The western media must be competing with the Babylon Bee...And that Ukrainian rifle is a shotgun which makes the kill even more impressive.


Ukraine Citizen Who 'Destroyed' Russian Su-34 Jet With Rifle Given Medal

https://www.newsweek.com/ukrai...-rifle-medal-1735169

A Ukraine citizen who opened fire on a Russian Su-34 jet with a rifle and "destroyed" it has been awarded a medal and branded a "hero."

The State Border Service of Ukraine announced Friday that officials had awarded "pensioner" Valeriy Fedorovych with a medal "for assistance in the protection of the state border."

Officials said that in March, when Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops continuously bombarded Chernihiv, a hard-hit city in northern Ukraine, Fedorovych "took his rifle and opened fire."

"Heroes among us," officials said, adding that after Fedorovych fired at the jet with his rifle, "the enemy fighter Su-34 was targeted and destroyed."


The State Border Service of Ukraine announced Friday that officials had awarded “pensioner” Valeriy Fedorovych, seen above, with a medal “for assistance in the protection of the state border.”
THE STATE BORDER SERVICE OF UKRAINE

"The plane fell, and our hero received the medal 'For assistance in the protection of the state border,'" Ukraine's state border service said.

Kyiv released a short clip that shows Fedorovych with a rifle slung around his shoulder, walking through buildings destroyed by shelling as a result of Putin's invasion, which began on February 24.

"On the second lap, how did it go? I went 'bang' with my stick [rifle]. And it was like 'bang.' And it [a Russian Su-34 jet] fell," Fedorovych said in the video.

An inserted clip appears to show the moment the Russian Su-34 was hit. Cheering and clapping can be heard in the background as the plane quickly plummets.



Fedorovych isn't the first Ukrainian civilian to be recognized for destroying Russian military equipment.

In February, Valentin Didkovskiy, 64, single-handedly destroyed a Russian gas tank with a grenade launcher.

Dubbed the "fighting grandfather," Didkovskiy told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that he was in Bucha in Ukraine's Kyiv region on February 27 when he saw approaching Russia's armed forces and decided to take action.

"I see a large column [of Russia's armed forces] coming from the direction of the Bucha station. I took a grenade launcher and grenades...I went behind the house. First, I passed the first armored personnel carrier, the second, an armored personnel carrier, a tank—and I saw a gas truck," Didkovskiy recalled in the interview published on August 2.

"It stopped, and I fired a grenade launcher. When I hit it—everything was on fire," he said.

Newsweek reached out to Russia's foreign ministry for comment.

The almost criminal incompetence of the Biden administration is leading to the very real possibility of the end of NATO.

This was a war that never should have been fought. If the goal of the west was to defeat Russia or to make them swallow a poison pill then “drill baby drill” would have been both the least violent and most effective response. A literal flooding of the world with inexpensive energy would have crushed the Russian economy and been seen as a beneficial action in most areas of the world. As it stands now, outside of Europe and a handful of other nations most countries either outright oppose our efforts or are unwilling to lend a hand.

My guess is that Putin knew that for political reasons neither Obama nor Biden would be able to turn to ramping up the production of fossil fuels.

Robert Gates (CIA and Sec Def) is on record as stating that Joe Biden has been wrong on almost every single foreign policy issue during his (Biden’s) political career. We are seeing this being played out all over the world: Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, China, Solomon Islands, Saudi Arabia, and Nicaragua.

Silent

quote:

Ukraine Citizen Who 'Destroyed' Russian Su-34 Jet With Rifle Given Medal

How would this even be possible unless it was Luke Skywalker behind the trigger?

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Ukraine Citizen Who 'Destroyed' Russian Su-34 Jet With Rifle Given Medal

How would this even be possible unless it was Luke Skywalker behind the trigger?

It’s bullshit. Just more propaganda like
The fighter pilot ace thing.

I’m hopeful, but scarcely optimistic …

“It is an outcome that few dared to hope for. But 10 days after Ukraine's generals announced the start of their first major counter-attack against Russian troops, the road to victory is starting to become clearer.

Clever tactics saw Ukraine's commanders draw Russian troops into the south of the country before pinning them down with a counter-attack around the city of Kherson.

