Megathread for news/updates/discussion of Russian invasion of Ukraine - April 8-10

Detailed account from NYT of the Russian soldier's activities at Chernobyl, with lots of photos.

Russian Blunders in Chernobyl: ‘They Came and Did Whatever They Wanted.’

“We told them not to do it, that it was dangerous, but they ignored us,” Valeriy Simyonov, the chief safety engineer for the Chernobyl nuclear site, said in an interview.

Apparently undeterred by safety concerns, the Russian forces tramped about the grounds with bulldozers and tanks, digging trenches and bunkers — and exposing themselves to potentially harmful doses of radiation lingering beneath the surface.

At just one site of extensive trenching a few hundred yards outside the town of Chernobyl, the Russian army had dug an elaborate maze of sunken walkways and bunkers. An abandoned armored personnel carrier sat nearby.

The soldiers had apparently camped out for weeks in the radioactive forest.

The earthworks were not the only instance of recklessness in the treatment of a site so toxic it still holds the potential to spread radiation well beyond Ukraine’s borders.

In a particularly ill-advised action, a Russian soldier from a chemical, biological and nuclear protection unit picked up a source of cobalt-60 at one waste storage site with his bare hands, exposing himself to so much radiation in a few seconds that it went off the scales of a Geiger counter, Mr. Simyonov said. It was not clear what happened to the man, he said.

In a bizarre final sign of the unit’s misadventures, Ukrainian soldiers found discarded appliances and electronic goods on roads in the Chernobyl zone. These were apparently looted from towns deeper inside Ukraine and cast off for unclear reasons in the final retreat. Reporters found one washing machine on a road shoulder just outside the town of Chernobyl.

“We told them, ‘This is the zone, you cannot go to certain places,’” Ms. Siloshenko said the workers had told the Russians. “They ignored us.”

At one dug-in position, Russian troops had burrowed a bunker from the sandy side of a road embankment and left heaps of trash — food wrappings, discarded boots, a blackened cooking pot — suggesting they had lived in the underground space for an extended time.

Nearby, a bulldozer had scraped away the topsoil to build berms for artillery emplacements and a half-dozen foxholes.

The forest around had recently burned, suggesting a fire had swept over the area during the Russian occupation, adding radioactive smoke to the exposure of the Russian soldiers, along with dust from disturbed ground.

Armored vehicles that run on treads, rather than wheels, pose the primary risk for radiation safety in a wider area, as they churn up the radioactive soil and spread it into areas of Belarus and Russia as they retreat, Ms. Pavlova said. “The next person who comes along can be contaminated,” she said.

All in all, the trench digging and other dubious activities posed a far lower risk than the waste pool, and most of that to the Russian soldiers themselves, Mr. Simyonov said, adding wryly: “We invite them back to dig more trenches here, if they want.”

cc: @vektor, since we talked about this previously. Looks like the fires in the Red Forest actually were set by the Russians. 🤦

The Backdoor That Keeps Russian Oil Flowing Into Europe

When is a cargo of Russian diesel not a cargo of Russian diesel? The answer is when Shell Plc, the largest European oil company, turns it into what traders refer to as a Latvian blend.

The point is to market a barrel in which only 49.99% comes from Russia; in Shell’s eyes, as long as the other 50.01 percent is sourced elsewhere, the oil cargo isn’t technically of Russian origin.The maneuver underpins a burgeoning and opaque market for blended Russian diesel and other refined petroleum products, one of the many that oil companies and commodity traders are using to keep Russian energy flowing into Europe while at the same time satisfying public opinion that demands an end to subsidizing Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

As Europe has stopped short of applying any limits or penalties to the purchase of Russian oil, gas or coal, selling the novel blend is perfectly legal.

Inside the covert network sending arms and drones to Ukraine forces (Washington Post)

The volunteers unloading the military supplies are friends from the Ukrainian film and television industry — a longhair bunch of cinematographers, gaffers, set decorators and marketing strategists. They take dozens of boxes of self-heating meals, six thermal rifle scopes, a satellite communications kit and 10 drones worth $8,000 each. All are bound for the front.

