-

Danny lost count.

belu_bleeb is typing…

I changed up my style formatting, trying to experiment, since this kind of formatting style will be like in the upcoming mini series.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”

Albert Camus

"Memory...is the enemy of every corrupt regime." @VQ_Books #OdesaatDawn

“Memory…is the enemy of every corrupt regime.” @VQ_Books #OdesaatDawn

If you pop into the Ramblings on any kind of a regular basis, you’ll be well aware of my love of crime writing. Nowadays, it tends to be mainly geared towards Golden Age mysteries, but in the past I’ve read many more contemporary works as well as a good number of spy-type works. Today’s book, a recent release from V&Q Books, falls firmly into the latter category; it’s an entertaining yarn set in…

View On WordPress

At dawn, the russians terrorist again launched a missile on Odesa region, hitting the grain terminals of one of the agricultural enterprises.

The enemy destroyed 100 tons of peas and 20 tons of barley.

As a result of the missile attack, the russians terrorist also destroyed two fire engines of rescuers.

Waiting for the UN to express concern again.

Daily Wrap Up October 6, 2022

Under the cut:

Seven rockets were fired into residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia before dawn on Thursday, killing at least three people, as Russia increased its attacks on Ukrainian-held cities amid losses by its troops on the battlefield

The head of Russia’s State Duma Defense Committee demanded officials report the truth about developments on the battlefield in Ukraine, telling a journalist that senior figures need to "stop lying."

Samantha Power, the head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has announced a $55 million investment in Ukraine’s heating infrastructure, as the war-torn country braces for a grim winter.

Ukraine’s New Offensive Is Fueled by Captured Russian Weapons:

Tanks, howitzers and ammunition left behind by retreating Russian forces are now being used against their former owners

“Seven rockets were fired into residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia before dawn on Thursday, killing at least three people, as Russia increased its attacks on Ukrainian-held cities amid losses by its troops on the battlefield.

The strike flattened an apartment building, and videos published by the Zaporizhzhia regional administration showed rescue workers at the scene, with some people still believed to be under the rubble. The city’s mayor, Anatoliy Kuratyev, said 21 people had been saved, including a three-year-old boy.

Further explosions in the city were reported mid-morning local time. Kuratyev said Russia had hit an “infrastructure object”, without specifying the nature of the target.

Thursday’s attacks came a day after Russia said it considered the whole of Zaprorizhzhia region, including Zaporizhzhia city, part of Russia though it does not occupy it. A law signed by Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday clarified that Russia was laying claim to all four regions it had illegally annexed in their entirety – despite the fact Russia does not wholly control any of them and is in retreat.

Upon announcing its intent to annex the areas, Russia’s leadership threatened to use nuclear weapons to respond to attacks on what it now considers its territory. Ukraine described it as “nuclear blackmail” and said it would not be deterred from continuing with its offensives.

Zaporizhzhia, close to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, has suffered several fatal attacks in the past week. On Friday, 30 people died and 88 were injured when a rocket hit the city. The victims were waiting in a queue on the outskirts of the city to enter the occupied territories and others were waiting at a bus stop.

Five other Ukrainian cities were hit on Thursday, in addition to civilian areas in the Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk regions close to the fighting.

Russia launched two rockets at the central Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi, but both reportedly missed their targets.

Elsewhere, Russia used what the Ukrainian authorities say were Iranian-supplied “kamikaze” drones to target the cities of Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Odesa. Ukraine’s military said they managed to shoot down 18 additional drones before they reached Odesa and Mykolaiv.

The Iranian drones are able to remain airborne for several hours and circle over potential targets, before being flown into enemy troops, armour or buildings and exploding on impact.

Despite Ukraine’s authorities insisting civilians evacuate frontline areas, people are still living along the contact line; a mixture of elderly people as well as those who say they cannot afford to restart elsewhere. The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said 14 of the 20 civilians killed in the last 24 hours were living in Ukrainian-controlled areas of Donetsk region.

Ukraine has continued to advance in the east and south, and Russian troops have been retreating under pressure on both fronts. In his nightly address on Wednesday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukraine had retaken a further three villages as it pushed forward in the southern region of Kherson.”-via The Guardian

~

“The head of Russia’s State Duma Defense Committee demanded officials report the truth about developments on the battlefield in Ukraine, telling a journalist that senior figures need to "stop lying."

