They “survived incorrectly”. A Mariupol resident telling about how AFU “buried” own Ukrainian artists.

Reading time: 10 minutes

🕯 March 16, marks three years since the terrible tragedy in Mariupol – the explosion in the Drama Theatre

Ukrainian militants lured people there to stage another provocation, blaming Russia. But those who miraculously managed to survive on March 16, 2022, remember who exactly is to blame for the death of their loved ones.

Our correspondent Irina Yefremova recalled together with eyewitnesses what the Drama Theatre looks like today and who actually blew it up.


Backup at Rumble.

Text source: Eva Karene Bartlett
Video source: “Vesti Donetsk”, with our added translation

From our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”.


Commemorating this tragedy, we are publishing a translation of an article from “Argumenty i Fakty”, dated August 3, 2022.

They “survived incorrectly”. A Mariupol resident telling about how AFU “buried” own Ukrainian artists.

Actor Damir Sukhov spent the entire active phase of the fighting for Mariupol in the building of the drama theatre, which was then blown up by Ukrainian militants. In the interview to aif.ru he told about how the Ukrainian Armed Forces shelled the theatre on a bet, and the Azov militants took cars away from people.

Dmitry Grigoriev, aif.ru: — Damir, tell me a little about yourself.

Damir Sukhov: — I was born in St. Petersburg, but grew up in Ukraine. Here I studied at the theatric school, but then returned to St. Petersburg, continuing theatrical education there. I starred in films in Russia for a while, and returned to Ukraine in 2016. The I lived with my family in Berdyansk and simultaneously acted in films in Kiev. Russian actors are in high demand in Ukraine, as most of the films shot there were sold to Russia.

— When did you arrive in Mariupol?

— I finished filming a big TV series in Kiev and came to Berdyansk. It is important to understand that Berdyansk is a small town compared to Mariupol, where there were much more opportunities for the development of the child and for my wife and me. I decided to move to Mariupol and started working at the Drama Theatre, and at the same time decided to launch a film school here. My wife was supposed to arrive later. We rented a room, started making repairs, purchased equipment, and even recruited the first students. I moved here in January 2022, just a month before the start of the special operation. In fact, I just got used to Mariupol, and this nightmare began.

The authorities of Mariupol fled the city before the start of the SMO

Continue reading

Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at a UNSC Briefing on Ukraine, 17.02.2025 – Repost

Reading time: 11 minutes

This is probably the strongest condemnation of the “civilised West” to date. Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at a UNSC Briefing on Ukraine is available in English at the site of the “Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN”. Video in Russian is available at their Telegram channel.

Before reading on, do watch the following three short videos:


Backup at Rumble.


Backup at Rumble.


Backup at Rumble.


Main statement:

Mr. President,

We thank Roger Waters for his statement with an analysis of the history of the Ukrainian crisis and assessments of the significance of the Minsk agreements with regard to the relevant diplomatic efforts.

Today marks ten years since the adoption of UNSC resolution 2202, which endorsed the “Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements”. Having thus expressed its support for the solutions that had been found in Minsk a few days prior, the Council took the implementation of these agreements under its supervision. We all hoped then that a long-term and lasting peace would finally come, but all hopes of ours were fated to fail. Moreover, today the very word-combination “Minsk agreements” has become something of a diplomatic euphemism replacing the words “failure” or “lie”. We believe that our Security Council has every reason to analyze why this happened and why peace in the east of Ukraine never came after that.

First of all, let me briefly recall that the 13 points of the Package of Measures unambiguously defined the sequence of concrete steps to normalize the situation in Ukraine and bring Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LNR and DNR) back to Ukraine’s fold. The last of these steps was to restore Kiev’s control over the State border in the east of the country. For this to happen, the Ukrainian leadership needed to undertake a number of measures geared towards granting the LNR and the DNR broader autonomy and protecting the identity of the Russian-speaking population.
Continue reading

Pokrovsk 2025 – Only Russians live here

Reading time: < 1 minute

In Pokrovsk, a Euronews film crew recorded a local resident who, like many others, refuses to evacuate to Ukrainian territory


Backup at Rumble.

