You really should read some Russian history if you want to see a convoluted tale of undermining neighbors, misinformation, criminal behavior, human misery, and suppression of freedom.
Looks like Putin is still striking out with Lukashenko who is his closest ally/puppet. As y'all know, Putin has desperately been trying to put troops together- through recruits added to the Belarus army and use them to open another front against Kiev to keep the Ukrainians bogged down and having to divert troops back from the east and the south. Lukashenko won't budge though. He is opposed on the home front and sees how the war is a disaster for Russia. I sort had my eye open for a little update this week because Lukashenko went to Moscow last week to meet with Vlad and -let's be real- that was the topic- yet again. Putin continues to be clinically pissed at Luka because Putin sent Russian troops to Belarus to prop him up when he was about to be toppled. Now Luka will not return the favor. Bad Luka. You read a couple paragraphs below and see Lukashenko touting how Belarus will do everything to help Russia. - except anything they want. Sounds like he offering to set up Salvation Army tents in Belarus for wounded and hungry soldiers. Okay fine. I guess. Not gonna be any wounded Belarus soldiers mixed in with them. That must have been yet another frosty meeting with Vlad- especially after Vlad sees the NO SALE sign pop up in Lukashenko's eyes. Notice too that he is offering aid and treatment to Ukrainian refuges in an obvious attempt to preserve some future with the potential winners. That should be nice if you are a Ukrainian refugee needing medical care in Belarus and you get put in a hospital tent/ facility/whatever with wounded Russians. Nice. Idiots/all. Lukashenko confirmed Belarus' participation in the war in Ukraine: but only by aid to Russian soldiers and Ukrainian refugees The self-proclaimed President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has confirmed that Belarus is taking part in the war in Ukraine, but is doing so allegedly by treating wounded Russian soldiers and providing food and shelter to Ukrainian refugees. Source: Lukashenko-controlled Telegram channel "Pul pervogo" Quote from Lukashenko at a meeting on military security on 4 October: "As far as our participation in the special military operation in Ukraine is concerned, we are indeed taking part. We are not hiding it. But we don't kill anyone. We don't send our military personnel anywhere. We don't violate our commitments. We are not violating our obligations." Details: Lukashenko made the point that Belarus' participation is aimed at "preventing the spread of this conflict to the territory of Belarus." Its purpose is also to prevent a strike on Belarus "under the cover of a special military operation by Poland, Lithuania and Latvia", because "no one must use the territory of Belarus to shoot the Russians in the back." Quote from Lukashenko: "Yes, we offer medical aid to people. We've treated people where necessary. Yes, we feed people. And not only Russians. Most of all, we feed those refugees, those beggars, those poor people, 400-500 people per day, who come to Belarus from Ukraine. How can we refuse them food or medical treatment? That’s what our participation in this military operation is. There is no other and never will be." https://news.yahoo.com/lukashenk-confirmed-belarus-participation-war-102022370.html
Over the past 48 hours there have been numerous reports regarding a Russian military unit responsible for nuclear launches traveling in a train towards the Ukraine border. The question becomes -- is this Putin preparing some type of nuclear explosion near or in Ukraine with nukes loaded on the train? Or is Putin simply moving this unit of soldiers to Ukraine with their armored vehicles to use them as cannon fodder -- due to desperation to hold the front? All of this is coupled with the reports of a Russian submarine with a nuclear torpedo being sent to sea. The original report for both of these stories originally came from the reputable Times of London which stated the source was a NATO intelligence report issued to its members and allies. A few articles with more pictures (of the trains, etc.) and context are provided below. Russia feared to be planning major nuclear test near border with Ukraine: report https://nypost.com/2022/10/04/russia-planning-nuke-test-near-ukraine-border-report/ Russia’s “Nuclear Train” Is Not Necessarily What The Media Is Portraying It To Be The rail-bound armored vehicles may be tied to Russia’s nuclear forces, but they could easily have more mundane uses. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ssarily-what-the-media-is-portraying-it-to-be Missing submarine hints at Russia's chilling plan: 'Radioactive tsunami' https://au.news.yahoo.com/missing-submarine-russia-chilling-plan-radioactive-tsunami-015840437.html Putin may test underwater nuke 150 times stronger than Hiroshima bomb near Ukrainian border: report https://nypost.com/2022/10/04/putin...-hiroshima-bomb-near-ukrainian-border-report/
The Russians/Putin know that American intel tracks the movements of all things nuclear in Russia. There is a whole set of nuclear armed planes that he is moving around now. Last seen up on an airstrip near Finland. Then some have moved out. Putin is a nuclear threat, but he is also a gameplayer and knows which movements rattle the American cage.
