an “underground” that supplies information to the Russian military. The same applies to Nikolaev (Mykolaiv in Ukrainian). This language factor is a HUGE asset that is never mentioned in military analyses. In fact, you may have noticed that even competent pro-Russian analysts like Douglas MacGregor, Larry Johnson, Scott Ritter, Andrey Martyaniv and Alexander Mercouris rarely mention the air strikes when discussing the military situation at the battle front in Ukraine. We’ve got a blind spot, and I therefore suspect we may all be in for a surprise at some point. I mean how can state survive as such with 80% of its electrical power gone?! And Russia is scoring more hits every day!]
The Ukrainian TV channel “Public” reported an explosion in Krivoy Rog earlier on Monday.
An air alert was announced in the afternoon in Sumy, Poltava, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk and Nikolaev oblasts of Ukraine.
The Russian military is striking at Ukrainian infrastructure: energy facilities, defense industry, military command and communications. Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly emphasized that the army does not attack residential buildings or social institutions.
**
Today’s strikes covered pretty much the whole country
https://dzen.ru/a/ZgnHo1wrHl4H7MSC
01.04.2024
April 1, 2024 Urgent! Missile strikes on Ukraine today: the Russian Aerospace Forces attacked an enemy training ground in the rear [and so much more]!
Russian troops attacked the rear areas of the Kyiv regime. There are known explosions in the western oblasts of Ukraine. According to some reports, a military airfield was hit by drones.
In the Rivne oblast, a personnel accommodation facility at one of the training grounds was hit.
According to some reports, Ukrainian air defense targets were hit by Russian strikes in Kremenchug and Svetlovodsk. At one time, a division of an anti-aircraft missile regiment was based in Svetlovodsk [Kirovogrod oblast]. Then the regiment was transferred to Kremenchug [Poltava oblast]. The towns are 15 km apart.
Also, a series of strikes were carried out on enemy targets in the Sumy and Kharkov oblasts.
From these areas, the Kiev regime launched attacks on the Kursk and Belgorod oblasts. As a result of these attacks, the militants of the Kyiv regime have already lost about 1.8 thousand people, a third of whom were “two hundreds” [The term 200s refers to the trucks used to transfer the dead soldiers killed in action from the battlefield to the morgue. The trucks used for this purpose bore the marking”200.” The trucks assigned to the wounded were marked “300.” These numbers were assigned since Soviet times, in both Russia and Ukraine.]
Today April 1st arrived in Ukraine
On the evening of April 1, the strikes on Ukraine were good and of high quality. The attack tactics have noticeably changed. Troop clusters near the front line are being hit and strikes are launched deep into Ukraine against clusters that are ready to move to the front. The places where UAVs are produced and stored are most meticulously examined and destroyed.
📌Today we hit targets in the Sumy oblast with special zeal, and also launched attacks into the city of Sumy.
📌In the Donetsk oblast, in addition to regular artillery exits, FABs [Very large guided glide bombs] and Gerans attacked [FABs are a relative new addition to the Russian arsenal and are used mostly on the front lines. The advantage is that the bomb is released at a safe distance from the target, so that the enemy cannot shoot down the launching aircraft. This is just one of the many “standoff” weapons that do massive damage to the enemy while representing little danger to the Russians. The bombs come in weights of 500, 1000 and 1500 kg, but a new 3000 kg bomb is now being added to the arsenal. Again, I am wondering how Ukraine expects to survive this war as a viable state]
📌The Kharkov oblast did not go unnoticed almost all night. FABs and Gerans [attack drones] were delivered to the places of concentration of the Banderites who ordered them.
📌Krivoy Rig [Rog in Russian] was awarded the delivery of Gerans four times during the night, and despite the huge extent of the city, all residents heard the strikes
📌In the Khmelnitsky oblast, attention was paid to Starokonstantinov [an airfield in that area gets hit regularly]
📌The Poltava oblast, represented by the city of Kremenchug, received five strikes
📌The city of Svetlovodsk in the Kirovograd oblast, was hit. Local residents witnessed three strikes today
Attack on an oil storage facility in Svetlovodsk
On the night of April 1, Russian troops launched a massive combined attack on enemy rear targets, which lasted more than 7 (seven) hours. Geran-2 combat UAVs, ballistic missiles, and air-launched ammunition were used. Explosions were heard in most oblasts of Ukraine; kamikaze drones even reached targets in the Volyn oblast. [So this was another massive strike throughout Ukraine]
In the Kirovograd oblast, a blow was struck to the storage of fuels and lubricants on the territory of PJSC Svetlovodsk Oil Depot.