During the interview it became clear that no one is afraid of the arrival of the Russian army and the capture of Pokrovsk, because “by passport they are Ukrainians, but in their souls they are Russians.”

In conclusion it was said that “there are no Ukrainians here, everyone is Russian.”

The look on the Euronews journalist’s face at the end is priceless.

Source: Slavyangrad

Meanwhile:

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are preparing a new counteroffensive in the Donetsk People’s Republic. They have accumulated units near Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) and intend to deliver an unexpected blow. The Kiev regime has set the task of recapturing lithium mines that American President Donald Trump has set his sights on, Russian experts believe.

Military expert Valery Shiryaev announced the accumulation of Ukrainian troops south of Krasnoarmeysk. According to him, the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ attack in the Kursk region, which began on February 6 and did not produce any significant results, has another purpose – to conceal the preparation of an offensive in another area.

Source: AiF

“I’m Alive!” – The Strange Case of Russell Bentley

Reading time: 8 minutes

A translation of an article, appearing at Tsargrad.tv on the 14th of December 2024.

“I’m alive!”: The strange case of Russell Bentley — the perpetrators did not appear in court. The murdered militia member appeared to his friends in a dream

On December 5, the trial pertaining to “the case of Russell Bentley” — an American volunteer with the call sign Texas — commenced in the garrison court of Donetsk. In 2014, he burned bridges in the United States, came to fight for Donbass, and participated in the battles for Donetsk airport. And on April 8, 2024, he was killed in Donetsk. By our own people. Four servicemen from the 5th motorized Infantry brigade of the DPR, including one of its commanders Vitaly Vansyatsky, are being tried for this crime. A journalist from Tsargrad called Lyudmila Bentley, Russell’s wife, to find out the details of the trial, and found out an amazing fact. Texas appeared almost simultaneously in a dream to three of his loved ones and uttered the same phrase: “I’m alive!”

The call was answered by the probable killer

So, there are four defendants in the dock: Vitaly Vansyatsky, Vladislav Agaltsev, Andrey Iordanov and Vladimir Bazhin. Surprisingly, they are all Donetsk residents, from Makeyevka…

This means that they couldn’t possibly not know Russell Bentley, who was a “landmark” of the DPR — not only a well-known militia member, but also a journalist, musician, and a frequent guest on local TV. And therefore, to detain, torture, kill Russell, and then methodically destroy his remains, you have to be either very unscrupulous or very stoned.

One has to wonder what the law enforcement system should be like, in order to impute part 5 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code for such a crime (abuse of official authority resulting in death by negligence)?

It is also interesting that when Lyudmila Bentley did not yet know where her husband had disappeared, she called Vansyatsky, unaware that the person on the other end of the line was the likely the killer of Russell. Vansyatsky said at the time that he knew nothing about any Bentley.

Recall that on April 8, Russell and Lyudmila arrived at the administration of the Petrovsky district of Donetsk, where the American was called to extend his monthly minimum social security (7,300 rubles).

At that moment, the arrival of the HIMARS happened nearby, and Texas rushed there by car to help possible victims (in Donetsk, many people do this in similar situations), but before reaching the place of arrival, he was stopped and then taken somewhere by the military. (Tsargrad described the whole situation in detail).

“Their motive is still unclear. I don’t see any logic in their actions. Russell always had with him a standard set of documents certifying his identity: a Russian passport with a residence permit in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk, a military ID card, a weapon permit, several journalistic certificates (at that time Bentley was a military correspondent of the Sputnik agency — the one headed by Margarita Simonyan and Dmitry Kiselyov). Establishing his identity was not a problem. They say that Russell tried to call someone. Of course, he did. To call me. We agreed that in some difficult situations, he calls, and I translate on the phone – I facilitate his dialogue with people with whom there is a problem. This was the case, for example, with a car repair technician. But this time they didn’t let him call. The phone was smashed so that it lay on the ground smoking. Where is the logic? If they suspected that he was some kind of spy, it would be logical to protect the phone like the apple of your eye to check contacts and correspondence”
— says Lyudmila Bentley.

