Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin has been remarkably reserved and selective in his targeting, considering the scale and capability of the massively armed nation to obliterate Ukraine metropolitan areas.
Russia absorbed all the Ukraine attacks on Wildberries warehouses for all the reasons CTH previously noted. Ukraine was convinced by western intelligence analysis that destroying the roughly 200 Wildberries distribution centers would cripple the Russian consumer economy. However, increased strikes did not yield the desired results. Duh.
Ukraine then added Ozon to the target list, another online retailer for everyday items similar to Amazon (even with similar name).
Ukraine began targeting Ozon warehouse and distribution centers shortly before they began more parcel and car bomb attacks against strategic Russian military officers.
It’s almost like Western intelligence do not understand how resilient Russian consumers are. Russia is considerably analog in an almost exclusively western digital world. Perhaps that’s the disconnect, but I would think with the cultural connections between both nations, Ukraine would know better.
Then again, is it really Ukraine strategizing the war?
Regardless, Vladimir Putin has now taken the restrictions away from dual use infrastructure in/around Kyiv, and for the past two days Russia has continued to launch relentless volleys of missiles and drones at Kyiv warehouses. Overall, during the two days of Russian attacks, 17 warehouse facilities, 16 private houses, three apartment buildings and 16 vehicles were damaged in Kyiv region. {source} It’s the retaliatory version of FAFO.
Western Ukraine (Kyiv region) is very ‘western’, very western. Eastern Ukraine, not so much. Suddenly the nightclubs, dance clubs and entertainment districts in/around Kyiv (Kiev) are empty.
What is now beginning to be shared on background alternative media is the scope of exodus from Ukraine (picture above left). Thousands of Ukrainians are now fleeing every day.
KYIVPOST -Russian forces struck Nova Poshta warehouse facilities in the Kyiv region early Friday, Aug. 28, then hit the same site twice more as firefighters were battling the resulting blaze, local authorities said.
The initial strike targeted warehouses in the Bilohorodka community, damaging a nearby production facility in Sviatopetrivske, according to Anton Ovsiienko, head of the Bilohorodka village council.
Nearly an hour later, while emergency crews were still fighting the fire, Russian forces launched two more strikes at the same location. Firefighters and other specialists managed to move to a safer area before the additional impacts, Ovsiienko said.
The Nova Poshta strike was part of a broader overnight Russian assault that repeatedly targeted logistics infrastructure across the Kyiv region.
Overnight on Aug. 26-27, Russian drones and ballistic missiles caused fires and damage at several warehouse facilities across the region, the Kyiv region Governor Tymur Tkachenko said.
A warehouse in Boryspil district caught fire, while facilities in Fastiv district were damaged. Private homes were also damaged in Brovary and Vyshhorod districts. There were no initial reports of civilian casualties.
Local residents published footage showing fires and reported that warehouses belonging to Ukrainian online retailer Rozetka and retail group Fozzy Group were among those hit. Those reports have not been independently confirmed. (read more)
This conflict fascinates me; in part because of the western media and EU/NATO propaganda behind it, and in part because the vast majority of westerners do not understand the cultural dynamic at play in this conflict.
There are no old men in Russia. Go set up a cctv camera on a crowded street and look for men over 70 years-of-age. You won’t find them. Russia never had a baby boom after World War II. Men were slaughtered by the millions. Russia has a lot of old women, but old men – they are as scarce as a pregnant Chinese woman.
Gen-X, Millennials and now Gen-Z males are required to spend two-years in military service. Almost all Russian men know how to war, and the Ukraine conflict is creating another generation of hardened war fighters. I do not believe the “reported” Russian casualty counts, because if they were accurate, I would have run into families of the lost servicemembers during my visits; I have not. A few dozen wounded (usually leg wounds) have been visible in two very cautiously organized visits to veterans’ hospitals.
If a million Russian soldiers were dead (western reporting), there would be signs of that scale. There are not. In a nation of 143 million people, with well below half being males, a million dead out of 50 to 60 million would be very visible. There are no signs of that. The median age is 40.
As the ‘war’ enters its fifth year, Russia is assimilating the Donbas region in the East and fortifying territorial gains. Ukraine is fighting Russia using western technology as a strategic advantage, but the strikes and attacks into mainland Russia are not consequential. Russia is nowhere close to the level of severe economic hardship that western media and pundits proclaim. It’s just not.
Culturally, Russians are not ‘resilient’ in the western sense of the word. Russians are pragmatic, deliberate and hard as a matter of cultural pride. Jungle gyms, rope ladders, metal slides with sharp edges, rope swings and all that physical playground stuff you grew up with that western insurance companies eventually deemed too dangerous, are still in use and being built. 7-year-olds fall on concrete with reckless abandon, scrape their skin, stand up and keep playing.
