THREAD: I’ve arrived in Dnipro to begin covering the battle for eastern #Ukraine. Dima has been fighting since early March.
“It’s like WWII but with modern technology. 2014 was a playground compared to this.”
* I have permission to tweet his photo & all comments.
“Our greatest ally in this war is #Russia corruption & the nature of its army. The soldier in the field briefs his officer: ‘it’s not good but we’re holding’; next guy reports up: ‘we’re holding’; the next guy: ‘it’s going well! This is why Putin doesn’t know how bad things are.”
“I didn’t believe the war would happen bc an invasion needs at least 2-1 numerical superiority. I looked on the borders at the army there & it was clear they didn’t have it. This is crazy.
Sometimes you play poker with a bad hand. #Russia is playing without any cards at all.”
“What has shocked me is the callousness of #Russia soldiers to their own men.”
He shows me a photo taken from a drone of soldiers eating lunch in a ruined house near several bodies lying in the dirt.
“They’re eating 20 meters from the decomposing bodies of their comrades.”
"They just drop the bodies of their friends into trenches. Sometimes they don’t even bother to cover them
We found a grave of 15 bodies a while back. They’d thrown bit of dirt on them but that it was it. They don't even respect to the lives of their own comrades. Incredible."
Their tactics are insane. Chernobaivka has a small military airport. 17 times they've tried to take it. 17 times we've smashed them. Still they come.
Our soldiers ask: "Are they dumb?" No, just incapable of independent thought. They just follow orders – no matter how crazy."
"Chechen soldiers? Ha We call them TikTok soldiers. They're always filming. We found one who was wounded and trying not to fight but take a selfie."
"Their job is not to fight but to shoot Russian boy conscripts who don't want to fight. It's Soviet tactics.
*3-1
"I want to say one thing: @elonmusk's Starlink is what changed the war in #Ukraine's favour. #Russia went out of its way to blow up all our comms. Now they can't. Starlink works under Katyusha fire, under artillery fire. It even works in Mariupol."
“They use Soviet military tactics, which were out of date 30 years ago. But we study Afghanistan, & Israel. Things have changed!
#Russia tries to press with Mass. Our strategy is simple: to destroy as many targets as possible. But we lack resources so must do it creatively.”
“Look, you can always tell the difference between a partisan strike against a #Russia target & a Russian false flag. The former targets important infrastructure. They just bomb a civilian building or something. Would they ever target something valuable? Not in a million years.”
"I know you British have a complicated relationship with your prime minister but here @BorisJohnson has become something of a national hero.
We knew from the beginning that Britain was a very ancient and important nation – and it is a country that stands by its word."
"The NLAWs are the best: easy to use, lock, load and move; without them we wouldn’t be taking out so many Russian tanks.
On the subject of tanks: We’ve captured more than 100 enemy tanks. We have a joke in the #ukraine army: our biggest weapons supplier is Russia."
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I’m in #Israel 🇮🇱 for @unherd as war with #Hamas intensifies. Follow me for updates from the ground. This am I attended a session where Israel is releasing “raw footage” of the 7th October massacres. Devices were banned from the initial session. Here is my report. THREAD
IDF Spokesman: “we want people to understand what we are fighting for. This is something else. Something has happened to #israel 🇮🇱. This is a crime vs humanity. This is good v bad. Death v life. These will will do anything. [commot any crime]. And it’s nothing to do with Islam.
IDF Spokesman: “why did they strap GoPros to themselves? Why do they call the family of who they murdered? Bc they are proud of what they did?
Rape - where is Islam?
Burn - where is Islam?
Behead - where is Islam?
[tbc he’s saying none of the above has anything to do w. Islam)
THREAD: I've returned from the frontlines of #Ukraine. There, I followed a soldier delivering supplies to his comrades, which meant running through the front as shells fell all around us.
Please watch & read to understand life for 🇺🇦soldiers. I did it once. They do it every day.
We set out in the battalion 4x4 and headed toward the front. As we approached, it began to become clear just what exactly we were driving toward.
We enter the so-called “Forest of Surprises” and see the utter destruction #Russia 🇷🇺 has wrought. They’ve burned so much of the forest. “Look what they’ve done to my country.” Says Dime. “If they cannot take 🇺🇦, they will destroy everything in it.”
THREAD: I spent last week in #Bakhmut, reporting for @unherd. This video was shot in the centre of the city, 200m from the Russian🇷🇺 positions. Listen with sound UP.
I was fortunate to embed with Ukrainian🇺🇦 special forces, here are my thoughts (& photos) from the front here.
Bakhmut itself is a hellscape of destruction. The city is almost deserted save for the odd, usually older, civilian who refuses to leave. 🇷🇺 forces are pounding it relentlessly. They are clearly targeting everything regardless of whether it is civilian or not.
If you want to discover the madness of #Russia’s 🇷🇺invasion of #Ukraine🇺🇦 come to Bakhmut. The battle for the city is now the longest of the war but the city is only of limited strategic value. Once more, Ukrainians are paying in blood for the insane dreams of a modern-day Czar.
Nine years on, it’s evolved into the biggest land struggle in Europe since World War II. I think of all the friends I have made, and the ones that I have lost. #Ukraine🇺🇦
At midnight we make do with a brief toast in the office. As the phone’s glowing numbers hit 12:00 glasses of tea are raised - Slava Ukrainii…Heroyam Slava! We roar. And then as an addendum: “Fuck #Russia!”
“Yeah, and fuck Putin too,” says Oleg.
I start to think about the 9 years I’ve spent covering #Ukraine 🇺🇦. I was here when the war began back in 2014. I remember when the thugs with baseball bats and pavement slabs morphed into professional soldiers with machine guns.
THREAD: I was fortunate enough to spend new year in a trench on the frontlines of southern #Ukraine just kilometres from the #Russia positions. I must be careful about locations etc. What follows are my observations on the war here. Read the full story this Saturday in @unherd.
The position here is under pretty much daily attack: from rockets, artillery and drones including since August, Iranian Shahids. Drones have now become a key component of the war in #Ukraine🇺🇦. The soldiers here have various means to repel them, including heavy machine guns.
I stand on the very edge of the position and talk to a young soldier, Artem, who is manning a DShK heavy machine gun. He greets me and points straight ahead. I follow the line of his finger out into the distance.
The explosion on the Crimea🇺🇦 bridge is a strange story. Short Thread. t.me/lachentyt/20359
First 🇷🇺 said tanker train with fuel blew up. Than they said it was a truck that exploded - you can see this from the video. But the amount of flame and smoke etc. seems large for just one vehicle.
Also, by all accounts the driver was a Russian from Krasnodar, while all cars are thoroughly checked with scanner before they are allowed onto the bridge.