Continue reading

10 Years since Ukraine launched a war on its citizens in Lugansk

Reading time: 2 minutes

To those who still not understood:


From Russell Bentley’s Telegram channel:

On June 2, 2014, an AFU Su-25 aircraft struck the monumental building of the Luhansk Regional Administration and the square in front of it with unguided rockets. Eight residents of the LPR were killed. A total of about 20 munitions were fired at Luhansk that day.

Before that, there was the killing of Berkut special forces in Kiev, the shooting of buses with Crimeans near the city of Korsun, the killing of dozens of Odessa residents in the House of Trade Unions, the shooting of Mariupol residents on Victory Day, May 26 Donetsk Airport.

The symbol of that day, June 2, 2014, was the “woman in red” – Inna Kukuruza. Her last minutes of life after her legs were practically torn off were captured on video by a local resident who came running to the scene of the shelling.
Not everyone will find the strength to watch this video. But those who saw it will not forget her eyes, looking into the camera, will never forget her death throes.

In addition to the Regional State Administration, bombs were dropped on the square named after the Heroes of the Great Patriotic War and the parking lot.
Behind the administrative building there were multi-storey residential buildings, kindergarten “Zhuravlik”, a few dozen meters from the place of shelling there was a playground where children were playing.

Ukrainian politicians who came to power as a result of a neo-Nazi coup d’état, under the flags of Nazis and fascists, supported by the United States and Europe, sent volunteer battalions of neo-Nazis and the AFU army to Donbass with one goal – to conquer, to bring Donbass to its knees. And if it fails – there was an order to kill, to cleanse Donbass from the unruly.

For 10 years of civil war in Ukraine, unleashed by neo-Nazis and Banderaites, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians died and disappeared without a trace! Tens of millions have fled Ukraine. Today Ukraine is a concentration camp with a ruined economy, total corruption of the elites and total mobilization of ordinary Ukrainians for using them in so called “meat” assaults!

And Donbass…
Today Donbass is Russia! Militia with great combat experience have become soldiers of the Armed Forces of Russia, who are cleansing Ukraine from neo-Nazi filth!


Continue reading

In memory of Russell ‘Texas’ Bentley, the legend of Donbass

Reading time: 3 minutes

We are deeply saddened by the official confirmation of the death of Russell ‘Texas’ Bentley. On the 19th of April news came out that Russell ‘Texas’ Bentley, who had been kidnapped and missing for several days, is dead. Our most sincere condolences to Lyudmila. Our thoughts reach out to all of Russell’s friends and loved ones.

We shall remember him as he was, the American anti-fascist fighting for Donbass and for humanity.

Several posts on our telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden” are dedicated to the memory of Russell.

On that morning, when there was still hope of finding Russell alive, Graham Phillips published the documentary film “Texas – Donbass Legend”:

0:00 / 0:00

15 seconds

15 seconds

We would like to remember Russell by his words, deeds and beliefs, as quoted in the 2022 Sputnik International article ‘Nazism is Disease’: Texan Came to Donbass to Protect People & Tell the Truth About 8-Year Long War:

Continue reading

How the undeclared war in Ukraine started and flamed up in April of 2014

Reading time: 6 minutes

Today marks 10 years since Ukraine with its new US-backed coup-installed neo-Nazi government started a war on the population of Ukraine. First masked as Turchinov’s anti-terrorist operation, the ignominious “ATO”.

Below is a translation of an article from Ukraina.ru that was written by Vasily Stoyakin on the 13th of April 2021, to the seventh anniversary of the start of the Ukrainian war on its people.


The decision to conduct an anti-terrorist operation in Donbas was made by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on April 13, 2014. The next day, Acting President Aleksandr Turchynov put this decision into force.

The ATO was officially concluded on March 30, 2018. Instead, the Joint Forces Operation began. The difference is that the leadership moved from the SBU to the General Staff, that is, the “operation” officially became a war, which, however, has not been declared to this day.

