(Image by NEIVANMADE)
A quick housekeeping note: TechCrunch is reporting that Twitter has silently reversed the log in requirement for viewing tweets. As far as I can tell this is not the case, but that is what is being reported.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
We are working with our partners as hard as we can to ensure that our common security in Vilnius prevails; it all depends on our partners – address by the President of Ukraine
5 July 2023 – 19:03
Fellow Ukrainians!
A report on this day.
First: The meeting of the Staff was particularly long, particularly detailed. We discussed the safety of our strategic facilities, our nuclear power plants. There were relevant reports, relevant decisions, and – very importantly – control over the implementation of decisions.
By the way, we maintain maximum contact with our partners to ensure that no one in the world has even the slightest shortage of information about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP and the threats posed by Russia.
As always, we discussed in detail the key areas of the East and South. Thank you, warriors, for your bravery!
We are also paying attention to the Northern direction – we see all potential threats, and the Commander-in-Chief has been instructed to continue strengthening the North.
Very importantly, at every meeting of the Staff, we return to the issue of ammunition, in particular for our artillery. And this applies not only to supplies from partners, but also to production in Ukraine. I am grateful to each and every person who works to fulfill this strategic, vital task. We are constantly making progress in the production of weapons in Ukraine.
The second important thing that happened today. We are preparing new sanctions, sanction steps by our government, and today I held a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Svyrydenko and National Security and Defense Council Secretary Danilov. The decisions will be made soon.
Third, I held a separate meeting on the situation with shelters in different regions of our country, in different cities. The reports were delivered by Minister of Strategic Industries Kamyshin and specialized Deputy Head of the Office for Regional Policy Kuleba.
Unfortunately, in different cities of Ukraine, there is still a significant lack of availability of shelters… after all this time. The state will not tolerate such inaction. And this is the responsibility of local leaders. Local authorities in the country have the resources to build shelters.
One more thing.
There is exactly one week left until the key day of the NATO Summit in Vilnius. That means a week until the key moment for our common security in Europe. We are working with our partners as hard as we can to ensure that our common security in Vilnius prevails. It all depends on our partners.
Glory to all Ukrainian heroes! Glory to each of our combat brigades, all units of our defense and security forces!
Glory to Ukraine!
Ukrainian Minister of Defense Reznikov was quoted in The Financial Times regarding the Ukrainian Armed Forces actually testing US and allied weapons systems, thereby providing invaluable data back to these militaries and their weapons manufacturers about what works, what doesn’t, how, and why.
Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov was meeting US officials when he took a phone call from his top commander. Turning to his American visitors, Reznikov said: “I have good news for you. We downed a Kinzhal.”
The Kinzhal was supposedly a fearsome Russian hypersonic missile which, Vladimir Putin boasted, flew so fast it could not be intercepted. But on that day in May, Ukrainian forces fired a newly acquired Patriot air defence system, one of the most advanced pieces of weaponry supplied so far by the US, proving Putin wrong.
“Fantastic!” Reznikov recalled a US official responding.
The war in Ukraine is the first time that Nato weaponry is being used on a large scale against Russia’s army — after pleas for assistance from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — and it is giving western militaries invaluable insights into the performance of their kit.
Experts had long suspected the Patriot was capable of shooting down a Kinzhal, but it took the Ukrainian military to demonstrate it. They have since intercepted more than a dozen.
Kyiv’s western allies “can actually see if their weapons work, how efficiently they work and if they need to be upgraded”, Reznikov said in an interview.
“For the military industry of the world, you can’t invent a better testing ground,” he added.
Much more at the link!
For all intents and purposes Ukraine is one big proving ground for the US and allied militaries. Both for how their weapons work, but also how you could conduct operations, including now combined arms operations, without air superiority. This is exceedingly important because the US and our NATO allies would never do anything without air superiority. And because we spend a lot of time doing training with partners that are not themselves capable of establishing air superiority what we should – I’d like to say will, but despite everyone at the Combined Arms Center saying it, THE ARMY IS DEFINITELY NOT A LEARNING ORGANIZATION!!!! – learn from observing how the Ukrainians conduct their defense against Russia’s genocidal re-invasion without the air superiority we take for granted. This should translate into better training, education, and experiential learning programs for our partners.
Estonian Prime Minister Katja Kallas has some thoughts for her peers in the other NATO member states:
Estonia’s prime minister has warned western countries not to use bilateral security assurances to “blur” the debate over Ukraine’s bid for Nato membership ahead of the military alliance’s summit next week.
