That ship was featured in some Russian drone footage several days ago, which means they've been taking their time unloading it. Their logistics as it pertains to expeditionary warfare, is a mess....

It looks to be snap, cracklin and poppin, not unloaded

It's just too bad the Ukies couldn't make the other one fleeing go BOOM too.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
It's just too bad the Ukies couldn't make the other one fleeing go BOOM too.

Would've been a good time to have a handful of teams with missiles to hit them, while the distraction of the ship on fire.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
Their logistics as it pertains to expeditionary warfare, is a mess....

A friend of mine was telling me he was reading up on the Russkies and it looks like they are very much rail-based inside Russia proper for military logistics and movement but outside they can't really project power very far.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
A friend of mine was telling me he was reading up on the Russkies and it looks like they are very much rail-based inside Russia proper for military logistics and movement but outside they can't really project power very far.

Yep. This video, although it's from fairly early in the conflict (~9 days), does a good job going into the issues Russia has with projection outside their territory:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
Their logistics as it pertains to expeditionary warfare, is a mess....

A friend of mine was telling me he was reading up on the Russkies and it looks like they are very much rail-based inside Russia proper for military logistics and movement but outside they can't really project power very far.

They are...they have entire brigade sized units focused on both load/unload but also security of their rail system. Problem for them is their rail gauges are not standard so, any movement outside of their borders is a problem. Which brings up a separate issue, if their military is structured around domestic defense, what are they doing getting involved in issues OUTSIDE of their borders?

http://www.inventingeurope.eu/.../narrowing-is-easier

quote:

NARROWING IS EASIER

German sappers building railway tracks on Eastern Front.
According to popular legend, and some railway historians, the Russians made their railway gauge 89 mm broader than the 1435 mm "Stephenson gauge" in order to thwart an eventual invasion. The First World War proved such hope to be futile.

In 1914 and 1915, the engineers of the German army advancing on Russian territory east of Warsaw found they could narrow the tracks very quickly by moving one rail nearer the other along the existing sleepers (the planks connecting the rails). If German troops had to retreat, they cut off the long end of the sleepers so that the broader gauge could not be restored without rebuilding the whole track.

After Poland regained its independence in 1918, all broad gauge railway tracks in former Russian provinces were narrowed to standard gauge. While the broad gauge was not a barrier for the enemies invading Russia, it slowed down the aid from the America Relief Administration sending food by train to relieve famine in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. The supplies shipped through standard gauge tracks in Poland had to be unloaded first and then loaded to Russian trains at a border station in Stolpce.

War made tracks where peace did not. When the Red Army annexed eastern Poland on September 17th, 1939, it rebuilt the main railway lines for its own broad-gauge rolling stock again. After the German armies invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, they changed the gauges back again.

One of the (many) forgotten casualties of war and government upheaval are zoo animals. I recall a story a couple decades ago about the zoo animals abandoned in a zoo in Afghanistan when the Taliban first took over, and a couple people trying to find ways to feed and care for them. Then there is the story of starving Venezuelans who resorted to raiding zoos to eat the animals, or going into the jungle and eating Pink Flamingos.

Some of the Ukrainian zoo animals have been evacuated into Poland, while others remain in the war zone.

[Note: Twitter Tweets with multiple photos & videos, and hyperlinks at the linked website article.]

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

These Ukrainian Zookeepers Stayed Behind To Protect Their Animals

Many are evacuating Ukraine, and who can blame them? But one group of Kyiv zookeepers are staying behind to protect their animals.

Published on Mar 9, 2022 at 10:52 AM
by Hunter Patterson

While some Ukrainian celebrities are fleeing their home country, many people have decided to stay in Ukraine. Some are joining the fight and protecting their loved ones. For employees of the Kyiv Zoo, it is about saving the dozens of animals under their care and protecting them from constant explosions and gunfire.

The zookeepers are now living in the zoo with their families. They take care of every animal, from a shell-shocked elephant on tranquilizers to a lemur so stressed out she abandoned her baby. These animals are in distress from the bombing and deteriorating conditions.

The logistics of moving animals out of the country during regular times is complicated, but it is nearly impossible during wartime.

While some animals are freaking out by the sounds and explosions, some, like 47-year-old gorilla Tony, miss their visitors and friends. Tony was previously under the sponsorship of American actress Hayden Panettiere, who helped build him an enclosure.