How it all started

Actually, the ATO was first announced on February 19, 2014, as stated by the head of the SBU, Alexander Yakimenko. It was the day after the large-scale clashes on the Maidan, during which several dozen people were killed. However, after the agreement between the opposition and Yanukovych was signed, the operation was cancelled.

But soon the new leadership of the country returned to the topic of the ATO. On April 7, Turchynov announced the possibility of an anti-terrorist operation in connection with the events in Donetsk, Lugansk and Harkov.

On April 6, after another protest rally, its participants seized the building of the Donetsk Regional Council and regional administration and on April 7 formed the People’s Council, which adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty of the DPR and the Act of Proclamation of the State Independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic. Igor Strelkov’s group appeared on the territory of Ukraine only on April 12…
Continue reading

“Ukraine’s Crimes Against Humanity (2022-2023)” – a black book with over 400 testimonials

Reading time: 3 minutes

Ukraine's crimes 2022-2023In June I wrote about a recent black book covering the Ukrainian atrocities, with my translation of the preface. “The Black Book. Atrocities of the modern Banderites – the Ukrainian neo-Nazis in 2014 – 2023” – by Maxim Grigoriev & Mihail Myagkov was in Russian and continued the work of the Russian Foreign Ministry and their White Hooks covering the years 2013-2014: Recent Ukraine human rights violations released in ‘White Book’ report

Ukraine’s Crimes Against Humanity (2022-2023) is also compiled by Maxim Grigoriev (Russian language Telegram channel of the author).

The book was published on the Maxim Grigoriev’s English-language Telegram channel «War Crimes in Ukrake» and announced in this post on the Telegram channel of the Russian Ministry of foreign Affairs.

➡️ The PDF of the book can be downloaded directly from this site.

Below are the introduction and the table of contents of the book:


INTRODUCTION

The book ‘Ukraine’s Crimes Against Humanity (2022-2023)’ contains more than 400 testimonies of victims and eyewitnesses of Ukrainian war crimes and terrorist acts against civilians, committed between 2022 and 2023.

These testimonies have been collected by various public initiatives and organizations, including the International Public Tribunal on the Crimes of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis and Their Accomplices, the Foundation for the Study of Democracy, and many others. The non-governmental nature of the work of these organizations, and limited resources has allowed only a small number of the tens of thousands of Ukrainian war crimes to be documented.

The evidence of crimes presented in this book contains direct speech — the accounts of victims and witnesses of crimes — and is classified according to the types of crimes under international humanitarian law. In each case photographs and full details of the victims and witnesses are provided, allowing them to be re-interviewed both by the media and by national or international judicial structures.

The accounts presented in this book testify to massive Ukrainian war crimes, which under international humanitarian law are classified as crimes against humanity and have no statute of limitations.

We would appreciate if you could repost this message with this book in social media or pass it to the media and human rights organizations of your country.

М. Grigoriev

President of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy


CONTENTS

Continue reading

Donbass is the Heart of Russia

Reading time: 2 minutes

Donbass is the Heart of Russia. It is not just a slogan, it is a reality that everyone was acutely aware of back in 1921, which is the year when the poster below was printed. Donbass is pumping live-giving industrial blood to all the major cities that you can recognise today – Moscow, Petrograd, Tver, Vilna (Vilnius – more on it in Lithuanian Blockade of Kaliningrad – the suicidal move by a limitrophe to please its master), Kiev, Minsk, Uralsk, Harkov…

At the dawn of the USSR, the Donetsk-Krivorozhie Republic was part of the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic), but on the 17th of February 1919 Lenin issued a decree that the Donetsk republic should be transferred to the Ukrainian SSR with the following formulation: “To ask comrade Stalin through the Bureaux of the Central Committee to liquidate Kriv-Donbass.”

And yet, in 1921, the poster issued in Moscow still showed that “Donbass is the Heart of Russia”.

