Note: Bentley was a convicted American drug smuggler, originally from Minnesota.
Text taken from the V Kontakte page of Informant.
[VK] The Investigative Committee has completed the preliminary investigation into the murder of Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley.
According to investigators, on April 8, 2024, in Donetsk, servicemen Vansyatsky, Agaltsev and Iordanov used physical violence and torture against him, resulting in his death. On the same day, Vansyatsky and Agaltsev blew up a VAZ 2115 car
…apparently some sort of Lada…
with his body with a TNT block.
On April 9, 2024, on the instructions of Vansyatsky, a serviceman of the same military unit, Bazhin, committed concealment of a particularly serious crime by moving Bentley's remains from the scene of the incident.
It is too early to talk about the trial date while the accused are familiarizing themselves with the materials of the criminal case. According to the law, the case will then be transferred to the prosecutor's office for approval of the indictment and sending to court.
▫Russell Bentley is a 64-year-old American who fought on the side of the DPR. He was a war correspondent. He is married to a Russian. According to her, on the afternoon of April 8, she and her husband came "on personal business" to the executive committee of the Petrovsky district of Donetsk, where the couple had lived for the past several years. At that moment, shelling from the Ukrainian Armed Forces began.
Russell was said to have gone to help the wounded, after which he disappeared. At the same time, the war correspondent's white Niva, which was parked near the motor pool, disappeared.
[Breitbart] A blaze tore through a Russian arms depot deep inside the country, triggering explosions and the closure of a major highway, after Ukraine overnight launched over 100 drones at Russia and occupied Crimea, Russian news reports and the Defense Ministry said.
The depot appeared to be just kilometers (miles) from another that was struck by Ukrainian drones early Wednesday, injuring 13 people and also causing a huge fire.
Russian authorities on Saturday closed a 100-kilometer (62-mile) stretch of a highway and evacuated passengers from a nearby rail station after the fire caused a series of explosions. Posts on local Telegram channels on the messaging app said a missile depot was struck near the town of Toropets, in Russia’s Tver region about 380 kilometers (240 miles) northwest of Moscow and about 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Unverified images circulating on Telegram showed a large ball of flame rising into the night sky and dozens of smoke trails from detonations.
An ammunition depot and missile arsenal in southwestern Russia also caught fire in a separate attack Saturday in the Krasnodar region, triggering evacuations after the blaze caused a series of blasts. Videos on social media showed bright orange clouds rising over the horizon, as dull thuds of detonations sounded almost continuously.
Russia’s Defense Ministry early on Saturday claimed that its forces overnight shot down 101 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory and occupied Crimea. There were no immediate reports of casualties in either Russian region.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22:25 The US plans to announce a major military aid package for Ukraine next week. However, supplies are likely to be delayed due to a shortage of supplies, CNN reports. Artillery, air defense systems and other ammunition are expected to be provided. This package will be significantly larger than recent ones, which hovered around $200 million.
21:34 Russians attacked Dnepr - the building of the educational center was partially destroyed, according to preliminary information, one person was wounded, reported the head of the OVA Sergey Lysak. In addition, during the day the enemy attacked the Nikopol district, one person was injured. Infrastructure, a gas station, three multi-story buildings and four private houses were damaged.
20:52 Zelensky confirmed that the Ukrainian side is preparing for talks in the US with Biden and both presidential candidates Harris and Trump. According to him, in the US he will present a specific action plan that will "bring victory and a just peace closer."
18:36 Russians fired mortar shells at the village of Ivashki in the Zolochiv community of the Kharkiv region - three people were wounded, reported the head of the OVA Oleg Sinegubov. In addition, two people were killed and at least two were wounded as a result of enemy shelling of Kovsharovka in the Kupyansk district.
18:30 Zelensky reported that he held an important meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Headquarters, where they discussed protecting the energy sector this winter, including taking into account the Patriot systems that are due to arrive soon; domestic production of missiles, drones and electronic warfare systems; and the situation at the front.
17:53 Russians carried out two KAB strikes on the Slobodsky and Osnovyansky districts of Kharkov - three people were injured, reported the head of the OVA Oleg Sinegubov.
17:39 When the EU promised Ukraine 1 million rounds of ammunition, officials did not know whether the bloc's countries would be able to produce that much, said the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell: "When the war in Ukraine began and we promised to give it 1 million shells, we said this without knowing whether we could. And then it turned out that we couldn't... We are not in a state of war and we don't want to be. We are far from being able to replenish our armies, we are far from being able to provide Ukraine with all the necessary assistance. We have a very important technological gap, which in a geopolitical context becomes very threatening. We live in a harsh, conflict-ridden, fragmented world."
Come now, Mr. diplomatic head: Western Europe began the industrial age centuries ago. We know how to manufacture things in quantity, and how to ramp up production when needed. Release the factories!
