Tag: ukrainskaya pravda

The Crimean Bridge Will Cease to Exist: Interview with the Head Ukrainian Military Intelligence

Recently Ukrainskaya Pravda’s Roman Kravets sat down with Kiril Budanov, head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense. Since the beginning of the war, Budanov has become one of the most authoritative Ukrainian sources on the conflict. He accurately predicted that Russia would initiate hostilities with Ukraine a year before the invasion. In late May of this year the young intelligence expert predicted that by August Ukrainian forces would be able to launch an offensive that would reclaim most lost territory by the end of the year. The subsequent summer offensives and ongoing push in the south toward Kherson and in the Donbas are the fruit of those predictions… Read More The Crimean Bridge Will Cease to Exist: Interview with the Head Ukrainian Military Intelligence

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Ukraine War: Interview with Ukrainian Head of Military Intelligence – Kirill Budanov

Ukrainskaya Pravda reporter Roman Kravets recently interviewed Kirill Budanov, Head of the Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense Intelligence Directorate. Appointed in 2020, Budanov has risen to become one of the most influential and authoritative sources of information about the war, cited in many international news articles. He was one of only a few Ukrainian government officials who publicly warned of imminent large-scale war with Russia starting last year, including the directions from which Russia could attack. He has been proven correct in his predictions thus far. In this rare intimate interview Budanov speaks about Vladimir Putin’s health, possible coup attempts in Russia, why the Ukrainian government did not better prepare the country for war, and his predictions for how the war will end among other topics. The following are English translation excerpts of the interview.… Read More Ukraine War: Interview with Ukrainian Head of Military Intelligence – Kirill Budanov

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Unsung Heroes: Ukrainian Fishermen Save Thousands Behind Enemy Lines

Ukrainian Pravda recently reported that a handful of fishermen saved 2,000 of their countrymen trapped behind Russian lines. The ad hoc operation began in early March 2021 after the Ukrainian government organized evacuation and humanitarian assistance efforts in unoccupied areas near the Kyiv reservoir and local fishermen decided to pitch in with their motorboats. The 356 square mile reservoir (922 square kilometers), known locally as the Kyiv Sea, stretches for nearly seventy miles along the Dnieper River. Several small fishing villages dot its marshy banks and inlets. One of these, Strakholissya, became the homebase of the operation.… Read More Unsung Heroes: Ukrainian Fishermen Save Thousands Behind Enemy Lines

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Ukraine Missile Strike Scores Hit on Flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet

Earlier today Maxim Marchenko, head of the Odessa Regional State Administration, announced that Ukraine naval forces hit the Russian flagship inflicting heavy damage. In the first days of the Ukraine-Russia war the Moskva made the news when its captain demanded that Ukraine servicemen on Snake Island surrender to which they responded, “Russian ship – Go to hell!”… Read More Ukraine Missile Strike Scores Hit on Flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet

Keith Smith

Russian State Media Pundit Calls for Genocide in Ukraine

In an April 3, 2022 article that has not been retracted, Timofei Sergeitsev, a prominent Russian political consultant, made an open call for the Russian Federation to commit genocide in Ukraine. The article published in the state-controlled RIA Novosti news magazine is titled – What Should Russia Do With Ukraine? In an address to the Romanian Parliament on Monday, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the article constitutes yet another piece of evidence to be used in a future war crimes tribunal. In a tone reminiscent of Soviet WWII propaganda, Sergeitsev rants extensively about the “inevitability of the denazification of Ukraine” and attempts to make correlations between the Ukrainian Banderite movement with the current Ukrainian government. He further states that “Denazification is necessary when a significant part of the people – most likely the majority – has been mastered and drawn into the Nazi regime in its politics… Denazification is a set of measures in relation to the nazified mass of the population, which technically cannot be subjected to direct punishment as war criminals.” The methods he suggests that the Russian government and military should employ to accomplish “denazification” of Ukraine appear to be taken directly from the Joseph Stalin playbook on how to deal with ethnic and other groups of people that were deemed a threat to the ruling Communist Party. As evidence of the barbaric atrocities committed in areas of Ukraine now liberated from Russian occupation comes to light, it is evident that Sergeitsev is not alone in his thinking. Read on and judge for yourself. … Read More Russian State Media Pundit Calls for Genocide in Ukraine

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Former U.S. Navy Captain, Russia Expert: American Weakness, Lack of Leadership, Caused Putin to Invade Ukraine

Tatiana Popova, former Ukraine Deputy Minister of Information and Policy and former Adviser to the Ukraine Minister of Defense (2014-2015), recently interviewed former U.S. Navy Captain Gary Tabach. Russian-born Tabach served for over twenty years as a Foreign Area Officer in Eastern Europe. During this time, he worked out of Moscow where he served as Chief of Staff for the NATO Military Liaison Mission to the Russian Federation. He also spent time in Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine. Following are excerpts of the Russian language interview.… Read More Former U.S. Navy Captain, Russia Expert: American Weakness, Lack of Leadership, Caused Putin to Invade Ukraine

Keith Smith

Ukraine War – Useful Sources

After watching the tragic events of the last few weeks unfold in Ukraine, being the news junkie that I am, I found myself wanting for more direct sources of information about the situation. All of the information on major news outlets in the United States and European Union nations all seemed, for the most part, generic. So I decided to find news as close to the situation on the ground as possible and discovered the following websites.… Read More Ukraine War – Useful Sources

Keith Smith