The paths these vans weave daily from the Polish border to the Lviv warehouse to places such as Kyiv, Sumy and Kharkiv illustrate a daunting reality for Russian invaders: The defense of Ukraine has mobilized citizens from every sector of life, from battle-hardened soldiers who have been at war in Donbas for almost a decade, to the people who decide the food budgets for Florence and the Machine music video shoots.

[...]

Ukrainian victories in the north and center of the country in recent days have been aided by a flow of supplies to Kyiv, the capital and a major supply hub. Nonprofits that sent basic medical supplies and necessities such as diapers and water to the front in the early days of the war have shifted to hard-to-find medicines, medical supplies and specialized military equipment.

“We have enough Pampers,” Salov said. “Our defenders can’t fight with those.”

Local organizations built on informal networks of friends who once enjoyed open roads toward the war’s hot zones, now find their vans in Kyiv-bound checkpoint traffic jams behind Red Cross vehicles and tractor trailers.

The road to Kyiv, for the first time since the invasion began, has more people coming than going.

[...]

Donations came in quickly at first. Some were made online via the group’s donation page. Others came in the form of supply purchases. One donation came with an odd request: A man who gave $30,000 asked if a van driver could collect his Porsche summer tires from his Kyiv home and somehow deliver them to his summer home in France. “I don’t know how I’m going to get it there, but I’ll figure it out,” Salov said. “Tomorrow evening they’ll be in France.”

As the IT Troops proved their reliability delivering ballistic helmets and armor to military units, soldiers began to request items that were more difficult to obtain. A member of a sniper group asked for an Adams Arms P2 rifle. It was found in Lviv and delivered within seven hours. The Ukrainian Alpha Group sent back photos of dead Russian soldiers to encourage investors to give more.

[...]

But as Ukraine’s war front successes have continued, Sigorska said, donations have begun to slow.

“The landscape of donation has changed a lot,” she said. “At a certain point we had no money to donate. And now all of our friends of friends have given all they can.”

Inside the elite Ukrainian drone unit founded by volunteer IT experts (Yahoo News)

Aerorozvidka custom-builds or modifies off-the-shelf consumer drones to work in a military context and drop bombs on Russian vehicles under the cover of night.

[...]

The unit was founded in 2014 in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea and Russian-backed groups launching a separatist insurgency in the Donbas region.

Tech-savvy volunteers came together to design machines for drone-based aerial reconnaissance to support the Ukrainian army.

[...]

The unit uses a range of drones, many of which are commonly available store-bought drones that they modify and militarize, including Chinese DJI drones and Autel drones, French Parrot drones, and more.

Its most prized drone is the octocopter R-18, which they build from scratch. It has a range of 4km, a 40 minute flight time, and can drop 5kg bombs.

[...]

The unit carries out around 300 reconnaissance missions daily and has destroyed "dozens, possibly hundreds" of Russian vehicles, Mykhailo said.

Aerorozvidka typically carries out missions under cover of night because their drones' thermal imaging cameras give them an advantage. Equipped with night-vision goggles and sniper rifles, the drone soldiers would use quad bikes to move stealthily through the forests and get in position to attack the Russian forces.

Its most significant victory was helping to halt the 40-mile Russian convoy heading to attack the capital Kyiv.

The unit typically targets the most valuable vehicle in a convoy to make the most effective use of their limited bombs.

In this case, the team targeted vehicles at the head of the convoy, which succeeded in blocking the convoy and demoralizing Russian forces.

[...]

The unit often shares videos of their missions on social media, occasionally set to the backdrop of music by Ukrainian rap artist Skofka.

How Kyiv was saved by Ukrainian ingenuity as well as Russian blunders (ft.com)

Commanders of different units continued to follow their original orders, even though events were not going to plan, thus compounding problems which arose as Ukraine’s military rose to the challenge.

Ukrainian forces have undergone profound reforms in recent years and unlike the vast majority of Russian army officers, thousands of their Ukrainian counterparts have battle experience from the eight-year war in the east. When they ran into problems, says Kuzan, Russian officers could only refer upwards in an old-fashioned, bureaucratic way while the Ukrainians were able to adjust to rapidly changing circumstances.

