ok what the fuck is happening in ukraine

Bringing back the exchange prisoners from Turkey does seem strange to me, for two reasons

1) Will this make future prisoner exchanges less likely? That would worry me if I had someone still in Russian captivity, of which there must be many
2) Will this have a negative impact on the grain deal renegotiations?

As for cluster munitions, I think its a mixture of us running out of other stuff (which seems sort of weird?) and them being suited to clearing out minefields and/or entrenched positions. I presume doesn't plan to use them in urban environments but don't know if they've come with strings attached about where they can use them or not

About the dud ratio, I heard something along lines of they're supposed to disarm after a period of time if they don't go off, but heard very much in passing

Ukraine's MoD, fwiw:

We welcome the decision of the US to provide Ukraine with the new liberation weapons that will significantly help us to de-occupy our territories while saving the lives of the Ukrainian soldiers.

Under Article 51 of the UN Charter Ukraine has a universal internationally recognised right to self-defence and thus we have been officially requesting these types of munitions for a long time.
I would like to stress that in exercising our inalienable right to self-defence we will continue to strictly comply with all the international humanitarian conventions signed and ratified by Ukraine.

It is important to note that the russian federation has been indiscriminately using cluster munitions from day 1 of the unprovoked large-scale aggression. In February-March 2022 Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city with over a million population, was relentlessly bombarded by russians cluster munitions.

Our position is simple - we need to liberate our temporarily occupied territories and save the lives of our people. For this we need to inflict losses on the enemy - war criminals, rapists and looters - who are occupying our territories. The more losses we inflict on them the more lives of Ukrainian people we will be able to save.

It is in our interest to save the lives of our soldiers. This is why we will continue to do this using all lethal weapons available to us.

Regarding the cluster munitions, we have 5 key principles which we will abide by and which we have clearly communicated to all our partners, including the US. I have personally informed our US partners about these five principles in writing a long time ago.

1. Ukraine will use these munitions only for the de-occupation of our internationally recognised territories. These munitions will not be used on the officially recognized territory of russia.

2. We will not be using cluster munitions in urban areas (cities) to avoid the risks for the civilian populations - these are our people, they are Ukrainians we have a duty to protect.
Cluster munitions will be used only in the fields where there is a concentration of russian military. They will be used to break through the enemy defence lines with minimum risk for the lives of our soldiers. Saving the lives of our troops, even during extremely difficult offensive operations, remains our top priority.

3. Ukraine will keep a strict record of the use of these weapons and the local zones where they will be used.

4. Based on these records, after the de-occupation of our territories and our victory these territories will be prioritised for the purposes of de-mining. This will enable us to eradicate the risk from the unexploded elements of cluster munitions.
The Minister of Defence of Ukraine is by law acting as the Head of the national de-mining agency. In this capacity I will ensure the implementation of the relevant legal framework for the de-mining process after our victory.

5. We will report to our partners about the use of these munitions, and about their efficiency to ensure the appropriate standard of transparent reporting and control.

I don't know if this was shared earlier, but this is some crazy, graphic combat footage from last April... (probably NSFW):

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/12rreg7/full_video_of_the_combat_between_gonor_group_of/

As noted in the comments, the squad leader is pretty amazing

Interesting interview from last month with someone from Right Sector who has been fighting in Bakhmut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erOM1N6FtWg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrfTsj_zTRs

Russia launched a second straight day of attacks on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, targeting the port itself and critical grain export infrastructure, Ukrainian authorities said. The attacks follow Russia’s withdrawal from a U.N.-brokered grain deal under which Russian forces blockading Ukraine’s ports would allow ships to leave it for agricultural exports.
...In a pivot since it pulled out of the grain deal, Russia also said that all vessels sailing toward Ukrainian ports will be considered military cargo carriers.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Five European Union countries will extend their ban on Ukrainian grain imports to protect their farmers’ interests, their agriculture ministers said Wednesday, but food can still move through their land to parts of the world in need after Russia pulled out of a deal safeguarding Black Sea shipments...

17
MONIKA SCISLOWSKA
Updated Wed, July 19, 2023 at 10:34 AM CDT·4 min read
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Five European Union countries will extend their ban on Ukrainian grain imports to protect their farmers’ interests, their agriculture ministers said Wednesday, but food can still move through their land to parts of the world in need after Russia pulled out of a deal safeguarding Black Sea shipments.

The ministers of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria signed a joint declaration ahead of EU discussions on the matter planned next week in Brussels. The declaration said they support continuing to allow Ukraine's grain to move through their borders by road, rail and river to destinations where it is needed but will keep the import ban to their countries through 2023.

“This coalition is not against anyone, not against Ukraine or the EU, it is in the interest of our farmers,” Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus said after meeting with his counterparts in Warsaw, where they decided to push the ban beyond a Sept. 15 deadline.

