Here is June 27th's update! TLDR? Here's the summary.

Here is June 28th's update! TLDR? Here's the summary.

Here is June 29th's update! TLDR? Here's the summary.

Here is June 30th's update! TLDR? Here's the summary.

I won't be able to write an update for today and tomorrow (as well as Sunday, my day off) due to work and travel - and honestly, due to overexposure to the words "international rules-based order" and "wage-price inflationary spiral" and "insignificant advances", I probably need a little time to unmelt my brain. I'll post some articles - good or bad - where I have an internet connection.

Links and Stuff

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Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Add to the above list if you can, thank you.

Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map, who is an independent youtuber with a mostly neutral viewpoint.

Moon of Alabama, which tends to have good analysis (though also a couple bad takes here and there)

Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources.

Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict and, unlike most western analysts, has some degree of understanding on how war works. He is a reactionary, however.

On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting in the Ukrainian warzones.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Telegram Channels

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

Pro-Russian

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.

https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ Gleb Bazov, banned from Twitter, referenced pretty heavily in what remains of pro-Russian Twitter.

https://t.me/asbmil ~ ASB Military News, banned from Twitter.

https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.

https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday Patrick Lancaster - crowd-funded U.S journalist, mostly pro-Russian, works on the ground near warzones to report news and talk to locals.

https://t.me/riafan_everywhere ~ Think it's a government news org or Federal News Agency? Russian language.

https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ Front news coverage. Russian langauge.

https://t.me/rybar ~ Russian language.

https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.

https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense.

https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine

With the entire western media sphere being overwhelming pro-Ukraine already, you shouldn't really need more, but:

https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.

https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.

Last week's discussion post.

  • jackal [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Interesting point by DPA in his latest quick update on Snake Island. Giving up the island can also be a sort of trap, since now the Ukrainians can't blame Russia for blocking food exports through the Black Sea. So the Ukrainians have a dilemma: de-mine the ports to allow commercial ships again, or don't de-mine and explain to the UN why they are starving the world.

    Or is this not a problem if Ukraine can use rail through Moldova and Poland?

    Also the Russian explanation for leaving Snake Island sounds like pure copium to me

    • chlooooooooooooo [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      That sorta sounds like a cope, the Snake island recapture is nothing but a big propaganda win for Ukraine. Western media isn't gonna suddenly start asking why Ukraine won't demine its ports, they're content to keep pretending like Russia is deliberately starving their MENA allies.

      • jackal [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Whether it's cope or not I think is a matter of perspective. Kind of like withdrawing away from Kyiv, was that a feint or was it a defeat? Depends which side you believe, but like @granit said, the Russians appear to have some redundancy in their plans that can make a loss in one regard, a win in another regard.

        Reminds me of option offense in American football, where the quarterback can decide how to proceed based on the defensive response. Maybe the best option is blocked, and that's unambiguously a win for the defense, but it doesn't mean the offense makes 0 yards on a play.

    • Stylistillusional [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      The Ukrainians will just continue claiming Russia mined them in.

      Even so, it makes sense for Ukraine not to want to make it easier for Russia to do naval landing operations towards Odessa by removing their own mines.

    • DPRK_Chopra
      ·
      3 months ago

      deleted by creator

      • chlooooooooooooo [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        That's correct, the regions which were once part of the USSR use a different gauge to most of the rest of Europe

      • jackal [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        That's possible too, I don't know enough about the rail situation so it was a question. DPA also mentioned something about Poland and Romania upgrading their rail to prepare it.

          • jackal [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            It's NPR but I found an article that discusses the different logistics options and why they aren't good. It boils down, like you said, to different track gauge between Ukraine and EU countries, which causes slowdowns at the border, or trucks having to deal with long lines at the border for customs inspections. Not sure how much the border process for trucks can be sped up, or if that would even improve the throughput enough.

            https://archive.ph/Bfqer

            Spoiler

            WONG: But mostly the grain is traveling by land, getting transported by railway and trucks to other European countries. These land options, though, have challenges. Let's take trains first. The problem here is something called rail gauge or track gauge. This is the width between the two rails of track. And it turns out the Ukrainian track gauge is wider than what's used in its European neighbors. This wider gauge is left over from the Soviet era.

            WOODS: So a train carrying Ukrainian wheat can't just travel into, say, Hungary on the same track. It has to stop at the border at a special terminal, and the cargo has to be reloaded onto a different grain car that fits the European standard. Or a big machine has to come. It has that lift up that train car and switch out the wheels for ones that can run on European tracks. Either way, it is a very cumbersome process.

            SLASTON: Of course, it takes time and takes also additional cost to make such reloading. But at the moment, I have no choice with that. WONG: So that's the train option, which Roman says transported more than half the grain in April. The European Commission has also agreed to free up more vehicles and prioritize Ukrainian grain shipments in its railway systems. So switching from ships to trains has been a big part of solving this logistical puzzle.

            WOODS: Another major piece of the strategy is using trucks. The issue here is that drivers need special licenses to haul cargo internationally, and customs procedures and sanitary checks on the borders are causing delays. It's a lot of red tape.

            SLASTON: We need to improve procedures on the border, make it quick and fast because at the moment, on average, our track drivers wait for 7 to 8 days at the border just to cross it.

            WONG: So trains and trucks, that is the transportation part of the problem that Roman and other officials are scrambling to figure out. Then there's another issue, one that doesn't have to do with railway track widths or customs paperwork.