The house of Dmytro Lysovyy’s parents lies 200m from the railway embankment near Hostomel. The Samsung executive had come there at the beginning of the war thinking he would be safer than in Kyiv.

On the second day of the invasion elderly friends of his parents, who did not have a smartphone, called to tell them where they had seen a Russian convoy close to the airport. Lysovyy immediately opened “STOP Russian War”, a Telegram chatbot created by the security services, and input the location. He also put a pin in the Google Maps location, screenshotted it and sent that, plus everything else he knew.

About 30 minutes later the convoy was attacked by the Ukrainian military. In the distance the sky glowed orange from the flames, Lysovyy recalled.

Officials have since made it easier for citizens to upload enemy locations through the Diia app, a government portal for digital documents such as driving licences and Covid passes used by millions of Ukrainians.

People trapped behind Russian lines using chatbots, he said, were playing a 21st century version of partisans behind Nazi lines during the second world war. To make sure that the Russians do not feed Ukrainian positions into the chatbot, says Banik, somewhere in Ukraine teams filter reports before they are passed to the military.

Paranoid about what was happening, Russian troops went from house to house hunting for smartphones, according to Lysovyy and other witnesses in the newly liberated territories. They also destroyed laptops and any other device that could be used to communicate. A Kindle and a smashed phone still lie on the grass in front of his house.

Just as it was dangerous being a partisan behind the lines in the second world war, using a smartphone today can be equally deadly. In the village of Motyzhyn, 50km west of Kyiv, Hennadiy Merchynskyi was executed and dumped down a drainage shaft. Zoya Merchynskaya, his widow, reckoned he was murdered after the Russians found pictures of their tanks on his phone.

To cut off Ukrainians in the occupied territories Russian troops set about destroying 4G mobile transmission units. But that meant they could not use their own encrypted system. They also need 4G. This in turn made it harder for units following the original plan to communicate.

On the Dnieper 30km north-east of Hostomel lies the Kozarovychi dam, which controls the inflow of the smaller Irpin river. Soon after the war began the Russians attacked and damaged this dam. “It was a crucial mistake,” said Konoko — because the whole flood plain of the Irpin became inundated.

Blocked by Ukrainian resistance further south at Irpin, the Russians found it impossible to cut across eastward in significant numbers at Moschun and then turn south to attack and enter the capital. By blowing up the dam the land that lay between Hostomel and Moschun had returned to the impenetrable wetland it had been before it was built.

In normal times you can reach Kyiv through Horenka, another small town south of Moschun, but the damage here and the shattered warehouses and the massive crater at the Kuehne+Nagel warehouse testify to the ferocity of the failed Russian attack. As at Irpin the Russians were simply unable to break Ukrainian resistance.

The Russians had taken Moschun at the beginning of the war. But with their path to Kyiv blocked at Horenka, where the Ukrainians had also partially blown the bridge, now only a couple of small, single-track roads across the railway remained to reach the capital. These were vulnerable to attack.

So, said Konoko, the Russians tried to get across using pontoons but as the water rose it became impossible to get significant numbers of vehicles and men across fast enough. Konoko’s men attacked with anti-tank weapons or called in artillery strikes. They took back Moschun on March 26.

The Russians had, in effect, come down a funnel and been blocked, creating the widely reported traffic jam of military vehicles stretching along 65km of road to the north. Unable to move forward, bombarded by the Ukrainians, harried by their small mobile units and fast losing men and equipment, the Russians decided to cut their losses on March 31 and run.

Train station missile strike in eastern Ukraine takes brutal toll on civilians evacuating
(Edit: The text in the above article was significantly changed after I had already quoted it. Portions of the original text I quoted were apparently moved to their live blog version of the events, found here.)