17:02 On average, 6.5 thousand volunteers are recruited monthly in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense reported. More than 10 thousand vacancies are available to citizens, including cooks, repairmen, lawyers, drone operators, doctors and others. The department emphasized that summonses are not handed out in and around recruitment centers - this is directly prohibited by regulatory documents.
16:28 The Ministry of Finance clarified that the funds in the amount of up to 35 billion euros, the allocation of which was announced today by Ursula von der Leyen, are being transferred to Ukraine on a non-repayable basis: the loan will be repaid exclusively from future income from frozen Russian assets in the EU.
16:21 Russians hit Odessa with Iskander-M missiles - port and civilian infrastructure was damaged, as well as a civilian vessel under the flag of Antigua. Four people were injured, said OVA head Oleg Kiper.
16:17 Zelensky said that he intends to present a plan for victory to Biden on September 26.
16:08 The Russian Armed Forces fired artillery at Konstantinovka in Donetsk Oblast, wounding five people, the regional prosecutor’s office reported.
16:04 The IAEA adopted a resolution on nuclear safety in Ukraine, calling on Russia to immediately de-occupy the Zaporizhzhya NPP. The document was supported by 65 votes, with 52 agency member states co-sponsoring it. The resolution confirms that Ukrainian nuclear power plants, including the Zaporizhzhya NPP, must operate under the full sovereign control of Ukraine. Russia is also required to provide the IAEA with unlimited access to all facilities and information at the plant until the Zaporizhzhya NPP is returned to Ukrainian control.
15:20 Ukraine is living according to "plan B" because there has never been "plan A", Zelensky said: "Yesterday a journalist asked me a question: what will happen if Biden does not support your plan, do you have a "plan B"? I answered frankly: we are already in "plan B". We live and fight in it. We never had "plan A". Because "plan A" was to prevent a full-scale invasion, to strengthen Ukraine with weapons and preemptively sanction the Russian Federation so that it would be afraid even of the thought of a full-scale invasion."
The president also noted that his peace plan is designed for quick decisions by partners, "which should take place from October to December without delay - then it will work." According to the head of state, most decisions on the plan depend on Biden and other allies. "But there are points that depend on the positive will and support of the United States," Zelensky added.
15:11 A group of Ukrainian pilots has completed a six-month training course in France, the General Staff of the French Armed Forces reported. The pilots trained under an abbreviated program on Alphajet aircraft, whose instrument panel imitates the panel in the F-16.
15:03 An entire thermal power plant in Lithuania is currently being dismantled and transferred to Ukraine in parts, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during her visit to Kiev. She also said that Ukraine will independently determine how to spend 35 billion euros in loans from the European Commission. The funds will be directed, in particular, to defense, energy, and domestically produced weapons - long-range drones and air defense, Zelensky specified.
14:54 Employees of government agencies, military formations and critical infrastructure facilities have been banned from using Telegram on official devices, the National Security and Defense Council press service reported. The agency explained that Russian intelligence services may have access to the personal correspondence of Telegram users (even deleted messages), as well as their personal data.
14:15 There is a new stage of tension in relations between Ukraine and Poland. Historical disputes are re-emerging, and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has even suggested transferring Russian-occupied Crimea under a UN mandate and preparing it for a "fair referendum." Read more in the article Scandal with Poland's statement.
13:23 The European Commission will provide Ukraine with a loan of up to 35 billion euros as part of the G7 commitment. "This is another major contribution by the EU to the recovery of Ukraine," said EC President Ursula von der Leyen.
12:41 The constant flights of "shahids" into Ukraine are an element of reconnaissance, said the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Kovalenko. He explained that for the Russian Federation, "shahids" remain precisely a strike weapon at close range, and as for long range, their main function is reconnaissance.
"The increase in the production of tin cans also has its own goal - they want to reach almost a round-the-clock attack mode in the future, so that alarms in the regions become habitual. But two can play this game. And unlike us, Russian air defense is of a pinpoint nature and is not capable of fully covering Russia from UAVs. And the increase in the intensity of attacks in general will lead to more regular failures of the Russian air defense, like Toropets," predicts Kovalenko.
11:59 Russians are accommodating refugees from Sudzha in the Kursk region in Mariupol, said the mayor's adviser Petr Andryushchenko. According to him, Russian refugees are staying in temporary accommodation centers set up by the United Russia party. The "authorities" of the occupiers have chosen stolen Ukrainian property in the Primorsky district of Mariupol, not far from the sea, as a place for the refugees to stay.
11:27 A Russian drone has flown in close proximity to the Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant for the second time in recent days, said OVA head Serhiy Tyurin.