As the conflict intensifies and Russia circles Kyiv, it’s unlikely many of these creatures will be able to escape. My hope and prayer are that Russia ends its bombing and shelling non-military targets.

While some animals are moving to Poland, there are several still stranded at zoo facilities across Ukraine.

I wish some of us had a tenth of the heroism as these zookeepers do. If the keepers had left, no one would fault them. Human life is more precious than animal life, but sticking to the duty and promise to protect these animals is the definition of character under fire.

Frankly, I am not sure I would stay. Sure, we all say we would stay behind and fight, but we live in a beautiful and safe country where wars like this are nothing but a clip on a screen.

Now, if you’re like me, you can’t stand to see animals in peril. So here are a few pics of animals having fun to put you a bit at ease.

quote:

riginally posted by corsair:
Which brings up a separate issue, if their military is structured around domestic defense, what are they doing getting involved in issues OUTSIDE of their borders?

FWIW, I'm convinced that this is what happens when spooks launch military campaigns without bringing in the military during the planning phase. But I could be wrong.

Any idea how the ships were damaged? A drone strike? Doesn't seem like the Ukrainians have been throwing around the kind of firepower that can seriously damage a ship.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...oyed-Kyivs-navy.html

Ukraine destroys Russian landing ship after state media revealed its location with propaganda footage: Huge fireball rises over port that had been taken by Putin's forces

Ball of flames and smoke seen rising from Berdyansk, a Ukrainian port under the control of Russian forces

Kyiv's navy claimed to have hit and destroyed the Orsk, a 370ft Alligator-class Russian landing ship

If confirmed, it would be the largest vessel that Ukraine has struck and another embarrassing loss for Putin

Russian state media revealed the ship's location just days earlier, showing it unloading armoured vehicles


It would seem that the Russkies forgot a lesson from the Great Patriotic War.

IF this disturbing report is accurate, the Russians now have a significant number of civilian hostages... and possibly forced labor.

[Note: multiple hyperlinks found at linked website article. At the end of the article there is an embedded video of Russians fleeing Russia and speaking out against the war and feeling ashamed of it.]

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

Ukraine accused Russia of forced mass deportations from Mariupol to Russian cities

Sophia Ankel Mar 21, 2022, 6:12 AM


Civilians trapped in Mariupol are evacuated in groups under the control of pro-Russian separatists in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 20, 2022
Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

• Ukrainian officials said thousands of people in Mariupol had been taken to Russia against their will.

• The residents were taken to camps then shipped on to remote areas of Russia, they said.

• Ukraine likened the tactic, which has not been independently verified, to Nazi labor camps.


Ukraine accused Russia of forcibly taking thousands of people in the besieged city of Mariupol and deporting them to remote Russian cities, comparing the tactic to the events of World War II.

Inna Sovsun, a Ukrainian MP, claimed on Sunday that people trapped in Mariupol, a strategic coastal city that has been the target of intense attack from Russia, were being taken against their will across the border and farther into Russia.

"They're taking Ukrainian citizens, sending them through what are called filtration camps, and then relocating them to distant parts of Russia to work for free," Sovsun told Times Radio. "This is the logic of Nazi Germany."

Ukraine's human-rights spokesperson, Lyudmyla Denisova, elaborated on the reports on Sunday, claiming that people were being "sent by rail to various economically depressed cities in Russia."

"Our citizens have been issued papers that require them to be in a certain city," Denisova said in a Telegram post seen by Insider. "They have no right to leave it for at least two years with the obligation to work at the specified place of work. The fate of others remains unknown."

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko likened the developments to Nazi Germany, telling CNN on Saturday: "What the occupiers are doing today is familiar to the older generation, who saw the horrific events of World War II when the Nazis forcibly captured people."

During World War II, Nazi Germany deported Jews and other victim groups to ghettos, shooting sites, and concentration camps in German-occupied territories.

In many of the camps, Nazis exploited the forced labor of so-called "enemies of the state" for economic gain and to meet labor shortages during the war, according to the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The reports of forced removals have not yet been independently verified.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told CNN on Sunday that the tactic would be "unconscionable" if true.

"I've only heard it. I can't confirm it," Thomas-Greenfield told CNN. "But I can say it is disturbing. It is unconscionable for Russia to force Ukrainian citizens into Russia and put them in what will basically be concentration and prisoner camps."

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed over the weekend that more than 2.7 million Ukrainians had asked to be evacuated to Russia, according to the state news agency TASS.