Except for Bulgaria, all the countries border Ukraine, which faced a major blow Monday when Russia pulled out of a breakthrough accord brokered by the U.N. and Turkey to allow Ukrainian food to be shipped through the Black Sea to countries where millions are going hungry. Ukraine is a major exporter of wheat, barley, vegetable oil and corn.

The five agricultural ministers and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who met with them, said Ukrainian grain previously got stuck in their countries, leading to a glut that drove down prices for their farmers, and they don't want to see that happen again.

The ministers urged the EU to work out mechanisms that will get Ukrainian grain and other food to their destinations without hurting the agricultural industry in transit countries.

“Today the EU should build proper law and infrastructure tools to regulate transport of Ukraine grain in the long term,” Telus said.

“We want to help Ukraine in the transit," he said.

...The Black Sea Grain Initiative, which was brokered in a bid to end a global food crisis caused by Russia's war in Ukraine, has allowed an additional 32.9 million metric tons to get to the world, according to the U.N.

...Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that his government is working on solutions to keep exporting through the Black Sea despite Russia pulling its safety guarantees for ships.

Elon, Vlad, Starlink, Ukraine (not paywalled, though some ads)
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/28/elon-musks-shadow-rule
Maybe a coincidence: no more headline news will be allowed on X (also you can't block in your feed anymore, just in DMs)

Reports coming in that Prigozhin was on a plane that crashed near Tver. Not completely clear whether Russia or Ukraine took it down.

According to the Russian Aviation Authority, Prigozhin was among the passengers of the plane. https://t.co/w6uqNGJckh

— Aric Toler (@AricToler) August 23, 2023

Seems almost certain to have been Russia.

Poor plane fell out of a hospital window.

pilot was poisoned

shocking development

ah weird

seemed inevitable something like this would happen. hopefully not too many civilians onboard

seemed inevitable something like this would happen. hopefully not too many civilians onboard

https://tenor.com/bh7A9.gif

looks to have been a private plane, maybe ten onboard?

the day the coup-zic died

should have driven to moscow *taps forehead*

Well I never, what are the chances... well pretty high actually.

i personally wouldnt do business with putin thats just me

imagine being one of the passengers and you see Prigozhin is on the same flight. I would ne off that plane in ten seconds.

look this is a huge loss to the mercenary community

touchable

Seven onboard but plane owned by Prigozhin so idk if likely to be anything you could plausibly call a civilian.

Had the pleasure of meeting Yevgeny Prigozhin in a torture chamber once. He was surprisingly down to earth, and VERY funny.

a big fan of DJ Sprinkles, I've heard from a pal.

look forward to the biopic about this complicated and flawed individual. hope it opens with his hand grazing listlessly across the tops of wheat as he walks across the steppe, into the sunrise.

rest in (failed grasp for) power

the saddest thing is the world may never get a full answer to "what the fuck was you thinking?"

Heaven needed a chef-warlord.

even more down to earth now

(or else quietly retired happy and safe to south america, martin bormann his ageing neighbour etc)

Лол, лмао

RIH big man (also holy shit)

I think we're going to need an international investigation into why it took Putin so long to do this

there's a video out there supposedly showing this from afar, a very shaky one.

I think we're going to need an international investigation into why it took Putin so long to do this

― hardcore technician gimmicks are also another popular choice f (President Keyes), Wednesday, August 23, 2023 1:41 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

prob wanted to wait til prigozhin was starting to feel like things were going to be ok

xpost any visible space lasers?

I’m sorry but that photo of him on CNN looks like someone gave a camo hat and a gun to either Statler or Waldorf.

I guess that might be down to how the official line plays out (needed time to engineer an ‘accident’, etc).

no space lasers but a leisurely smoking fall from a great height into what was hopefully an unoccupied area.

the wagner operation in africa is important to russia and theres no guarantee the government will just be able to keep it running, which was one theory as to why prigozhin was still walking around, but i guess putin feels like thats not as important as balancing the ledger

he was hiding in his underground mercenary clubhouse for ages, with no windows, no balconies

An eyewitness talking as the plane literally is still falling from the sky notes that there were two explosions before the plane started following, matching other testimonies given to Russian media.https://t.co/FPtOFw1RY1 pic.twitter.com/CYRYcleKhZ

— Aric Toler (@AricToler) August 23, 2023

a moments silence at BRICS 15, this is michael tracey reporting

Dmitry Utkin also apparently onboard, another Wagner big shot.

poor choice of words there

reliability warning -- this is julia ioffe

Some Telegram channels associated with Wagner are saying that there’s a second Prigozhin plane, now zig-zagging over Moscow, and that Prigozhin might be on it. Wishful thinking? https://t.co/nL2oqQvI4S

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) August 23, 2023

Conspiracy Twitter deciding that Prigozhin faked his own death, citing as evidence that his Wikipedia entry already lists him as dead. Do you guys not know how fast Wiki Death Ghouls are?

https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000270571664-lygkdn-t500x500.jpg