11:10 The Guardian writes that Moscow knew about the preparation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces operation in the Kursk region, but failed to prepare. At the end of August, the publication's journalists met with a Ukrainian special forces group, which seized documents from abandoned Russian positions and returned to Ukraine. Most of the documents came from units of the 488th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of Russia. The entry from January 4 spoke of the "potential for a breakthrough on the state border" of Ukrainian armed groups, after which there were several more warnings.
10:08 Air defense destroyed 61 out of 70 Shahed attack UAVs at night, another nine enemy drones were lost in several regions of Ukraine, the Air Force reported. In addition, the Russian army attacked the Donetsk region with three missiles of an unspecified type, and the Dnipropetrovsk region with a guided aircraft missile Kh-59, which was also shot down. Air defense forces worked in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Sumy, Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, Mykolaiv, Odessa and Kherson regions.
09:35 In the Kherson region, over the past day, five people were injured as a result of Russian shelling, reported the head of the OVA, Oleksandr Prokudin.
09:14 In Donetsk Oblast, three people were killed as a result of Russian shelling on September 19: two in Chasovy Yar and one in Konstantinovka. Another eight people in the oblast were injured in the past 24 hours, said OVA head Vadim Filashkin.
08:53 In the morning, Russians fired from MLRS at a farm in the village of Shestakovo, Chuguevsky district, Kharkiv region, two people were wounded, reported the head of the OVA Oleg Sinegubov. In addition, the day before, one person was injured as a result of enemy shelling in the urban-type settlement of Vilcha, Chuguevsky district, and another in the city of Kupyansk.
08:31 The General Staff announced the estimated losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of September 20:
personnel - about 639,480 (+1,340) people,
tanks - 8725 (+20),
combat armored vehicles - 17,132 (+39),
artillery systems - 18,212 (+35),
MLRS - 1189 (+0),
air defense systems - 949 (+2),
aircraft - 369 (+0),
helicopters - 328 (+0),
Operational-tactical level UAVs - 15,469 (+52),
cruise missiles - 2593 (+1),
ships/boats - 28 (+0),
submarines - 1 (+0),
automotive equipment and tank trucks - 24,898 (+59),
special equipment - 3115 (+6).
08:16 President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced that she had arrived in Kiev.
07:20 In Lviv Oblast, air defense forces shot down an enemy attack drone, and as a result of falling debris, a fire broke out in one of the villages on the territory of a former collective farm. The fire was quickly extinguished, three cars were damaged, and windows were broken in nearby residential buildings. No one was hurt, said OVA head Maksym Kozitsky.
02:48 The US Department of Defense is working with Congress to extend the president's authority to release all remaining funds for military support to Ukraine beyond the end of the fiscal year on September 30, said Deputy Pentagon Spokesperson Sabrina Singh, who assured that the government intends to "use every dollar and cent."
According to her, there are currently $5.8 billion in unused funds within the presidential powers for Ukraine. At the same time, Singh noted that the US Department of Defense cannot provide military assistance now, since there is nothing to replenish the reserves necessary to maintain the level of its own combat readiness. She recalled that for a long time, while Congress was adopting a large-scale aid package for Ukraine, the Pentagon could not replenish its reserves. Singh also assured that there is bipartisan agreement in Congress to support Ukraine.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Korrespondent] 11:59 Russians are accommodating refugees from Sudzha in the Kursk region in Mariupol, said the mayor's adviser Petr Andryushchenko. According to him, Russian refugees are staying in temporary accommodation centers set up by the United Russia party. The "authorities" of the occupiers have chosen stolen Ukrainian property in the Primorsky district of Mariupol, not far from the sea, as a place for the refugees to stay.
11:10 The Guardian writes that Moscow knew about the preparation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces operation in the Kursk region, but failed to prepare. At the end of August, the publication's journalists met with a Ukrainian special forces group, which seized documents from abandoned Russian positions and returned to Ukraine. Most of the documents came from units of the 488th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of Russia. The entry from January 4 spoke of the "potential for a breakthrough on the state border" of Ukrainian armed groups, after which there were several more warnings.
Several months before the start of the Ukrainian Armed Forces offensive in the Kursk region, the Russian command foresaw the possibility of such an operation.
During the Kursk operation, Ukrainian military personnel captured Russian army documentation. The documents were handed over to journalists from The Guardian by representatives of the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces (SOF) at the end of August. They show that the Russian command foresaw the possibility of such an operation several months before the Ukrainian Armed Forces began their offensive in the Kursk region.
EXPECTED AN OFFENSIVE
The documents include both printed orders sent to various units and handwritten journals, the publication writes. The earliest documents date back to the end of 2023, and the latest entries were made six weeks before Ukraine launched an operation in the Kursk region on August 6. The documents mostly came from small units of the 488th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Russian Armed Forces, including the second company of the 17th Battalion.