“First of all, we need to stop lying. We brought this up many times before… But somehow it's apparently not getting through to individual senior figures," Col. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov said in an interview with Vladimir Solovyov, which was posted on Solovyov's Telegram channel on Wednesday.

“Our Russian city of Valuyki… is under constant fire,” Kartapolov said in the interview. “We learn about this from all sorts of folks, from governors, Telegram channels, our war correspondents. But no one else." "The reports from the Ministry of Defense do not change in substance. They say they destroyed 300 rockets, killed Nazis and so on. But people know. Our people are not stupid. But they don’t want to even tell part of the truth. This can lead to a loss of credibility,” he continued, using Russian President Vladimir Putin's false accusations of Nazism to justify his war in Ukraine.

Valuyki is in the region of Belgorod in western Russian, near the border with Ukraine.”-via CNN

~

“Samantha Power, the head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has announced a $55 million investment in Ukraine’s heating infrastructure, as the war-torn country braces for a grim winter.

“This assistance will support repairs and maintenance of pipes and other equipment necessary to deliver heating to homes, hospitals, schools, and businesses across Ukraine," according to a USAID statement.

“The new USAID assistance will directly benefit up to seven million Ukrainians in 19 regions,” it said.

“USAID will also provide power generators and alternative fuel sources to hospitals, centers for internally-displaced persons, and shelters for socially vulnerable citizens, helping provide Ukrainians with access to warm shelter during winter.

"The assistance will target parts of Ukraine that have been devastated by Putin’s war, including the regions of Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhya, and Zhytomyr," the statement added.

Power arrived in the Ukrainian capital Thursday to meet a range of people, the US Embassy said in a post on Facebook.”-via CNN

~

“Captured and abandoned Russian tanks, howitzers and fighting vehicles—quickly scrubbed of their Z tactical markers and repainted with Ukrainian crosses—are being turned against their former owners as Ukraine’s military advances in the eastern part of the country.

Ukraine’s rapid breakthrough in the Kharkiv region a month ago ended up putting hundreds of pieces of Russian armor into Kyiv’s hands, military officials say, as the Russian army left behind its heavy weapons and warehouses of supplies in a disorganized retreat.

Some Russian pieces of equipment were ready for immediate use, while others are being repaired to return to the front. Tanks, vehicles and guns too damaged to salvage are being cannibalized for spare parts. Crucially, Russia has also left behind large quantities of Soviet-standard artillery shells that had nearly run out in Ukraine.

This haul is helping power Ukrainian forces as they retake parts of the eastern Donetsk region, including the town of Lyman, and push further east into nearby Luhansk. Kyiv has regained more than 4,000 square miles of land in the east over the past month, in addition to advances in the south.

One Ukrainian battalion, the Carpathian Sich, seized 10 modern T-80 tanks and five 2S5 Giatsint 152-mm self-propelled howitzers after it entered the town of Izyum last month, said its deputy chief of staff, Ruslan Andriyko.

“We’ve got so many trophies that we don’t even know what to do with them,” he said. “We started off as an infantry battalion, and now we are sort of becoming a mechanized battalion.”

The chief of staff of a Ukrainian artillery battalion on the Kharkiv front said his unit now operates four recently captured Russian 2S19 Msta 152-mm self-propelled howitzers, alongside American-made guns, and now has abundant Soviet-caliber ammunition.

“The Russians no longer have a firepower advantage. We smashed up all their artillery units before launching the offensive, and then we started to move ahead so fast that they didn’t even have time to fuel up and load their tanks,” said the officer. “They just fled and left everything behind.”

Combined with weapons taken during Russia’s retreat from Kyiv and other parts of northern Ukraine in April, these recent gains have turned Moscow into by far the largest supplier of heavy weapons for Ukraine, well ahead of the U.S. or other allies in sheer numbers, according to open-source intelligence analysts. Western-provided weapons, though, are usually more advanced and precise.

Ukraine has captured 460 Russian main battle tanks, 92 self-propelled howitzers, 448 infantry fighting vehicles, 195 armored fighting vehicles and 44 multiple-launch rocket systems, according to visual evidence compiled from social media and news reports from Oryx, an open-source intelligence consulting firm. The real number is likely higher as not every captured piece of equipment gets filmed.

