Following the successful strike on the strategically important Kerch Straight Bridge, Russia responded by launching a volley of missiles into random neighborhoods in Kiev and elsewhere.
A series of deadly blasts rocked central Kyiv Monday morning, shattering months of relative calm in the Ukrainian capital a day after Russia’s leader blamed Ukraine for an explosion on a key Crimea bridge.
At least eight people were killed and 24 were injured in just one of the Kyiv strikes, according to preliminary information, said Rostyslav Smirnov, an adviser to the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs.
The Kyiv explosions marked the start of an intensive wave of attacks on targets across Ukraine, with conflicting reports suggesting the blasts were caused by missiles or suicide drones.
Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said in a statement on Telegram that there were “several explosions in the Shevchenkiv district — in the center of the capital.”
He later said there were “several hits on objects of the city’s critical infrastructure,” adding that there were casualties.
Lesia Vasylenko, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, posted a photo on Twitter showing that at least one explosion occurred near the main building of the Kyiv National University in central Kyiv.
Ukraine managed to hit a strategically important bridge. Russia managed to hit a pedestrian bridge.
Take that, power walkers!
Indiscriminate attacks on civilians are not only wrong and a potential war crime, but worse for Russia, they’re also counterproductive and ineffective. We’ve know since The Blitz in World War II that wanton destruction of civilian buildings and infrastructure only hardens the resolve of the targeted populace. Using up missile in pointless displays of impotent fury only makes Putin’s Russia look like even bigger losers.
Tags: Kiev, missile strike, Odessa (Ukraine), Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, Ukraine, video, war crimes
Terror bombing to induce civilian collapse failed in WWII. Douhet’s theories regarding strategic bombing of population centers did not deliver victory but only increased civilian resolve.
The Kerch Bridge is a valid military asset worthy of destruction. What Putin can’t seize with ground forces, he will destroy with artillery and missiles. This is called making a desert and calling it Peace.
So is blowing up the gas pipelines that your allies depend on to run their economies and keep their populations from freezing. That’s a terror bombing too. But it’s “our” terrorists!
Something tells me they didn’t consult with our Euro-allies first. But what’s a little sacrifice in order to prevent peace negotiations from breaking out?
So, in traditional realpolitik analysis, cui bono? The answer is obvious. A regime facing devastating electoral losses in just over a month. A desperate regime that has failed to prolong the panic over [Chinese] COVID (or to create a new panic over Monkeypox) in order to credibly suspend in-person voting on what was once known as Election Day. A regime with far too much to lose should the GOP gain congressional oversight as a result of inevitable revelations related to 1) government collaboration with Big Pharma and media to perpetuate vaccine fraud; 2) the use of intelligence agencies and their social media lackeys to target political opponents; 3) the coordination by Biden political operatives of election fraud in 2020, and, especially; 4) the Biden crime family and its operations in both China and Ukraine. . .
. . . Of course, provoking foreign crises in order to suspend civil liberties (including elections) and crack down on political opponents at home with the use of “wartime emergency powers” has long been a favorite page in the playbook of totalitarian regimes over the world. And the events of the past week should leave no doubt that the Biden regime is contemplating, if not on the verge of implementing, just such a contingency. </i)
In the middle of watching the gladiatorial games meant to distract and entertain you, it's real hard to remember that the Emperor and his cronies don't give it a thought when they want to sacrifice you next. And we are next.
Prove to the rest of us who is responsible for the pipelines, and maybe we’d pay your arguments some attention.
The Russians have been dinking around with submarine warfare attacks on pipelines, underwater cables, and all that sorts of thing since the 1990s. They’ve even built themselves a specialized sub with a nuclear-powered underwater mini-sub built to work with it. The argument that they wouldn’t blow up their own pipeline because it’s “theirs” (and, the Germans who fecklessly footed the bills for it…) isn’t as iron-clad as you appear to think.
