Thursday, May 19
The movement of front lines are being measured in meters; one break through, and guerrillas
Thursday, May 19
🇺🇦 Pictured: Sweden and Finland hand in letters expressing their countries’ interest to apply for NATO
🇺🇦 jfc Russia look at that picture….Sweden and Finland even coordinated the cover letter template for their application to NATO. This is what your invasion has done to the world.
🇺🇦 Guerrillas blew up a Russian armored train in occupied Melitopol. The 10-car train held Russian fighters. A 10-car logistics train following the armored train was subsequently stopped
🇺🇦 In general, the Russian military in the Zaporizhia region is afraid of guerrillas operating at night and complains of constant attacks by UA armed forces.
🇺🇦 It is noted that Russia does not have night operation capability. They do not make widespread us of night vision nor thermal optics. Ukraine, on the other hand, has a bunch of western night vision. UA drones have no problem operating at night.
🇺🇦 Moldovan President Sandu is demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria
🇺🇦 Former chancellor Gerhard Schröder will be stripped of German parliamentary privileges. Schröder, a close friend of Putin, is chair of the board of Russian oil giant Rosneft.
🇺🇦 Russians are turning on Putin as Ukraine failures mount. More and more Russian media mouthpieces and Pro-Russian social media are speaking out. As a note, many of these pundits are angry at Putin’s military disaster, rather than the fact that he invaded Ukraine.
🇺🇦 The Russian Embassy in Romania said "Western speculation about Putin's disease are as untrue as the falsehoods about Bucha massacre”….so like what are you admitting it?
🇺🇦 Egypt turned away the Russian cargo ship that was full of stolen Ukrainian grain
🇺🇦 “Our commander is leaving with us.” Putin’s troops are openly plotting to ditch the war. The specific soldier quoted, identified by Ukrainian intelligence as one of many men 'mobilized' by authorities in occupied Donetsk, complains that he and others in his battalion are so under-equipped that even the Chechen forces fighting alongside them mock them as 'meat.'
🇺🇦 Belarusian dictator President Alexander Lukashenko has major problems. His only power comes from Putin. Lukashenko was supposed to commit troops to help Russia, but that was a very unpopular thing within Belarus. Pro-democracy resistance already threatens him. He needs both Putin to win, and to not use his troops.
Operations:
🇺🇦 Fighting has resumed at Azovstal (Wtf?)
🇺🇦 Russia broke through the Ukraine lines at Popasna are are slowly spreading out behind Ukraine’s lines there
🇺🇦 Besides that, operationally, not much has changed in the past 48 hours…front line changes are measured in meters.
📢 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 America…” 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.
⚠️ Note: 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. You’re the private individuals I wish I could source publicly
⚠️ 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!
⚖️ At one point during yesterday’s civil trial, Amber Heard’s testimony caused Johnny Depp’s security to laugh so hard that he had to leave court room
There seems to be a lot of money being spent towards making Amber Heard look bad. It's off-putting to get a whiff of that here.