Some of Putin's best men are now all-but trapped in the city, bullied by Ukrainian artillery and with no easy way to retreat back across the Dnipro River after HIMARS strikes destroyed the main bridges.

That gave Ukraine the chance to spring a second - surprise - counter-attack to the east of the city of Kharkiv, with a 'fist' of tanks and infantry punching through thinned-out defences there yesterday.

Those troops are now rapidly advancing, threatening key supply lines into Donbas. As Dr Mike Martin, an ex-British army officer now at King's College, put it on Twitter yesterday: 'If [Ukraine] pulls that off, it's serious rout time.' …”

DailyMail article:
https://mol.im/a/11193273

Keep an eye on the news, gents. It's only slowly seeping out of the Chirpersphere (or whatever that little blue bird thing is), but Ukraine's taking hundreds of square kilometers from Russia and Russia's defensive lines just keep collapsing.

That "slow grinding war" that Ukraine supposedly couldn't begin to win against Russia seems to have suddenly become entirely irrelevant.

Don't know what's up with the weird byline date on this, but this is news from the day before yesterday -

http://www.newsweek.com/russia...torial-gains-1705111

And more recently,

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/...taliates/ar-AA11z8V6

I'm not sure that Russia's claims of 'retaliation' are all that credible; the only proof they offered of the supposed attack on the ZPP nuclear power plant are footage of barges that no one could possibly believe would be used on an entrenched Russian position and "dead bodies" that are suspiciously clean and undamaged, don't show any post mortem change in color aaaaand, if you follow the footage far enough, show "dead" "Ukrainians" getting up and walking off after they're told the filming is over.

Doug Macgregor said it'd be over in a week.

https://hotair.com/john-s-2/20...ssassination-n495201

long article w several videos

Ukrainian counteroffensive moves east as hit squads target Russian collaborators for assassination

Ukraine has launched a new front in the counteroffensive, this time moving east into the Kharkiv region

An official representing the Russian-controlled Donetsk People’s Republic said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces “encircled” Balakliia, an eastern town of 27,000 people situated between Kharkiv and Russian-occupied Izium.

“Today, the Ukrainian armed forces, after prolonged artillery preparation … began an attack on Balakliia,” Daniil Bezsonov said on Telegram.

“At this time, Balakliia is in operative encirclement and within the firing range of Ukrainian artillery. All approaches are cut off by fire,” he said, adding that a successful Ukrainian offensive would threaten Russian forces in Izium, a strategically important town that Russia has been using for its own offensive in eastern Ukraine.

Today, Balakliia is more than encircled. President Zelensky just published this video of Ukrainian soldiers standing on a Russian flag in the city with the Ukrainian flag flying behind them.




The next stop might be Kupyansk which is a major transport hub for supplies heading to Izyum.

Since Russian forces invaded in late February and began seizing Ukrainian cities and towns, close to 20 Kremlin-backed officials or their local Ukrainian collaborators have been killed or injured in a wave of assassinations and attempted killings.

They have been gunned down, blown up, hanged and poisoned — an array of methods that reflects the determination of the Ukrainian hit squads and saboteurs often operating deep inside enemy-controlled territory. The unpredictability of the attacks is meant to terrify anyone who might agree to serve in the puppet governments Russia has been creating with an eye toward staging sham referendums and ultimately annexing the occupied lands.

On Tuesday, the bloody roll continued.

Artem Bardin, the military commandant in Berdyansk, a port city on the Sea of Azov that Russia seized early in the war, was critically injured when a car exploded near the city administration building, according to Russia’s Tass news agency, which described the incident as a “terrorist act.”

Bardin’s legs were blown off and he suffered extensive blood loss…

Photos in article.

“Ukrainian soldiers are being welcomed as heroes by gleeful residents who have lived under Russian occupation for months, as Kyiv continues to retake dozens of settlements from the clutches of Vladimir Putin's forces.

Videos and pictures have emerged showing troops standing victoriously on top of Russian flags in the liberated city Balakliia, while others have been shown in footage discovering the burnt out wreckages of enemy tanks.

