These are potential lines of attack for a Russian offensive against Ukraine. This is based on Russian preparations over the past few weeks and on my analysis of Russia's invasion over the past seven years. Putin will attempt to exploit a breakthrough anywhere he can get it.
Beyond the immediate battlefront (Russian-occupied Crimea and Donbas), Putin may widen the war by attacking Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts from Belgorod and Kursk, and by attacking Chernihiv and Kyiv oblasts from Russia's client state Belarus.
Ukraine has taken delivery of the first batch of Neptune anti-ship systems equipped with cruise missiles. Produced by Luch Design Bureau, the 300km range Neptune has proven devastatingly effective in tests. Russian aviation will attempt to destroy Neptune shore batteries first.
Ukraine only has two, modern Gyurza-M gunboats on the Sea of Azov. The Ukrainian Navy tried to station two more but Russian forces attacked the vessels in the Black Sea on 25 November 2018. Russia turned pirate and has enforced a partial blockade of the Kerch Strait since.
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Despite 21st century communications technology, mainstream news media ignore Russia's war against Ukraine. WWII was covered by radio and newsreels. The Vietnam War – broadcast TV. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait – cable TV. News about Russia's invasion of Ukraine is embargoed. Insane.
War reportage has disappeared. People follow me on Twitter to find out about #PutinAtWar but what I write is just a tiny drop of water in a vast information desert. We live in greatly diminished times.
The Vietnam War was complex but people could be informed. They heard terms like Viet Cong and Ho Chi Minh trail and and knew what they meant.
#RussiaInvadedUkraine but most people don’t know about the Cyborgs, the DPR/LPR, the Joint Forces Operation or anything about the war.
Trump for President was a Russian operation. I’ve been saying this since 2015. Russia’s war against the United States is an extension of its war against Ukraine. Ignoring #RussiaInvadedUkraine meant Americans weren’t prepared for war, and so they suffered a profound defeat.
Russia falsified the 2016 election to make Putin puppet Trump appear to win. The model for this successful operation was the 2004 Ukraine election which Russia falsified for Putin puppet Yanukovych.
The difference is Ukrainians rose up in the Orange Revolution. Americans didn’t.
The main war goal of the Putin regime is to annihilate the Ukrainian nation. The United States is a sideshow. It’s only because American democratic institutions are so weak and American political elites are so venal that Putin keeps winning against the world’s only hyperpower.
Putin is laughing his head off. All major U.S. TV networks give lots of airtime on Sunday to amplify disinformation that "the election was stolen" – oxygen to the insurgency. They give no airtime to reporting Russia's hybrid war on the U.S. and backing of the insurrection.
Russia is behind “Stop the steal!” and modelled this attack on “Maidan was a coup!” in its war against Ukraine. I wrote about it here: radiolemberg.com/ua-articles/ua…
The January 6 insurrection in the U.S. used all of the same hybrid war tactics Russia used in the March-April 2014 phase of its invasion of Ukraine. I wrote about it here: radiolemberg.com/ua-articles/ua…
The war in Europe: Heavy shelling today by the Russian invasion army in the east of Ukraine.
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation fired 122mm artillery and 120mm mortars at Pivdenne and Novhorodske. Ukrainian military and civilian targets were hit. No casualties reported yet.
In Novhorodske (soon to revert to the name New York) shelling by Russian forces damaged three residences, power lines and a gas pipeline. Putin's invasion army is also on the attack in the Battle of the Bakhmut Road, striking Katerynivka and Popasna.
In the battle around Horlivka the Russian attackers have also deployed sniper teams.
Source: bulletin of the Joint Forces Operation, Armed Forces of Ukraine, issued at 17:00 on 20 February 2021 facebook.com/pressjfo.news/…
Terrorist financier Viktor Medvedchuk and his wife, Oksana Marchenko, have been placed under sanctions by the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine. Medvedchuk is a close ally of Putin. He enables crimes against humanity by Russian terrorist groups in occupied Ukraine.
It's vital that the EU, Canada and the United States harmonize sanctions with Ukraine. Consistent and universal sanctions must be applied to Medvedchuk and his network, Derkach and his network, Schröder and his network, Giuliani and his network...overall, the entire Putin regime.
Canada sanctioned Viktor Medvedchuk on 17 March 2014 – 6 years, 11 months, 2 days before Ukraine did.
President Zelenskyy visited the battlefront in the east where the Russian Federation is invading Ukraine. He went to a position about 100m from the enemy but he didn't say who the enemy is. He's commander-in-chief of the army but he didn't wear the tryzub or flag on his jacket.
Zelenskyy refuses to cancel withdrawal orders to the Ukrainian army. He won't back down on the unilateral ceasefire and partial disarmament he imposed on Ukrainian front-line soldiers last year. He continues to impose fines on Ukrainian soldiers for shooting at Russian soldiers.
The Zelenskyy administration in Ukraine has forced the renaming of Stepana Bandery Avenue in Kyiv to Moscovsky Avenue. Zelenskyy's Russian handlers relentlessly attack Ukrainian heroes and symbols and elevate names from the Soviet era that celebrate the country invading Ukraine.