The Ukrainian operation in the Kursk region, writes The Guardian, “caught Kyiv’s Western allies and many members of the Ukrainian elite by surprise, as very few people were involved in the planning.” However, the publication emphasizes that documents seized from Russian military personnel indicate that warnings about a possible Ukrainian offensive and an attempt to occupy Sudzha were received for months before the operation began.
In particular, the document, dated January 4, speaks of the “potential for a breakthrough at the state border” in the Kursk region by Ukrainian units. It orders intensifying preparations to prevent an attack.
Another document, dated February 19, shows that unit commanders were warned of Ukrainian plans to “rapidly advance from the Sumy region into Russian territory to a depth of up to 80 kilometers in order to create a four-day “corridor” before the arrival of the main units of the Ukrainian army in armored vehicles.”
In mid-June, The Guardian reports, a specific warning was issued about plans for a Ukrainian offensive “in the direction of Yunakovka-Sudzha, with the aim of taking control of Sudzha.” The documents also show that Russian commanders predicted that Ukrainian forces would attempt to destroy the bridge over the Seim River in order to disrupt Russian supply lines in the region.
WE JUST RAN
Despite the fact that the Russian command admitted the possibility of a breakthrough of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region, the military complained about the lack of forces and insufficient training. Thus, one of the documents, dated June, said that the units deployed in the border areas “are on average only 60-70 percent staffed and mainly represent reserves with poor training.”
After the offensive in the Kursk region began, recalled the Ukrainian military officer who handed over the documents to The Guardian, many Russian soldiers abandoned their positions. Ukrainian Armed Forces units quickly occupied border settlements, including Sudzha. “They fled without even destroying the documents,” the source emphasized.
From the documents captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Russian territory, it follows that the command of the Russian Armed Forces has to take into account the low morale of the military. In particular, the internal document flow talks about the consequences for the morale of the Russian military due to the suicide of one of the soldiers, who was in a “long-term depression due to service in the Russian army.” The soldier committed suicide in January 2024.
Following the suicide, commanders were ordered to identify soldiers who were “not mentally prepared to perform their duties or who were prone to deviant behavior, and to organize their redistribution and transfer to military medical institutions.”
To maintain the proper psychological state, commanders were ordered to ensure that their subordinates watched and listened to Russian state media every day, and that once a week they were given political information “aimed at maintaining and improving the political, moral and psychological state of the personnel.”
Article Linked Is Available Only Via VPN.
[EngMilRu] From 14 to 20 September 2024, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have carried out 27 group strikes with precision-guided weapons and strike drones, as a result of which the following have been hit: power facilities that supported the work of enterprises of the Ukrainian defence industry, airbases infrastructure, UAV depots and flight preparation areas.
Moreover, the Russian forces engaged ammunition and logistic depots, repair bases of armament, trains transporting foreign-made armament, temporary deployment areas of the AFU, nationalists, and foreign mercenaries.
Over the past week, units of the Sever Group of Forces continued the operation to eliminate the AFU formations in Kursk region.
In the course of offensive operations, the Sever Group of Forces liberated Uspenovka and Borki.
Aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles and artillery strikes hit manpower and materiel of three mechanised brigades, a tank brigade, two air assault brigades of the AFU, and two territorial defence brigades. Moreover, Russian troops disrupted enemy's attempts to counterattack and deploy reserves.
In Volchansk and Liptsy direction, damage was inflicted on a motorised infantry brigade, a naval infantry brigade, and three territorial defence brigades.
Over the past week, the AFU losses in the area of responsibility of the Sever Group of Forces amounted to up to 3,510 troops, 18 tanks, including a Leopard tank, 117 armoured fighting vehicles, 66 motor vehicles, a U.S.-made MLRS multiple launch rocket system, and 34 field artillery guns. Four electronic warfare stations were eliminated.
Over the past week, the Zapad Group of Forces continued to advance into the enemy's defence, inflected damage on formations of six mechanised brigades, an assault brigade of the AFU, three territorial defence brigades, and the Azov Special Forces Brigade. A total of 24 counterattacks of AFU assault detachments were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 3,745 troops, a tank, ten armoured fighting vehicles, including a U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carrier, and 60 motor vehicles. In addition, 40 field artillery guns were eliminated, 19 pieces of 155mm howitzers and self-propelled systems were provided to the AFU by Western countries, 16 electronic and counter-battery warfare stations, and 22 field ammunition depots.
As a result of active actions, the Yug Group of Forces liberated Zhelannoye Pervoye and Georgieyvka (Donetsk People's Republic).
