https://www.politico.eu/article/rus...-group-yevgeny-prigozhin-bakhmut-ukraine-war/ The feud between the mercenaries of the Kremlin-connected Wagner Group and the ordinary Russian army appears to be escalating, amid reports of exchanges of friendly fire. Russian soldiers shot at Wagner paramilitaries near Bakhmut — the eastern Ukrainian town which has seen brutal attritional battles for territory — destroying a truck, the mercenary group claimed Sunday evening. In response, Wagner claimed to have detained the commander of the Russian army’s 72nd brigade, on Monday releasing a video of him appearing to confess to giving the order to fire on the mercenaries’ vehicle, claiming he did so while drunk because he personally disliked the group. The officer, who introduced himself as Lieutenant-Colonel Roman Gennadievich Venivitin, appeared to have been roughed up by his captors. The video came after Wagner released a statement, signed by a “commander” of the group, stating that he had received information that members of the official Russian army had been seen “mining the roads in the rear zone” of Wagner’s positions around Opytnoye and Ozarianovka, two towns in the Bakhmut area, on May 17. Wagner forces began clearing the mines from the roads, but had to stop after coming under “small arms fire” from a Russian army brigade in Semigorje, a town about 20 kilometers south of Bakhmut, the statement said.
I mean, it's not good or anything, but didn't Ukraine expect Russia to blow up the dam to stop their offensive? If I recall correctly, Ukraine destroyed one of their own dams and many bridges to slow the initial Russian invasion. It'd be a false equivalency to say if Ukrainians can blow up their own infrastructure than Russia can blow up their stuff too. But, its war. They've been killing people too. It's all bad. But being outraged kinda makes it sound like they're surprised.
Yes a lot of this reporting is being spun to be anti Russia while Ukraine was commended for blowing up infrastructure in the early days of the war. That doesn’t mean this is a benign action by the Russians and does show they are desperate. The reservoir they blew up also was a major source of water for Crimea along with cooling for the Nuclear plant. If they have hope of holding onto Ukrainian territory for the long term this hurts their ability to do so.
This was a huge reservoir that will have a major impact on the food production of Ukraine and her citizens, both in free Ukraine and in Russian occupied Ukraine. The infrastructure Ukraine had blown up earlier, including dams, were very minor structures. Nothing remotely compared to this. This is truly a catastrophe. The Russian side of the Dnieper River is/was heavily mined and now those mines are being buried in the mud, god knows where, and some are exploding. I expect civilian casualties from this to be added to a host of other civilian deaths caused by Russian madness.
Russian forces at the front lines doesn't strike me as the type to prioritize looking at the bigger picture or long term strategizing. Wild animals, at worst...lightly trained on a leash, at best
what an odd comment. I'm certain they have a contingency, but it's still an atrocity. Ukraine blowing up bridges and dams to slow an invasion is a fundamentally different proposition from Russia blowing up dams as part of their invasion. it's a humanitarian catastrophe, and a war crime. outrage is merited.
Yes this is fundamentally different because the scale is essentially like what you'd expect from a Tsunami or a Katrina type of event at the very least. -Could there be a military reason for Ukraine to do this??... Yes. We cannot forget that it's a possibility strategically to cut off Crimea's water supply. -Could there be a military reason for Russia to do this??... Yes... it could significantly slow troop movements in the South So it's a question of who sees the most pain vs. military strategy reward. IMO there are much less costly ways of trying to seize Crimea than destroying a good chunk of your own country in the process. It makes little sense unless it ends the war within 2 months because Russia has to evacuate all of Crimea, Ukraine's offensive cuts off the north and traps most of Russia's troops between Donetsk and Mariupol. In terms of military strategy I know that you never want to have your forces cut off from the sea where you essentially become a sitting duck. I guess we'll have to wait for the US to declassify whatever evidence they have to prove it was Russia, but circumstantially this certainly looks like it would be Russia inflicting a massive warcrime because they are losing on the battlefield pretty bad, and this is a last ditch effort to bide time until hopefully they can get political changes in the West that'll leave Ukraine stranded over time.
There are also suggestions out there that Russian mismanagement/neglect may have led to the dam failure and it may not have been intentional sabotage. Some reports say Russian mismanagement of the facility led to the incident. In recent days, high water levels suggest the reservoir could have been perilously overfilled, causing the dam collapse. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/e...ronmental-crisis-following-ukraine-dam-breach Which wouldn't be surprising either.
Listening to more news since that comment, I see I underestimated the scale of the catastrophe. Maybe Ukraine should have seen it coming, but this is looking pretty horrendous.