Not all the gear is cutting edge. “What they are capturing is a mix of modern equipment that they can use quite effectively, and some that really belongs in museums,” said Jakub Janovsky, who compiles the count of weapons losses at Oryx.”-via Wall Street Journal

Odesa Puppet Theater hosts adult (16+) shows every now and then, and it's a treat that's impossible to properly relay through camera.

The latest one was "Dawn Way". They describe it as a dark clown show. The premise is: what will happen if a random couple of people crashes into someone on the road, and that someone appears to have wings.

At least 20 people have been killed, including two children, in Russian missile attacks on a village near the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, authorities said, a day after Russian invading forces withdrew from a strategic Black Sea island.

Video of the pre-dawn attack showed the charred remains of buildings in the small town of Serhiyivka, located about 50 kilometers southwest of Odesa. Ukrainian news reports said missiles struck a multistory apartment building and a recreation center.

“A terrorist country is killing our people. In response to defeats on the battlefield, they fight civilians," Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Twitter.

Ukrainian emergency officials said 20 people had died, including two children. Another 38 were injured, including three children.

Sixteen of the 20 victims died in the strike on the apartment building. The other four died at a recreation center, Ukrainian emergency officials said.

The air strikes followed the pullout of Russian forces from Snake Island on June 30, a move that was expected to potentially ease the threat to nearby Odesa. The island sits along a busy shipping lane.

The Kremlin portrayed the pullout from Snake Island as a “goodwill gesture.” Ukraine’s military claimed a barrage of its artillery and missiles forced the Russians to flee in two small speedboats. The exact number of withdrawing troops was not disclosed.

Control of Snake Island, located about 40 kilometers from Ukraine’s coast near the Danube Delta, had enabled Russia to threaten the sea lanes leading to and from Odesa, Ukraine’s main port for shipping grain to the world.

The Odesa-area attacks come in the 19th week since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the large-scale invasion, with Russian forces otherwise focused on what Ukrainians call an "enormous" bombardment of the last major city holding out in the east, Lysychansk, and the shelling of civilian settlements in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

It also follows an attack earlier this week on a crowded shopping mall in Kremenchuk, in central Ukraine, leaving at least 18 people dead and dozens more missing. Ukrainian officials have described the mall attack as a "terrorist" act, while Moscow has denied responsibility.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced on July 30 that Ukrainian troops had expelled Russian forces and recaptured Snake Island in a development that he said significantly limits Russia's actions.

Control of Snake Island, located about 40 kilometers from Ukraine’s coast near the Danube Delta, had enabled Russia to threaten the sea lanes leading to and from Odesa, Ukraine’s main port for shipping grain to the world.

The head of the military administration of the Luhansk region to the east, Serhiy Hayday, said Lysychansk "is constantly being shelled with large [gun] calibers" by the Russian forces attempting to encircle the strategic hilltop city -- a key battleground in Moscow's attempt to conquer Ukraine's industrial heartland of Donbas.

Ukraine Attacks Shipyard as Crimea Operation Ramps Up

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/russia-ukraine-war/2023/09/13/id/1134231/

A Ukrainian attack on a strategic shipyard early Wednesday in Russian-annexed Crimea wounded 24 people, damaged two ships undergoing repairs and caused a fire at the facility, Russian authorities reported.

The attack in the port city of Sevastopol, which serves as the main base for Russia's Black Sea Fleet, took place as Moscow offensives killed at least three civilians and injured 14 across Ukraine, the president's office said.

A pre-dawn drone onslaught in southern Ukraine’s Odesa region damaged port and civilian infrastructure in the region’s Izmail district — not far from the Crimean city — and wounded seven people, three seriously, Gov. Oleh Kiper said.

Russian attacks on residential areas in 10 cities and villages in the Donetsk region killed three people and wounded three. Fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region injured one resident in Orikhiv, while shelling in southern Kherson damaged homes and a kindergarten, the government said.

The skirmishes occurred as Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a summit that the U.S. has warned could lead to a deal to supply arms to Moscow’s depleted troops in Ukraine. Kim offered his full support for Russia's “just" fight and said the two reached an agreement to deepen their “strategic and tactical cooperation and solidarity in the struggle to defend sovereign rights and security.”

The Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in an act that most of the world considered illegal, has been a frequent target since Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than 18 months ago.

Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to do all he could to bring back Crimea and has urged international allies to support the effort.