The Times of London cited a report by RIA Novosti, another state news outlet, which claimed that hundreds of Mariupol residents had arrived in different cities across Russia, including Yaroslavl, Taganrog, and Ryazan.

RIA, per The Times, reported that 480 people got to Yaroslavl, 400 miles from Ukraine, to be housed at a sanatorium. It quoted one evacuee saying it was his "dream" to live in Russia.

Around 300,000 people are believed to still be trapped in Mariupol, enduring weeks of Russian bombardment with no power or running water, The Kyiv Independent reported last week.

Ukraine rejected a Russian deadline on Sunday demanding Mariupol's defenders lay down their arms in exchange for safe passage out of the city.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

and in a related article -

US Embassy accuses Russia of kidnapping children amid reports it's deporting thousands of Ukrainians by force

Rebecca Cohen Mar 22, 2022, 8:50 AM


Civilians trapped in Mariupol, Ukraine, under Russian attacks were evacuated in groups under the control of pro-Russian separatists through other cities on March 20.
Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

• The US Embassy in Kyiv accused Russia of kidnapping Ukrainians and forcibly sending them to Russia.

• Citing Ukraine's foreign ministry, the embassy said Russian forces illegally removed 2,389 children.

• Officials in Mariupol said Russian troops forcibly deported Ukrainians to Russia.

The US Embassy accused Russia of kidnapping thousands of Ukrainian children as local officials alleged that Russian troops forcibly deported civilians while bombarding eastern cities.

"According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Russian forces have illegally removed 2,389 Ukrainian children from Donetsk and Luhanks oblasts to Russia," the US Embassy in Kyiv tweeted on Tuesday.

"This is not assistance. It is kidnapping," they said.

On Monday, Ukraine accused Russia of forcing Ukrainians in the besieged city of Mariupol into Russia, Insider previously reported.

Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun said on Sunday that those trapped in Mariupol were taken across the border against their will.

"They're taking Ukrainian citizens, sending them through what are called filtration camps, and then relocating them to distant parts of Russia to work for free," Sovsun told Times Radio. "This is the logic of Nazi Germany."

Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine's human-rights spokesperson, also alleged that Ukrainians were being "sent by rail to various economically depressed cities in Russia."

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko also compared the removals to the work of the Nazis during World War II.

"What the occupiers are doing today is familiar to the older generation, who saw the horrific events of World War II when the Nazis forcibly captured people," he told CNN on Saturday.

Reports of the forced removals have not been independently verified. The Russian state news agency TASS reported that millions were asking to be moved into Russia.

It is impossible to know which reports are true,

but here is a report that Ukraine may try to take back Kherson

https://hotair.com/allahpundit...t-of-kherson-n457861

https://nypost.com/2022/03/23/...-russia-around-kyiv/

The Ukrainians have reportedly been successful so far in their offensive to the northwest of Kiev, and now reports are they're undertaking a southern offensive around Mykolaiv and Kherson.

Good for them.

If accurate, it sure doesn't sound to me like "it's all over but the mopping up"...

Maybe the biolabs in Ukraine were a way to funnel dirty money around, maybe more. You be the judge. Too much to post here.

It is interesting that some of this information was obtained from the infamous Hunter Biden laptop that the FBI has had for several years.


Hunter Biden Bio Firm Partnered With Ukrainian Researchers ‘Isolating Deadly Pathogens’ Using Funds From Obama’s Defense Department.

The U.S. President’s son was instrumental in funding a firm conducting pathogen and anthrax research in Ukrainian biolabs.


https://thenationalpulse.com/2...ith-ukraine-biolabs/

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:
Maybe the biolabs in Ukraine were a way to funnel dirty money around, maybe more. You be the judge. Too much to post here.

It is interesting that some of this information was obtained from the infamous Hunter Biden laptop that the FBI has had for several years.


Hunter Biden Bio Firm Partnered With Ukrainian Researchers ‘Isolating Deadly Pathogens’ Using Funds From Obama’s Defense Department.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2...ith-ukraine-biolabs/

Tried to read it website had to many cookies/popups/etc to view it.

I wouldn't put too much weight into the biolabs being more than normal medical research, food safety, and other non-nefarious things. If there is a bioweapons lab somewhere, it's one of thirty labs, not all thirty (or whatever the number rumored). From what I've read it's all BSL-2 labs no 3/4. Could be that there's some crazy crap going on, but I think is more likely they are doing normal food safety, health, and medicinal research. Again I can't rule out some underground funding or other shady shit, but short of direct evidence, I'm not going to assume it.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Maybe... too much to repost here.