As an attack on the NATO alliance between the US and Europe, it would make perfect strategic sense. The US could have “shut the pipeline down” through sanctions and international banking actions a lot more easily than by blowing it up and pissing their allies off. From the standpoint of that, it makes more sense that the Russians blew up their own supposed asset. If that’s what happened–I still won’t rule out industrial misadventure. Russia’s track record of running modern industrial setups ain’t what I’d term stellar. They’ve blown up numerous pipelines all on their own in the Far East, managed to blow up a hydroelectric (!?!?!) plant, and then there’s Chernobyl. Also, remember they managed to kill the head of their rocket program and several astronauts, back in the day.
At the same time, the question of “Is the Biden Administration really that dumb…?” can well be asked. I don’t know what happened to that pair of pipelines, but until I see actual evidence? I’m not ascribing responsibility to anyone or any one thing, either.
Shifting to missile or artillery attacks (sorry I’m not precise on terminology, I’m not any kind of expert with these things) seems a pretty clear sign of weakness to me. It looks impressive to some people but I can’t see these attacks shifting the war in any significant way; and how much of this ordnance does he have in reserve?
It looks like Putin is playing more long-odds bets at the poker table because that’s all he has left. What I can’t figure out is how this ends. I know lots of people say, noooooks! but at that point, the interests of pretty much everyone else besides Putin — including those who have to help him fire the nukes — diverge from Putin, so why would they help him do it? “Fire that missile, comrade, or I’ll kill you!” doesn’t work so well when it’s a nuclear missile! And can it possibly be the case that Russian commanders are not pondering just how good their nuclear warheads actually are at this stage?
Tossing Putin out a window seems to solve more problems than anything else for Russia at this point. What am I missing?
Kirk, The Swedes investigating have already determined that it was sabotage, so there go your bad maintenance theories. The explosions did not originate in or over the pipelines.
According to Le Monde:
On Thursday, October 6, the Swedish security service (Säpo) issued a statement saying that the first inspections at the site of the leaks, which began over the weekend, had “increased the suspicion of aggravated sabotage.” Although Säpo did not specify what type of information it had, the investigators were able to establish that the detonations had occurred near the gas pipelines, and not above or inside them, as had been suggested for a time. They also indicated that they had seized some items for analysis.
As for your tortured analysis trying to shift blame off of our glorious and inept rulers, your logic and understanding is lacking substance.The US has no financial stake in the pipeline, and it was already paid for and owned by multiple European banks and the Russians. The US had no way to legally control the pipelines other than through diplomatic pressure.
It makes no sense (strategic or otherwise) for the Russians to do this. They could have accomplished the same result without doing any more than throwing a circuit breaker. Really, you have to be beyond dense not to see that. This undercuts their desire to negotiate a peaceful way out of Ukraine.
Cui bono? The US and only the US. Well, maybe the Ukrainians or Poles, but not likely it was either of them.
Go ahead and hold final judgment all you want, but none of your handwaving makes any sense. Odds are the US or a US proxy did this. The truth will eventually surface. We should be ashamed.
Show some proof, one way or another.
Track record for Russian industrial competence is out there. There’s no “tortured reasoning” there, whatsoever–It’s documented fact that they’ve done similar things in the past. By accident, through incompetence and feckless management.
I don’t know who did this and nobody at this time has presented factual evidence of what happened, either. Last time I looked, the Swedes were not noted for their expertise with either underwater investigations, running oil pipelines, or petrochemical work of any kind. The fact that the Swedish police are saying anything right now is meaningless.
I can just about guarantee you one damn thing… If the US did this, someone in the Navy NSWC community is going to be coming out with a book about it. I just don’t see their JAG signing off on anything like this, and if they did, then there will be people who wrote memos detailing their objections to this whole thing, and those memos will get leaked. Navy NSWC will have covered its ass with copious documentation over something like this, and it will get leaked if it exists.
If something like this happened anywhere else other than where it did, and with any other President, I’d entertain the notion that maybe, just maybe it’s possible that the US did it. Given the bad blood and outright hatred Biden has earned in the Navy Special Warfare community? If they did it, they did it under protest, and they will leak it.
I swear, some people spend way too much time reading Tom Clancy, and actually believe that James Bond crap like that goes on. It doesn’t.