The images come as swiftly advancing Ukrainian troops were bearing down on the main railway supplying Moscow's forces in the east on Friday, after the sudden collapse of a section of the Russian front-line - caused the most dramatic shift in the war's momentum since its early weeks.

In a video address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian troops had 'liberated dozens of settlements' and reclaimed more than 385 square miles of territory in the east and south in the past week alone. …”

DailyMail article:
https://mol.im/a/11196635

Just a couple days ago I was dubious whether there was even a real Ukrainian offensive or just another propaganda push. At this point, even pro-Russian mapmakers tracking the situation around Kharkiv seem pretty convinced it's real. Though as always when you break through enemy lines into his rear you risk getting cut off, the dynamic appears to develop against the Russians.

There are multiple reports sourced from the Russian media that Russia is sending in 'massive' reinforcements via the south of Ukraine.

Given Russia's tendency to play fast and loose with the truth, it's going to be very interesting to see how many reinforcements show up and how well they do. Pretty much silence on the vaunted 3rd Russian Army that was supposed to get the Russian offensive moving again.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/0...-russia-kharkiv.html

Ukrainian forces have scored the most significant battlefield gains since they routed Russia from the area around Kyiv in April by reclaiming territory in the northeast, according to Ukrainian officials, Western analysts and battlefield imagery.

On Friday the Ukrainian military appeared to be moving rapidly to cut off the city of Izium, a critical logistical hub for Russian military operations.
The exact positions of Ukrainian forces in the area around Izium could not be independently established. But satellite data, independent military analysts and photos and videos of Ukrainian forces indicated that they had moved quickly toward Kupiansk, another logistical hub just north of Izium.

The new offensive in the north appears to have caught the Russian forces off guard. On Friday, its Defense Ministry said on Telegram that it was moving troops to reinforce the Kharkiv region, without specifying their numbers or specific locations.

Europe is ringing all the bells when it comes to being able to sever itself from reliance on Russian natural gas to get through the winter. Germany and the Netherlands are now renting floating gas terminals to turn liquified natural gas into gas that can be loaded into European pipelines and distributed.

http://www.yahoo.com/finance/n...putin-072543235.html

Incidentally, the U.S. already exports a lot of natural gas - Mexico, of all places, is our biggest customer. Being able to liquify the stuff and ship it to Europe could do good things for both the U.S. economy and the political movement to loosen Biden's restrictive policies for domestic production.

The European gas issue is another thing Russia handled incompetently; probably in the same expectation that Ukraine would be a short victorious don't-call-it-a-war, and after the rotten edifice of the Kiev government had collapsed with a good push and residual resistance was mopped up within two weeks, everyone would just quietly return to business as usual. If they had simply cut off the flow after Germany suspended the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project back in February, there would have been no end of problems. Instead they fagged around with reducing deliveries for "maintenance issues", throttling back up and back down, until what is now possibly terminal shutdown a week ago.

They were likely trying to break Germany out of the Western camp by punishing specific displays of support for Ukraine. What they have actually achieved though is speeding up the disengagement process. Last year, Russian gas provided for 55 percent of German use; last month that was down to less than ten percent, and national gas storage for winter was still filling up faster than planned on alternate sources like Norway and LNG via the Netherlands and Belgium. The 75 percent target for 1 September was reached two weeks early, the 85 percent target for 1 October even four weeks. Ultimate aim is 95 by 1 November, sufficient for two winter months without any imports; but alternate sources are still ramping up.

Energy flow with France is going to reverse, for example. Unusually, Germany has been running gas power plants specifically to export electric power to France this summer, because so many of their nuke plants were down for drought effects (low/warm cooling water in rivers) and maintenance. As that situation normalizes, France is also going to recommission a gas pipeline originally built for imports from Germany, and use it to deliver additional LNG from French terminals the other way. Plus the abovementioned use of floating terminals from the end of this/start of next year.

Through it all, energy prices have exploded of course, but with the specter of a cold winter increasingly receding, the summit seems passed. As the Russians have now probably played their final card with complete shutdown of Nord Stream 1, and stabilization measures increase, markets will likely recognize there will be no disaster and settle on a higher, but manageable level compared to pre-war.

