Russia-Ukraine Update (Four part)
Distributing military recruitment leaflets in Moscow. (Photo: Pelagia Tikhonova / Moskva News Agency)
I Russian Recruitment
The number of Russians signing contracts at Moscow recruitment centers to fight in the war against Ukraine has fallen five-fold since its peak in late summer of last year. The daily number of volunteers signing-up reached a high following Ukraine’s Kursk offensive and the introduction of a one-time payment of 1.9 million rubles ($19,200) shortly before that.
Since then, daily applicants number around 40, a fivefold decrease, citing a source in the Moscow mayor's office. The composition of applicants has changed, and half of those signing up currently are foreigners of African, Asian, or Chinese origin looking to make extra money, or Russians under investigation in criminal cases.
Russia is currently suffering around 1500-1750 casualties daily on the battlefield, including dead, wounded, and captured, as it continues to make grinding advances in eastern Ukraine in “meat attacks.”
Soviet human wave attack in WWII.
II Ukrainian Strategic Drone Offensive
Ukrainian drones continue destroying strategic targets inside Russia, including an oil refinery, pumping station, and a missile arsenal. Four drones struck the Lukoil oil depot in the city of Kstovo, causing "significant damage."
All of these targets are hundreds of miles inside Russia, conducted by Ukrainian Special Operations or intelligence personnel (HUR). The Russians were forced to shut down the main pipeline that supplies oil to the Ust-Luga terminal in Leningrad Oblast.
https://t.me/war_monitor/24687
Link to tweet
III Australian POW Alive
Oscar Jenkins. Credit: HANDOUT/’SLADKOV+’ TELEGRAM ACCOUNT/AAP
Oscar Jenkins is serving in the 402nd Separate Rifle Battalion, which is part of Ukraine's 66th Separate Mechanized Brigade. He went missing on 16 Dec 2024 while on a combat mission near the village of Mykolaivka in Luhansk Oblast. Thought to be executed by the Russians, Australian FM Penny Wong received confirmation from the Kremlin that Jenkins is alive and in custody.
IV NATO Support for Ukraine
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: "Ukraine deserves NATO membership." (Photo: Tolga Bozoglu EPA / Shutterstock)
NATO is on course to fulfill its promise to send approximately $41.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine by the end of the year, NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska said on 29 Jan. Member nations pledged to provide the funding to Ukraine during the NATO summit in Washington, DC in July 2024. The future of US military aid remains uncertain under President Donald Trump who has urged Europe to shoulder more of the financial burden.
Ukraine continues striking strategic targets inside Russia to damage its economy and undermine enemy morale. The word is out on the Russian street about the appalling number of deaths on the Ukrainian front, lowering the number of native Russians seeking military contracts. NATO and the EU are stepping up to fill the void of assistance caused by Vladimir Putin protégé Donald Trump and are executing their contingency plan across the financial, intelligence, and defense spectrum. For example, the US ceded Poland’s air defense command to NATO last year. The Russians would not execute a foreigner like Oscar Jenkins because he has value for any potential prisoner swaps. If a Russian spy is detained in Australia, Moscow and Canberra would conduct a trade.
"Uncle Vanya Wants You!"
Uh-huh.
A Russian Defender of the Fatherland Day poster, celebrated on 23 Feb.
Sources:
https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-war-latest-ukrainian-drones-hit-lukoil-oil-refinery-missile-arsenal-in-russia-sources-claim/
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2025-01-13/nato-air-defense-poland-patriots-16467545.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Putin gloated at the terrible US losses in men and materiel in Iraq and Afghanistan. In three years Russia surpassed America's miseries. I don't have the economic figures handy for Russia, but the "Forever Wars" cost the US $14 trillion.
The PTSD and environmental damage to Ukraine (and Russia) is incalculable.
Worse for Putin, he has demographically cost the Russian population future generations while China has 1.1 bn people at his eastern border. China's military losses in the past 25 years? Maybe under a hundred in UNPKO and border skirmishes in the Himalayas against Indian frontier guards. And China made money during the war while observing which military techniques, tactics, and technologies work.
China is the net winner of Putin's brutality.
And geo-politically, Ukraine will benefit tremendously after the war like two other countries did.
Little Finland won the sympathy and respect of the world fighting off the Russian Bear in the 1939-40 Winter War.
"Sisu"
Little Japan won the respect and the admiration of the world beating the snot out of the Russian Bear in 1904-05.
Bonzai!