Russian troops engaged manpower and hardware of five mechanised brigades, a motorised infantry brigade, two infantry brigades, a mountain assault brigade, two air assault brigades, and three airmobile brigades of the AFU. In addition, 14 counter-attacks of enemy assault groups were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 4,855 troops, a tank, two German-made Marder infantry fighting vehicles, 52 motor vehicles, and 34 field artillery guns, 17 of them manufactured by NATO countries. Four electronic and counterbattery radars as well as 11 field ammunition depots were destroyed.
The units of the Tsentr Group of Forces improved the situation along the front line. The Russian troops inflicted fire damage on a tank brigade, six mechanised brigades, two infantry brigades, two jaeger brigades, an air assault brigade of the AFU, three territorial defence brigades, a national guard brigade, and the Lyut Brigade of the National Police of Ukraine. The Russian Armed Forces repelled 58 counter-attacks of hostile assault detachments.
Over the past week, Ukrainian units suffered losses of up to 3,610 troops, a tank, 11 armoured fighting vehicles, including a German-made Marder infantry fighting vehicle, two U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carriers, 21 motor vehicles, and 29 field artillery guns.
Units of the Vostok Group of Forces took more advantageous lines and positions. The servicemen hit clusters of manpower and hardware of a tank brigade, a motorised infantry brigade, and two territorial defence brigades.
Eleven counter-attacks launched by AFU units were repelled. The enemy lost up to 735 troops, two tanks, seven armoured fighting vehicles, 16 motor vehicles, and seven field artillery guns.
Units of the Dnepr Group of Forces inflicted losses on formations of an AFU infantry brigade, a mountain assault brigade, two naval infantry brigades, and four territorial defence brigades.
The AFU lost up to 355 troops, two tanks, 27 motor vehicles, and five field artillery guns. Four ammunition depots were destroyed.
The Aerospace Forces downed two Su-27 and a MiG-29 fighter jets of the Ukrainian Air Force.
Air defence units shot down a MiG-29 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force, seven U.S.-made ATACMS operational missiles, 12 French-made Hammer guided aerial bombs, 42 U.S.-made HIMARS rockets, and 305 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles 153 of them outside the special military operation zone.
Over the past week, 53 Ukrainian servicemen have surrendered on the line of contact.
In total, 646 airplanes and 283 helicopters, 31,806 unmanned aerial vehicles, 579 air defence missile systems, 18,303 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,457 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 14,903 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 26,289 units of support military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.
The Sever Group of Forces carrying on offensive actions inflicted damage on the 22nd, 41st,and 115th Mechanised brigades, 17th Tank Brigade, 82nd Air Assault Brigade, 1st National Guard Brigade, 112th and 129th Territorial Defence Brigade of the AFU near Lyubimovka, Daryino, Zelyony Shlyakh, Nikolo-Daryino, Tolsty Lug, and Plekhovo.
Over the past 24 hours, the Group's units foiled the enemy's attempts to counterattack in the direction of Kremyanoye, Lyubimovka, and Malaya Loknya.
As a result, the AFU losses amounted to up to 30 troops killed and wounded, two armoured fighting vehicles, one 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, and three motor vehicles.
With support of army aviation and artillery, the Group's units repelled four attacks of the AFU to break through towards Novy Put and Medvezhye.
The enemy lost up to 60 troops killed and wounded, two tanks, including a Leopard tank, three Sweden-made CV-90 infantry fighting vehicles, four armoured fighting vehicles, and a counterobstacle vehicle.
Air strikes, artillery fire, and actions of the troops inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware clusters of the 21st, 22nd, 41st, and 115th Mechanised brigades, 17th Tank Brigade, 80th and 95th Air Assault brigades, 36th Naval Infantry Brigade and 1st National Guard Brigade, and 103rd and 129th Territorial Defence brigades near Bogdanovka, Guyevo, Daryino, Zelyony Shlyakh, Kremyanoye, Kubatkin, Kruglenkoye, Kurilovka, Lyubimovka, Mikhaylovka, Malaya Loknya, Mirny, Melovoy, Novy Put, Novoya Sorochina, Novoivanovka, Obukhovka, Plekhovo, Tolsty Lug, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, and Cherkasskaya Konopelka.
Operational-Tactical Aviation and Missile Troops launched strikes against concentration areas and reserves in Sumy region of the 21st, 22nd, 41st, and 115th Mechanised brigades, 82nd, 92nd Air Assault brigades of the AFU, 1st National Guard Brigade, as well as 103rd and 106th Territorial Defence brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Basovka, Belovody, Glukhov, Zhuravka, Kondratovka, Kazachye, Katerinovka, Mogritsa, Obody, Pavlovka, Peremoga, Rechki, Rudnevo, Sumy, Shalygino, Khoten, and Yastrebinoye.