And BTW, by now it seems there's a general Russian retreat behind the Oskil River. Russian and Ukrainian sources agree that they have abandoned the two thirds of Kupiansk on the left bank, and there are reports they're also abandoning Izyum to evade encirclement. Which makes complete military sense, but has to hurt; particularly as both cities sit astride critical lines of communication. Russian doomsayers are already screaming that the war is lost, though that's probably just reverse hysterics to the initial "we will defeat Ukraine within days, if not hours".

ETA updated and normal-sized map image. Broad collapse of the Russian front on either side of the Ukrainian salient. Russian ministry of defense calls it a "regrouping". From reports, sounds more like a rout.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BansheeOne,

^^^^ related

https://hotair.com/ed-morrisse...pulling-back-n495551

Ukrainian forces seized most of a strategically vital city in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, cutting the main supply line to thousands of Russian troops near the eastern city of Izyum and marking the biggest strategic gain Ukraine has made since the start of an offensive this week.

Photos from Russian and Ukrainian channels on Telegram showed Ukrainian soldiers holding the country’s flag in front of the city hall in Kupyansk, and Kremlin-loyal Russian military correspondents said Moscow’s forces had pulled back across the Oskil River to the eastern part of the city.

Ukraine’s control over the critical infrastructure of the city and the success of this week’s advance signal to Western backers the effectiveness of weapons the U.S. and Europe has given to Kyiv.

The Kupyansk rail and road hub located in the western half of the city was the last artery connecting Russia with thousands of troops on territory that represented the bulk of Russia’s gains in May and June. Ukraine’s control of the road network also threatens Russia’s hold on Izyum, a city Moscow had planned to use to launch further attacks on Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donetsk region in the country’s east.

The U.K. Defense Ministry said Saturday that Izyum was becoming increasingly isolated. Analysts say Ukraine is aiming to encircle a pocket of Russian troops around Izyum east of the Oskil River.


“Izyum will soon be ours,” said a Ukrainian commander fighting near the city.


The new offensive has captured a lot more than just Kupyansk (also spelled Kupiansk in some reports). Ukraine claims that it has reclaimed more than 2500 square kilometers in and around Kharkiv Oblast since the beginning of the month. ISW reports that significant numbers of POWs have been transported out of the area.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/10...5%3A44&utm_term=link

When Ukrainian forces entered the city of Izium Saturday, it was more than a major military victory. It was a sign the war in Ukraine might be entering a new phase, one in which Russian troops are scrambling to hold onto the territory they captured over the past six months.

Russian forces were forced to flee the strategic eastern city just five days after Ukrainian forces began a new offensive eastward through the Kharkiv region.
"Russians escaped and left weapons and ammo behind. City center is free," a spokesperson for the Bohun Brigade of the Land Forces of Ukraine said in a statement Saturday afternoon.

The last five days have seen the most ambitious ground assaults by the Ukrainians since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in late February. Video and satellite images geolocated by CNN show the advances have involved sustained attacks on command posts, ammunition stores, and fuel reserves far behind the front lines.

And in related news, Zelensky, you know, the Baltic George Washington, has been invited by Raytheon to fly to and speak at an upcoming defense contractor conference in Austin Texas.

You just can't make this shit up.

The Russian military administration in the Kharkiv occupation zone has called upon all residents to leave the area to "save their lives", indicating that Russia might abandon the entire territory north of the current Ukrainian advance. And just five months ago they were fighting in the suburbs of the city of Kharkiv itself.

Overall, the Ukrainians have retaken an area the size of Luxembourg over the last five days. Now Luxembourg is not really the biggest country in the world, but I guess it would matter to Luxembourgians very much if they were liberated from foreign occupation (they were of course, in both world wars).

Opinion piece from The Wall Street Journal.
============================

Ukraine Takes the Offensive

Ukraine’s counter-offensive against invading Russian forces is an important turn in the war, though not without peril as Vladimir Putin calculates how to respond. Western leaders have to be prepared that he will use nuclear weapons, or attempt to involve NATO directly in the conflict.