Continue reading

9 Years Since Ukraine Shot Down MH-17. With Vasily Prozorov’s Remarks

Reading time: 3 minutes

Ever since MH-17 was shot down by Ukraine on the 17.07.2014, flying in the direction of Donbass, over a war zone, controlled from the Dnepropetrovsk control tower, with the air traffic controller disappearing into thin air after he instructed MH-17 to descend toa lower altitude; with the fighter pilot Voloshin first making an armed sortie, then getting a “Hero of Ukraine”, and then committing suicide; since Ukraine was made part of the investigation much like if a rapist is made a part of an inquiry into a rape case; after the kangaroo court of Netherlands, when all inconvenient evidence provided by Russia was simply ignored.

Ever since that time I return to the topic of the MH-17 shoot-down on the pages of this blog – all the past posts having the MH-17 tag – and knowing that Russia will not forget this case and will ultimately bring the guilty to justice. Maybe next year, on the 10th anniversary?

As Olga so poignantly wrote on the Putinger’s Chat Telegram channel chat:

Today is another date.
Which for some reason was not remembered by Ukrainian channels. I didn’t see it, maybe it was somewhere. But I have not seen any mention in the foreign press.

This picture was painted by the Dutch artist Emily Rose. Dedicated to the plane crash with the Boeing MH17. Why is memory so short, fellow Europeans?

Then the bodies didn’t even have time to cool down there – “Russians are killers”, “Putin is the killer”.
There was simply nothing known at all.
The plane just crashed…

Continue reading

Newsflash: Biden approves of USA committing a war crime by supplying cluster munitions to their proxy war in Ukraine

Reading time: 3 minutes

Biden approves of USA committing a war crime by supplying cluster munitions to their proxy war in Ukraine.

Cluster munitions are prohibited by all possible conventions and their usage constitutes a war crime. That much was even stated by the Jen Psaki last year:

🇺🇸 Throwback to 2022: Jen Psaki says using cluster bombs is a war crime

Now that Washington has confirmed that it’s sending cluster munitions to Ukraine, it’s “obviously” not a war crime.

Yet, Biden green-lighted supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions from the American stockpiles, citing the fact that the USA has run out of other conventional 155mm artillery shells in their proxy war against Russia.

Continue reading

“The Black Book. Atrocities of the modern Banderites – the Ukrainian neo-Nazis in 2014 – 2023” – by Maxim Grigoriev & Mihail Myagkov

Reading time: 6 minutes

Back in 2014 the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation started out gathering evidence and publishing the White Books of the Ukrainian atrocities in Donbass. The work quickly became overwhelming with the sheer number of materials. I wrote about the White Books in my blog, and the copies of those materials are available for download in both Russian and English.With the sheer volume of materials, the Ministry stopped updating the books, focusing on internal evidence gathering.

Now, almost 10 years later more materials are coming to light:


The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation has published a book by Maxim Grigoriev, Chairman of the International Public Tribunal for Crimes of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis, and Professor Mihail Myagkov:

“The Black Book. Atrocities of the modern Banderites – the Ukrainian neo-Nazis in 2014 – 2023”

The preface to the book was written by the Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (translated below in its entirety):

Today, Russia is resisting the aggression of the collective West, also including on the battlefield during the Special Military Operation (SMO). At the same time, the West treats the territory of the former USSR as a springboard for the splitting and subsequent destruction of the Russian Federation.

The agression against Russia was being prepared since the early 2000s, when our country declared the restoration of its state sovereignty. The active phase of the implementation of Western plans began in 2014 immediately after the coup d’etat in Ukraine, when the neo-Nazi regime came to power in Kiev. Over the next eight years, the Ukrainian army and the punishers of nationalist battalions killed and tortured to death more than eight thousand civilians of Donbass who were trying to defend their human dignity, their civil rights, their native language. In the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics that were proclaimed as a result of national referendums, in Novorossiya, Ukrainian neo-Nazis killed and tortured people protesting against the Kiev regime. It thus happened in the Odessa House of Trade Unions on May 2, 2014, where dozens of people were burned alive. What is this but a crime requiring a fair trial in a democratic State? But the perpetrators of the massacre, whose names are known to everyone, remained at large. Moreover, they are honoured as national heroes.