For the past 24 hours the AFU lost over 370 troops, 18 units of armour, including two tanks, four infantry fighting vehicles, and 12 armoured fighting vehicles, six artillery pieces, a mortar, an EW station, a counterobstacle vehicle, seven motor vehicles. One pontoon crossing was destroyed.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost more than 15,300 troops, 124 tanks, 56 infantry fighting vehicles, 93 armoured personnel carriers, 780 armoured fighting vehicles, 471 motor vehicles, 115 artillery guns, 28 MLRS launchers, including seven of HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the USA, eight SAM launchers, four transport-loading vehicles, 29 electronic warfare stations, seven counter-battery radars, two air defence radars, 15 engineering vehicles, including nine counterobstacle vehicles and one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 21:00 FPV drone operators of the "Southern" group of troops destroyed Ukrainian Armed Forces pickup truck in the Seversky direction.
Data on the movement of the armed group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in a vehicle was obtained as a result of reconnaissance of the area using UAVs.
19:50 Consequences of "arrival" of a FAB-250 aerial bomb with a universal planning and correction module (UMPK) at the position of Ukrainian UAV operators in the South Donetsk direction.
18:52 In the Kursk border area, servicemen of the "North" military group carried out two FPV drone strikes destroyed tank of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Objective control means recorded the detonation of the enemy tank's ammunition.
18:31 Explosions in Sumy Oblast. Earlier, a missile strike threat was announced in the region.
18:20 Footage of liberation of the village of Snagost in the border area of the Kursk region by airborne forces units.
18:08 Scouts of the "Southern" group of troops using FPV drones destroy Ukrainian militants in the Belogorovka area.
17:55 The attack on the Odessa sea trade port is analyzed by Donbas Partizan:
“Today, September 20, 2024, at about 14:00, a strike was carried out on the 47th berth of the Odessa Sea Trade Port using an Iskander-M OTRK missile.
Structure and use of the berth: the length of the 47th berth is 170 meters, the depth is 11.5 meters, which allows receiving vessels of the corresponding draft. The berth operator is Brooklyn-Kiev LLC.
According to intelligence, this berth was used by the personnel of the Marine Guard of the State Border Service of Ukraine and special units of the Main Intelligence Directorate. Also worthy of attention is the frequent recording of the movement of patrol and landing boats from the berth, as well as the launch of unmanned boats from the area, which indicates increased activity in the use of the facility for military purposes.
Aftermath of the strike: As a result of the strike, nine border guard and GUR servicemen were injured (the extent of the injuries is unknown). The strike also resulted in damage to three maritime security vessels, including the P02 Risto (Ukrainian: Reni), transferred by Estonia in May 2024, and the destruction of the Combat Boat 90 landing craft, previously received by the GUR in Swedish deliveries.
The strike also affected the Antigua-flagged civilian vessel Golden Lion, which was planned to be used by the enemy "in the dark" as cover for upcoming naval military operations. This highlights the risk to civilian assets in conflict zones, as well as the difficulty of separating military and civilian operations in active combat situations."
17:35 “Arrival” of an FPV drone on engineering equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Pokrovsk direction –video.
17:02 Ukrainian channels claim that Khar'kov was hit by a bomb, and after the explosions, electricity went out in part of the city.
16:59 Russian military cut off the Ukrainian Armed Forces' railway connection to Krasnoarmeysk, said Igor Kimakovsky, adviser to the head of the DPR.
"We are currently conducting serious tactical operations on the Zhuravka River. This is the last, by and large, landscape barrier that covers Dimitrov and Krasnoarmeysk," he specified.
Kimakovskiy explained that now the artillery and the Aerospace Forces are working to block all roads and blow up bridges that supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
16:36 Ka-52 helicopter pilots destroy Ukrainian equipment –video.
15:59 Consequences of yesterday's "arrival" of the ODAB-1500 in Kupyansk. The unit of the 14th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was located in eight private houses, there were many wounded and killed.
15:26 Russian "drone operators" destroyed the 122mm 2S1 self-propelled howitzer "Gvozdika" of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Ugledar direction –video.
14:56 Combat Job of UAV operators to destroy Ukrainian Armed Forces artillery installations in the Ugledar direction.
14:27 Summary of the Russian Ministry of Defense on the progress of the special military operation:
From September 14 to 20 of this year, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out 27 group strikes with high-precision weapons and attack unmanned aerial vehicles, which resulted in the destruction of energy facilities that supported the operation of enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine, the infrastructure of military airfields, UAV storage sites and their pre-flight preparation sites.
In addition, ammunition and logistics depots, repair bases for the restoration of weapons and military equipment, a military echelon with foreign weapons, as well as temporary deployment points of Ukrainian Armed Forces units, nationalist formations and foreign mercenaries were hit.