Coordinates: 49.0545789, 33.2580916
The facility was not used for a long time, but has recently been restored and re-equipped, being an integral part of the logistics system for the supply of diesel fuel from Bulgaria for the needs of the Ukrainian forces.
As a result of the impact, a large fire broke out at the site. Judging by the glow, which was visible for several tens of kilometers, the ammunition hit the tanks with fuel stored there. This indicates that by the time of the attack the enterprise was fully functioning.
Strike on a military-industrial complex facility in Lutsk
https://t.me/don_partizan/4560
In a continued analysis of the results of the night raid, information was received about the destruction of the territory of the Lutsk Motor repair plant by one attack UAV "Geran-2".
The enterprise is closely connected with the military-industrial complex of Ukraine. The plant specializes in the production of aircraft engines and equipment for military equipment under contracts concluded with Ukrooboronprom:
Fuel Pumps and Injectors: One of the key components produced by the company are fuel pumps and injectors.
Engines: The plant produces a wide range of engines for aircraft and helicopters of various classes. Among them:
- DV2 Engine - used on Yak-12 and Yak-52 aircraft
- D 236 - installed on Mi-2 and Ka-26 helicopters
— D 436 – used on Mi-2MSB and Mi-8MT helicopters
Turbocharger Systems: The enterprise’s facilities specialize in the production of turbocharger systems for aircraft engines. They are designed to increase engine power and efficiency.
One gets the strong impression that a fundamental decision was made to disable not only aircraft repair plants and unmanned aircraft basing areas, but also alternate airfields to which Ukrainian aircraft are transferred after the alarm signal sounds.
Definitely, one attack UAV is not enough to cause even noticeable, much less critical damage to an enterprise of this scale, but the very fact that the Geran was able to reach an object in the deep rear confirms previously drawn conclusions that the existing enemy air defense systems are not able to cope with a massive attack by strike UAVs due to multiple losses of various types of air defense systems. [Successful strikes on air defense systems were delivered primarily by hypersonic missiles, which cannot be intercepted. After the systems were disabled, the Russians were able to use cheaper means such as drones, to strike other assets] In view of this, such raids must be carried out systematically and more often, using all available potential.
I repeat, the current dynamics for Ukrainian formations are extremely negative. It is impossible to solve this problem without financial support and new large supplies from the West and the United States. [The problem is, now that the power facilities are being hit, the limited Western finances originally intended for weapons and munitions will have to be redirected to rebuild power systems.]
Result
I repeat, the current dynamics for Ukrainian formations are extremely negative. It is impossible to solve it without financial support and new large supplies from the West and the United States.
Results of a massive attack by attack UAVs on targets in the Odessa oblast
On the night of March 30, 2024, Russian troops carried out a massive raid with Geran-2 attack UAVs on enemy targets in the Odessa oblast. After analyzing all the data received, it was established that 8 kamikaze drones successfully hit the given targets.
Coordinates: 46.5971819, 30.9403378
🔻One of the “Gerans” managed to hit a positional area of the enemy’s air defense system on the territory of a military training ground near Chernomorskoye. As a result of the strike, a Gepard anti-aircraft self-propelled gun and one of the crew members were destroyed; two servicemen were seriously injured and burned.
**
A group of warships with Kalibr missiles entered the Red Sea. For what?
Apr 1, 2024
The ships of the Pacific Fleet - "Kalibr-missile carrying frigate "Marshal Shaposhnikov" and the missile cruiser "Varyag" - are sent to the Red Sea to solve a number of military tasks. Pravda.Ru columnist Lyubov Stepushova reflects on the goals of this decision.
It is reported that on a “long voyage” before entering the Red Sea, the crews of the ships “successfully passed through the Gulf of Aden, where they practiced a series of shipboard exercises on various scenarios for the actions of a mock enemy.” The final destination of the ships is unclear from the message, as are the reasons why Russia sent the ships to this area, comments Bloomberg news.
The Red Sea region is one of the most dangerous in the world due to the actions of Yemen, which declared war on Israel. Yemeni missiles and UAVs are sinking ships heading to or related to the country, including American and British ones. The United States created a coalition and sent a squadron on its behalf to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It occasionally hits targets in Yemen, but Houthi attacks continue.
According to their leaders, 63 “enemy ships” have so far been attacked, including by missiles traveling at “more than three times the speed of sound.”
Russia denied reports that Yemen guaranteed its ships (which, in particular, carry oil to India) safe passage [But an older report appearing below says they are guaranteed safe passage. Probably, Russia does not want to get too visibly involved in the Gaza issue but it definitely is sympathetic to the Gazans]. Bloomberg notes that Iran, Russia and China recently held joint naval exercises in the Gulf of Oman in the Arabian Sea in the Indian Ocean, in which the ships Varyag and Marshal Shaposhnikov also took part. The purpose of the exercise is to “ensure regional security in the common interest.”
