Here we go again-Ukraine once again

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by Exocet25fr

This is from six months ago.
Not that I think their minds have changed ..

[Jimbuna]

A Russian mercenary boss has defended the idea of sending prisoners to fight in the Ukraine war after a video showed him recruiting at a prison.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group, said those who do not want to send convicts to fight should send their own children instead.

Earlier, leaked footage showed him telling inmates they would be freed if they served six months with his group.

The Wagner group is believed to have been fighting in Ukraine since 2014.

In a statement published on social media after the video went viral, Mr Prigozhin said that if he were in prison he would "dream of" joining the Wagner group to "pay my debt to the Motherland".

He added a message to those who do not want mercenaries or prisoners to fight.

"It's either private military companies and prisoners, or your children - decide for yourself."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62922152

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

A Russian mercenary boss has defended the idea of sending prisoners to fight in the Ukraine war after a video showed him recruiting at a prison.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group, said those who do not want to send convicts to fight should send their own children instead.

Earlier, leaked footage showed him telling inmates they would be freed if they served six months with his group.

The Wagner group is believed to have been fighting in Ukraine since 2014.

In a statement published on social media after the video went viral, Mr Prigozhin said that if he were in prison he would "dream of" joining the Wagner group to "pay my debt to the Motherland".

He added a message to those who do not want mercenaries or prisoners to fight.

"It's either private military companies and prisoners, or your children - decide for yourself."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62922152

Prigozhin forgot the best option which is get out of the Ukraine and go home-while you still can.

[mapuc]

Maybe it's only me-When I see these picture with Putin and Xi together the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact poppes up in my head.

Markus

[Catfish]

The people of Ukraine welcome their russian liberators,
updates from occupied cities:

The Kherson regional administration building was hit with at least five rockets while a lot of the locally appointed occupation authorities were in it. A large part of the building was destroyed and many russian officials were killed.

In Berdyansk, the regional organizers (husband and wife) of the separatist referendums were found killed in their homes, assassinated.

In Lugasnk, the general prosecutor was assassinated when a bomb went off inside of his own office. (it goes to show just how much partisans are active even within the Donbass.)

The chief of staff of Donetsk in a Freudian slip up said that in contrast to what Vladimir Putin says, his people don't fight for their motherland, they loot for their motherland.

[Exocet25fr]

Zaluzhny warns Putin of 'immediate risk' of nuclear war:

https://inf.news/en/military/030b0fc...3928e1fa3.html

[Exocet25fr]

The reason why is Putin unhappy and dangerous:

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Originally Posted by mapuc

It's only 1 or 2 Person in Russia who has the power to press the button

If the button is pressed, will they work? I'm guessing the budget set aside for nuclear weapons maintenance has largely been siphoned off into oligarchs's pockets.

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by Dargo

"Reports of Georgian Army units moving towards the borders of South Ossetia"

Georgian officials have repeatedly announced they will not launch a war to retake Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and the US and EU do not want them to do so either. It's not happening. https://twitter.com/NeilPHauer/statu...86022559105028

Information spread by some unreliable sources that Georgian military units are moving towards Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) does NOT reflect the truth. https://twitter.com/visionergeo/stat...71629825736705

Dude, no way I googled it.

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by Exocet25fr

The reason why is Putin unhappy and dangerous:

Nobody cares why Putin is unhappy. Especially when he enlists convicted theives, murders and rapists to invade another’s country

[Buddahaid]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

Nobody cares why Putin is unhappy. Especially when he enlists convicted theives, murders and rapists to invade another’s country

I care. I'd like him to feel a rope around his neck!

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

I care. I'd like him to feel a rope around his neck!

Putin and all amphibian sympathizers.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Commander Wallace

Prigozhin forgot the best option which is get out of the Ukraine and go home-while you still can.

True that

[Jimbuna]

Mass exhumations at Izyum forest graves site

In a pine forest at the edge of Izyum the stench of death filled the air as a mass exhumation got under way.

The earth is giving up its secrets. Ukrainian officials believe war crimes have been committed, which they are determined to document.

Around 100 Ukrainian emergency service workers wearing blue plastic coverings dug into the earth, opening makeshift graves.

They are trying to establish the cause of death of hundreds of people buried in a forest at the edge of the city, recently liberated by advancing Ukrainian forces.

Izyum, invaded in April, was used by Russia as a key military hub to supply its forces from the east.

The exhumation was conducted mostly in silence, as police and prosecutors looked on. One officer put his head in his hands. Another walked away.

Kharkiv regional prosecutor Olexander Ilyenkov says there is no doubt war crimes have been committed here.

"In the first grave, there is a civilian who has a rope over her neck. So we see the traces of torture," he told the BBC.