During the week, units of the North group of forces continued the operation to destroy the Ukrainian Armed Forces formations in the Kursk region. During the offensive, the settlements of Uspenovka and Borki were liberated.
Air strikes, unmanned aerial vehicles and artillery fire on the areas of concentration of personnel and equipment of three mechanized, a tank, two airborne assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and two territorial defense brigades thwarted attempts to conduct counterattacks and introduce enemy reserves.
In the Volchansk and Liptsov directions, the formations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces motorized infantry brigade, the marine brigade and three territorial defense brigades were defeated.
Units of the "West" group of forces continued to advance into the depths of the enemy's defense, defeated the formations of six mechanized, assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, three territorial defense brigades and the special forces brigade "Azov*". They repelled 24 counterattacks of assault units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
As a result of decisive actions by units of the "Southern" group of troops, the settlements of Zhelannoye Pervoye and Georgievka of the Donetsk People's Republic were liberated. The manpower and equipment of five mechanized, motorized infantry, two infantry, mountain assault, two airborne assault and three airmobile brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were defeated. 14 counterattacks by enemy assault groups were repelled.
Units of the "Center" group of forces have improved the situation along the front line by active actions. They have defeated formations of a tank, six mechanized, two infantry, two ranger, airborne assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, three territorial defense brigades, a national guard brigade and the "Lyut" assault brigade of the national police of Ukraine. They have repelled 58 counterattacks by enemy assault groups.
The servicemen of the "East" group of forces occupied more advantageous lines and positions. They defeated the manpower and equipment of the tank, mechanized, motorized infantry brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the territorial defense brigade. They repelled 11 counterattacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine units. The enemy lost up to 735 servicemen, two tanks, seven combat armored vehicles, 16 cars and seven field artillery guns.
Units of the Dnepr group of forces inflicted losses on formations of the mechanized, infantry, mountain assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, two marine brigades and four territorial defense brigades.
The Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed three Ukrainian Air Force fighters in aerial combat: a MiG-29 and two Su-27s.
During the week, air defense systems shot down the following: a MiG-29 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force, seven US-made ATACMS operational-tactical missiles, 12 French-made Hammer guided air bombs, 42 US-made HIMARS rockets, and 305 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles, including 153 outside the special military operation zone.
Over the course of a week, 53 Ukrainian servicemen surrendered on the contact line.
14:15 An explosion thundered in Odessa. "Flight" in the Peresyp area on the port infrastructure.
14:10 Frontline Bird reports from the Novgorodsky area:
"Good news is coming from liberated New York. Russian Armed Forces troops have destroyed the enemy's fortified point and advanced to the Zheleznaya River and the village of Nelepovka. Russian army assault aircraft, supported by T-72B3 and BMD-4M tanks, are confidently moving forward."
13:49 Russian drone operators destroyed self-propelled artillery unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Krab of Polish manufacture in the Ugledar direction.
12:46 Russian aviation struck concentrations of 14 Ukrainian Armed Forces brigades in the Kursk and Sumy regions, the Defense Ministry announced.
12:32 The Russian Armed Forces have thwarted attempts by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to counterattack in the direction of Kremyanoye, Lyubimovka, and Malaya Loknya; the enemy has lost up to 30 people, the Ministry of Defense stated.
12:19 Advance of the Russian Armed Forces between Galitsinovka and Nevelskoye –map.
12:10 In the Kursk border area destroyed Swedish tank Stridsvagn 122 based on Leopard.
The 21st Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces sent an armored group with these vehicles to the area of the village of Vesyoloye. The Russian Armed Forces found them and hit them with FPV drones, and the tank completely burned out after a precise hit.
12:07 Russian artillerymen destroyed pontoon crossing over the Psel River, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces used to supply their group in the Kursk direction. The strike itself was carried out in the area of the settlement of Kurilovka, the Iznanka channel reported.
11:49 Svatovo-Kremennaya area: Russian Armed Forces have improved their positions in the direction of the settlement of Nevskoye, where the Ukrainian Armed Forces have built a defense along the Zherebets River.
10:35 Crews of the 152mm Giatsint-B gun of the airborne artillery unit of the Dnepr group of forces destroyed warehouses with ammunition and enemy UAVs in the Kherson region.
11:31 Soldiers from the 18th Army discovered and destroyed the enemy's camouflaged mortars on the right bank of the Dnieper.
10:50 Russian troops in the Kursk region have come close to Sverdlikovo. Taking this settlement will significantly complicate the logistics of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the eastern part of the occupied territory.
09:38 The forces of the 41st Guards Army of the Center group, operating in the Pokrovsky direction, liberated the settlement of Krutoy Yar.