Russia had to stop this bloody violence, the roots of which go back to the genocide committed by the Nazis and their Ukrainian accomplices during the Great Patriotic War against the population of the Soviet Union. Just like back then, we are talking about the life and death of people under the rule of a terrorist anti-human regime. People who have chosen the path of life as part of Russia or who want to be together with Russia have the right to believe in justice and inevitable retribution dealt to the war criminals for their deeds.

Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly stated: “We have not started any hostilities, we are trying to end them.” That is why on February 24, 2022, he made an appeal to the citizens of the country, in which he announced the beginning of the special military operation.

“Its goal,” the President stressed, “is to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years. And for this, we will strive towards the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, as well as bringing to justice those who committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation.”

Neo-Nazis in Ukraine are not even trying to hide whose heirs they are. Crosses on the APU equipment, symbols with swastikas at the national battalions, the Nazi greeting “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!” and, most importantly, the ideology of “Ukraine above all!” (a carbon-copy from the Nazi “Deutschland über alles”) — all this clearly shows what kind of enemy we are dealing with.

Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought for their native hearth, their homeland in the Great Patriotic War. Our heroic fighters are fighting for their home, their country today in their own zone. But, as 80 years ago, we must convey to the enemies an immutable thought — none of their war crimes will go unpunished.

The Investigative Committee of Russia and the Main Military Investigation Department are collecting and documenting thousands of facts about the atrocities of militants of Ukrainian national formations and military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Trials are already underway and sentences are being handed down to those persons whose specific guilt in the destruction of civilians and prisoners of war has been proven. The work continues. And it will not end with the victory of the Russian army in the SMO. Those Ukrainian war criminals who will not be destroyed on the battlefield will still face a fair trial. Their crimes have no statute of limitations.

The Russian Federation, the successor state of the USSR, has a solid experience in punishing war criminals. Beginning in 1943, open trials of German Nazis and their accomplices from among local traitors took place in the Soviet Union. Such trials took place in Donetsk (then Stalino), Krasnodon, Harkov and Kiev. Hundreds of murderers of civilians and Soviet prisoners of war received harsh sentences, including the death penalty by hanging.

Modern Ukrainian neo-Nazis, their leaders and the Armed Forces of Ukraine should also remember the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal of 1946 to Nazi war criminals.

Despite the fact that Western countries and the Kiev neo-Nazi regime have forgotten about the need to comply with the norms of international humanitarian law, the Russian Federation will achieve their implementation during and according to the results of the SMO.

This “Black Book” contains terrible evidence and facts of torture, violence, murders that were committed and are still being committed by the Ukro-Nazis and the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The task today is to make as many people as possible know about them in our country and abroad. So that the pain and grief of people affected by Ukrainian neo-Nazism will never be forgotten. For the Ukrainian prisoners, acquaintance with this book may be the first step towards realizing the abyss into which they were driven by the criminal actions of Kiev.

The existing regime in Ukraine will be defeated, and the evil that it brings to Russia, the Ukrainian people themselves and the whole world will be punished!

Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation
Army General Sergei Shoigu

Continue reading

Chronology and consequences of the Ukrainian terrorist attacks on the Kahovskaja HPP dam

Reading time: 5 minutes

In total, in the summer-autumn of 2022, more than three hundred missiles were fired at the Kakhovskaya HPP from HIMARS alone.

The consequences of the Ukrainian terrorist act when they blew up Kahovskaja HPP dam. The initial post with the event is here:NEWSFLASH: Ukraine blows up Kahovskaja Hydroelectric Plant dam – ongoing ecological and humanitarian disaster (with updates)

Preliminary damage caused to the Herson region by the destruction of the Kahovskaya HPP is estimated at 11.5 billion roubles, but this figure may be far from final, the head of the regional government said.

The Ukrainin side continues with their practice of many years to shoot the civilians, now targeting people seeking shelter from the flood:

The natural disaster is on the rise, with whole houses floating out into the Black Sea. Soon epidemies of cholera and the like can break out in the flooded areas and along the coast.

