The White House on Tuesday asked Congress to approve $37.7 billion in additional aid for Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion, a request that comes ahead of both a government funding deadline and the expected flipping of the House to Republican control.
This was originally posted in The Times, but it’s behind a paywall. You can see the short video, that accompanied the piece, here. It’s obviously a whitewashed version for Western audiences.
[In Nikolaev (Mykolaiv)]:
It has not been possible to substantiate the mayor’s claims, or reach the funeral director Oleksandr Sahadiak, a father of one in his early forties, who has now been held without charge for weeks.
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Dozens of suspected collaborators have been arrested since the war began, according to two local officials. Some of them did it for the money — at times as little as £20. Others did it for ideological reasons; rooted in nostalgia for the lost days of their youth in the Soviet Union.
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This month a 72-year-old woman in Mykolaiv was sentenced to 15 years in prison for collaborating with the Russian security services — renting an apartment where she held supplies for their saboteur groups. She also shared co-ordinates of Ukrainian soldiers and strategic objects that helped the Kremlin’s forces target their fire.
“A lot of people were killed because of this,” said a person close to the case, who did not want to be named.
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Yet some people also recall the rich cultural life at the time — concerts, plays, the ballet. They remember going on holiday across the Soviet Union, how everyone had a job, and how there was less of a gap between rich and poor.
“It was a very good life then,” said Lyudmila, 74, who asked that her real name not be used. After independence, she said: “It was very difficult, everything was privatised, people were very poor.” Young people today “don’t know about the Soviet heroes”.
Lyudmila, and others like her, say they have never felt part of an independent Ukrainian state. They spend their days glued to Russian television, which tells them that Nazi Ukrainians and their Nato allies were preparing to destroy Russia, and had to be stopped. [Where’s the lie?!]
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“We need to get rid of this Soviet Union nostalgia, we need to get rid of these ‘brother’ feelings [with Russia],” said Senkevych, the mayor, who like most others in the city grew up in a Russian-speaking family. [How does he propose to do so?!]
The head of the funeral services was a special case. When the war began, the mayor claimed, Sahadiak was overheard repeating pro-Russian talking points to his colleagues. This caught the attention of the Ukrainian intelligence services, who began a secret investigation.
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Several of Sahadiak’s colleagues said that he gave no outward indication of pro-Russian views and had worked tirelessly arranging the military funerals of soldiers in the region. He lent the diggers used to excavate graves to troops digging defensive lines around the city – and offered to operate them himself.
“He was the best director we had here. He made it profitable, and he didn’t steal money,” said one of his colleagues, who did not want to be named. “I was so surprised when he was arrested. And now I’m really scared. His family are being bullied online, and people wrote really terrible things about us here in the municipal office, like that we should be killed and we are separatists. Everyone here has guns, and some stupid guy with a grenade can just come by and throw it in our office.”
Ukraine is not allowing journalists into the settlements that have come under Ukrainian control in Kherson in recent days. The Ukrainian journalist and blogger Anatoly Shary reports on shootings and fears that the media lockout serves to cover up war crimes.
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Earlier, Shariy reported that the Ukrainian army began repression against residents of the region immediately after its invasion. According to his information, 20 people suspected of “collaborating” with Russia were shot dead in the settlement of Snigirevka. On Friday morning he wrote:
“In Snigirevka, which had been quietly defended recently and had in fact quietly surrendered, 20 Russian collaborators were killed, according to the Russian military.
I’m skeptical about the number. I think there are a lot more.”
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“Everyone who worked with the Russians and couldn’t leave Kherson, and that’s thousands, if not tens of thousands, is finished.
General Mark Milley, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States assessed that it would take several weeks for Moscow to complete the evacuation of some 30,000 Russian troops deployed in Kherson city in southern Ukraine. But Russians have announced that the evacuation was successfully completed in 2 days — both soldiers and over 5000 pieces of heavy equipment.
Update on Russian military operations in and around Ukraine for November 11, 2022.
– Russia completes withdrawal from Kherson city to east bank of the Dnieper River;
– Ukraine has lost its last major opportunity to corner and destroy/capture large numbers of Russian forces/equipment;
– Russia continues stated process of de-militarizing Ukraine; – US aid to Ukraine becomes increasingly unrealistic
– Hawk missiles designed in the 1960s and unused for 2 decades are being “refurbished” for a lack of better options;
– “Avenger” systems to be sent in small numbers (4) which are essentially Stinger missiles attached to a Hummer
– after training for Ukrainian operators is completed;
– Dwindling amounts of basic ammunition continue to be sent to Ukraine, prolonging the conflict, but not in quantities to even allow Ukraine to hold what it has;
– As Russian forces withdrew from Kherson city, they advanced elsewhere in southern and northern Donbass.
One of the narratives the blogs are talking about this week is that Joe Biden is—gasp!—”gaffe-prone.” Nevermind the fact that this has been the story about Biden for 30 years: now journalists are even finding gaffes where none exist. In a post on The Stump exploring Biden’s unfortunate attack on his own campaign’s ad, Michael Crowley claims that this Joe Biden anecdote is a “gaffe”:
Biden made the claim, again, last Friday. So-called fact-checkers are saying that the first time he made the claim was in 2015. The first time was actually during his 2008 presidential campaign. The argument, I guess, is between whether his helicopter was forced down or made an emergency landing?! Sure, he makes quite a few gaffes, but this one seems like a nothingburger compared to his Fallujah one (or other numerous gaffes).
On November 9, 2022, Sergey Surovikin, the military commander of the special military operation for liberation of Donbass, demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, reports publicly to Sergey Shoigu, Russian defense minister
[…] Kherson cannot be fully supplied and function. Russia did everything possible to ensure the evacuation of the inhabitants. Kiev strikes at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station and creates a threat of flooding of vast territories. The most expedient option is to organize defense along the barrier line of the Dnieper River. It is proposed to take up defense along the left bank. Keeping a grouping of troops on the right bank is futile […]
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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