#Russia closing in on #Siversk in eastern #Ukraine's #Donbas region according to UK Intel.
However the daily update from London highlights more failings of Putin's war machine.
Reports from @business claim #Russia is creating its own reference grade of oil. They expect trading on their own oil will be launched in October.
I'm surprised, but maybe the expected lower price is the point - to highlight savings countries can make by trading with terrorists
Congratulations to @the_ins_ru and @bellingcat which are among four organisations declared as "undesirable activities on the territory of the Russian Federation"
The order came from the office of #Russia's Prosecutor General.
Most Russians still think they're free!
Two universities have been destroyed this morning in #Mykolaiv.
Regional head Viitaliy Kim reports at least 10 Russian missiles rained down on the city (#Nikolaev) - the impact was caught on CCTV.
Casualties unknown.
130 more Russian soldiers killed yesterday, according to #Ukraine's official update.
The total now liquidated in #PutinsWar hits 38,000.
In addition the President's office has already said over 12,000 Wagner (private military) contractors, meaning over 50k have needlessly died.
In #Melitopol' the Occupiers claim they've prevented a "terrorist attack" (i.e. #Ukraine's Resistance)
Russian officials say a local resident was detained, who kept a home-made bomb and 15 weapons at his home.
The British update earlier mentioned #Siversk in #Donetsk Oblast.
#Russia's Armed Forces this morning claim the town has "almost come under operational control." The invaders reckon ##Ukraine troops are undergoing a phased withdrawal. This may well be true, but no word from Kyiv
Oleksiy Arestovych from the President's office, confirms #Ukraine's successful hits in occupied areas in the last 24 hours.
The brave Resistance in #Kherson continues to work hard. A whole array of new patriotic posters appeared in the city, as shown by this Telegram channel in Kherson.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed #Russia's appeal against the decision of FIFA and UEFA to ban them from international football competitions.
While #Putin insists "everything is going to plan" in his special operation to destroy everyone in a peaceful neighbour, I saw something interesting
Authorities in #Novosibirsk are "asking" doctors to go for month-long working trips to #Donetsk + #Luhansk
All according to plan😉
The artist of these drawings was under house arrest for 6 months for "distributing porn"
Yulia Tsvetkova wanted to "normalise the female body" - prosecutors demanded 3 years jail.
Amazingly she won, a Russian court actually dismissed her case.
Overnight a mysterious fire broke out at a police station in the far-east city of #Vladivostok.
"All circumstances are being investigated" say authorities though the source of the blaze was quickly found and extinguished without casualties.
Officials there say more then 25 mortars landed, but there were no casualties.
When seeing reports like this we need to ask who benefits and what is gained by such attacks?
2/2
#Ukraine gains nothing by senselessly firing mortars into villages of zero strategic interest. It risks angering western partners. Same with strikes on civilians in #Donetsk. So, no reason for🇺🇦to do this
#Russia meanwhile gains hugely if western powers stop sending weapons
#Russia tells its people it spends so much time, effort, rubles, lives, fighting for freedom.
Yet at home every single person who preaches freedom is mercilessly dealt with. Ex-head of OpenRussia democracy group is jailed for 4 years.
#Sloviansk reportedly shelled this evening. Sadly we can expect a lot more of this here in the coming weeks as #Russia does its usual trying to destroy a city before "liberating" it.
Still not allowed to identify the exact sites where missiles have landed in #Ukraine this evening because of martial law, so media is limited right now.
This is in #Kramatorsk, just a few km from Sloviansk. Broken glass all around after rockets landed there.
So this is now known the very centre of #Kramatorsk has been hit. Ploshcha Myru (Myru Square).
Thankfully the rocket landed in an open space and casualties seem few despite this usually being busy at this time in the evening. Hopefully air raid sirens did their job
It's clear there has been a coordinated terrorist attack on #Ukraine this evening. Many feared dead in different towns and cities. Many fires now after the strikes.
#Ukraine govt official @arestovych, reacting to the killing of civilians said "It's necessary to kick #Russia out of the UN, assign it the status of 'state sponsor of terrorism'."
Better weapons help he says:
"Today M270s arrived - HIMARS have 6 rockets, these have 12."
President @ZelenskyyUa acknowledged the country's under attack as he spoke:
"The occupiers realise we become stronger, the goal of their terror is simple - to put pressure on our society, intimidate people, cause maximum damage to our cities while the 🇷🇺 terrorists still can"
Insane video - that's a car blazing in a crater from one of #Russia's missiles on the central #Ukraine city of #Dnipro
Good morning on Day 1176 of the war in Europe.
In my opinion, Ukraine should have won this war in 2022/23.
Effective leadership is based on good, decisive decisions. Sadly, the allies have never been decisive, preferring dithering and half measures.
Welcome to my daily thread:
What I mean by dithering is endless internal political battles in most countries to give adequate weapons. Scholz (Taurus), Biden (everything) the most obvious examples, though Joe was hampered by Congress and is way better than now
But it's always enough to survive, not to win
If you missed anything from yesterday, catch up with this link to the start of yesterday's thread. Scroll down to where you got to and complete your knowledge!
The start of a new week and simultaneously almost the end of 167 weeks of Russia's attempt to liberate Ukraine from its leader and remove the country from maps.
It's Day 1167 of Putin's full invasion. Welcome to Monday's daily thread.
First the link back to Sunday's thread for those who were busy y'day
It started with Ukraine counting the cost of yet more strikes on civilians and infrastructure but there were more strategic hits on Russia during the day, incl a night attack on Moscow.
Day 1163 of Russia's war of choice, invading a peaceful neighbour.
Another bloody and murderous night in Ukraine, but the pressure is all on Russia today as Ukraine signs the minerals deal, the US (finally) continues its shift against Putin and the oil price dives
Here's THE🧵
Good morning and happy May (or MayDay).
I have to say a new month brings new optimism for Ukraine following the US/Ukraine agreement.
That was the biggest news story of a near 50-post thread.
It took me ages - least you can do is read it!😂
Day 1158 of the war in Europe.
This is the daily thread for Saturday 26 April, and as I mentioned last night, the anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster.
A later start today, sorry if I kept you waiting, but let's waste no more time...
Yesterday we saw Russia attack civilians of course, but we also probably also got a reminder of the power of Ukraine's Military Intelligence, as a Russian general and a weapons designer were both confirmed dead.
Hello at the start of another weekend, Day 1151 of the war in Europe.
Day by day the US paves the way for capitulation.
Trump may pretend there was no war in his first term, but his administration said it would never recognise Crimea.
This is THE daily thread for Saturday.
Here's the link for the start of yesterday's thread.
Visibility is still low - 15k views.
Plenty to get your teeth into.. 100 fleeing Russian refuseniks, tRUmp on the verge of failure, and of course the attacks on Ukraine.
Catch up here:
With even tRUmp slowly realising he's been played by Putin all along with no intent on peace, Russia has upped the aerial attack on its next targets for invasion.
Sumy, Kostiantynivka + Kupiansk feel the full force.
In the latter 10 glide bombs in one day with 5 people injured.
This is the start of THE daily thread covering all things Ukraine.
Reliable, accurate information for 1124 days as Russia and its willing accomplices (Iran, North Korea and MAGA-land) try to destroy Ukraine, its culture and its democracy to make it a vassal state.
Here's the🧵
Yesterday started with shocking lies and propaganda from the White House and ended with another massive attack by Russia, knowing tRUmp and co don't mind at all.
Find all the details by clicking and scrolling here⬇️