Tag: morale

Zelensky’s wear and tear

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)2 Comments

Zelensky’s wear and tear (original)

For more than two and a half years, war has been the raison d’être of the Ukrainian state. The budget presented by Kyiv this week allocates more than 50% of the budget to the defence sector – to which must be added the cost of veterans – something that has been repeated since 2022. Maintaining the front, avoiding its collapse and ensuring that there is still enough support to continue fighting until the objectives are achieved is the priority of the government team, which has set aside practically all other obligations of the state, which today depends entirely on foreign subsidies that make it possible to pay salaries and pensions. One of the aspects that has completely disappeared under the cover of the unity demanded by the war is precisely domestic politics. The Russian invasion gave Zelensky’s team the opportunity to create for the president the image of a war leader, the representation of the nation, a savior capable of achieving what he sets out to do, the only person capable of rescuing the country from certain ruin.

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Raid at the Okean Elzy concert: Vakarchuk evaded the answer, and raids will be regular + More

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Raid at the Okean Elsa concert: Vakarchuk evaded the answer, and raids will be regular

On the eve of the raids took place in several major cities of the country, including Kiev. Employees of the Shopping Center, with the support of the police, raided nightclubs, restaurants and at the concert of the Okean Elzy group, which was held at the Kiev Sports Palace.

The leader of the Okean Elzy group, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, in a comment to TSN, evaded the question of how he feels about this event.

“It’s our birthday today, I hope you congratulate us too. We are very happy that so many people have come and come to support us, listen to our music. In general, this is a big holiday for us. These 30 years have been very important for us. We are very grateful to people for these 30 years. Including for the fact that they continue to support us now. For us it’s just a joy and a celebration. That’s all I want to say, my only comment. Period,” said Vakarchuk.

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“There is a persistent sense of acute social injustice in Ukrainian society during mobilization. It is believed, and not unreasonably, that the bulk of those who are being mobilized now are residents of small towns and villages, ordinary hard workers or poor people who do not have money to pay off. This causes tension in society. In addition, there is tension in the army — the military are outraged that they are sitting in the trenches, while healthy men in the rear are sitting in restaurants, hanging out in clubs, going to concerts. In general, they live a full-blooded peaceful life. This annoys many front-line soldiers and reinforces the feeling of social injustice. That’s why we decided to arrange a demonstration raid so that the whole country could see — “the rich are crying too.” That is, party-goers can also be mobilized. Similar events are now planned to be held regularly. This is a political decision,” the source said.

Related:

Okean Elzy marks 30th anniversary with first English-language album

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The NATO “solution”

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The NATO “solution”

The focus of political and media attention has inevitably turned from Europe to the Middle East, where the United States, through the Secretary of the Pentagon, has insisted on “Israel’s right to defend itself,” has welcomed the assassinations of Hezbollah leaders carried out by means of massive bombings in Beirut, and has given explicit approval to the ground operation with which Tel Aviv and Washington claim to want to “dismantle the attack infrastructure along the border to ensure that the Lebanese Hezbollah cannot carry out attacks in the style of October 7 against communities in northern Israel.” The precedent of the last twelve months in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon foreshadows what the ways of defending oneself against Israel will be and that the United States will continue to justify any excess, selective assassination or massacre, while any response, such as that which occurred yesterday with the launching of Iranian missiles against Israeli military bases, will be considered an unacceptable escalation. And although Ukraine’s public concern for securing priority war status has not yet begun, any escalating war could affect Kiev, especially when it comes to imposing its discourse of existential war on the West as a collective.

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Israel and Hezbollah Are Escalating Toward Catastrophe (it’s not looking good for the IOF)

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Ignore the propaganda. I’ve quoted the most relevant parts of the articles:

09-23-2024 – Israel and Hezbollah Are Escalating Toward Catastrophe

For Israel, the incentives also argue against a large-scale war with Hezbollah. After nearly a year of fighting in Gaza, the IDF is tired, munitions stockpiles are depleted, public support for Israel’s leaders is weak, Israel’s economy is suffering, and its international and regional standing have significantly eroded. And IDF military planners are well aware that Hezbollah’s more advanced fighting capabilities and sophisticated weapons arsenal would make the Gaza campaign look like child’s play.