Maria Zaharova published on her Telegram channel a complete timeline of the Ukrainian attacks on Kahovskaja HPP. The official English text of the complete list is below the message:

Strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine against the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant: Chronology

Russian MFA
June 10, 2023

The first information about the Ukrainian military mining the dam and hydraulic structures of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant appeared as far back as September 15, 2014. Reports by the Voenkor.Info agency indicated that Ukrainian sappers began installing engineering ammunition at these facilities in order to prevent the Novorossiya separatists from gaining control over them.

The Kakhovskaya HPP came under the control of the Russian military on February 24, 2022, the first day of the special military operation. There were no hostilities in the area of the dam. During the retreat, Ukrainian sappers only mined the floodgate mechanisms of the North Crimean Canal. The explosion was averted.

In the summer of 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine began regularly shelling the town of Novaya Kakhovka and the hydroelectric power plant.
On July 11, 2022, the HPP was hit by a HIMARS MLRS missile.

On July 18, 2022, the control room of the shipping floodgate was damaged during an attack on the HPP.

On July 24, 2022, the plant came under fire from HIMARS.

On July 26, 2022, large-calibre shells hit the hydroelectric dam.

On the night of July 29-30, 2022, the HPP was again hit by HIMARS.

On August 5, 2022, the hydroelectric power plant came under a massive shelling attack. It was hit by HIMARS, Olkha MLRS, and Tochka-U.

On August 7, 2022, the plant was hit by a HIMARS missile.

On August 9, 2022, the dam once again came under fire.

On August 12, 2022, three of the six turbines of the power plant were damaged as a result of shelling. The HPP was switched to emergency mode (half of the design capacity).

On August 18, 2022, large-calibre shells were fired at the hydroelectric dam.

On August 19, 2022, the plant came under fire from Olkha and Tochka.

On August 21, 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched a missile attack on the hydroelectric power plant.

On August 24, 2022, the plant was subjected to massive shelling from HIMARS.

On August 27, 2022, the HPP was hit by Olkha and Tochka.

On August 28, 2022, a missile attack was launched from HIMARS MLRS against the hydroelectric dam.

On August 29, 2022, the plant once again came under fire from HIMARS.

On August 30, 2022, a missile attack was launched on the hydroelectric power plant.

On September 1, 2022, the plant came under fire from HIMARS.

On September 2, 2022, large-calibre shells were fired at the HPP.

On September 5, 2022, the plant was hit by missiles.

On September 6, 2022, a HIMARS missile attack was launched on the HPP.

On September 8, 2022, the regional authorities reported that the HPP and access roads to it had been shelled.

On September 10, 2022, HIMARS hit Novaya Kakhovka and the HPP. The dam was not hit.

On October 18, 2022, Sergey Surovikin, commander of the special military operation, reported damage to the Antonovsky Bridge and the dam of the Kakhovskaya HPP as a result of shelling from HIMARS MLRS.

On October 21, 2022, Russia circulated a letter in the UN Security Council in which it called for preventing Ukraine’s provocations against the Kakhovskaya HPP. The document stated that “the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been shelling the city of Novaya Kakhovka in the Kherson Region for five months. Up to 120 missiles per day are launched.”

On October 24, 2022, the hydroelectric power plant and civilian infrastructure in the area of Novaya Kakhovka were hit by HIMARS and Olkha.

On November 6, 2022, the HPP was hit by six HIMARS missiles. One of them hit a floodgate, which was damaged.

On November 17, 2022, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced that Ukrainian troops had reached the right bank of the Dnieper along its entire length, including in the area of the Kakhovskaya HPP.

In total, in the summer-autumn of 2022, more than three hundred missiles were fired at the Kakhovskaya HPP from HIMARS alone.