On Monday, Ukraine claimed it had recaptured strategic gas and oil drilling platforms in the Black Sea that Russia seized in 2015. Russia had used the platforms for electronic warfare equipment and to launch helicopters, and Ukraine said getting control of them would help it regain Crimea.

Russian missiles hit grain warehouses in Odesa Oblast

Russian missile strike on the night on July 21 targeted grain warehouses at an agricultural company in Odesa Oblast, injuring two people, said Serhii Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration.

"At dawn, the Russians fired Kalibr-type missiles from the missile carrier, which was put on duty in the Black Sea at night," Bratchuk wrote on Telegram.

"Unfortunately, grain terminals of one of the agricultural enterprises of the Odesa region were hit. The enemy destroyed 100 tonnes of peas and 20 tonnes of barley."

Two people sustained injuries from broken glass and received medical attention, the spokesperson commented.

According to Natalia Humeniuk, the spokesperson of the Southern Operational Command, Russian forces attacked in two waves.

At first, two Kalibr missiles hit the facility. Once the rescue operations and fire liquidation were underway, another missile struck the site, Humeniuk explained.

This is the fourth consecutive strike against Odesa Oblast over the course of the past four days. The three previous attacks targeted mainly the regional center of Odesa. According to Ukrainian officials, Russia is aiming against port infrastructure and grain supplies, previously destroying around 60,000 tonnes of grain.

The strikes come shortly after Russia withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative on July 17, sparking fears of food insecurity worldwide. The deal, brokered in July 2022 by Turkey and the U.N., allowed Ukraine to export its agricultural products even amid the full-scale invasion.

Ukraine war latest: Zelensky says Russia deliberately targets grain infrastructure in Odesa Oblast

Key developments on July 19: * Russia’s overnight attack targets Ukraine’s grain infrastructure in Odesa Oblast, injures at least 10 * US to provide 4 NASAMS systems to Ukraine under new $1.3 billion military aid package * Russia threatens that all ships sailing to Ukrainian ports will be consid…

The Kyiv IndependentDaria Shulzhenko

Ukraine war: 'Hellish' Russian attacks, Moscow extends draft age, Kyiv not using all combat power

‘Hellish’ night of Russian attacks in Ukrainian port city Ukraine said its forces shot down Russian drones and cruise missiles targeting the Black Sea port of Odesa before dawn on Tuesday.  Moscow described the strikes as “retribution” for an attack earlier this week that damaged a crucial bridge to the Crimean peninsula. Russia first tried to wear down Ukraine’s air defences by firing 25…

View On WordPress

-

-

-

-

-

-

Thats why Timmy has no highlights in my series. No other context needed. Ref joke from Scott Pilgrim vs The World.

The war is trying to make me 'color-blind'. Not literally, but figuratively. Every time I look at flowers or trees now, I see them in monochrome.

Daily air-raid sirens at night. It sounds awful, but since most Ukrainians use the hallway as a bomb shelter, as long as I don't hear too loud noises, I cling to sleep.

The morning dawned with the roar of aircraft jets, followed by the air-raid alarm again. When it was over, I went out to the shop for a quick walk as the walls are suffocating, choking. In the house yard I took this picture, came home, started making coffee and several strong explosions erupted. And then there were these huge columns of smoke in the sky all over again. Like some great mythical giants. An eerie, terrifying force. Something beyond human control.

A few hours of sitting in the hallway with the phone, reading the news and briefly texting friends.

The war in Ukraine, Odesa, the seventy-third day of the war in Ukraine.

A warm thank you to all of you who support me and Ukraine.

Russia targets Ukraine's port of Odesa and calls it payback for a strike on a key bridge to Crimea

AP, Tuesday 18 Jul 2023 KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine said its forces shot down Russian drones and cruise missiles targeting the Black Sea port of Odesa before dawn Tuesday in what Moscow called “retribution” for an attack that damaged a crucial bridge to the Crimean Peninsula. The Russians first sought to wear down Ukraine’s air defenses by firing 25 exploding drones and then targeted Odesa…

