Donbass push, logistics strikes, and heavy winged bombs: The week in the Russia-Ukraine conflict (VIDEOS)
Moscow has made new gains in Donbass, while continuing its campaign against Ukraine’s military rear

The past week in the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been marked by hostilities at multiple locations along the front line, with the Russian military reporting new advances in Donbass. Russian forces have also continued to hunt for high value assets in Ukraine’s rear, striking troops and hardware in redeployment.

On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the liberation of Urozhaynoye, a large village located in the southwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

The village has seen active combat over the past few months, with the location becoming one of the few settlements seized by Kiev during its long-hyped but ultimately disastrous counteroffensive of last summer. The village has sustained extensive damage over the months of fighting, drone footage showing Russian troops hoisting the country’s flag at local administrative building indicates. 

On Friday, the Defense Ministry said Russian troops seized control of Yuryevka, a small village located to the west of the town of Gorlovka, DPR. The development apparently signals the country’s forces are expanding their zone of control after breaking through Ukrainian defenses in the area last week, when the troops reportedly entered the village of New York (also known as Novgorodskoye) to the northeast of Yuryevka.

The country’s military also continues its westward push near Ovheretino, once a key logistics and railway hub for Kiev’s forces, which was liberated by Russia in April. On Friday, Russian military journalist Marat Khairullin reported that the troops made a swift advance on the village of Progress, located 7km further to the west along the railway line, and took control of part of it. The reporter shared drone footage from the location, purporting to show Russian storm troops in the village.

The village of Progress is one of the few locations in the ‘Poroshenko line’ which still remains under Ukrainian control. The defensive line was built in the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donbass in 2015-17 under then-President Pyotr Poroshenko and included a vast network of concrete bunkers, tunnels, and other fortifications.

Logistics strikes continue 

The Russian military has continued a concentrated effort to strike Kiev’s military logistics including units and hardware in redeployment.

Last Saturday, The Russian Defense Ministry said it conducted a strike on a train station located in the village of Budy, Kharkov Region. The military used two Iskander tactical ballistic missiles to strike a train that was carrying multiple pieces of military hardware. According to Moscow’s estimates, 20 pieces of hardware, including three German-supplied Marder infantry fighting vehicles, were destroyed in the strike, while up to 120 Ukrainian soldiers were killed or wounded.

Another Iskander strike was reported on Tuesday, when a missile packed with a cluster warhead struck Ukrainian training grounds near the village of Peresechnoye in the same region. 

A surveillance drone detected the movement of a Ukrainian unit, tracking it to the training grounds. The unit was riding several civilian buses, with at least two appearing to be commuter vehicles and at least one bright yellow school bus, footage shared online shows.

The strike was conducted when the unit exited the buses, with up to 160 servicemen reported killed or injured. 

Heavier winged bombs unveiled 

On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry for the first time officially acknowledged the use of massive high explosive FAB-3000 aerial bombs, fitted with the Universal Correction and Guidance Module (UMPK) winged upgrade kit. 

The military released a video showing a FAB-3000 being fitted onto a Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft. Like some of its smaller cousins, the FAB-3000 is fitted with a custom nosecone to make the bomb more aerodynamic and extend its flight, footage suggests.

The Su-34 jet is seen carrying only a single bomb on its central pylon. The munition extends its wings shortly after separating from the aircraft, turns over, and proceeds to glide onto its target, the video shows. 

Another video featuring a winged FAB-3000 gives a glimpse of the altitudes at which they are deployed. Rare footage taken from a Su-34 in clear weather suggests the aircraft apparently released the massive bomb at around 10,000 meters (over 32,800 feet) above the ground. 

The first-ever use of a FAB-3000 fitted with a UMPK kit was reported late last month. Prior to this, only smaller bombs, such as the high-explosive FAB-250, FAB-500, and FAB-1500, as well as specialized cluster and thermobaric munitions equipped with the guidance systems, have seen action during the hostilities.

Lancet strikes 

Over the past week, new videos showing the Russian Lancet kamikaze drone in action have surfaced online. The family of the loitering munitions has seen increasing use amid the conflict, becoming one of the key medium-reach tools of the Russian military, primarily used to counter Ukrainian towed and self-propelled artillery, as well as certain high-value assets, such as short-range anti-aircraft systems or artillery radars 

On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry showcased a Lancet strike on a US-made M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzer, hit by a Lancet drone at its firing position in formerly-Ukrainian Kherson Region. Surveillance drone footage shows the howitzer firing from a poorly-concealed position in a wooded area. The vehicle was hit by the Lancet through its mask netting, catching fire and ultimately being destroyed by a massive explosion in its ammo stock.