Putin and the Kremlin can no longer hide their recent losses and have to fess up to the Russian population. Their spin: "Yeah we meant to do that 're-grouping'. It's part of our plan for winning the war". Russia concedes big losses in south as pro-Putin voices paint a grim picture of setbacks https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/05/europe/ukraine-conflict-russia-losses-intl/index.html Russian forces appear to be buckling under growing pressure as Ukraine continues to regain territory in the south, where Russian soldiers have been forced to retreat from previously-held settlements as Kyiv progresses with its counteroffensive towards the Russian-occupied city of Kherson. A map used by the Russian Defense Ministry in its daily briefing on Tuesday confirmed significant Russian losses in Kherson – one of four Ukrainian regions Moscow is attempting to annex – compared to a map of the same area used in a ministry briefing a day before. The map confirms reports from Ukrainian and pro-Russian officials, as well as pro-Russian military analysts, of significant Ukrainian gains towards Kherson, down the western bank of the Dnieper River. Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, who spoke while the map was shown full-screen, did not mention the losses. However, he said that Russian military destroyed Ukrainian armor and killed Ukrainian forces in the area of several towns that are now understood to be under Ukrainian control – a tacit acknowledgment of Kyiv’s push. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the military for their “fast and powerful advances” in his Tuesday evening address, before celebrating that “dozens of settlements have already been liberated” this week. In Kherson region, he said that Liubymivka, Khreshchenivka, Zolota Balka, Biliaiivka, Ukraiinka, Velyka, Mala Oleksandrivka, and Davydiv Brid had all been reclaimed, “and this is not a complete list.” “Our warriors do not stop. And it is only a matter of time when we will expel the occupier from all our land,” the president added. Despite losing territory in the south to Ukrainian military at rapid pace, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed several laws ratifying the Russian Federation’s claimed annexation of four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Donetsk and Luhansk are both in eastern Ukraine, and fighting against Moscow-backed breakaway republics in each region has been raging since 2014. Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are in southern Ukraine and have been occupied by Russian forces since shortly after the invasion began in late February. The annexations are illegal under international law. World leaders have said they are the result of “sham” referendums that will never be recognized. Russia does not have full control of the regions it claims to have seized. In addition to Ukraine’s successes in the south, Kyiv’s forces made gains in Luhansk on Monday and liberated the strategic city of Lyman on Sunday, a key operational hub in Donetsk which the Russian army had used to funnel troops and supplies to the west and south. The Russian Defense Ministry said it was forced to cede Lyman or risk encirclement of its troops there, allowing Ukrainian forces to potentially use the city as a staging post to push troops further east. Positive spin The Russian-appointed deputy leader in the occupied Kherson region explained Ukraine’s rapid advance in recent days by saying that the Russian military was “regrouping.” “The Russian army is conducting maneuvers,” Kirill Stremousov told Russian state news RIA Novosti. “The regrouping of the front in the current conditions allows us to gather strength and strike.” The phrase “regrouping” was also used by the Russian Defense Ministry in September to describe the retreat of the Russian military in response to Ukraine’s offensive that recaptured the key city of Izium, in the Kharkiv region. Stremousov on Wednesday claimed that Ukraine’s advance had been stopped, and that it was “impossible” for them to enter the occupied city of Kherson. However, pro-Russian media has been uncommonly critical of the war effort in recent days, delivering gloomy reports that Russia’s campaign is suffering an operational crisis while Ukraine takes advantage on the battlefield. “In the Kherson region, we have lost 17 settlements,” Alexander Sladkov, a leading Russian war correspondent, conceded on state TV Tuesday, before placing the blame on “fat” US weapons deliveries and “intelligence gathered via satellite reconnaissance.” Sladkov is just one of several Russian correspondents in recent days to convey the losses Russia is suffering. Alexander Kots, a correspondent for pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, who was embedded with Russian forces in Lyman, told his Telegram followers earlier Tuesday that the military was in “operational crisis.” Meanwhile, state media reporter Evgeniy Poddubnyy said that “for the time being it will become even harder.” Sladkov, for his part, tried to put a positive spin on things. “This doesn’t mean that we’ve collapsed like a house of cards. These mistakes aren’t gigantic strategic failures. We are still learning. I know this is hard to hear in our eighth month of the special operation. But we are reporters. We are waiting for reinforcements. Sladkov continued: “If we were to throw [our soldiers] into the battle now, forgive me, but we must show compassion to our soldiers. They should be properly trained in order to feel confident in the battlefield. Even if we had these 300,000 to sent to the front lines in the beginning, we would have lost them as well. But now we know that our soldiers must be properly trained.” Host Olga Skabeeva appeared visibly angry, before asking Sladkov if the entire Kherson region was in danger of being lost. “We don’t have enough troops at the moment to move on Kyiv or to quickly take Kharkiv, but they are sufficient to continue protecting the territories that we are already protecting,” he responded. “In straightening out our front line, we’ve had to retreat from these settlements.” It was the second such shocking admission by Sladkov in less than a month on the Russian TV program, after he previously admitted that Russian forces had endured heavy losses on September 13, a Tuesday. At the beginning of this Tuesday’s interview, Sladkov quipped: “I only tell the truth on Tuesdays, and for other days I just make everything up.”
Olga Skabeeva there is Iron Beaver. (Iron Doll) and is actually sniffing up the right trail in regard to whether the entire Kherson region is at risk. Baghdad Bob there diverts away from her million dollar question by saying that they can't go into Kiev or Kharkiv but have enough troops to hold the line until reinforcements arrive. No you do not Bob. The problem with that spin (aside from the obvious which is that the reinforcements are shit just like the ones already there) is that once supplies have been sufficiently cut off and dwindled, the Ukrainians are going to advance even more on Kherson City- not just the villages in Kherson Oblast/region. They already have 20,000 Russian troops trapped there. And the assault on Kherson will create a competing demand for more, many more troops, beyond just holding the line out on the front. As discussed, Putin wanted Belarus troops to create a front against Kiev. Not happening. So there is yet another shortfall in their plan. Iron Beaver sees his spin but since she gets paid to drink the kool aid there is a limit to how hard she can press on it. Things are very shaky long term for all of Kherson. The Ukrainians may go further into Luhansk or Donetsk before aggressively moving on Kherson City but it is all about cutting off that last railroad line feeding Kherson which is further up, a little east of that Lyman area.
Interesting news about this car bombing... The U.S. believes parts of the Ukrainian government were behind the car bombing that killed a prominent Russian nationalist’s daughter in August. American officials said they were not aware of the operation before the attack and would have opposed the killing had they been consulted. Wednesday, October 5, 2022 1:23 PM ET https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/us/politics/ukraine-russia-dugina-assassination.html