Russia-Ukraine war megathread - June 2024 news updates
Please also see @KapteinB's recent post about Ukraine says missile strike destroyed kamikaze drones and Iranian instructors.
I wanted to touch on a few pieces of news and media that people might not have seen this month.
Yesterday, Pyongyang Says It Will Send Troops to Ukraine Within a Month - A military engineering unit will be sent to the Donetsk region to support Russian forces. While there are many foreigners who have intentionally and unintentionally signed up in a combat capacity that supports Russia, North Korea is taking a somewhat different stance here by overtly doing the thing that the west has been reluctant to admit doing themselves (sending advisors and other personnel to front-line adjacent regions).
There is a film coming out called 'Real' which is 90 minutes of unedited front-line footage accidentally recorded by a film-maker. Hopefully this doesn't just cater to the raw "combat footage" people, but also people who are into biopics/documentaries/war journalism/etc.
Sentsov, who spent several years as a political prisoner in Russia and is now fighting in the Ukrainian army, found the 90 minutes of shaky footage six months after the battle. He was going through old files on his GoPro camera and realised it had been switched on that day. ... I realised I had a very interesting imprint of that battle and of war how it truly is – ugly, incomprehensible, twisted and stupid."
Outgoing Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte will be the next head of NATO. The Dutch have been very strong supporters of Ukraine, so this bodes well for further support from a leadership role and might also benefit the relationship between Baltic states and northern Europe. Dutch F-16s and ammunition, along with donations from Belgium and Norway, should be arriving in Ukraine this summer for real this time. They've already made numerous deliveries of F-16s to Romania and other places where Ukrainian pilots are being trained. At the same time, the EU has opened accession talks to Ukraine and Moldova, which may allow for more support to be extended to the countries.
Last month, Russia replaced Shoigu as Defense Minister, which I thought had a Tildes discussion somewhere. Last week Putin sacked deputy defense ministers Nikolai Pankov, Ruslan Tsalikov, Tatiana Shevtsova and Pavel Popov. He then appointed replacement deputy defense ministers, including one relative.
Also of note, Ukraine is confirming that last month they destroyed the last Russian Kalibr missile carrier (ship) using Crimea as its port, with the rest having been removed from Crimea. But this was not the last ship, nor necessarily the last missile carrier, in the Black Sea as a whole. It does suggest that Russia's ability to launch deep missile attacks has been pushed back further, and right at a time when Ukraine has been able to position several MLRS within range of Crimea to hit the targets mentioned by KapteinB's post at the very top of this page.
Other Recent Headlines:
Ukraine signs security pacts with EU, Lithuania and Estonia - 27 June.
In his home near Ukraine's front line with Russia, Yurii makes a stand - A feature article/photo essay.
90 Russian prisoners returned in swap with Ukraine - 26 June.
US and Russian defence chiefs speak amid recent rise in tensions (over Ukraine)
Zelenskiy replaces commander leading war on Russia in eastern Ukraine
‘This country gave me a lot’: the Vietnamese people staying in Ukraine - I found this to be very interesting. These folks really have a lot of pride in their homeland/adopted homeland to fight for it. It's quite heartwarming in that way.
Key global powers fail to sign up to Ukraine peace summit communique - Spoiler, it's basically BRICS countries again.
Over the past couple of weeks Brandon Mitchell has posted a few videos about their crowd-funded offensive drones in the Kupyansk Front direction. I really appreciate what he's been doing in every capacity that he's supported efforts out there (initially in a non-combat role, etc.).
Russia Loses Last Black Sea Missile Ship – Putin Demands Better Protection (Kyiv Post)
Annual allied military aid $60 billion for next four years, says Ukraine PM (Reuters)
There's not a lot to the article, but it helps to put into perspective how much funding countries designate as supporting Ukraine actually is materially for Ukraine. For instance, $60B over 4 years from several countries really highlights how little money is going to Ukraine's military of the $61B Ukraine aid bill from the US.[1]
Anyway, the meat of the Reuters article is:
[1] I had to remind myself of what the breakdown was of that bill. Here it is, broken down simply.
Russia's war-driven economy is so hot that the World Bank upgraded it to a 'high-income country' (Business Insider)
Mostly a curiosity, I guess. The government is spending billions from their rainy-day funds on military production. Increased spending and shrinking population means more income per citizen, at least on average. The article fails to mention that this is probably not sustainable long term.
Also, this month this video with English subtitles has been making the rounds (actually since 23 May). It's by a Chinese former soldier who became a mercenary for Russia. He talks about the extreme casualty rate of new recruits in the area he was in, the diversity of his group, being on the receiving end of mortars, his experience with drone attacks, and the challenges he faced during military operations. Note that the first 45 seconds of the video he's talking about, uh, digestive system problems, so I recommend skipping that.
Videos show what hit a Ukrainian children's hospital, and Russia is 'gaslighting,' war and weapons experts say (Business Insider)
Ukrainians unite to raise $ 6.1M for Okhmatdyt Hospital, damaged in Russian attack
https://euromaidanpress.com/2024/07/09/ukrainians-unite-to-raise-6-1m-for-okhmatdyt-hospital-damaged-in-russian-attack/
Russia to Release and Facilitate Return of All Indians Working in Russian Army (Times of India)
Since this isn't really a large number of people (or at least not a large number of known people), and it's been a point of contention for about 2 years, I wonder what Russia leveraged this little gesture for.
39 tanks, HIMARS and ammunition: Germany covertly hands over huge shipment of weapons to Ukraine (Euromaidan Press)