Another new Lancet video shared online shows a strike on a Plastun electronic warfare support station. The sensor is seen deployed in a wooded area, with the loitering munition striking at its base, apparently destroying its control module and toppling the antenna. 

A rare Soviet-era 2K22 Tunguska close-range anti-aircraft vehicle has also fallen victim to a Lancet strike, another video shows. The system, designed to provide cover from various low-flying aircraft, was tracked by a surveillance drone and hit by the kamikaze drone at its hiding place in the woods.

While the view of it was obstructed by thick shrubbery, the strike sparked a massive fire at the location, suggesting the vehicle sustained a direct hit.

https://www.rt.com/russia/601375-ukrainian-conflict-weekly-videos/

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MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

TRANSNISTRIA WILL BE PART OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

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SEE ALSO: https://www.dw.com/en/ukrainians-say-its-time-for-peace-negotiations-with-russia/a-69696546

Hungary and Slovakia stopped receiving oil from Russian oil giant Lukoil via the Soviet-built Druzhba (‘Friendship’) pipeline which runs through northwestern Ukraine after Kiev imposed a transit ban. Financial analyst Paul Goncharoff says the move is both counterproductive and shortsighted, but that hasn’t stopped Ukraine’s authorities before.

Officials in Budapest and Bratislava confirmed this week that the delivery of oil supplies purchased from Lukoil through the Druzhba oil pipeline network had dried up.

Slovakian oil transporter Transpetrol said non-Lukoil Russian deliveries appear unaffected so far.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Budapest is receiving oil via the TurkStream pipeline, running from Russia through the Black Sea to southeastern Europe, but that supplies via Druzhba had been stopped “due to a new legal situation” imposed by Kiev. 

“We are now working on a solution that would allow oil transit to restart as Russian oil is very important for our energy security,” Szijjarto said Tuesday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Moscow doubts whether dialogue with the Ukrainian companies responsible for oil transit on this issue is possible.

“This sort of decision was made not at the technical, but the political level. We don’t have any dialogue here,” he said.

Druzhba is one of the longest and largest oil pipeline networks in the world, with a capacity to ship about 66.5 million tons of oil annually. The network branches off in southern Belarus into a northern route running through Poland to eastern Germany, and a southern route, which winds through southwestern Ukraine to the Hungarian and Slovakian borders.

Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic negotiated with Brussels in late 2023 to allow them to maintain their pipeline-based imports of Russian oil, citing a lack of access to sea-based deliveries, and lack of opportunities to receive substantial amounts of oil from other sources.

The three countries collectively imported about 15 million tons of Russia divided roughly evenly between them in 2022, and dropped purchases modestly (between 2 and 10 percent) in 2023, according to Russian oil transport giant Transneft.

Shipments of Russian oil to Poland and further west to Germany via Druzhba’s northern branch were halted by Warsaw in early 2023.

Last month, Ukraine formally banned the transit of crude produced by Lukoil – Russia’s second-largest oil company, through the section of Druzhba running through Ukraine.

The move signals another short-sighted escalation by Ukraine’s pro-Western elite which will ultimately harm ordinary Ukrainians in the long run, says veteran financial analyst Paul Goncharoff.

“Whether Ukraine can afford to further escalate the situation surrounding the movement of energy resources is a moot point. Escalation on all fronts has passed all reasonable limits, politically, economically and militarily. They cannot afford it economically [nor] politically as they have now estranged both Slovakia and Hungary, [but will continue to escalate], regardless of cost, as their marching orders from Washington along with the servile echoes of Brussels and their insistence to ‘demonstrate resolve’” dictate, Goncharoff told Sputnik.

“The real consequences should become very clear in 3-4 months as winter descends on Ukraine, and any energy goodwill there may still be in countries neighboring Ukraine will be scarce to nonexistent,” the observer expects.

At this stage, Goncharoff says, Russian oil exporters not affiliated with Lukoil can still send oil through the Druzhba pipeline, but “how long this possibility will continue is anyone’s guess.”

“In discussions I have had with persons closely involved in this trade, there are swap workarounds being looked at in order not to deprive Slovakia or Hungary from needed and contracted resources. Unfortunately, the political reality is such that it is likely any workarounds will raise a hue and cry from the West, and they will try to close the workarounds off as well, if for no other reason but to be politically correct,” the market analyst said.