According to the Eritrean Ministry of Defense, “Marshal Shaposhnikov” and “Varyag” arrived at the port of Massawa on March 28. It is expected that joint exercises will be held between sailors of the two states and experience will be exchanged.
This visit will be the first in 30 years of diplomatic relations between Russia and Eritrea, which always takes a pro-Russian position on the Ukrainian issue when voting resolutions at the UN General Assembly
There is no doubt that Russia is striving for a stable and strong presence in the Red Sea, so the first task of the voyage is to “show the flag” in an environment that is far from calm. Russia is signaling its readiness to participate in what is happening in the region, which could potentially significantly change the dynamics of events.
Undoubtedly, this is a response to France’s claims to enter Odessa, which will entail a naval confrontation with NATO in the Black Sea. Then strikes from the Marshal Shaposhnikov from the Red Sea will be timely.
Israeli sources noted that at the same time, Russian troops continue to expand their presence on the Golan Heights from Syria and plan to open an 11th observation post there in the near future. Strengthening Russia's presence along the Israeli-Syrian border could serve to strengthen its position as a key player in the event of a wider conflict in the region, the Israelis believe.
Let’s not forget that Iran is our friend, but so are Egypt and the UAE. Russia can indeed play a stabilizing role for shipping in the Red Sea at their request. Another thing is that Arab countries should not remain in debt either.
It is also possible that the Russian Federation has finally decided to create a naval base in Eritrea, and not in Sudan, where it is not very strategically advantageous, and the local authorities have not yet decided. This is important because the USA, France, China, and Italy already have military bases in Djibouti, from where they control “freedom of navigation.”
**
19 Jan, 2024
The Houthis made a promise to Russian ships
The Houthis have promised ships from Russia and China safe passage through the Red Sea.
A member of the Ansar Allah Politburo assured that the Houthis will not attack Russian and Chinese ships, since free navigation is important for Yemen. At the same time, he noted that the bombing by the West “only unites our people.”
The Yemeni Ansar Allah movement (Houthis) will not attack ships from Russia and China; their movement in the Red Sea is not threatened. Mohammed al-Bahiti, a member of the movement’s Politburo, stated this in an interview with Izvestia.
According to him, the Houthis only attack Israeli ships or those in any way associated with Israel, and these attacks will continue “until the carnage in Gaza ends.”
“As for all other countries, including Russia and China, their shipping in the region is not threatened. Moreover, we are ready to ensure the safety of the passage of their ships in the Red Sea, because free navigation plays a significant role for our country,” Al-Bahiti emphasized.
The Houthi representative also noted that a direct clash with the United States and Great Britain would be “a better option for the movement than a proxy war through our regional opponents or their supporters within Yemen itself.”
“During the civil war, we have already lost much more than we can lose in a new conflict. However, as I already said, the Western coalition’s bombing of our country only unites our people,” he added.
On January 13, the British security company Ambrey reported that the Houthis attacked a tanker carrying Russian oil that was flying the flag of Panama. The ship reported three boats approaching it and a missile falling 400–500 m from the side. No one was injured and the tanker was not damaged. Ambrey suggested that the vessel was targeted because it was listed as linked to Britain in a public database, although this information is now outdated.
**
Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
Link to article on President Assad
Tuesday 19 December 2023 04:58
President Assad: The resistance won the war of truth
President Assad
The speech of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, during his presidency, of the session of the party’s Central Committee meetings, in which he discussed in detail the Battle of the Al-Aqsa Flood, is of great importance, especially because of the facts it contained that President al-Assad extracted from this battle, which he described as a war of truth, indicating that what happened In Palestine, broke the dominance of the Zionist narrative globally, stressing that the battle confirmed that adhering to issues protects the homelands and the Palestinian people succeeded in adhering to their cause.
Regarding American and Western support, President al-Assad indicated that what he described as the attack by Western officials to support “Israel” is a mother’s attack to protect her son, considering the temporary entity [Israel] to be the legitimate son of colonialism.
What are the most prominent and important points included in President al-Assad’s speech?
- The war in the Gaza Strip changed [the perception of] historical facts for many years and perhaps generations, and they will not change in the foreseeable future regardless of the results of the war.
