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Drones Strikes In Moscow – Missile Strikes In Ukraine
Today the Russian government revealed some numbers and information about its 'Special Military Operation'.
Today's 'clobber report' by the Ministry of Defense leads with this (machine translation):
During the day, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out group strikes using long-range high-precision air-launched weapons at central decision-making points where, under the guidance of specialists from Western intelligence agencies, terrorist acts were planned on Russian territory.
All assigned objects are hit.
'Central decision-making points' are ministries and main headquarters. These had so far not been targets. More to that below.
Defense Minister Shoigu had a conference call with the military command and noted:
"Russian forces continue to inflict an effective fire impact on the enemy. Its losses this month alone totaled over 16,000 troops, 16 aircraft, 5 helicopters, 466 drones, over 400 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, and 238 field artillery pieces and mortars," Shoigu said during a conference call.
He added that 196 HIMARS rockets, 16 HARM rockets and 29 Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles were intercepted and destroyed during the reviewed period.
The numbers are, with the exception of the downed Storm Shadows, largely consistent with the numbers from the daily 'clobber report' in my spreadsheet. But I have only counted 17 reported Storm Shadow kills over the last month. I do not know where Shoigu's 29 is coming from.
Shoigu also spoke of targets of the recent drone attacks in Ukraine (machine translation):
“The deliveries of equipment and weapons to Ukraine are increasing. We monitor the volumes and routes of supply and, if identified, strike.
In recent days, large warehouses of Western weapons in Khmelnytsky, Ternopil and Nikolaev have been destroyed, the American Patriot anti-aircraft missile system in Kyiv has been hit,” the Minister of Defense said.
"The military support of Ukraine only delays the hostilities, but cannot affect the outcome of the special military operation," the head of the military department is sure.
On today's drone strikes in Moscow he said (machine translation):
“This morning, the Kiev regime carried out a terrorist act in the Moscow region. I will note, on civilian objects.
It involved eight aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles.
They are all amazed.
In Moscow, three drones were suppressed by electronic warfare, lost control and deviated from their intended targets.
Five more were shot down in the Moscow region by the Pantsir anti-aircraft missile and gun system, the Minister of Defense said.
Other people had claimed up to 20 drones. But there was little damage and no reports of any casualties.
Also today was the third large drone and missile strike on Kiev within 24 hours. The were a total 17 strikes on Kiev in May 2023. I do not believe that Ukraine's claim of shooting down all missiles and drones is in any way reasonable. There will be a lot of damage in places Kiev does not want to talk about. The air defense in Kiev and elsewhere is exhausted and likely to soon run out of missiles. That will certainly increase the effectiveness of Russian strikes.
President Putin seemed to confirm that today's attack on a 'central decision-making points' hit the headquarter of military intelligence in Kiev:
Mark Sleboda @MarkSleboda1 – 13:28 UTC · May 30, 2023
Putin confirms recent Russian missile strike on Kiev regime military intelligence, under Budanov, which had claimed credit for several recent assassinations & terrorist bombings of civilians in Russia.
Budanov is a pretty nasty piece of s***. In a recent interview with Yahoo his threats were certainly not within the frame of any law:
The implication is that Budanov’s intelligence service, more commonly known by its Ukrainian acronym HUR, was behind a string of audacious and lethal attacks inside Russian territory — or what the Kremlin considers to be Russian territory. These include the August car-bomb assassination of Daria Dugina, daughter of Russia’s notorious far-right theorist Aleksandr Dugin, in central Moscow, and the suspected truck bombing in October that partially dismantled the Kerch Bridge, Russia’s only direct link from the Black Sea to occupied Crimea.
U.S. intelligence has attributed Dugina’s killing to the Ukrainian government, although not specifically to the HUR. Asked about this allegation, Budanov said, “Don’t continue with that topic. All I will comment on is that we’ve been killing Russians and we will keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine.”
Budanov should note that the old warrior tale has been updated to: "Live by the sword, die by the dagger missile."
Larry @SONAR beat me. But here’s a post I prepped earlier.
I vehemently disagree with Larry. Those ex-mil went to Ukraine “on safari”.