In less than a week, Ukrainian forces have retaken some three thousand square kilometers from the Russian invaders. That’s more Ukrainian territory than Russia has seized since April. “The Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast is routing Russian forces and collapsing Russia’s northern Donbas axis,” says the Institute for the Study of War, which has ably tracked the conflict.

The counter-offensive’s early success is notable for its planning and deception. Ukraine advertised for months that it was planning to advance in the country’s south, around the city of Kherson, and Russia sent reinforcements there. Ukraine has made some gains in the south, but it seems to have caught the Russians by surprise around Kharkiv. Ukraine’s military intelligence, no doubt with U.S. help, seems to be better than Russia’s.

Also striking is the chaotic Russian retreat in the Kharkiv region, suggesting poor morale and military leadership. A Ukrainian soldier fighting near Balakliya and Izyum texts our Jillian Melchior: “We knew that there were morale [problems] within Russian troops. But we were shocked how much tanks and armored vehicles etc. they drop behind. Fight is over. They’re afraid to be surrounded. That’s why they run so quickly. We need to push harder.”

The desire to push harder suggests how much the Russian retreat is helping Ukrainian morale. Superior Ukrainian military esprit in defense of the homeland has been an advantage from the beginning. This is in contrast to Russian troops, who are dying

by the thousands in a campaign in a foreign country.

The territorial gains are strategically significant because they complicate Russia’s ability to reinforce its troops. The Institute for the Study of War said Sunday that Ukraine has taken the city of Izyum, which is a necessary step toward liberating Ukrainian troops that have been pinned down in Slovyansk. The advances build on one another.

The offensive vindicates Ukraine’s assurances that with enough advanced Western weapons it could retake territory. After Ukraine’s early victory in defense of Kyiv, the U.S. and Europe let Russia gain an artillery advantage in the Donbas. But once the U.S. supplied longer-range rockets and artillery, especially precise Himars, it has become a more even fight. Ukraine’s recent advances show the U.S. should supply even more Himars platforms, and not merely more rockets for the 16 platforms Ukraine currently has.

Ukraine’s advances raise the stakes for Mr. Putin. Russian military bloggers are sounding the alarm, but Mr. Putin has been reluctant to mobilize the entire country for his “special military operation,” lest he court more domestic opposition. Russia’s response on Sunday to its recent losses was to attack power stations in Kharkiv and other cities. This is an attack on electricity for civilians.

The Russian is capable of anything. He could engage NATO forces in some fashion that he would blame on the West and use to justify a military draft. He’s meeting this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping and is likely to seek direct military aid that the U.S. says Beijing hasn’t provided so far. He’s also likely to cut off energy supplies to Europe even more than he has to keep the pressure on the West as cold weather arrives.

The wild card is how Putin responds. Will he use a nuclear weapon?

Russia’s use of chemical and tactical nuclear weapons also can’t be ruled out. The use of battlefield nukes is part of standard Russian military doctrine. Rather than lose in humiliating fashion, Mr. Putin may calculate the military benefits are worth the risks.

We hope Western leaders have been mulling how to respond rather than thinking it can’t happen. One point to make clear is that the fault would be all Mr. Putin’s, not Ukraine’s. Factions in the West, on the right and left, believe Ukraine should be left to its fate without Western aid, and they will blame Ukraine for having the nerve to defend itself against a brutal invader.*

A nuclear escalation can’t be accepted as normal warfare. Radiation fallout could reach NATO territory. NATO will have to increase its military aid and let Ukraine take the fight inside Russia. We hope Western leaders are making clear to Mr. Putin that he will become a global pariah if he does go nuclear.

The prospect is horrific to contemplate, but this is the reality of a world with dictators on the march after decades of Western complacency. Ukraine’s advances are encouraging, but Mr. Putin’s threat to the world is far from over.

==============================

* Emphasis added, and who could possibly believe such a thing?

LINK

Ukraine – the situation (September 12, 2022)

Ukraine’s surprise eastern offensive marks Russian intel failure but by now Moscow likely sees conflict as an ‘American war’

https://asiatimes.com/2022/09/...n-september-12-2022/

Summary/Overview

Ukrainian forces to the east and southeast of Kharkiv retain the offensive initiative.
Russian forces are withdrawing from the strategic hub of Izium and regrouping along a straight north-south lin

In the South, company-level fighting continues northeast of Kherson; neither side has made any significant gains since early last week.