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — At least 50 people were killed and 98 injured Friday at the Kramatorsk train station in eastern Ukraine, according to the regional governor, in what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian missile attack as hundreds of evacuees were waiting to escape a looming Russian offensive in the area.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration, said the death toll rose from an early count of 39. He vowed on Telegram that the deadly strike would not deter Ukrainian officials from helping citizens who are trying to leave as fighting in the region intensifies.

A large piece of a missile landed 100 yards from the entrance of the train station. On the side of the missile remnant, the words “For the children” in Russian were visible as police investigators documented the scene. The phrase in Russian connotes “revenge for our children,” apparently in keeping with Moscow’s rationale that the war is being fought to protect the separatist Donbas region and Russia.

Witnesses interviewed by The Post described an initial explosion followed by four to five blasts that they believed were “cluster bombs” that struck outside the building where a large crowd had assembled for an arriving train. The explosions also struck two seating areas outside the station, where dozens of people were waiting to be evacuated.

Photos/Videos (Warning: Disturbing):
The Guardian video
https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1512353521076744192
https://twitter.com/GalinaAksakova/status/1512379004573081610
https://t.me/UkrzalInfo/1924
And plenty more on Twitter at #Kramatorsk - Photos - Videos

Another mass grave discovered in Chernihiv with 700 gaves.

More stories of rape emerging from previously occupied territory.

Japan to expel eight Russians, including diplomats, as Kishida announces new sanctions

In a surprise move, Japan announced Friday it will expel eight Russian diplomats and trade representatives, a significant policy change that will likely prompt a similar move from Moscow.

The Foreign Ministry made the announcement ahead of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s news conference apparently to soften how the news will be received in Moscow. During the news conference Friday evening, Kishida did not speak at length about the expulsion of the diplomats, merely saying that Japan made the decision after “comprehensive judgment.”

Kishida, however, announced a sweeping new round of sanctions, declaring that Japan will phase out imports of Russian coal, ban imports of Russian machinery, lumber and vodka, bar new investments in Russia and freeze assets held by major Russian lenders Sberbank and Alfa Bank. Japan will also freeze the assets of an additional 400 or so military personnel and lawmakers and some 20 military-related organizations, including state-run companies, Kishida said.

Compared to some Western countries, Japan had been taking a milder stance against Russia on energy-related sanctions, partly because of its dependence on imports of fuel.

But with mass killings of civilians in Bucha and other Ukrainian cities being met with international condemnation, Japan apparently felt it needed to harden its position further to be in line with its allies.

Ukraine war: Boris Johnson meets Volodymyr Zelesnkyy in Kyiv to offer more military and financial aid

The Ukrainian defence ministry tweeted: "We welcome Boris Johnson in Kyiv, the first G7 leader to arrive in Ukraine since the beginning of the large-scale war. We are strengthening our union of democracies. Be brave, like Boris. Be brave, like Ukraine."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has travelled to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, praising his "resolute leadership and the invincible heroism".

Mr Johnson used the meeting to discuss giving more defensive aid to Ukraine, confirming the UK would send 120 armoured vehicles and anti-ship missile systems to Kyiv.

The prime minister is not the first foreign leader to make the trip to Kyiv.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, Karl Nehammer, the Austrian chancellor, and Eduard Heger, the Slovakian leader, all meeting with Mr Zelenskyy face to face in the last few days.

Russia: Authorities close down Amnesty International’s Moscow Office

Today, the Russian authorities have closed down representative offices of Amnesty International and other international NGOs. Reacting to the news, Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said:

“Amnesty’s closing down in Russia is only the latest in a long list of organizations that have been punished for defending human rights and speaking the truth to the Russian authorities. In a country where scores of activists and dissidents have been imprisoned, killed or exiled, where independent media has been smeared, blocked or forced to self-censor, and where civil society organizations have been outlawed or liquidated, you must be doing something right if the Kremlin tries to shut you up.

On 8 April, the Russian Ministry of Justice delisted Amnesty International’s Moscow Office from the register of the representative offices of the international organizations and foreign NGOs, effectively closing it down alongside with offices of Human Rights Watch, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Friedrich Ebert Foundation and other organizations. This decision has been taken “in connection with the discovered violations of the Russian legislation.”