August 16th was certainly an eventful day for residents of the temporarily occupied Crimea.
Several explosions rocked the peninsula, including a large blast at the ammunitions stockpile located in the town of Dzhankoy.
While a certain number of Russian commentators made statements about this attack, the majority steered clear from paying too much attention in an attempt to downplay the impact such a strike might have. Nothing new.
Yet, we managed to scrape some of the most amusing reactions and translated them for your pleasure.
This is the second time we see Crimea under attack in recent weeks, however, unlike in the previous instance, this time the authorities quickly admitted that the explosions were a result of attacks by Ukrainian sabotage groups:
Later in the day, a number of sources published the before and after satellite photos of the strike location:
Many in the West woke up today to the fabulous news about the attack, and the reactions from the Russian military experts and commentators quickly followed. Here’s what the popular Russian Telegram channel “Starshe Eddy” noted:
Rybar, another channel known for regular frontline updates provided a more expanded overview of the situation, generally agreeing that an underestimation of Ukrainian forces led to such a result, once again hoping that “necessary measures will be taken” (as if):
Rybar didn’t stop there. After all, the strike was certainly sensitive, so he added more to his notes later, criticising various on-going military expos in Russia:
It wouldn’t be a great reactions round-up without our beloved international terrorist Igor Girkin, who posted a caustic comment about the Crimea explosions:
A more or less sensible comment was made by ex-Ukrainian defector Dimitriyev in his Telegram channel, stating the quick admission of sabotage was aimed at removing responsibility from the higher authorities:
Finally, a jolly comment came from the Russian Federation Council Andrey Klishas, known for his anti-Western remarks, simply saying this was an attack on Russia in general (no sh*t, Mr. Klishas):
We certainly hope similar measures will be taken by the Russian authorities to ensure we can see more of these wonderful mysterious explosions in the Crimea in the near future.
Stay tuned.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
There has been an increase in Russian attacks all over the front following a "regrouping".
All of these have failed with no exceptions. Feigyn brings up a map showing that there has been no substantial Russian advance over the last month and in some places the Russians have even been forced to retreat.
- Crimea attacks
Russians have claimed that the explosion in Dzhankoi was the result of Crimean partisan activity. Arestovych says that Dzhankoi was shelled and this hit a collection of artillery systems gathered there including Pions and MSTAs and an ammo depot.
In this post, the ex-Ukrainian defector Oleg Tsaryov, now wanted by Ukrainian authorities, shares on his Telegram channel a case where unknown callers attempted to cause panic among residents of a Crimean resort in Saky by asking the director of the resort to move all guests to…
No major changes except that Belarusian armed forces are conducting military command drills - not the first time, it’s one of the ways to prepare military command during both peace and wartime. The danger of missile strikes remains.
As of now, air siren continues in all northern regions of Ukraine and it has now spread to parts of Western and Central Ukraine. A few missiles launched to Zhytomyr Oblast - Belarus is continuing threatening Ukraine, yet now threats materialised into real attacks.
- Battlefield update:
- Kharkiv: all the same – bombing city and chaotic movements in surroundings.
- Izium: unsuccessful 🇷🇺 counterattacks after several days of 🇺🇦 advances.
- Siversk: 🇷🇺 reinforcing, reports of forces near Yampil (7-8 BTGs) starting movements, wanting to force river, but they are destined to fail.
- Bakhmut: 🇷🇺 attempts at north and south. At one location 🇷🇺 got kicked hard and ceased their attempts.
Pro-USSR, pro-war Russian nationalist and author Maksim Kalashnikov expresses worry for the current Russian elite - the backbone of the Putin's regime.
1/ While the popular pro-USSR, Russian nationalist and author Maksim Kalashnikov (and also a friend of Igor Girkin) traditionally has never been shy of spelling his criticisms about the current regime in Russia, his recent livestreams and posts certainly emit an aura of looming…
…2/ desperation as the war in Ukraine goes on.
This time however, Kalashnikov suggests that the West declaring the Russian Federation a "sponsor of terrorism" will alienate the remaining loyal elites of Putin who have been so far instrumental in keeping him in power.
Battlefield update for 14 August, Kyiv time - noon.
Russian forces activated offensive operations in a number of directions, including the “sleeping” direction such as Zaporizhye, and aviation reconnaissance in search of weak points in the Ukrainian defence.
Continued strikes at command points, weapon caches, personnel groups of the adversary along the whole depth of the occupied territories.