[The true facts of the Nakba – brutal, criminal ethnic cleansing in Palestine – were censored for years in the Western press, leaving Westerners under the impression that the Israeli regime was just and fair. The genocide in Gaza held the uncomfortable truth about “Israel” in the public eye through the establishment media and social media for months after Oct 7, driving the inescapable truth into the Western mind] These facts are lessons that must be contemplated and learned, because they intersect considerably with what Syria has experienced and with what other Arab countries and non-Arab countries may experience, because the principles are the same for both peoples and nations.
The Palestinian narrative has undermined the [false] Zionist narrative that had been in control since the inception of the Palestinian issue, that is, since the nineteenth century, because social media, which was the West’s tool for controlling minds, through narrative, culture, politics, customs and traditions, caused those who used it to mature, so the magic turned against the magician. Zionism lost its narrative even in its most important stronghold, the United States of America. [This Zionist narrative includes the belief that the supposed rebirth of ancient Israel in 1948 was the fulfillment of prophecy and that the artificial construct “Israel” must be supported unconditionally by Christians, who must accept the crimes against humanity committed by this entity as actions ordained by God. Most authors, including Arab ones, fail to understand the power this religious narrative has over the minds of both the elites and the masses]
- Losing the Zionist narrative does not mean that the American street [grassroots] has become supportive of Palestine, but rather it has many doubts about the Zionist narratives.
Here, President Al-Assad considered that it [these events] closely intersects with what Syria experienced at the beginning of the war against it and still is experiencing, through the Arab countries imposing many restrictions on the means of communication or restricting the Internet, as it is a new and frightening tool. Here, President Al-Assad revealed that Syria was one of the countries that placed restrictions on these new methods as well, but it removed all restrictions, on the basis that [if it continued the restrictions] it would fight this war in a way that it described as enemies.
_Trust in the broad public to defend its homeland. There is no meaning or hope for the state in defending its homeland. Rather, power is formed from the awareness of the public (the popular incubator, which he [Assad] described as the incubator of awareness), and not in the armed forces or in political discourse. This is what Syria succeeded in accomplishing during the war against it by protecting internal public opinion, and it was not necessary to penetrate international public opinion. [What the author says here about international public opinion applies to all countries that the US regime denigrates by disinformation in the press. Putin, for example, has pointed out that Western public opinion regarding Russia is of no importance and should be ignored. Americans, both the elites and the grassroots, fail to understand this and think, for example, that the Neocon, Russophobic opinions expressed in Western msm can change minds in Russia. The recent election, giving Putin a landslide vote, proves this is an illusion. The last election in Syria gave Assad a landslide as well, despite the venom poured out in the Western press against Assad]
_The war today is the war of truth, and whoever wins the truth will win the battle.
_ All the wars of the West, specifically America, are based, in the second degree, on controlling the land, while the first degree is based on controlling the truth (true or false).
_What is most terrifying about Israel today in the world is that the latter has come to know its terrorist reality. [The world would have known this back in 1948, and this knowledge would have prevented the UN from approving their application for statehood, but the history was deliberately obfuscated and distorted under extreme pressure from the US, backed by millions of Evangelicals imbued with the Satanic doctrine of "Christian" Zionism, whose adherents today adamantly deny the culpability of the Israeli crime syndicate]
_ America actually dominated the world before the dollar and the fleets.
In this context, he [Assad] reviewed how America was able to spread the idea that the West was the enemy of Nazism, while the latter was the primary enemy of Russia (the Soviet Union) [and not the West per se].
_ The rise of Nazism between World War I and World War II enjoyed American support, through the Americans allowing Nazism to rise and establish an army, with American support and with American money (through loans and investments, and even the Ford Company invested in that). The investments remained until the Nazi plan changed, and then Western support changed and Europe showed that it was against that war. [What few understand is that the West resumed its support for Nazism even post-war, for example, through Operation Paper Clip in the US and by installing ex-Nazi politicians at the top echelons of the EU].
_America did not fight Nazism, but rather it strengthened and honored every Nazi leader who cooperated with it. President al-Assad stated that everyone believes that the West defeated Nazism in the “Normandy landings,” while few know that Hitler’s defeat began in 1941 at the walls of Moscow, nearly two years after the start of the war. The Western powers, especially the United States, were not taking any action against Nazism at that time. Rather, Stalin was asking America to intervene, but it refused, because it wanted Nazism and communism to destroy each other, so America would control Europe after Europe had also been destroyed. America and those who follow it did not intervene until approximately 3 years later, when they discovered that Russia was on the verge of victory, so they decided to attack and steal the victory from the Russians.
The famous Nuremberg trials were for Nazi leaders who refused to cooperate with America, but everyone who cooperated was encouraged and honored, such as those who participated in the field of missiles [like Werner von Braun, who was named NASA chief even though it was he who designed the rockets that killed thousands in London] or in establishing NATO and other matters.
