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A lot of recent activity lately in "Transnistria," the Russian occupied slice of Moldova on the far side of Ukraine. It started three days ago with some small bombs going off there from unclear cause, possibly false flag agitation, and the Russian forces there went to high alert. Then about 24 hours ago the only bridge between mainland Ukraine and the part between Moldova and the Black Sea was hit with a Russian missile. Then two of the largest radio transmitters in Europe, located in Transnistria, were destroyed by Ukraine -- they had been being used to broadcast Russian propaganda across Ukraine. As one journalist quipped, they had previously been used by a televangalist group so the strike was either revenge by Ukraine or God.
Its been hard to keep track of everything blowing up in Russia, there's been oil depots hit and burning in Bryansk and Belgorad which are in range of Ukraine, but also several major Russian military facilities have happened to catch fire further away, including in Vladivostok at the far end of Russia. And something like five Russian recruiting stations have suffered arson attacks. It seems to me we're seeing some serious resistance movement action within Russia.
Also last night there was anti aircraft fire in several Russian citiesa bit deep (like 100 miles) into Russia, such as Kurk, Voronezh. Citizens there have got to be wondering how this is possible when they've been told they're winning the war so well.
The airbase and command center Russia for mind boggling reasons keeps using in Kherson was hit (17th time!) a few days ago during a big staff meeting, reportedly two generals were killed, another seriously injured, and 46 other senior officers killed. This brings Russian generals killed to 10 in less than sixty days. That's a general killed every six days, and half of the originally 20 generals involved in the operation.
Ukrainian defenders continue to hold out in beseiged Mariupol. During the famous battle of Stalingrad defenders held out in one semi isolated location known as "Pavlov's House" for sixty days and became Soviet legends. The defenders of Mariupol are going on 62 days.
While on the front lines there's been little movement for the last week or two, and yet insanely Russia has recently been saying their goal is to capture all of southern Ukraine to make a land corridor to Transnistria, which would require insanely ambitious success on their part including capturing the large city of Odessa.
As usual more about any of these stories on my twitter: https://twitter.com/arrrghonaut
A Sinking Feeling For Russia
Apr. 15th, 2022 11:43 am Ukraine, using Ukrainian-built neptune anti ship cruise missiles hit and sank the Ukrainian-built Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship the Moskva. This is the ship which Ukrainian defenders famously told to "fuck off" -- one could say it now has done so. Russia does not have the capability to build a replacement, nor can it bring a replacement through the Bosporus.
The Ukrainians had kept their only neptune missile battery safe and unused for the past 50 days until this opportunity presented itself, showing patience and discipline, and cunning-- reportedly the distracted the ship with a bayraktar, causing it to point its best radar in the wrong direction as they fired the missiles.
Russia claims the ship had a fire and sank in a storm -- conditions were 14 knot winds (officially classed as a "moderate breeze") and three foot swell (technically a "slight" sea state). Russia claims all 510 crew were evacuated. Other sources claim only 54 crew were, which would make it a huge single loss of life for Russia (ticking Russia over 20,000 losses, which would happen today regardless) on top of the loss of an irreplaceable military asset. Also, possibly the loss of an admiral? Apparently the admiral was ashore in Crimea, and has been "violently" arrested by Russian secret police. Cue "you have failed me for the last time Admiral."
The ramifications of this are that the Russian fleet has moved out of missile range of Odessa, they had been firing ship launched cruise missiles at it from time to time, the Russian fleet is probably now in effect useless. And of course probably more significantly this is huge loss of prestige and slap in Putin's face. It's been 75 years since such a large warship has been sunk in war (last larger ship was in WWII).
Various reports of Ukrainian mortar and shelling attacks over the border into Russia, and apparently another oil depot is burning in Russian Belgorad. At this moment Russia is hitting Kyiv with cruise missiles but that's nothing new.
There are currently 65 Russian Battle Tactical Groups fighting in Ukraine. They began with 130. Basement dwelling Putin fans like to point out that this is a fraction of Russia's on-paper strength, but I am quite confident this is the entirely of the forces Russia can scrape together -- they've already resorted to desperate measures such as recalling to active duty troops ten years out from their service, offering bonuses, and sending officers from training bases into the front. If they could send more troops and make this anything other thn an embarassing loss they absolutely would have. Due to failed logistics, nonexistant morale, and a dismal state of readiness, the Russian military is a joke.
The ship was originally built in Mykolaiv, Ukraine (then USSR), as the Soviet Slava. Slava Ukrinya!
