Article

2022-02-26 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

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Posted by badanov 2022-02-26 00:00|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [11130 views ] Top

#1 Now heavy fighting continues in Vasilkovo in places where the occupiers are trying to land troops from the air. Near Kiev, the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the night of Saturday, February 26, destroyed a Russian Il-76 aircraft with paratroopers on board. This is reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Followup:
Meanwhile, the mayor of a city south of the capital says the country's military has fended off a Russian attempt to take control of a military air base.

Natalia Balansynovych, mayor of Vasylkiv, about 25 miles south of Kyiv, said Russian airborne forces landed near the city overnight and tried to seize the base. She added that fierce fighting also raged in Vasylkiv's central street.

She said Ukrainian forces repelled the Russian attacks, and the situation is now calm. Ms Balansynovych said there were heavy casualties, but did not give any numbers.

Posted by Angaiper Ulavins1210 2022-02-26 03:46|| 2022-02-26 03:46|| Front Page Top

#2 This could be costly. Same link as #1:

Ukraine's government said earlier on Friday night that they had shot down two Russian military transport planes carrying paratroopers on the outskirts of Kyiv.

The first IL-76 came down near Vasylkiv, 20 miles south of Kyiv, the Ukrainian military said.

The second IL-76 was shot down near Bila Tserkva, 50 miles south of the capital, Nexta reported.

The fate of those onboard was unclear. The aircrafts - medium-range military transport aircraft, which first went into service in 1974 - can hold 150-225 fully-equipped soldiers, and is used to drop paratroopers into combat and resupply arms.

Posted by Angaiper Ulavins1210 2022-02-26 03:54|| 2022-02-26 03:54|| Front Page Top

#3 Battle map

Posted by Angaiper Ulavins1210 2022-02-26 04:19|| 2022-02-26 04:19|| Front Page Top

#4 Update on last night's fighting in Kyiv's outskirt.
In Kyiv, in the area of the Beresteiska metro station, the enemy tried to attack a military unit of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at night, the attack was repulsed, the saboteurs were destroyed, but the bridge across Peremohy Avenue was damaged.

Posted by Angaiper Ulavins1210 2022-02-26 04:48|| 2022-02-26 04:48|| Front Page Top

#5 Towed artillery battery rolling out of Crimea destroyed near Kherson.
The Ukrainian military has defeated a column of Russian occupiers in the Kherson region between Radensk and Oleshky.

According to Ukrinform, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, announced this on Telegram.

"The complete defeat of a column of Russian occupiers between Radensk and Oleshky. Dozens of corpses of Russian occupiers. Those who were not destroyed fled into the woods. The search for them is underway," he said.

Posted by Angaiper Ulavins1210 2022-02-26 06:43|| 2022-02-26 06:43|| Front Page Top

#6 No plan survives first contact.

Which side can get their units to act without having to await a mother-my-I and can improvise will have an advantage over another that can not.

Posted by Procopius2k 2022-02-26 07:27|| 2022-02-26 07:27|| Front Page Top

#7 Good work, AU.

Posted by Skidmark 2022-02-26 08:00|| 2022-02-26 08:00|| Front Page Top

Stanytsya Luhanska in Donbas seized by Russians.
Civilians have abandoned the city. pic.twitter.com/m0PSYiw0WT
— Illia Ponomarenko (@IAPonomarenko) February 26, 2022

Posted by badanov 2022-02-26 08:14|| 2022-02-26 08:14|| Front Page Top

Posted by Frank G 2022-02-26 08:50|| 2022-02-26 08:50|| Front Page Top

#10 It would appear Putin has planned this invasion for a long time and that his "annexation" of Crimea in 2014 was to establish a strongpoint to the south in preparation for the current action. That, and the cultivation of Belarus on the north, put him in a good position to quickly cut-off Kiev. Having said that, one has to wonder if the whole Ukrainian action is also part of a long range plan, e.g. it puts him in a strong position to take the Baltic States.

This whole thing is spinning out of control. I don't think NATO will/can act resolutely. The Iron Curtain is once again descending.

Of course our "intelligence services" never saw any of this coming. They were focused on getting rid of Trump.

Posted by Besoeker 2022-02-26 09:16|| 2022-02-26 09:16|| Front Page Top

#11 #5 the Finns had that experience with their neighbors too.

Posted by Procopius2k 2022-02-26 09:25|| 2022-02-26 09:25|| Front Page Top

#12 Could sucking the bastids into Kyiv be a strategy? I believe it used to be referred to as an "active defense." Comments? corrections?

Posted by Besoeker 2022-02-26 09:28|| 2022-02-26 09:28|| Front Page Top

#13 The Russins claim it's about "demilitarization." That will entail either a large amount of attrition or a full surrender.

Posted by M. Murcek 2022-02-26 09:42|| 2022-02-26 09:42|| Front Page Top

#14 ...well their record in Chechnya wasn't great in urban fighting, particularly trying to execute a coup de main. They finally succeeded only in the old Soviet way in a slow systematic massive artillery manner. That took months. Putin in for that?