_ America also deceived the world regarding the issue of the Jewish Holocausts, which it deliberately politicized by paving the way for the transfer of Jews from Europe towards other regions, namely Palestine.
_What happened in Palestine in recent years has revived the issue globally. Assad pointed out that, in Syria, the Palestinian issue exists in the subconscious, is not thought of as a historical relationship, and was not forgotten after the Oslo Accords, as happened in many Arab countries.
_ What happened in Palestine during the past years, not only in Gaza, the focus of events, is that this issue has regained its international status, so that it returned to its essence, which is that of an occupier fighting the owner of the land, an aggressor fighting an aggressor.
_ The Zionists, because they are not a people, believed that the passage of time would lead to the emergence of generations that would forget the issue, although issues among peoples ferment over time and not the other way around. They ferment, mature, and ignite further, producing the toughest resistance and the toughest resolve.
_The Palestinian people, in the way they carried their cause across almost 4 generations, proved that they are an authentic people. They also proved that the Israeli people are an illusion, and undermined the slogan of a people without a land for a land without a people. Israel was not built through cultural accumulation, but rather through a political decision, and politics cannot build peoples or establish civilizations. [The notion of a “land without a people” (Palestine) was a Big Lie because Palestine had a big population, 700,000 people, while, as the author points out, the Jews that settled there were not a people in the true sense because they were a political construct. The Jews who arrived in Palestine did not grow up speaking Hebrew, which they had to learn from scratch. Their DNA was later found to be so diverse that no single ethnicity could be established. They could not prove that they were in fact descended from a common ancestor, ie, Abram. To understand the TRUE history of the founding of “Israel,” you can view this video, which is based on years of thorough research]
- The Israeli settlers revealed their true colors through their pleasure in the bloodshed of the Palestinians, namely, that they are a troubled people.
_President al-Assad described the actions of the absolute occupation army as violent and criminal to the point of hysteria, and at the same time cowardly to the point of collapse.
_Adherence to issues is what protects peoples and protects homelands.
_State diplomacy without an issue to manage is like tactics without strategy, and it is like maneuvering without a goal.
This adherence to principles (in contrast to opportunism) led Syria to refuse to allow America to use its lands to bomb Iraq in 2003, and made it reject Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait in 1991 because it is similar to rejecting the occupation in Palestine, the Golan, and anywhere else. [This refusal to cooperate with the aggressor in Iraq, and Israel’s hatred of Syria, is the main reason the Necon-dominated Washington regime treats Assad as an enemy. Like virtually all regimes treated as an enemy by Washington, Syria and Assad are not enemies of the US. They are “pretend enemies,” This deceitful nature of US foreign policy is why the regime and its Chihuahuas in the press are slowly losing their legitimacy]
_ This world has a lot of non-principles, so work must always be devoted to issues.
_The resistance stuck Israel’s nose in the dirt, despite all the support provided to the Israeli army. [Reminder: the anti-imperialist resistance includes Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Popular Mobilization Forces (Quwwāt al-Ḥashd ash-Shaʿbī) in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen. The power of each of these has grown significantly since Oct 7]
-The Western and American attack in the early days to support Israel was because it was collapsing, and because it was the legitimate child of colonialism.
_The resistance was able to break the Zionist hegemony over the narrative by spreading the truth and ethical treatment of the prisoners, which is what the Israelis tried to obscure in various ways.
_The price of resistance is less than the price of surrender, and the resistance today defends all Arab countries.
Writer: Editorial room
**
https://newsletters.mondoweiss.net/emails/webview/59730/117423469913703487
‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 178: Israel withdraws from al-Shifa Hospital, leaving evidence of a massacre in its wake
Qassam Muaddi
Dozens of bodies are still being recovered from the rubble of a destroyed and burnt al-Shifa Hospital, following a two-week Israeli raid and siege on the hospital.
The saddest thing about this is the high number of US politicians and Evangelical leaders who approve this slaughter wholeheartedly!
**
https://twitter.com/i/status/1774395831048646906
Khalissee
@Kahlissee
BREAKING: Horrific scenes coming out of Gaza as Israel bombs Al Aqsa Hospital again.
Civilians were killed, and several journalists were injured in Israeli shelling of a refugee tent outside Al Aqsa Hospital. *NSFW
**
Apparently it is a violation of federal law to sympathize with the victims of genocide on social media.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1774371724559056915
Watch the video.
Translation:
Agents from the American FBI raided the outdoor courtyard of an American woman’s home and interrogated her about pro-Palestine posts that she wrote on her account on the Facebook platform, as the platform reported the account as publishing “pro-Palestinian activities.”