In response to the Kharkiv region offensive, Russian air and missile forces have attacked energy and water infrastructure throughout Eastern Ukraine and caused massive blackouts in major cities.

On the basis of reported large-scale US intelligence and added advanced weapons systems assistance, Russia has concluded that it is now de facto at war with the US. This is no longer a local affair.

On similar insight, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) Valery Zaluzhny warns that Russian use of tactical nukes cannot be ruled out.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Samarkand at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on September 15–16.



East/Center

Ukrainian forces have continued their advance south/southeast down the M03 roadway and have reached Izium. Some fighting continues while the majority of forces facing the Ukrainian advance were light-armored DPR units.

Russian counterattacks have been limited to air and artillery strikes. Some regular Russian reserves and reinforcements have reportedly been moved into Oskil (10 kilometers east of Izium) to assist in the retreat.

The loss of Izium is critical to Russian operations in the Donbas salient. With it, Russian operations between Izium and Sloviansk, and those around Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Barvinkove now must end and those forces must fall back towards the eastern part of the salient.

But the fallback also has the advantage of straightened front lines and concentration of forces around the principal Russian target of Bakhmut.

The Ukrainian General Staff in its latest report estimates that there are between 27 and 32

Russian battalion task groups (BTGs) in the area between Siversk and Izium. A further push down the M-03 could trap at least some of those BTGs – unless, of course, they are reinforced from the area of Oskil.

Further south, west of the city of Donetsk, Russian forces continued to probe into Pervomaiske (15 kilometers northwest of Donetsk City) and Novomykhailivka (about 20 kilometers southwest of the city.)

Assessment

Several related aspects of the surprise and surprisingly rapid move of Ukrainian forces from the vicinity of the city of Kharkiv in a south-easterly direction toward Izium are of note.

The New York Times reports (and for once we have no quarrel with the paper’s reporting) that the Ukrainian forces had large amounts of detailed US intelligence available in preparing for the straight drive southeast and flanking action toward Kupiansk.



Defenses were reported to be light, largely DPR light armored units and militia. The entire operation, particularly as attention was drawn toward the much advertised southern offensive, represented an excellent target of opportunity – and a high-value one at that with the capture of Izium, the anchor point of the Russian Donbas offensive after the withdrawal from the Kiev Oblast.

What’s astonishing is the apparent utter lack of Russian tactical intelligence that might have alerted the regional Russian military leadership of what was about to come down the pike. Just how debilitating and costly this Russian intel failure will prove still remains to be seen.

However, what it portends is not yet another firing of some military intelligence analysts or military commanders. That may happen – all the way up to Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu as some Russian commentators are demanding.

What the immediate Russian response to the military setback indicates is a different matter altogether. There was some reinforcement of the Donbas front.

But most significantly, there was a first-ever series of massed air and missile attacks on major cities in eastern Ukraine that have caused large-scale blackouts, water systems failures and other infrastructure failures.

Russia has concluded that it is now in a direct war with the US, that this is now an American war. The boundaries had been pushed all along. But the mass delivery of US heavy artillery has pushed the situation into the grey zone. But the Kharkiv offensive directly involved US military personnel in critical line functions.

The one person to see this immediately was Ukrainian C-in-C Zaluzhny, who has starkly warned of the possibility of the use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russian forces. Russia has repeatedly denied such intent. Alas, it had repeatedly denied the intent of sending troops into Ukraine.

By directly involving itself not only in the planning but also in the execution of Ukrainian offensive action, the US has crossed what certainly may be seen by the Russian leadership as a red line announced at the very outset of the Russian action in Ukraine.

This does not mean going nuclear. But it likely means escalating from local conventional military action to economic and financial targeting of civilian infrastructure, industrial capacity and energy sources.

The head of the German armed forces General Eberhard Zorn warned of this last week in an interview with the daily Die Welt by noting that Russia has not yet used most of its air force and navy potential.