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Outgunned and outnumbered, Ukraine’s military is struggling with low morale and desertion

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Full video

Outgunned and outnumbered, Ukraine’s military is struggling with low morale and desertion

Serhiy Tsehotskiy, an officer with the 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade, told CNN the unit tries to rotate soldiers in and out every three to four days. But drones, which have only increased in number over the course of the war, can make that too dangerous, forcing soldiers to stay put for longer. “The record is 20 days,” he said.

Related:

Ukraine’s Gamble

Ukraine’s Kursk incursion has raised flagging morale among its troops and restored its initiative along a patch of the front. 

59th Motorized Brigade (Ukraine):

“Chosen Company”, a group of volunteers from the United States, Australia, and several other countries, is attached to the 59th Brigade as an assault detachment within the brigade’s reconnaissance company. The unit, which was formerly a part of the International Legion, conducted reconnaissance and assault operations during the 2023 counteroffensive. In 2024, a New York Times article reported three incidents where members of Chosen Company killed Russian POWs, based on statements made by former members of the company.

‘Kill-Crazy’ Foreign Mercs in Ukraine Bragged About Murdering Russian PoWs – Report

Poorly trained recruits contribute to loss of Ukrainian territory on eastern front + The US Is Sending $125 Million in New Military Aid to Ukraine

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Some new Ukrainian soldiers refuse to fire at the enemy. Others, according to commanders and fellow fighters, struggle to assemble weapons or to coordinate basic combat movements. A few have even walked away from their posts, abandoning the battlefield altogether.

While Ukraine presses on with its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, its troops are still losing precious ground along the country’s eastern front — a grim erosion that military commanders blame in part on poorly trained recruits drawn from a recent mobilization drive, as well as Russia’s clear superiority in ammunition and air power.

Poorly trained recruits contribute to loss of Ukrainian territory on eastern front, commanders say

Related:

Reuters: Russia and Ukraine report gains as some Ukrainians flee strategic city

But although the incursion is an embarrassment for Russia, Moscow’s forces have continued their gradual advances of the past few months against tired Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraine worn down by 2-1/2 years of heavy fighting.

Moscow said its troops had taken control of the village of Mezhove in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, and that they had beaten back an attempt by a Ukrainian force to infiltrate its border in a different region to Kyiv’s Aug. 6 incursion.

Ukrainian authorities say Russian troops are now just 10 km (six miles) outside Pokrovsk, an important transport hub in eastern Ukraine, and this week started evacuating elderly residents and children.

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Moscow’s capture of Pokrovsk, which lies at an intersection of roads and a railway line, would give Russia options to advance in new directions and also cut supply routes used by the Ukrainian military in the Donetsk region.

WSJ: Ukraine Moves to Encircle Russian Troops in Kursk and Digs In for Long Fight

The incursion hasn’t, so far, shifted the dynamic on the war’s main battlefields in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is advancing in toward Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian logistical hub, and Toretsk, a city on strategically important high ground.

The US Is Sending $125 Million in New Military Aid to Ukraine, Officials Say

US Embarks On Proxy War Against Iran

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

A massive US naval deployment in a wide arc of the so-called Greater Middle East is under way — stretching from Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean, into the Red Sea and the Bab el Mandeb and into the Gulf of Aden and all the way into the Gulf of Oman. This deterrent display may transform as large scale offensive operations and aims to rework the geopolitical alignments and bring them back to the traditional grooves of intra-regional rivalries in the Gulf region.

US Embarks On Proxy War Against Iran

Disgraced Ukrainian Ex-Army Spox Slams Zelensky’s Theatrics, Complains About Drugged Up Mercs

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Prank with Sarah Ashton-Chirillo

Ukraine is fighting to protect “Western values” from Russian “slaves” descended from the Mongols, but is facing difficulties due to poor morale, corruption, drug-addicted mercs, and a president who seems more focused on theatrics than the conflict itself, disgraced Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces spokesperson Sarah Ashton-Cirillo has revealed.

Disgraced Ukrainian Ex-Army Spox Slams Zelensky’s Theatrics, Complains About Drugged Up Mercs