Day 215 ~ Bakhmut Defended As Russia Protests
The sham referendums close today as Russia attempts to annex 15% of Ukraine
The news has been dominated by the sham referendums in the temporarily occupied territories in Ukraine, and the protests against the Kremlin across Russia. The women of a village chased away an official who had been sent to draft all their men, and a man shot a recruitment officer in Ust-llimsk. The penalty for being a draft dodger has been increased to 10 years imprisonment, and orders are that any deserters that are caught are to be executed.
I find it hard to read of deaths in Ukraine of the emergency personnel who rescue people who chose not to evacuate when they had the chance to do so. I know they were doing their job and were killed in the line of duty, but if people had used common sense and evacuated when the situation wasn’t as dangerous and dire, then perhaps more lives could have been spared? The Ukrainian government has urged people to evacuate, but do they really need to tell people to leave a war zone when they are in danger?
I understand that some people don’t wish to leave their homes, and believe that they will be safe and take that risk, but by doing so they also endanger the troops that are trying to liberate the land, and the emergency services that have to rescue them. After 7 months of war, why would you stay in your home when it could be destroyed and you along with it? Why take that risk, and by doing so, you risk the lives of others who must save and protect you.
The elderly and sick perhaps can’t move and they need someone to take care of them, but mothers with teenager and children really have no excuse not to evacuate.
The Russians are pushing back in Luhansk, and while the narrative is that the Russians are losing, one must remember we are dealing with an authoritarian and ruthless government who do not care about the citizens.
How will the West and the UN respond when Russia declares the result of the sham referendums tomorrow? Like many, I am tired of reading and hearing officials making statements, telling and demanding Russia to leave Ukraine now. After 7 months of saying it, it hasn’t made an iota of difference. Words can be powerful, but not to those in the Kremlin.
Drone footage shows queues of traffic heading for the border towards Georgia, as Russian men opt not to take a chance on what can only be considered a death wish by being thrown in the front line of battle.
Day 215 (26 September)
Protests dominate the news, especially in Siberia and eastern Russia where most of the drafting has taken place. It seems that the Kremlin want to use up the rural peasants as cannon fodder first, and villages with a a few hundred men have been emptied already.
The women of Dagestan have protested and that momentum has spread across Russia and has made the headlines globally. They have openly stated that Russia has attacked Ukraine, and have chanted, ‘No to war’. Dagestan is a Republic within the Russian Federation that borders Georgia and Azerbaijan.
In Ust-llimsk (Irkutsk), there was disruption as officials tried to recruit the locals and an officer was shot and killed. The shooter has been named as Ruslan Zinin and will probably be sentenced for attempted murder.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive continues, where reports claim that five ammunition depots in southern Ukraine were destroyed this included tanks armoured vehicles and 43 Russian troops (soldiers).
The Kremlin has admitted to mistakes in the mobilisation plan and claims that they will correct the errors. However, I really can't see them putting back men that they've sent to the front line in error already. Some might even be dead already. This seems to be a futile attempt to pacify the Russians and to stop the protests. At present, the Kremlin has not imposed a travel ban preventing man from leaving Russia. That's the official line however, as we know Russia rarely tells the world what is really happening until afterwards. I suspect that authorities will make leaving Russia quite difficult for men right now even if it is not officially banned. We have also heard reports that new conscripts are not trained and are being sent to the front line on what is effectively a suicide mission.
The UK has imposed further sanctions against 92 individuals linked to the sham referendums in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. In addition, IMA, a consultancy has also been sanctioned for violations of international law as they have assisted in organising the sham referendums and issuing passports in the occupied regions.
Day 216 (27 September)
The battle of Lyman has become bloody, where the Russian mercenary Wagner group have pushed the newly recruited former prisoners to the front line as cannon fodder. These troops who are barley trained appear to have opted to surrender to the Ukrainians as they want to live and escape Russia. There is then the issue of whether Ukraine has the facilities to hold all these prisoners of war, some who are convicted criminals that they are allowing to remain in Ukraine
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Ukraine has urged people to evacuate in Kherson as the Ukrainian counter offensive seeks to liberate the region. The occupied parts of the region where the sham referendum is taking place has been closed, which means people cannot leave or enter the area.
In Zaporizhzhia, there has been another attack by the Russians were there is a report of rockets being targeted in the city damaging infrastructure. This is another area where a sham referendum is taking place.
In Izyum, two more mass burial sites have been discovered. The call for a special tribunal where Russians can be held accountable for the war crimes committed has not been addressed still, yet we find more of these mass graves.
So what does it take for a special tribunal to be set up?
Bakhmut is where the Russian are still managing to hold off the Ukrainians, after they have successfully advanced to Katerynivka, but were pushed back by the Russians. There is currently a very bloody battle going on where there is constant shelling as the Russians try to hold their position.
There are concerns over Serbia’s position with Russia as they have just signed an agreement with Russia to discuss long-term issues on foreign policy matters. That is not an ideal agreement to sign if Serbia wishes to join the EU as a member.
The cancelled Nord Stream II has had a gas leak into the Baltic Sea. At present there is no comment on how it happened or why, but Russia was using it as a storage area for gas. Sabotage has not been ruled out.
Kyiv is under threat, and has always been, and the Ukrainian army decided to detonate a dam and flood a village which has affected the local community. This measure was taken to deter and prevent Russian soldiers from moving in on Kyiv. The Ukrainians know that Kyiv is a target now that the counteroffensive by Ukraine is taking hold.
As Dagestan has protested against the mobilisation, other regions will also protest. Tuva, Buryatiya, Altay, Tatarstan, and Kalmykia are predicated regions where the mobilisation will not be welcomed.
The Kupyansk-Vuzlovoi railway has been liberated which will put a halt to the Russians mobile infrastructure as it was used as a hub for transporting weapons, supplies, and troops.
As Russian troops flee, they leave behind weapons and ammunition for the Ukrainians to use. It seems that Russian troops are more concerned about their lives rather than sacrificing it for Putin.
In Kherson, the Russian puppet governor has declared that the region voted to leave Ukraine and to be part of the Russian Federation.
The prisoners of war in Olenivka have been forced to vote in the sham referendum. There have been no reports from the UN or ICRC on their insoections visits to the penal colony either. How useful is the UN one must ask when they can’t even inspect a site that was attacked, and where prisoners of war were killed under suspcious circumstances.
There are conflicting reports as to whether people can leave Enerhodar in Zaporizhzhia, as the mobilisation plan takes hold. There are claims that people are being held at gunpoint to vote to leave Ukraine. Other reports claim that Ukrainians are able to leave, while other reports claim that residents are being threatened if they try to leave. One would imagine that people would leave the region as soon as they could rather than leave it to the last minute. They know what the risks are by staying.
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