09:34 The Ukrainian Armed Forces are leaving Grodovka and Russian troops will soon begin mopping up. The last center of resistance where the enemy will try to counterattack – the turnoff to the highway along Goryanskaya Street – is being eliminated by the Russian Armed Forces.
09:20 Russian drone operators destroyed artillery installations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Ugledar direction.
08:55 BPM Marder got hit into the hands of our soldiers in the Avdeevka direction. The servicemen evacuated the captured armored vehicle from the battlefield and restored it. The German BMP of the Ukrainian nationalists could not cope with the local off-road conditions and became easy prey.
08:14 The liberation of Borki in the Kursk region brought the Ukrainian Armed Forces one step closer to encirclement in the Sudzhansky district, the commander of the international brigade "Pyatnashka" Akhra Avirdzba, call sign Abkhaz, told TASS.
He added that part of the international brigade was transferred from another direction and, together with other units of the Russian Ministry of Defense, liberated the village.
08:07 Russian servicemen have consolidated their positions near the city after an intensive offensive near Kupyansk in the Khar'kov region. According to military expert Andrey Marochko, the enemy is unsuccessfully trying to counterattack Russian units.
08:00 UAV unit of the "Southern" group of troops destroyed a group of infantry of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donetsk direction.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The head of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen covers up the mass kidnappings and murders that are taking place on the territory of Ukraine. Irish journalist Chey Bowes wrote about this on September 20on the social network X (former Twitter).
"Von Der Liar has come to Kiev. To fix the heating. She will ignore the mass kidnappings. The murders. The imprisonment and murder of journalists," he wrote.
According to Boze, the head of the EC is also engaged in covering up the huge corruption and theft of EU taxpayers' money in Ukraine, as well as its support for the head of the Kiev regime, Volodymyr Zelensky, who is a dictator.
The journalist added that, in his opinion, it is precisely in such things that European “values” are manifested today.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, on September 19, Jordan O'Brien, a mercenary of Ukrainian militants from New Zealand, published posts on social networks with threats against Russian journalists and calls to "destroy" Russia. Previously, the mercenary participated in the invasion of Ukrainian formations in the Kursk region and raised funds to purchase FPV drones and equipment.
VGTRK correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny was injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in Kursk Oblast on August 7. The next day, the journalist was taken to the Sklifosovsky Institute of Emergency Care. Poddubny was discharged from the Sklifosovsky Institute on September 13 and thanked the doctors for their professionalism, who helped him recover quickly.
The Russian side has information about the creation of concentration camps in the Russian border area by militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). This was stated on September 20 at a briefing on the sidelines of the IV Eurasian Women's Forum in Saint Petersburg by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.
The diplomat noted that Russian law enforcement agencies continue to receive information about cases of forcible removal by Ukrainian military of residents of the Kursk region who did not have time to evacuate.
"This, let me remind you, by the way, is a typical practice of the German fascist occupiers. Do you remember how they took Soviet people, citizens of the Soviet Union, into captivity, into slavery?" Zakharova said.
She added that there is a lot of evidence from witnesses collected by the headquarters of the Russian Red Cross in Kursk.
“In essence, there is simply direct data, evidence of the creation of something like concentration camps by Ukrainian Armed Forces militants in the Russian border area,” the representative of the Foreign Ministry indicated.
Zakharova clarified that local residents who, for various reasons, were unable to leave unsafe areas are placed there at gunpoint.
As reported by Regnum news agency, Ukrainian Armed Forces units have been attacking Kursk Oblast since August 6. Russian fighters stopped them in border areas, preventing them from advancing deep into Russian territory. According to the Russian Defense Ministry on September 19, during the fighting in Kursk Oblast, Ukrainian troops lost more than 14.9 thousand servicemen, 122 tanks, 52 infantry fighting vehicles, 93 armored personnel carriers, 768 armored combat vehicles, and 109 artillery pieces.
The report by the Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Rodion Miroshnik stated that Ukrainian troops created concentration camps for civilians during their invasion of the Kursk region. In addition, the Ukrainian Armed Forces used residents of the region so that foreign journalists who had illegally arrived on Russian territory could film propaganda stories. In particular, 70 to 100 civilians were herded into the basements of a boarding school in Sudzha, where they were “subjected to moral violence” and filmed, Miroshnik added.
Testimonies about atrocities and outrages by the military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the invasion were given by residents of the border areas of the Kursk region. The representative of the military investigative bodies of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Lieutenant Colonel of Justice Dmitry Goryachenkov, clarified that this concerns intentional shelling of civilians, including during evacuation, violence and robbery. According to local residents, the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired at houses, cars, and used FPV drones for this.
On August 30, Miroshnik said that Russian soldiers were subjected to cruel treatment in Ukrainian captivity. He noted that he had repeatedly communicated with people who were held in colonies or secret prisons in Ukraine.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