Ultimately, the old saying “shooting oneself in the foot” is an apt description for Kiev, Brussels and Washington’s policy today, “while the world looks on, shaking its collective head in wonder,” Goncharoff concluded.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240720/ukraine-shot-itself-in-the-foot-by-banning-transit-of-lukoil-crude-to-hungary-and-slovakia-1119444293.html

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BY KIT KLARENBERG

The killing of ultra-nationalist Ukrainian politician Iryna Farion at the hands of a Neo-Nazi is filled with irony. Linked to the Maidan false flag massacre, Farion was instrumental in bringing fascist forces into the mainstream.

On July 19, prominent Ukrainian Neo-Nazi Iryna Farion, a former lawmaker with the fascist Svoboda party, was shot dead in Lviv. A longtime advocate of purging her country of all Russian speakers through violence, she and her political faction were directly linked to the false flag sniper massacre of Maidan protesters in February 2014. Local officials initially seemed uninterested in cracking the case, lamely suggesting Moscow’s involvement couldn’t be ruled out. Now however, an 18-year-old Neo-Nazi is in custody.

The killer appears to have led investigators straight to his door by publishing a video of Farion’s murder and an accompanying “manifesto” on Telegram, while posting a slew of racist and antisemitic statements on an assortment of the messaging app’s Neo-Nazi groups. He openly confessed to assassinating Farion for insulting Russian-speaking Ukrainian soldiers in November 2023. Branding them “Muscovites,” she declared that she “could not call” them Ukrainians.

Farion’s tirade resulted in her dismissal from her university job and triggered an investigation by Ukraine’s SBU, which kept her under investigation until the day she died. Some might question how Ukrainian security services failed to prevent her assassination in that context, given her executioner was reportedly camped outside her apartment complex for two straight weeks.

As Ukrainian-born Dr. Ivan Katchanovski, a University of Ottawa political studies professor who has published multiple peer-reviewed studies on the Maidan false flag, explained to The Grayzone:

“It looks like intra-far-right rivalry. Officials first said they had no information about Farion’s suspected killer, whose photo was published by local Lviv Telegram channels. Her neighbors said this man was sitting all day long near the entrance to her apartment building for the last two weeks. She was shot in the head right there after she exited her building. Such apparent impunity is similar to numerous assassinations and killings with far-right involvement, including the Maidan and Odesa massacres.”

The slaying marked an ironic end for Farion, who appeared to have participated in the 2014 Maidan massacre that saw over 100 protesters killed in an incident that has since been exposed as a devious false flag. Like others involved in the slaughter, Farion had been granted immunity from prosecution. But this July, she became a target of lethal violence from a member of the hardcore Neo-Nazi forces unleashed by the Maidan coup she helped to lead.

The US-backed opposition blamed the 2014 Maidan killings on then-president Viktor Yanukovich, while the West seized on the apparent sniper attacks to invalidate negotiations with the elected government and push for his violent ouster.

Officially, the killings remained unsolved until 2023, when dramatic, years-long trial of five former Ukrainian policemen accused of carrying out the Maidan massacre concluded. The verdict indirectly implicated Iryna Farion.

Though the court found three former Ukrainian police officers guilty in absentia, it confirmed that in some killings, the accused’s culpability was not only unproven, but the involvement of “other unknown persons” in the deaths “cannot be ruled out.” The judgment explicitly stated that the Kiev hotel from which the unknown snipers operated was “territory… not controlled by law enforcement.”

A growing body of evidence has emerged since February 2014  suggesting the gunfire emanated from the windows of rooms situated on Hotel Ukraina’s 11th floor, overlooking Kiev’s then-Freedom Square. A BBC correspondent has recalled seeing a sniper wearing a green helmet like the kind worn by Maidan protesters, while firing from this area.

The reporter later testified that he saw a handwritten note attached to the door of a room on the 11th floor, 1109, warning visitors not to enter “at the request of the SBU.” Police raided the homes of prominent Svoboda representatives Ihor Yankiv, Oleh Pankevich and Oleksandr Sych in October 2015. Authorities determined in their ensuing investigation that all three had resided on Hotel Ukraina’s 11th floor during the Maidan massacre. So too did Iryna Farion, in room 1109.

“The recent Maidan massacre trial verdict confirmed the BBC TV crew was shot by a Maidan activist from Hotel Ukraina and this building was ‘activist-controlled,” Katchanovski told The Grayzone. “Ukrainian government investigations revealed another Svoboda MP lived in the room on the same 11th floor from which the BBC crew was shot. Kiev’s ICTV filmed snipers in the same hotel room shooting Maidan activists in the back.”