Moms and dads don’t flinch.
Russia is analog in a digital world. Stuff gets fixed quickly. No-one is sitting around waiting on an $800 microchip for repair. You want water in a bathroom; you turn a knob – not wave your hands. When the internet is turned off, no one twitches. Phone calls do the job just fine and pens with paper transfer instructions to whoever needs the task. They still sell maps.
Russians walk a lot, go shopping, in actual stores and stuff. This is why bombing Russian online warehouses is far less effective than if you took down Amazon in the USA. If you forget something, or if you just don’t want to go out, you text the company or use an app and a guy on a moped shows up and hands it to you in a plastic bag; no delivery fee. It’s weird.
Remember, metropolitan Russia is set up with govt planned precincts. Each few buildings have a generally useful grocery store, a bakery, a coffee shop, a pharmacy, a utility store, etc. all within immediate walking distance. They set it up that way a long time ago, and the stores are different, but the planning never changed.
- 75.4% of the Russian population is urban (108,135,895 people in 2026) {source}
I say all of this to question myself about who in their right mind thought destroying regional Russian warehouses would have some great impact. It’s akin to stomping individual ants.
This approach is not going to ‘destroy’ the Russian economy. However, in the westernized and centralized western consumer structure built on economies of scale and cost-efficient distribution, vis-a-vis Kyiv or Brussels etc., taking out regional hubs and distribution centers might just create some chaos.
When the power goes out or the internet stops working in our culturally convenienced western world, we start to get twitchy really quick. In Russia they just grab a lantern, read a book – the actual paper kind – eat a sandwich or go for a walk. Adults can also sit on benches and watch dogs for hours, without having a sense they need to be doing something.
I think part of the reason the western news doesn’t make sense is because we don’t understand Russians.
Think about conscripting Gen-Z and younger Millennials in Europe or America. Think about the young people you know around you. If they were pushed to a war-fighting disposition, how would they react without all their gadgets?
Russia is an entirely different kettle-o-fish.
It’s not better, it’s just different. However, for this part of the hardcore existential stuff, they’re patriotic and hard.
We’ll keep watching.
Yes, the west has an addiction to the internet. We love to doom scroll. I do my best not to pick up the iPad before bed. Sleep is much more restful. I try to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation. Living on a lake with the wildlife. Sometimes we toss corn tortilla to the deer or leave an egg for the fox. We have every critter you can imagine here in central Texas. Best part; no vet bill. Our gadgets are a product of the evil one. It’s hard to be still and know God and appreciate his beauty with all the silly distractions. Our youth has a difficult future ahead.
“Our youth has a difficult future ahead.”
Extremely. It is designed addictive. Not the devices, the apps and the content. I watch how easily our grandkids are hypnotized by even simple games on the devices. They are drawn like moths to a flame. Mindless programming. It is not perchance. Our kids try and keep theirs off devices, but they have trouble putting their phones down.
I tell them to learn to pull information, reject pushed information..
Probably just south of you, I agree, sit in the backyard, listen to the quiet, enjoy the peace and what God provided for us here in Texas. No place like it anywhere. I listen to these young people spouting off how great socialism is, OK go live in a socialist country. Not an organized vacation trip, LIVE there. Being Army for 26 years we lived in a few socialist countries. Definitely not a place you want to spend your life. You get to see what it is up close and personal. I will take freedom and peace any day over that.
Ratcliffe’s message is end the war by summer next year or the next administration may be more friendlier to Ukraine than this one.
Putin then decided the end the long slug of attrition and open the gates of unlimited warfare. This can be seen in an increase in offensive actions in the past days.
My prediction: after the Russian elections due soon there will be a mobilization of maybe up to 1 million to be made ready by winter (not all of them, but in stages).
The conflict will escalate month by month as new units enter service. New fronts will be created pulling the Ukrainians thin.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a stray iskander obliterates the British embassy. The US embassy is getting ready to evacuate already.
I think in the next few months Putin will show how an “operation” transforms into a “war” and the west will be shocked.
The Ukrainian people fleeing are the ones who’ve profited out of this war and we’re dancing away in Kiev.
It’s actually an opportunity for Romania to regain their lost lands from Ukraine but with a bozo president they won’t take it. Poland, the same, the opportunity is there. Hungary knows what to do when they smell blood in the water and the EU will be furious.
It’s an interesting time to live in. Popcorn please….
Nobody fights better in the winter than the Ruskies.
I bet the Afghans were glad there are four seasons!
‘My prediction: after the Russian elections due soon there will be a mobilization of maybe up to 1 million to be made ready by winter (not all of them, but in stages).’