He said almost everyone died because of Russian soldiers.

"Some of them were killed, some were tortured, some were killed because of Russian Federation air and artillery strikes."

Ukraine was determined to show this disturbing sight to the world. Convoys of international journalists were brought to watch on.

The burial ground - beside an existing cemetery - contains row after row of graves, marked by crude wooden crosses.

Names were written on a few, but most were marked only by a number. The burials here were carried out under the orders of the Russians when they were in control.

Ukrainian police say there are 445 new graves at the site, but some contain more than one body. It's unclear how all of them died. Many are said to be civilians, women and children among them.

Prosecutors say some were killed by Russian shelling and others were victims of a Russian airstrike on an apartment block in March, in which 47 people were killed.

Officials say one grave contained around 20 soldiers, some with their hands bound and one with a noose around his neck. The body of a man in military uniform was exhumed and zipped into a white body bag.

As the graves were opened there were sporadic explosions in the distance as the security forces worked to de-mine the area.

72-year-old Hryhorii came to the burial site today to see the grave of his wife, Ludmilla. He told us she was killed on 7 March during heavy shelling in Izyum.

He first had to bury her in the yard of their home, then she was reburied in August. Now her remains will be disturbed once again.

It's only now, since the Russians have been pushed out, that Ukraine can carry out detailed investigations here, and can determine how many victims the occupiers left behind.

A woman who lived opposite the forest told us Russians troops had kept locals away from the cemetery.

A local man named Maxim appeared at the burial site, asking journalists to record his account of torture.

He said he was detained by the Russians in early September, and released by Ukrainian forces when they arrived in Izyum last Saturday (10 September).

He showed us the marks on his wrists caused by handcuffs, and said he had been subjected to electric shocks.

A senior advisor to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky told the BBC evidence of torture was found in some areas recently retaken by Ukrainian forces.

"We saw wildly frightened people who were kept without light, without food, without water, and without the right to justice," Mykhailo Podolyak said.

Kharkiv prosecutor Mr Ilyenkov said several similar burial sites had been found in areas recently retaken by Ukrainian forces.

US national security spokesman John Kirby said reports of the graves in Izyum were "horrifying" but "in keeping with the kind of depravity and the brutality with which Russian forces have been prosecuting this war against Ukraine".

"We're going to continue to actively support efforts to document war crimes and atrocities that Russian forces commit in Ukraine and to assist national and international efforts to identify and hold Russians accountable," he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned "in the strongest possible terms" what he described as the "atrocities" committed in Izyum.

British lawyer Nigel Povoas, who specialises in the prosecution and investigation of major international and transnational crime and who has just returned from Izyum, told the BBC's Newshour he would not be surprised if the exhumations revealed evidence of war crimes.

"I think that the early signs at the moment - although it's very very early - is that some of the bodies have died from shelling or malnutrition and a lack of healthcare," he said. "But as normal bodies are tested and the cause of death determined, I would expect there to be also evidence of torture and executions, because it follows a pattern of what's been happening in the occupied territories."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62931224

[Jimbuna]

Ukraine counter-offensive won't change Russia's plans – Putin

Ukraine's recent counter-offensive will not change Russia's plans, Vladimir Putin has said in his first public comments on the matter.

In a rapid counter-attack, Ukrainian forces say they captured over 8,000 sq km (3,000 sq miles) in six days in the north-eastern Kharkiv region.

But Mr Putin said he was not in a hurry, and the offensive in Ukraine's Donbas region remains on track.

He also noted that Russia had so far not deployed its full forces.

"Our offensive operation in the Donbas is not stopping. They're moving forward - not at a very fast pace - but they are gradually taking more and more territory," he said after a summit in Uzbekistan.

The industrial Donbas region in east Ukraine is the focus of Russia's invasion, which Mr Putin falsely claims is necessary to save Russian-speakers from genocide.

Parts of the Donbas have been occupied by Russian-backed separatists since 2014. The Kharkiv region, where Ukraine's recent counter-attack was launched, is not part of the Donbas.

In Friday's comments, Mr Putin threatened a "more serious" response if Ukrainian attacks continue.

"I remind you that the Russian army isn't fighting in its entirety... Only the professional army is fighting."

Russia initially denied sending conscript soldiers to Ukraine, but several officers were disciplined after cases came to light of conscripts being forced to sign contracts and in some instances being taken prisoner.

So far, Russia has not officially declared war on Ukraine and only refers to its invasion as a "special military operation".

But after Russia's recent losses, some pro-Kremlin commentators have called for more forces to be mobilised. A recent leaked video which appears to show an attempt to recruit convicts to a private military company suggests Russia is struggling to find enough men willing to fight.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62934875