For two years before the Maidan coup, Farion served as a member of parliament for the ultra-nationalist Svoboda party. At the time, Ukraine was still officially neutral, with its government enforcing laws protecting the country’s ethnic Russian minority from discrimination. In an environment like this, an anti-Russian fanatic like Farion was in legal hot water on a perpetual basis.

In February 2010, on International Mother Language Day, before even entering parliament, the ultra-nationalist legislator was filmed strutting around a Lviv classroom, warning children they must exclusively use the Ukrainian form of their names, or “you’ll have to pack your bags and leave for Moscow.”

That intervention prompted the ruling Party of Regions to request prosecutors file a criminal case against her on the grounds of language- and nationality-based discrimination. But her virulent Russophobic rhetoric, once relegated to the fringes of Ukrainian society, became increasingly normalized following the consummation of the Maidan coup. She quickly emerged as a fervent advocate of the fascist coup government’s push to ban the use of Russian as an official language, which sparked local rebellions throughout the country’s east.

In October 2014, as Farion prepared to seek reelection in the snap vote called by President Petro Poroshenko, she met with fighters from Sich Battalion, a fascist paramilitary formed by Svoboda, as they prepared to depart for Kiev’s “anti-terror operation” in Donbass. The Ukrainian government’s brutal assault on the largely defenseless residents of the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, who rejected the Maidan government, set the stage for the war that erupted when Russia launched its so-called Special Military Operation in February 2022.

Throughout the war in the Donbas, Farion and her neo-Nazi confederates baited Russia with calls for escalation. In her meeting with the Sich Battalion, Farion declared that the “anti-terrorist operation” would become “the spearhead of the Third World War… from which a great victory will begin.” Claiming Ukraine had been at war with Russia since 1654, when Kiev formally submitted to Mocow’s rule, she called upon the assembled fascists to “make us not just a nation of fighters, but an avenging nation out of us,” and “[take] revenge cruelly and harshly.”

Farion went on to demand that the Sich Battalion fighters settle this centuries-long struggle once and for all: “This is not just a challenge to history, it is a challenge to the heavens. The whole of Ukraine should become a front.”

Two weeks later, she made similarly incendiary comments, employing openly genocidal rhetoric when speaking about Russian-speaking Ukrainians. “This is what we live for and why we came into the world, to destroy Moscow, not just the Moskals on our lands,” she fulminated, “but [also] the black hole in European security that should be wiped off the world map.”

In the end, Farion failed to be reelected that year, and multiple subsequent attempts to reenter parliament were likewise unsuccessful. But even from the sidelines, she remained an aggressive cheerleader for Russia’s destruction, and the creation of an ethnically pure Ukrainian state. Despite the increasingly fascist-friendly climate in Ukraine, however, her Neo-Nazism ultimately proved so venomous that it led to her personal and professional undoing.

In November 2023, Farion insulted Ukrainian soldiers for speaking Russian, including fighters drawn from ultra-nationalist Azov Regiment and the 3rd Assault Brigade. Crudely branding them as “Muscovites,” she declared that she “could not call” them Ukrainians. She was immediately dismissed from her position within Lviv university’s Ukrainian language department, and the SBU initiated criminal proceedings against Farion for “[insulting] the honor and dignity of a serviceman” and “threats to a serviceman.” She remained under investigation until her death.

While still venerated as heroes by Kiev and the Western leaders who provide it with arms, the outsized influence of Azov has waned significantly since the war with Russia began, largely due to the ultranationalists’ attrition rate under enemy artillery fire.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s government may have also sought to undermine Azov, as two bloody friendly fire incidents suggested. First, in July 2022, a Russian pre-trial detention center was reportedly struck in a HIMARS missile strike, killing 40 prisoners from the Azov Regiment. Then, in January 2024, a plane carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs was shot down in Belgorod. Many on board were Azov members.

Accordingly, Farion’s assassination raises the question of whether civil society actors rejecting any form of settlement with Moscow are being eliminated too. The CIA spent expended heavy resources to training a dedicated assassination squad for Kiev. The unit is so effective, US officials fear its operatives could go rogue and execute targeted killings the world over, with one former senior CIA figure reportedly warning: “We are seeing the birth of a set of intelligence services that are like Mossad in the 1970s.” The Washington Post has reported that Ukraine’s proficiency at such operations “has risks for Russia… but it carries broader risks as well” for the rest of the world.

If a CIA-backed outfit in Ukraine is turning its guns on its former sponsors, it would follow a well-document history of blowback. Whether or not Farion’s assassination was the product of an intelligence intrigue, it is clear that Kiev’s chickens are coming home to roost.

https://thegrayzone.com/2024/07/28/neo-nazi-maidan-assassinated/

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