Posted by Procopius2k 2022-02-26 09:45|| 2022-02-26 09:45|| Front Page Top

#15 Apparently the Russians didn't learn from Grozny.

Posted by DarthVader 2022-02-26 09:49|| 2022-02-26 09:49|| Front Page Top

#16 Good news: 2nd attack on Chernihiv failed. Grad rockets pounded the city. First failed so bad that the Russians abandoned that route even though it is the shortest route from Russian territory to Kyiv.

Bad news: Small? armored breakthrough from Crimea axis.
Mykolaiv Regional State Administration Head Vitalii Kim on Telegram, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“We have received the command ‘all-round defense’. We have information that 12 tanks have broken through from the Kakhovka direction, and enemy forces are following them,” Kim told.

Posted by Angaiper Ulavins1210 2022-02-26 10:10|| 2022-02-26 10:10|| Front Page Top

#17 This one-minute BBC video sort of illustrates Putin's problem. Size of dog in fight versus size of fight in dog.

By the way, my vote is that the Ukranian woman in the video be appointed US Secretary of Defense with immediate effect.

Posted by Matt 2022-02-26 10:15|| 2022-02-26 10:15|| Front Page Top

#18 Could sucking the bastids into Kyiv be a strategy? I believe it used to be referred to as an "active defense." Comments? corrections?

Video out of a couple wheeled APCs getting absolutely ambushed by molotovs.

Posted by swksvolFF 2022-02-26 11:11|| 2022-02-26 11:11|| Front Page Top

#19 *BTRs I think; it is very dark, then very bright, the recorder moving and using cover, but I think they got 'em.

Posted by swksvolFF 2022-02-26 11:15|| 2022-02-26 11:15|| Front Page Top

#20 Those vehicles got roasted as did their occupants.

Posted by Rex Mundi 2022-02-26 11:24|| 2022-02-26 11:24|| Front Page Top

#21 Video of Ukrainian troops in combat. Seems the speaker is claiming the burning tanks/vehicles are Russian. One of them has a British NLAW.

Posted by DarthVader 2022-02-26 12:01|| 2022-02-26 12:01|| Front Page Top

#22 Ukrainian BBQ some Russians

No kill like overkill.

Posted by Silentbrick 2022-02-26 12:03|| 2022-02-26 12:03|| Front Page Top

#23 Damn Silentbrick. They don't play with just a couple Molotovs. That was a gas station worth frying that BTR.

Posted by DarthVader 2022-02-26 12:09|| 2022-02-26 12:09|| Front Page Top

#24 That's the video.
"Its amazing, the number of hunters who have been killed by dead lions."

Posted by swksvolFF 2022-02-26 12:10|| 2022-02-26 12:10|| Front Page Top

#25 Sadly it seems that was from 2014. But I see no reason why they would not repeat it.

Posted by Silentbrick 2022-02-26 12:24|| 2022-02-26 12:24|| Front Page Top

#26 The APCs will stand off and rake the barriers and buildings with their autocannon. Different rules in war and police actions.

Posted by Angaiper Ulavins1210 2022-02-26 12:34|| 2022-02-26 12:34|| Front Page Top

#27 Russian authorities have cut off access to Twitter , there are problems with the Internet, social networks are barely working.

Posted by badanov 2022-02-26 12:48|| 2022-02-26 12:48|| Front Page Top

#28 Those people have to be seriously pissed off to fight that way.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2022-02-26 12:59|| 2022-02-26 12:59|| Front Page Top

#29 HBelluva butcher's bill:

More than 55 hours of resistance. Our defenders have completely destroyed the enemy's plans. As of this morning, the number of destroyed Russian occupiers exceeded 3,000 persons - Defense Minister

Posted by badanov 2022-02-26 13:06|| 2022-02-26 13:06|| Front Page Top

#30 Cossack martial traditions include the womenfolk:

Posted by trailing wife 2022-02-26 13:11|| 2022-02-26 13:11|| Front Page Top

#31 Russian blogger/correspondents such as Rozhin and Chervenets are slowing way down in their presentations. Very little information coming from them.

Must been read the Riot Act by Russian FSB.

Posted by badanov 2022-02-26 13:27|| 2022-02-26 13:27|| Front Page Top

#32

Today, Ukraine's railway workers blew up all connections with the Russian railways. That is important to block future military supplies.https://t.co/lfvTC6VmOY
— Anders Åslund (@anders_aslund) February 26, 2022

Posted by badanov 2022-02-26 13:30|| 2022-02-26 13:30|| Front Page Top

#33 There are a thousand ways this could get really, uh, interesting. If Vlad decides on a no-more-Mr. Nice Guy strategy and pounds Kyiv into rubble regardless of civilian casualties, how do NATO and its individual members react? Even if NATO's official position doesn't change, it just takes a handful of pissed-off (e.g.) Polish fighter pilots to decide that a massacre is beyond their tolerance. And just how far are the Russians themslves willing to follow Vlad's lead?

Posted by Matt 2022-02-26 13:44|| 2022-02-26 13:44|| Front Page Top

#34