15 Apr, 2023 00:27

Pentagon leaks won’t hurt Ukraine – Wagner boss

Yevgeny Prigozhin dismissed the documents as a propaganda ploy to delay Kiev’s attack

The leaked Pentagon documents contain no strategic revelations that could harm Kiev, and the media attention they received must be anattempt by the West to delay the Ukrainian military’s much-announced “spring offensive,”Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Friday.

“The documents by themselves do not pose any strategic danger,” Prigozhin said in a statement posted on social media, describing their published contents as mostly being based on open sources. “However, the leak was widely publicized and immediately after it, statements from sources close to thePentagon began about the need to delay the offensiveannounced for April 15 until the summer.”

Commenting on the arrest of the alleged leaker, a 21-year-old Air National Guard member, Prigozhin said he may have been a fool or a dupe, but “if this leak had not happened, it would certainly have been invented.” The documents themselves, he emphasized, contain nothing that would add to the risk of the Ukrainian military should it launch its long-anticipated attack.

“It is clear that the military operations on Ukraine’s side are tactically directed by Ukrainian soldiers, but strategically by the so-called Western coalition,run by the UK and the US,“ said Prigozhin.

He accused the West of “holding back” the Ukrainian military in a “dramatic pause,” after it had been assembled for attack, delaying the offensive that might actually inflict reputational harm on Russia with even a symbolic advance on any frontahead of May 9, the anniversary of the great WWII victory over Nazi Germany. (Symbolism will be their downfall)

“The Ukrainians are ready to attack. We are ready to repel the blow,” Prigozhin summarized. “No negotiations. Only an honorable battle. Andthe sooner it starts, the better.”

Founded as the businessman's side project, Wagner has been involved in heavy fighting in the Donbass, most recently in the storming of Soledar and the battles in and around Artyomovsk, called Bakhmut by the Ukrainians.

As of Friday,Wagner and other Russian troops hold most of Artyomovsk, with an estimated 6,000 battered Ukrainian troops attempting to retreat westward to Chasov Yar. Prigozhin has suggested that Ukrainian President VladimirZelensky had thrown his best troopsand foreign mercenaries into the battle for the Donbass town after receiving a personal challenge from Wagner in December,losing thousands in the “meat grinder”with nothing to show for it.

https://www.rt.com/russia/574775-wagner-pentagon-leaks-ukraine/

Russia is not fucking around

14 Apr, 2023 22:27

Putin signs new conscription law

Russia will start serving summons electronically, using a digital database of eligible citizens

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed into law the amended conscription and mobilization rules, establishing a unifieddigital database of citizenssubject to military service. The measure was fast-tracked through the legislature in Moscow in less than a week.

The Ministry of Digital Development was tasked with establishing the registry, which will be operated by the Ministry of Defense. The government will draw on its existing databases to populate the registry, including tax, election, medical, police and court records, and those drawn from employers and universities.

The register will help track the summons sent out to eligible conscripts not just by mail but now also electronically, using the “appropriate”platforms, such as the state services portal ‘Gosuslugi’. The summons will be considered served within seven days of being posted to the registry. From the moment the summons is issued, the recipient will not be allowed to leave Russia.

The new law alsointroduces penalties for failing to report. Those who do not respond to the summons within 20 days, without a valid exemption, will not be allowed to register a business, vehicle or real estate, or to obtain bank loans. Various regions and republics may also limit or discontinue the payment of benefits and other government support. Such decisions may be appealed in court, however.

The amendments were introduced by the State Duma’s defense committee on April 10, and the lower chamber voted to pass them the following day. The Russian Senate approved them by April 12. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the fast-track procedure as being driven by national security priorities.

Russian law prescribesone year of mandatory military servicefor male citizens between the ages of 18 and 27. Two rounds of conscription are conducted each year, with the size of the call-up specified by a presidential decree. However, lawmakers recently introduced a separate amendment to move the age bracket up over several years, reaching 21 to 30 in 2026. The proposed change is meant to protect those in their late teens and early 20s from disruptions to their education.

Moscow has not declared a general mobilization due to the Ukraine conflict, preferring to conduct operations with professional troops and a cadre of some 300,000 reservists, called up in October 2022.

Last year’s call-up exposed some structural problems with the conscription infrastructure inherited from the Soviet Union, including loopholes and poorly maintained registries that resulted in summons being issued to citizens without prior military experience, or otherwise ineligible.

https://www.rt.com/russia/574772-putin-signs-new-conscription-law/

14 Apr, 2023 21:11

Kiev taps nationalist militant to govern Pechersk Lavra monastery

Ukrainian authorities have appointed a new caretaker director as the standoff over a major Orthodox monastery continues

The Ukrainian government has appointed a new caretaker director of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra museum compound, which houses the largest Orthodox monastery in the country. The new appointee,Maxim Ostapenko, is known for having strong ties with nationalist paramilitaries in post-Maidan Ukraine.

The new acting director was presented by the Ukrainian Culture Minister, Alexander Tkachenko, on Friday.

“Maxim Ostapenko is a specialist in the protection of historical and cultural monuments, museology, archeology, restoration work, he is a PhD in history sciences, the author of more than 30 scientific papers, since 2007 he has served as the general director of the Khortitsa National Reserve. And from the beginning of a full-scale invasion, he joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Tkachenko said, in a Telegram post presenting the new caretaker director.

Ostapenko built his entire career around Khortitsa, working at the reserve since 1989. The reserve is located on a large namesake island on the Dnepr River and is considered to be the heart of Zaporozhye Sech – the common name of several quasi-state entities of the Dnepr Cossacks that existed between the 16th and 18th centuries. As an archeologist, Ostapenko specializes in the ancient history of the region.

What the minister failed to mention, however, were the activities Ostapenko has been engaged in since early 2014, when the Maidan coup in Kiev deposed Ukraine’s democratically-elected president, Viktor Yanukovich. Thereserve director became one of the creators and the deputy commander of the so-called ‘Khortitsa Regiment,’ one of the many far-right paramilitary entitiesthat sprouted across post-Maidan Ukraine.

The ‘regiment’ originally consisted of around 150 men and took only a limited part in the so-called ‘anti-terrorist operation’ launched by the post-Maidan authorities to squash the uprising in the then-Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, which had rejected the coup. Instead, the unit focused its efforts on fighting a purported "separatist" threat in the Zaporozhye region, ultimately facing allegations of banditry, extortion and other crimes.

Despite the allegations, the unit continued to exist as a "patriotic" entity tutoring youth until the beginning of the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022. The unit then got incorporated into local territorial defense, yet apparently again largely shied away from the frontline.

Theunit emblem features a wolf in black and red colors, commonly associated with Second World War-era Ukrainian nationalist and Nazi collaborator units, hailed in the present-day country as national “heroes.” The Khortitsa Regiment members had repeatedly awardedthemselves with souvenir medals with the same choice of colors, praising themselves for their purported effort in fighting separatists. The ceremonies of the paramilitary unit had been staged right at the heart of the Khortitsa reserve – a wooden ‘Cossack fortress,’ erected there in the mid-2000s.

https://www.rt.com/russia/574764-kiev-lavra-new-director/

Ukraine is going Godless, this will not end well