View On WordPress

[ad_1] Ukrainian forces shot down scores of exploding drones and six cruise missiles during a pre-dawn Russian attack on the port of Odesa on Tuesday, authorities in Kyiv said, a day after Moscow broke off a deal that had allowed Ukraine to ship vital grain supplies from the Black Sea city during the war. The Russians first sought to wear down Ukraine’s air defenses with the drones and then targeted Odesa with six Kalibr cruise missiles, the Ukrainian military’s Southern Command said.All six missiles and 25 drones were shot down by air defenses in the Odesa region and other areas in the south, though their debris and shock waves damaged some port facilities and a few residential buildings, injuring an elderly man at his home, officials said.Russia said the grain decision was not connected to a strike Monday on a key bridge between Moscow-annexed Crimea and Russia that the Kremlin blamed on Kyiv’s forces using sea drones. Ukrainian officials stopped short of directly taking responsibility, as they have done in similar past strikes, but Ukraine’s top security agency appeared tacitly to admit to a role in the strike. Story continues below advertisement Russia described Tuesday’s strikes along the Black Sea coast as “retribution” for that attack. 4:08 UN Security Council speakers condemn Russia’s termination of Black Sea Grain Initiative The Russian Defense Ministry said it used sea-launched precision weapons on Ukrainian military facilities near Odesa and Mykolaiv, a coastal city about 50 kilometers (30 miles) to the northeast.The Russian military destroyed facilities involved in preparing “terror attacks” against Russia that use sea drones, including a facility at a shipyard near Odesa that was producing them, the ministry said, while also hitting Ukrainian army fuel depots.Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said the Odesa attack showed that the Kremlin is ready to endanger the lives of millions of people around the world who need Ukrainian grain exports. Hunger is a growing threat in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and high food prices have pushed more people into poverty. Story continues below advertisement “The world must realize that the goal of the Russian Federation is hunger and killing people,” Yermak said. “They need waves of refugees. They want to weaken the West with this.”The United Nations and Ukraine’s Western allies slammed Moscow for halting the Black Sea Grain Initiative, saying it put many lives in peril.The Kremlin said the agreement would be suspended until Moscow’s demands to lift restrictions on exports of Russian food and fertilizer to the world are met. Trending Now Bank of Canada’s latest rate hikes are signs it made a ‘mistake’: analysts Mums the word as Poilievre, Calgary MP stay silent over hate T-shirt photos 2:07 What Russia’s withdrawal from Black Sea grain deal could mean for global food prices Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry also said its forces had foiled a Ukrainian attack on occupied Crimea using 28 drones.The ministry said 17 of the attacking drones were shot down by air defenses and 11 others were jammed by electronic warfare means and crashed. It said there was no damage or casualties. Story continues below advertisement The reported attack came a day after the Kremlin blamed Ukraine for striking a bridge in Crimea that links Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea and is a key supply route for Kremlin forces in the war.Also Tuesday, satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press show that a large convoy of vehicles have arrived at a once-abandoned military base in Belarus, which local authorities offered to Russia’s Wagner military contractor following its short-lived mutiny against Moscow officials last month.The photos, taken Monday, show a long line of vehicles coming off a highway into the base near the Belarusian town of Osipovichi, some 75 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of the capital, Minsk.Belaruski Hajun, a Belarusian activist group that monitors troops movements in Belarus, said that a convoy of more than 100 vehicles carrying Russian flags and Wagner insignia entered the country, heading toward the field camp. The group said it was the third Wagner convoy to enter the country since last week.Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. &copy 2023 The Canadian Press [ad_2]

I must go back to Odesa, she said, I must.

Please don't, I said, it is not the right time, they are bombing from dawn to dusk.

If I asked you to take me back, would you?

Yes, only please don't ask me to.

I understand. But I am torn, I cannot leave those whom I love behind.

The absolute tragedy, and perverse comedy, the absurdity of it all is that to feel such beauty, such urgent, deep love, one gets war, I said.

Take me back, she said, already by the door.

Yes.

M, with her daughter, from Odesa. I wrote this months ago and it seens to have resurfaced...

Russian Missiles Kill at Least 19 in Ukraine's Odesa Region | World News

Russian Missiles Kill at Least 19 in Ukraine’s Odesa Region | World News

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missile attacks on residential areas in a coastal town near the Ukrainian port city of Odesa early Friday killed at least 19 people, authorities reported, a day after Russian forces withdrew from a strategic Black Sea island. Video of the pre-dawn attack showed the charred remains of buildings in the small town of Serhiivka, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles)…

View On WordPress