Nato is divided over offering Ukraine a postwar pathway to membership at the summit in Vilnius next week. At the same time the US, UK and EU states are drawing up plans to provide Kyiv with “security commitments” aimed at helping the country defend itself in lieu of alliance accession.
“We need practical, concrete steps on the path to Nato membership,” Kaja Kallas told the Financial Times. “I have the feeling that talking about security guarantees actually blurs the picture . . . the only security guarantee that really works and is much cheaper than anything else is Nato membership.”
Euro-Atlantic security will not be complete without Ukraine being part of the mutual defence pact, she said, urging her allies not to waver and bow to “terrorist” intimidation from Russia.
The proposed commitments being discussed among western capitals are largely based around codifying and pledging a long-term continuation of support already being provided to Ukraine in weaponry, finance and training. Kallas said that was not sufficient to deter Russian aggression.
“This is what we are doing right now, but it doesn’t give you any other additional guarantees,” she said. “The war will not be there when the deterrence is credible.”
“There is a majority who think that we have to find a practical way [forward],” Kallas said. “Grey zones are sources of conflict and war. So as long as those countries who want to join the alliance are not allowed to when they feel threatened, then I think that the whole [Euro-Atlantic security] picture is not complete.”
“I hear a lot [of countries] saying that we shouldn’t do this or that because it provokes Putin or Russia and especially to use nuclear weapons,” she said.
“Those threats are in order to intimidate us. The definition of terrorism is to make us afraid so that we would refrain from the decisions that we would otherwise make. And this is what they are trying to do.”
Much more at the link!
I wold remind everyone that West Germany was admitted into NATO despite half of Germany – that whole East Germany part – being under Soviet control and effectively occupied.
For you drone enthusiasts:
Perfect combination.
🇺🇦 aerial reconnaissance + 🇺🇦 artillery = ☠️ to occupiers.🎥60th Mechanized Brigade pic.twitter.com/QCiYyqeXUh
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) July 5, 2023
Makiivka:
Yesterday's bavovna in Russian-occupied Makiivka pic.twitter.com/XzkR51RXUD
— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) July 5, 2023
Below is a new and different strike in Makiivka from the video of yesterday’s strike above. Yesterday’s took out a cache of grad rockets, today’s hit an oil depot.
2Himars strikes blown-up an oil depot in the temporary occupied #Makiivka
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/mNicXII1vm— АЗОВ South (@Azovsouth) July 5, 2023
🔥Happy HIMARS anniversary orcs🔥 pic.twitter.com/he6nMI6Jmu
— АЗОВ South (@Azovsouth) July 5, 2023
/2. «As a result of the shelling of the Chervonogvardeisky district, an oil depot caught fire.» – Russian appointed head of Makiivka pic.twitter.com/jrFGWkDb8f
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) July 5, 2023
Bakhmut Axis:
BAKHMUT AXIS /1645 UTC 5 JUL/ Front line reportage on 5 JUL indicates that UKR forces have advanced 250 meters and have taken the hilltops dominating the village of Klischiivka [See Inset]. The capture of this key terrain will likely lead to further advances south of the Bakhmut… pic.twitter.com/BZeh1FCTVa
— Chuck Pfarrer | Indications & Warnings | (@ChuckPfarrer) July 5, 2023
Full text of the tweet:
BAKHMUT AXIS /1645 UTC 5 JUL/ Front line reportage on 5 JUL indicates that UKR forces have advanced 250 meters and have taken the hilltops dominating the village of Klischiivka [See Inset]. The capture of this key terrain will likely lead to further advances south of the Bakhmut urban area,
Update: Northern flank #Bakhmut
The 🇺🇦Armed Forces advanced in #Berkhivka area
Successful counterattack actions, forced a bunch of orcs to retreat from two strongholds near the village of Berkhivka. The 🇺🇦Forces have occupied strongholds and trying to consolidate positions.
— АЗОВ South (@Azovsouth) July 5, 2023
Dmitri brings us this translated assertion from Russian milblogger Sladkov
❗️Sladkov – Russian armed formations left Klischiivka!
"We left Kleshcheevka.
This is near Bakhmut. It is necessary to check this, I'll be glad if this is reguted. If it's true, then it's bad. Bakhmut is under fire control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
I can’t say a bad word… pic.twitter.com/0jTd0443yG— Dmitri (@wartranslated) July 5, 2023
Here’s the full translation from Dmitri’s tweet:
❗️Sladkov – Russian armed formations left Klischiivka!
“We left Kleshcheevka.
