We’re going to start with Kherson above the jump. Because there’s something I want to highlight that I’ve only seen emphasized by Shashank Joshi of The Economist while everyone else focuses on the retreat/withdrawal across the river stuff. Kommersant reported that during his broadcast to everyone briefing this morning, General Surovikin told Minister of Defense …
War for Ukraine Day 259: KhersonPost + Comments (54)
Dear Ukrainians, I wish you health!
Today, the day started very early with a meeting of the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. The situation at the front line was analyzed in detail. South, east… Very carefully – Donbas.
The greatest confrontation is now in Donetsk region, it’s very important, a lot is being decided there. Any losses there are further losses in the country. That’s why we stand. We stand firm. We don’t surrender anything.
I thank each of our heroes who are holding back these terrible attacks of the occupiers. Constant attacks.
South. We are moving gradually, strengthening our positions step by step.
There is a lot of joy in the media space today, and it is clear why. But our emotions must be restrained – always during war.
I will definitely not feed the enemy with all the details of our operations, either in the south, or in the east, or anywhere else. When we have our result, everyone will see it. For sure.
Maybe it doesn’t sound like what anyone expects now. Maybe not as in the news. But you need to understand: no one just gets away if they don’t feel the strength. The enemy does not bring us gifts, does not make “gestures of goodwill.” We fight our way up. And when you are fighting, you must understand that every step is always resistance from the enemy, it is always the loss of the lives of our heroes.
Therefore, we move very carefully, without emotions, without unnecessary risk. In the interests of the liberation of our entire land and so that the losses are as small as possible. This is how we will secure the liberation of Kherson, Kakhovka, Donetsk, and other our cities.
But this will be the result of our efforts, our defense operations, those that are currently ongoing, those that we are planning.
And now I want separately and once again to warn everyone in Moscow who makes the relevant decisions: any attempt by you to blow up the Kakhovka HPP and flood our territory and dehydrate the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant will mean that you are declaring war on the whole world. Think what will happen to you then.
At the meeting of the Staff we also discussed the supply and production of weapons – our weapons – the repair of equipment, the strengthening of our anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense, which is ongoing, the recovery of critical infrastructure, primarily energy, after the Russian terrorist attacks.
As of this evening, there are electricity blackouts to stabilize the situation in 15 regions and the city of Kyiv. There are no emergency blackouts.
Wherever electricity is out, it should be in accordance with published schedules. Please, if the blackout at your house or street is not on schedule today, notify the local authorities and representatives of the energy company that serves you. They must change the situation and stick to the schedule.
I spoke today with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte. Just about recovering our energy sector, protection of the Ukrainian sky. Thank you for your willingness to help!
Separately, we discussed the export grain initiative, the fundamental need to extend and expand our grain exports. We agreed to cooperate even more closely to support Ukrainian initiatives at the UN.
Tomorrow will be a very active negotiation day – many contacts are planned.
It is these days that we are completing our preparations for Ukraine’s possible participation in the G20 summit next week. The Ukrainian stance has been shaped. As always, our stance will be in the interests of global security.
In the evening, I signed another decree on awarding our soldiers. 106 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were given state awards.
And one more thing is very important.
Today is the Day of Ukrainian Writing and Language and the Ukrainian Day of Cultural Workers and Masters of Folk Art. There was also a dictation of national unity. I thank everyone who joined writing the dictation, it is an important annual tradition.
And you know… Today I want to congratulate not only those who teach languages and literature, work in the field of culture and preserve folk art. I want to congratulate all our people. Ukraine holds. Ukraine defends itself. And will definitely defend.
It is no longer a question of whether Ukraine and everything Ukrainian exist. Ukraine exists. Ukraine will exist.
And our enemy will die – they will die like the dew does in the sunshine. Or like the Russian river crossings under the strikes of the HIMARS systems.
Glory to Ukraine!
Here is former NAVDEVGRU Squadron Leader Chuck Pfarrer’s most recent assessment of the situation in Kherson:
KHERSON AXIS/ FLASH TRAFFIC/ 1550 UTC 9 NOV/ RU forces are reported to be executing a withdrawal from all N bank positions around Kherson. UKR forces have been granted a golden opportunity to smash retreating RU units while motion. Mass RU casualties expected at river crossings. pic.twitter.com/sFQ45ZeExL
— Chuck Pfarrer | Indications & Warnings | (@ChuckPfarrer) November 9, 2022
Here is the British MOD’s assessment for today:
And here is their updated map for today:
Here’s analysis from The Kyiv Independent‘s Illia Ponomarenko:
What is happening in the Kherson region now is the result of smart warfare – slowly and carefully undermining the enemy’s ability to continue fighting, and getting a huge gain when the moment comes.