Some men enjoy war and death. Some become broken and find more war the antidote to their trauma. Regardless. Travelling to Ukraine kill Russians was dumbdumbdumb.
The American military veterans who’ve fallen in Ukraine
On Memorial Day, families and friends reckon with the meaning of service under one flag — and sacrifice under another
May 29, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/05/29/memorial-day-americans-killed-ukraine-russia-war/
Extracts:
As America’s most recent wars fade into history, some veterans have chosen to take up arms in Ukraine and, in at least 16 instances, given their lives while either defending its people from Russia’s onslaught or aiding those trapped in the violence.
They’ve done so as private citizens, disregarding repeated official warnings from President Biden and others in his administration that grave danger awaits anyone who steps foot on the battlefield.
It’s unclear how many Americans have taken such risks. Possibly thousands. Ukraine claimed at the war’s outset last year that upward of 20,000 U.S. citizens expressed interest in joining the country’s foreign legion, which pays between $500 and $3,500 per month in exchange for a contractual commitment to serve for several months.
(Peters) had struggled adjusting to civilian life in Wisconsin after leaving the Army a few years earlier, his father said.
And initially, Peters’s parents tried to talk him out of going to Ukraine.
But when their son was undeterred, the family approached the decision together, with his father, a Gulf War veteran who also served in the Army, considering volunteering, too.
“After a couple of weeks, I kind of came to my senses and was like, ‘Is this something you really want to do at 53?’” John Peters said.
“So I told Andrew, ‘I’m going to sit this one out.’
(Nick Mainer, 45) death, apparently in a building collapse somewhere near the besieged city of Bakhmut earlier this month, was disclosed in a poorly lit video showing Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin.
A close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin and his private army have assumed a lead role in the war.
In the video, he stands near a lifeless body and taunts the United States.
In his hands is a notebook holding Maimer’s Idaho driver’s license and Veterans Affairs card.
Ukrainian forces have since received the remains, and the Maimer family expects they will be returned to the United States soon.
“It’s amazing, concerning the circumstances,” Paul Maimer said.
“There can be some closure. At this point that is all that we can ask for.”
Cooper Andrews,26. …(his mother) has sought help from the Ukrainian community in Ohio after losing faith that the State Department will get the job (return his remains) done she said.
Communication with the U.S. government, she said, has been frustrating, inconsistent and at times exasperating.
She has relied, in part, on updates from European families with connections to her son’s unit.
…… a plane carrying the remains of Marine Corps veteran Grady Kurpasi (50) arrived on U.S. soil, bringing a measure of closure after 13 months of work to bring him home.
Kurpasi served 20 years in the Marines, including in Iraq.
His retirement from the military, in November 2021, was short-lived, however. After Russia invaded Ukraine the following February, he joined a unit of international volunteers that fought near the capital, Kyiv, before moving south in April 2022.
…Kurpasi and a British volunteer left to investigate the source of incoming fire.… last seen alive.
Kurpasi’s family and Marine Corps comrades turned to volunteers in Ukraine and beyond to help determine his fate, and they pressed the Biden administration to get directly involved.
The State Department was “absolutely awful,” said George Heath, another friend of Kurpasi’s who assisted with the recovery effort.
“I expected nothing less from them after the botched Afghan withdrawal.
It was probably beneficial in a way their incompetence wasn’t involved with getting Grady home,” he said.
The family instead relied on outside groups and the R.T. Weatherman Foundation to coordinate search efforts with the Ukrainian government and volunteers on the ground.
That effort led to a collection of trees in the fields near Oleksandrivka, west of Kherson, said Andrew Duncan, the group’s co-founder. Kurpasi’s skeletal remains were identified last month, along with his boots, backpack and other gear, some of which will be used in exhibits for a Ukrainian museum honoring foreign fighters, he said.
A band of grain plucked from the site was delivered to Kurpasi’s daughter.
[theres more at link above]^
[so much WaPo pathos/bathos for military men for whom too much killing is never enough]
archive link:
https://archive.fo/Sy8lh
Posted by: Melaleuca | May 31 2023 2:43 utc | 210
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