This is near Bakhmut. It is necessary to check this, I’ll be glad if this is reguted. If it’s true, then it’s bad. Bakhmut is under fire control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
I can’t say a bad word about our guys who left.
According to my data, there is again a shell diet. I’ll be glad to be wrong.
You won’t be strong without strength. The weak don’t win. The city of Bakhmut is under threat of assault. Can we keep it? Who knows.”
Volkovakha, Donetsk Oblast:
Powerful #HIMARS strike on the administration building in temporary occupied #Volnovakha, Donetsk Oblast.
A bunch of💀💀orcs pic.twitter.com/SXRCLAIefs
— АЗОВ South (@Azovsouth) July 5, 2023
And a little something for Omnes:
A short video demonstrating the operation of the M109 Paladin howitzer by members of Ukraine's defence forces' 47th Brigade. pic.twitter.com/tXLqXBGuzV
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) July 5, 2023
Yarrow sends along this reminder of the US’s and allies’ warnings to Russia from February:
Quite a story buried in this FT article:
“US, UK, and France…delivered a joint message to Russia vowing to retaliate with conventional weapons if Putin decided to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.” https://t.co/UclYv5nhBl
That red line would be war between NATO and Russia. 👀 pic.twitter.com/vAkl2NtQoN
— Hans Kristensen (@nukestrat) July 5, 2023
A US Marine veteran who had gone to Ukraine to fight on behalf of the Ukrainians in the International Legion has been killed in action. Task and Purpose has the details.
The war in Ukraine has claimed the life of another U.S. military veteran. Ian Tortorici was killed in a recent Russian missile strike on a restaurant in Ukraine, his father Jon Frank told Task & Purpose.
“I was told he fought on every front for 15 months and was never injured with the exception of one concussion,” Frank said. “After Bakhmut there were only five of the 16 from his original team who did not leave, killed or wounded and he told me he would not leave until the war was over.”
In the last message that Frank received from his son, Tortorici wrote that he was on leave in Kramatorsk, Ukraine after his nine-man team had taken a trench from 20 Russians.
Tortorici also wrote that he expected to return to the front lines after a few days of rest, but on June 27 a Russian missile struck a crowded restaurant in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, killing Tortorici and 12 other people, including Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina.
On Monday, Frank told Task & Purpose that his son served as both a data systems administrator and radio operator in the Marine Corps Reserve from 2009 to 2015, during which he was activated for 10 months for an expected deployment to Bahrain, but his unit ended up staying at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California.
While in the Marine Corps, Tortorici served under the name Ian Frank, said his father, who explained that “Tortorici” is Frank’s grandfather’s name, which his son added later. Tortorici left the Corps as a corporal.
“He was not a Mercenary but a contracted member of the Ukrainian army with the International Legion and a U.S. Flag over his heart,” Frank wrote in a June 30 Facebook post. “He was a U.S. Marine, Park Service Ranger and ICE agent, a son, a brother and uncle and he gave up a lucrative and comfortable life to prevent WWIII.”
Frank also wrote on Facebook that Tortorici asked his father “not to make a fuss” if anything happened to him, but Frank still felt the need to pay tribute to his fallen son.
“He experienced a lifetime of death and horrors but chose to stay,” Frank wrote. “He loved his team, his girlfriend and Ukraine. He was the most selfless, bravest, kindest, unassuming and off-center person on the planet and hated for anyone to know it.”
Anthony Tortorici Frank also paid homage to his fallen brother on Facebook, who left his life behind to join Ukraine’s international legion.
“To this day, I still don’t fully understand why he felt the need to defend a country that wasn’t his home,” Anthony Tortorici Frank wrote. “All I know is he had a warrior’s spirit and, like all warriors, answered the call. We never know when our final hour is upon us. All we can do is live our lives on our terms, and my brother did just that. I am proud of you, Ian. I am happy for the life you lived. I will honor your memory and look after our family.”
More at the link!
Tales of collaboration:
That face when the SBU knocks on your door after you passed sensitive information of AFU movements around Bakhmut to your ruzZian contact & you know you are going to prison for 10 years. Tetyana B.
How many soldiers died from artillery strikes because of her?#lviv pic.twitter.com/0VRudfNUHR— TheLvivJournal (@LvivJournal) July 5, 2023
It is funny because she answered to one of the Ukrainian undercover agents (posing as a ruzZian on Facebook) that she was helping ruzZia for free (out of her love) and that she did not accept money for the information she was giving
— TheLvivJournal (@LvivJournal) July 5, 2023
That’s enough for tonight.
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War for Ukraine Day 497: Ukraine Proving GroundsPost + Comments (84)