On December 29, 2022, The Washington Post published the following statement made by Major General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andrey Kovalchuk, commander of the Ukrainian troops in the Kherson Region: “The Ukrainians conducted a test strike with a HIMARS launcher on one of the floodgates at the Nova Kakhovka dam, making three holes in the metal to see if the Dnieper’s water could be raised enough to stymie Russian crossings but not flood nearby villages. The test was a success.” The date of the strike was not specified.

On March 14, 2023, Head of the Novokakhovsky District Vladimir Leontyev stated that the HPP is hit regularly; in addition, sabotage and reconnaissance units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are regularly attempting to penetrate the territory and the dam. He said that snipers are also working actively, preventing repair and maintenance work on hydraulic structures.

Such methodical attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the HPP resulted in the destruction of its structures, which began on June 6, 2023, and the uncontrolled discharge of water from the Kakhovka reservoir downstream of the Dnieper.

NEWSFLASH: Ukraine blows up Kahovskaja Hydroelectric Plant dam – ongoing ecological and humanitarian disaster (with updates)

Reading time: 4 minutes

Ukraine shelled the dam of the Kahovskaja Hydroelectric plant on many occasions throughout the autumn of 2022. This time they managed to blow up the dam in preparation for their hyped-up and many times delayed “spring counteroffensive”. As a result of this act of ecological terrorism by Ukraine, the water level downstream has risen by 10 metres, the cooling of the Zaporozhie Nuclear Power Plant may become compromised. What Ukrainians achieved is to force the Russian army to abandon their dug-in positions, and they also washed away the mine fields. When the water level returns to normal in 3 days’ time, Ukraine will be in a much more advantageous position to attack.

Meanwhile, a humanitarian and ecological disaster is unfolding. Ukraine has severely limited the access to the drinking water for the people on the Crimean peninsular. The wildlife cannot evacuate as easily as people. Many birds are nesting now and whole generation of birds will become lost. The Black Sea – already on the verge of ecological collapse (more on that in a later article) will be polluted even more.

UPDATE: Before the terrorist act, Ukraine dumped large amounts of water from the upstream dams, thus bringing the water level in Kahovskaja dam to the maximum mark. This is seen from the diagram in the post below, and also a dump from the Drepropetrovsk is mentioned in the statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Indirect confirmation of Kiev’s guilt in the undermining of the Kahovskaya HPP. Ukrainian publicists write that yesterday the Zaporozhye hydroelectric plant began a massive discharge of water, significantly raising the level of the Kahovsky reservoir. And the picture shows the data of the French monitoring portal The-land: the level rises immediately from 14 to 17.5 meters. After that, an accurate missile strike by the APU and guaranteed destruction of the dam plus a powerful flooding of the territory downstream.

The Russian Ministry of Defence placed the definitive blame on the Kiev regime, and so fr the Russian MoD only made statements when they were 100% sure of the factual veracity of the claim.

Continue reading

Bahmut or Artyomovsk? A historical look at the name of the city

Reading time: 7 minutes

The battles for Bahmut/Artyomovsk have been raging for some time, the city becoming the focal point of defence the the Ukrainians were building up over the last 8 years, while hiding under the fig leaf of the Minsk peace accord. The Western/Ukrainian publications stick to the name Bahmut as a true “Ukrainian” one. (Incidentally, the name Bahmut has a Turkic sound to it.) The Russian side sticks with Artyomovsk. The article that I am going to translate below looks at the history of the name, and may be an eye-opened for both parties.

And so, the article in question, published in Deita.ru on the 26th of December 2022. Note that the names may alternatively be transliterated as Bakhmut and Artyomovsk.


Bahmut or Artyomovsk? What is wrong with the city’s name?

The conflict in Ukraine is being fought not only on the battlefield – with artillery and missiles, but also in the information space, where symbolism becomes the main weapon. The city of Bahmut, where fierce battles continue, has become a mini-field of a global information and semantic struggle. The Ukrainian modern name of the city is Bahmut, while Russian media and bloggers persistently use the Soviet toponym Artyomovsk.

This material of IA DEITA.RU is about where both names of the city came from, why the heated argument, and what is the problem with the position of our information attack.

Bahmut vs Artyomovsk

Continue reading