🇺🇦 Pictured: Chernihiv secondary school graduation photos 2022
🇺🇦 Igor Dashko, a lieutenant colonel of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, detonated a radio station in Mariupol while he was still inside so that Russians could not get it. Igor's last words on the radio were "Glory to Ukraine!". He was 44 years old. A UA development company gave his family a free apartment to make sure they’d be taken care of
🇺🇦 The Russian military is extending its planning to fight a longer war, extending war planning through October 2022.
🇺🇦 …although, Russian force generation remains poor.
🇺🇦 A few days ago, in a speech where Putin equated himself to Peter the Great, Putin admitted that this is a land grab. Russian state propaganda is now delivering the message that Putin is justified in grabbing historic-Russian land.
🇺🇦 EU commission president is in Kyiv on an unannounced visit, likely to confer with Pres Zelensky on his country’s hope to join the EU.
🇺🇦 EU will give candidacy status on June 17. For example, they might have a lower tier candidacy status. Several EU countries have announced reservations for UA joining the EU and this might be solved with lower tier status.
🇺🇦 To become a member of the EU, Ukraine has to adhere to things like EU laws, etc. For this reason…
🇺🇦 Path to membership might take decades. For example, Turkey has been candidacy since 1999
🇺🇦 Russian occupation officials distributed the first batch of Russian passports in Kherson City and Melitopol.
Operations:
🇺🇦 According to the UA General Staff, the Ukraine Army successfully repelled a Russian assault in Sloviansk today. This comes as…
🇺🇦 Russian forces continued assaults on settlements southwest and southeast of Izyum in an effort to resume drives on Slovyansk.
🇺🇦 Russians have now a total of 32 BTGS in the Izyum area. They have increased the number by at least 10 in the past two weeks. Units that were regrouping have been moved to the front. There has been increased attempts to push south and south east towards Slovyansk.
🇺🇦 Ukraine has launched a large counter offensive northwest of Kherson City. The counter offensive is further south than their previous operations. Reminder: Kherson is Southern Ukraine. UA forces are coming from the northwest.
🇺🇦 There are signs that a developing UA insurgency is growing in potency in occupied Russian territories. This is helping UA successfully strike deep in Russian-occupied territory.
🇺🇦 UA doesn’t seem to have a cohesive strategy. The US has more insight into Russia’s strategy than Ukraine’s. This sorta makes sense, considering UA is pretty much a new military that’s spending all of their effort reacting to Russian movements
📢 Countries apply to be in NATO. NATO doesn’t seek to expand. Saying NATO is encroaching on Russia is Kremlin messaging. Russia has three primary propaganda efforts directed at the West, and that’s the first.
📢 Yes, Ukraine has a nazi problem, but it’s a very small percentage of the country, and not representative of the whole. Using a small group to smear the entire group is called “guilt by association.” Russia has three primary propaganda efforts directed at the West, and that’s the second.
📢 If you ever hear anyone say “What about this thing America did…” or “what about Palistine?” in an effort to redirect attention away from Ukraine and onto the west, that is called “Competitive victimhood” and the associated meme is *always* created by Russian-backed media. Russia has three primary propaganda efforts directed at the West, and that’s the third.
⚠️ Sorry about the typos or awkward sentences!!!! This is the inevitable result of putting out a finalized research product once every 24 hours, with no staff. If anyone feels like giving me staff, we can polish this b right up!
⚠️ I got lazy with my citations and I apologize. My top sources are: Current and former military planners, singularly-focused pundits, and all manner of vetted open-source intelligence. Top cited open source pundits and sources include: CP Scott, Institute for the Study of War, Kyiv Independent, Aaron Parnas, John Aravosis, Malcontent News, and mainstream news with high levels of journalistic integrity and track records. Sadly I can’t source private individuals, of course.
⚠️ Speaking of sources, thanks to all of you who have forwarded me tips or given me data from the front line. You’re the private individuals I wish I could source publicly
⚠️ Though my awesome employer taught me everything I know about OSINT, these posts are not affiliated with my employer, nor done during my employer’s time. Every item I report is from my own research, my own opinion, and written during my own time.
⚠️ Note: War happens fast and even high fidelity news needs a ton of corrections after the dust settles. Also, I’ve been spoiled by social media’s format where I can update the final product every time I find a typo. That poses a problem because…
⚠️ I started a Substack newsletter to accommodate the individual emails requests. Feel free to subscribe!
I have seen a lot of pictures of the High School graduates (U.S. terminology.) Just curious, do you know how long basic military training is lasting for the people joining the Ukraine Army? I'm assuming that they are skipping a lot of non-critical things like marching in step and spit shining your boots.