Which is quite different from Russia’s dumb human waves and frontal assaults.— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) November 9, 2022
In other words, Russia has lost this war.
Now the question is how much of its own sovereign territory Ukraine will be able to retake (ideally, all 100%, of course) and how soon Russia will be forced into requesting an armistice.— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) November 9, 2022
🇺🇦Ukraine’s upcoming official Christmas post stamp.
This painting titled “Separated by war” was created by Valeria Mykhailova, a schoolgirl originally from Mykolaiv. pic.twitter.com/3BRv8qAMa9— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) November 9, 2022
I just checked Ukrposhta’s online store and it doesn’t appear to be for sale yet. I’ll keep checking and as soon as I see it listed, I’ll let you know. If someone sees it before me, email me the link.
One last item before we finish up. Tonight is the anniversary of Kristallnacht:
In an article on the evening of 11 November, Joseph Goebbels ascribed the events to the "healthy instincts" of the German people: "The German people are anti-Semitic. It has no desire to have its rights restricted or to be provoked in the future by parasites of the Jewish race." pic.twitter.com/AIVyL7vW84
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) November 9, 2022
After the November Pogrom some 30,000 Jewish men were sent to the Buchenwald, Dachau & Sachsenhausen camps, where hundreds died later. Release came only after some agreed to emigrate and to transfer their property to “Aryans.” https://t.co/k3bokit8Dz pic.twitter.com/F8MuYPgYb0
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) November 9, 2022
‘Holocaust–the destruction of European Jews’
A seven-chapter online course about the history of the #Holocaust.
Links to all chapters below.https://t.co/xMYdiESLQI— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) November 9, 2022
Harrowing, previously unseen images from 1938′s November Pogrom against German and Austrian Jews in the Third Reich have surfaced in a photograph collection donated to @yadvashem.https://t.co/qqnSFfzIXf
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) November 9, 2022
JERUSALEM (AP) — Harrowing, previously unseen images from 1938′s Kristallnacht pogrom against German and Austrian Jews have surfaced in a photograph collection donated to Israel’s Yad Vashem memorial, the organization said Wednesday.
One shows a crowd of smiling, well-dressed middle-aged German men and women standing casually as a Nazi officer smashes a storefront window. In another, brownshirts carry heaps of Jewish books, presumably for burning. Another image shows a Nazi officer splashing gasoline on the pews of a synagogue before it’s set alight.
Jonathan Matthews, head of Yad Vashem’s photo archive, said the photos dispel a Nazi myth that the attacks were “a spontaneous outburst of violence” rather than a pogrom orchestrated by the state. Firefighters, SS special police officers and members of the general public are all seen in the photos participating in the Kristallnacht. The photographers themselves were an integral part of the events.
Matthews said these were the first photos he was aware of depicting actions taking place indoors, as “most of the images we have of Kristallnacht are images from outside.” Altogether, he said, the photos “give you a much more intimate image of what’s happening.”
The photos were taken by Nazi photographers during the pogrom in the city of Nuremberg and the nearby town of Fuerth. They wound up in the possession of a Jewish American serviceman who served in Germany during World War II — how, precisely is uncertain, he never talked about them to his family.
His descendants, who declined to give his name, donated the album to Yad Vashem as part of the institution’s effort to collect Holocaust-era objects kept by survivors and their families.
Yad Vashem said the photos help demonstrate how the German public was aware of what was going on, and that the violence was part of a meticulously coordinated pogrom carried out by Nazi authorities. They even brought in photographers to document the atrocities.
Despite Nazi censorship, The Associated Press was able to send pictures from Kristallnacht when it happened that were widely used in the U.S. The images included a burning synagogue, a youth preparing to clean up glass from a Jewish shop that had been vandalized, and people standing outside damaged shops in the aftermath of the attacks.
More at the link, including the photo gallery.
It is important to remember as we work our way through the anniversaries of some of the war and war related events of the early 20th century this week that we keep in mind that just as the NAZIs sought to eradicate the Jews to establish the Third Reich, that Putin and the Russians seek to eradicate Ukraine and the Ukrainians as an independent sovereign state and a distinct people with their own culture to establish Putin’s fictional Ruskiy Mir.
Never again should actually mean something.
That’s enough for tonight.
Your daily Patron!
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— Patron (@PatronDsns) November 9, 2022
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Open thread!