But, I mean, it sure sounds scary to the uninformed, right?.

"Biolabs"

Like, it brings to mind visions of evil scientists brewing up all kinds of nefarious stuff while huddled over bubbling beakers, curly glass pipes, and some of those glass globes with the crackly electricity in it going "zap zzap zzzzap".

Therefore, if they have these scary-sounding biolabs, it must be bad, right? Almost as bad and scary as the term "assault rifles".


Biiiiooooolaaaaaabs...

Here you go skins, I did not have any trouble reading it but I run a popup blocker. There are also 47 links in the article that they supply to support their article

https://thenationalpulse.com/2...ith-ukraine-biolabs/


An investment firm directed by President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden was a leading financial backer of a pandemic tracking and response firm that collaborated on identifying and isolating deadly pathogens in Ukrainian laboratories, receiving funds from the Obama administration’s Department of Defense in the process, The National Pulse can exclusively reveal.

Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners (RSTP) – a subsidiary of the Hunter Biden and Christopher Heinz-founded Rosemont Capital – counted both Biden and Heinz as managing directors. Heinz is the stepson of former U.S. Secretary of State and current Climate czar John Kerry.

Amongst the companies listed on archived versions of the RSTP’s portfolio is Metabiota – an ostensibly San Francisco-based company that purports to detect, track, and analyze emerging infectious diseases.

Financial reports reveal that RSTP led the company’s first round of funding in 2015, which amounted to $30 million. Former managing director and co-founder of RSTP Neil Callahan – a name that also appears many times on Hunter Biden’s hard drive – sits on Metabiota’s Board of Advisors alongside former Clinton official Rob Walker who discussed, in another unearthed Hunter Biden hard drive e-mail, reaching out to the Obama Department of Defense with regard to Metabiota.



In July 2021, The National Pulse exclusively revealed the connection between Metabiota, Hunter Biden, and the pandemic-linked EcoHealth Alliance which worked closely with Anthony Fauci’s National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) and the notorious Wuhan laboratory.

Today, we can exclusively reveal an official connection between the Biden-linked pandemic firm and biological laboratories based in Ukraine. In early March we revealed how these labs were handling “especially dangerous pathogens” through programs funded by the U.S. government. The potential for such entities to fall into the hands of invading Russian forces has come under hotly disputed scrutiny in recent weeks.

‘Zoonotic Diseases’
A feature in the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine’s (STCU) 2016 Annual Report recounts a “Trilateral Meeting with Ukraine, Poland, and the United States Regional Collaboration on Biological Security, Safety, and Surveillance.”

The article describes in particular an October 2016 meeting involving U.S. military officials and their Ukrainian counterparts discussing “cooperation in surveillance and prevention of especially dangerous infectious diseases, including zoonotic diseases in Ukraine and neighboring countries.”

In attendance were representatives from the Biden-linked Metabiota, roughly one year after Hunter’s investment funds put cash into the company. Attendees also included:

US Department of Defense [Defense Threat Reduction Agency] (DTRA) (K. Garrett, G. Braunstein, W. Sosnowski, and J. Wintrol);
Black & Veatch and Metabiota corporations (D. Mustra, Dr. M. Guttieri, S. Anderson, T. Borth and others);
Curtis “BJ” Bjelajac, Executive Director, and Vlada Pashynska, Senior Specialist represented the STCU.
“The meeting focused on existing frameworks, regulatory coordination, and ongoing cooperative projects in research, surveillance and diagnostics of a number of dangerous zoonotic diseases, such as avian influenza, leptospirosis, Crimea Congo hemorrhagic fever, and brucellosis,” explains the summary:

https://thenationalpulse.com/w...18.11-PM-480x675.png

A separate page from the STCU website details another meeting between Metabiota representatives, Ukrainian scientists, and U.S. Department of Defense officials aimed at increasing collaboration while attending a Swine Fever workshop just months later:

“In the framework of the workshop, special breakout meetings of Ukrainian scientists with their European and American counterparts were jointly organized by the STCU, DTRA and Metabiota Inc.. During those breakout meetings, specialists from each country worked to establish effective contacts in order to encourage future cooperation, as well as to identify future scientific projects with Ukrainian and western veterinary institutions in the area of ASF control and investigation.”

Government contracts also corroborate the working relationship between Metabiota, Ukrainian laboratories, and the U.S. Defense Department, with the firm receiving an $18.4 million grant from the U.S. agency in 2014. A total of $307,091, allocated to Metabiota on September 25th, was itemized for “Ukraine research projects.”

Several scientific papers – including those isolating strains of deadly pathogens like “virulent African Swine Fever Virus” – appear to have been published following the grant.
A 2019 paper titled “Complete Genome Sequence of a Virulent African Swine Fever Virus from a Domestic Pig in Ukraine” was authored by researchers from Metabiota and three Ukraine-based institutes.

The researchers, whose work is described as being “funded by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) through the Biological Threat Reduction Program in Ukraine,” isolated the strain of the deadly virus using a pig from Ukraine:

“Tissue samples were collected from a domestic pig from ASF outbreak number 131 in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, in 2016. The samples were frozen, and total DNA was extracted in duplicate from spleen tissue using the PowerMicrobiome RNA isolation kit (Mo Bio) following the manufacturer’s protocol.”

‘Anthrax’
Furthermore, a 2014 paper “Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Livestock Anthrax in Ukraine During the Past Century (1913-2012)” lists an author, Artem Skrypnyk, then affiliated with a Ukraine-based branch of the pandemic firm.

“Our primary objective was to examine the spatiotemporal dynamics of the disease and identify areas where anthrax may persist in the present day,” posits the paper.



“Examining the historical epizootiology of a disease can identify the geographic extent of environmental foci, define areas prone to repeat outbreaks, and lead to a better understanding of natural disease cycles.”



Skrypnyk is also listed as a Metabiota scientist in other papers including “Dynamics of anthrax cases in Ukraine during 1970-2013,” “Anthrax in Dogs,” and “Serological Anthrax Surveillance in Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) in Ukraine.”

One paper aimed “to better understand anthrax epizootiology in Ukraine,” collecting samples from anthrax hotspots with funds from the U.S. DTRA’s Cooperative Biological Engagement Program in Ukraine.

“We tested wild boar serum samples collected across Ukraine for antibodies to B. anthracis and determined whether exposed boars were associated with livestock anthrax hotspots,” explains the paper.

https://thenationalpulse.com/w...M-e1648140774111.png

Skrypnyk, the Metabiota-affiliated researcher, worked as Veterinary Project Coordinator for the Biden-linked firm before moving on to serve in his current role of Technical Officer for Laboratories for the World Health Organization (WHO).
Additionally, two researchers – Nataliya Mykhaylovska and Bradford Raymond Brooks – are listed as Ukraine-based Metabiota researchers in a paper titled “Implementation of a Regional Training Program on African Swine Fever As Part of the Cooperative Biological Engagement Program across the Caucasus Region.”

The aforementioned paper even references a Metabiota office in Ukraine’s capital city of Kiev, whose existence appears to be corroborated by a summary of the company’s operational structure.



“The company’s international footprint includes operations in 20 countries and offices in San Francisco, Washington, Ukraine, China, Canada, and Sierra Leone,” explains the summary.

Additionally, LinkedIn profiles of former Metabiota employees detail the work conducted by the company’s Kyiv outpost.

Former Country Science Manager for Eastern Europe David Mustra explains how he “manga[ed] Metabiota’s team of twelve Ukrainian-National personnel” and served as “the Biosurveillance and Research Manager for Metabiota’s work as a subcontractor, under the direction of prime contractor Black & Veatch (B&V), on the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP) Biological Threat Reduction Integrating Contract (BTRIC) – Ukraine.”

He also explains how the company liaised with “Government of Ukraine officials” from agencies including the Ministry of Defense.



Another Metabiota employee – Dr. Petro Mutovkin – who served as a Human Biosurveillance Specialist and Project Manager from 2015 to 2016 reveals his role in “facilitating activities within US Department of Defence Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP) in Ukraine” on his LinkedIn profile.

“Laboratory facility assessment, laboratory diagnostic and BS&S training, [and] biological risk assessment and mitigation” are among the other tasks he engaged in.

The revelation surrounding President Joe Biden’s son’s financial involvement with Ukrainian biological laboratories experimenting with pathogens, animals, and anthrax follows The National Pulse unearthing Metabiota’s ties to EcoHealth Alliance, a key entity in the origins of COVID-19 and cover-up efforts