Training a million men and getting them equipped and supplied well enough to fight a maneuver style of warfare capable of taking down Ukraine relatively quickly once the final push begins will take another year of preparation at the very minimum.
Even then, the Russians must be willing to accept the sudden sharp spike in casualties that will come with their transition into a blitzkrieg style of warfare.
Once the battlefield phase of the conflict is over, what happens next? Will NATO then shift to an insurgency style of conflict which keeps hundreds of thousands of Russian troops tied down in Ukraine enforcing Russia’s control of the population and the territory?
The training most likely started a couple years ago.
I m thinking that too. Who says that’s ‘future‘ strategy?
Most Russians have already gone through training during their military service. The way I see it is the new units take over the back end of existing front while the experienced ones get to focus on the fronts that matter.
You’re right there would be a spike in casualties but the Russians are able to take it, in my opinion.
Currently you have several points that are on the breaking point, and if Russia has the manpower to push, it can create a rout. The disorganization from intense bombing and break in several points can lead to large retreats or surrenders. Especially if top officials would begin to be targeted at their civilian locations.
I’m leaning towards this scenario…
As to what happens next? It depends who is in power in Ukraine. But the Dniepr could become the physical border, and the western side is manageable.
There is basic training for individual personnel and then there is unit-level training for combat brigades at a combined-arms level among armor, infantry, and air support.
NATO’s intelligence operations already know with certainty whether or not such combined arms unit-level training has been taking place for the past several years.
If the Russians have indeed been conducting this kind of unit level combined-arms maneuver warfare training for the last several years, then they might well be in a position to launch a blitzkrieg style of attack this year.
The CIA has to know what the real situation is with the current state of Russian forces. It is possible that John Ratcliffe was sent to warn Putin that if he launches a high-intensity combined arms ground attack against Ukraine, he had better confine that attack to Ukraine territory and not to infringe upon NATO treaty territory.
seems to me like NATO/CIA/MI6 are already in insurgency and asymmetric warfare mode.
Besides not “helping” Iran, Ratcliffe may have warned Russia against using tactical nukes in Ukraine. If you use them, we’ll use them!
Completely ridiculous comment.
No, Ratcliffe would not threaten Russia with a nuclear war.
Not “Ratcliffe” (nuclear threat to Putin), but President Trump; and HOW would the president deliver that message? A phone call would be listened to by many, as well as any in-person mtg. A trusted emissary is the only way.
The Euro elites wanted a full on war with the bear. So poke and poke and poke and et voila, the bear has had enough.
But: “The Bear Remembers” what Europe now does not. And, they will never allow their people to forget what happened.
To the Europeans, world war is a great way to sell war-merchandise. Surely, the hellfires will never burn out of control.
But “The Great Patriotic War” cost Russia far more than everyone else. Every family has a black-and-white photo on “Victory Day.” Every family, including Putin’s, was struck. Millions were killed.
Russia, of them all, is never going to forget what War actually means. What it actually costs.
As Europe “provokes and provokes,” they have no idea what they are doing. But, Russia does.
And most of the world does not remember that Russia was our ally in WWII, or they conveniently choose to forget that fact — for the war and all.
Russia was the Soviet Union during WWII. The Bolsheviks killed Russians. Russia has no desire to repeat that era.
But first the Russians were allies of Nazi Germany, until Hitler decided to double cross Stalin and invade the Motherland.
They also do not remember that, immediately after “V-E Day,” Churchill wanted to start “Operation Unthinkable” to knife Stalin in the back using captured German warplanes.
Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed and Churchill was (for a time …) turned out of office. But Europe has never forgotten that idea. They still want to conquer Russia, and seize her vast natural resources. As I’ve said, they published a map, giving every rump-country a name and a flag! Yes, they can taste it . . .
The will to actually fight a war seems to be becoming more evident. People running away in Ukraine and being forced into military service against their will vs what appears to be a more solid unified military of Russia. What I don’t understand is why there isn’t a significant portion of Ukraine’s population that isn’t just flat out refusing to be used as pawns by the EU’s cokehead puppet.
Yes, the Ghost Regiment.
It might sound weird, but absent the constant narcissistic drumbeat of social media and faced with the inescapable realities of war and conscription, you’d see a big change among young men especially.
The younger generations aren’t totally fried
Maybe, just maybe the Ukrainian people will demand a “real” election and stop being a proxy for the EU, MI6, CIA,, et. al.
That might be the only way to stop this war. The Ukrainians have to do it themselves. Rise up as one and overthrow that little Nazi.
“……………..who in their right mind thought destroying regional Russian warehouses would have some great impact.”
The same sort of clowns who mathematically concluded (during the Vietnam War) that since 50,000 rounds of small arms fire would result in one enemy kill, we would win that war with the increased production of small arms ammo.
We had some really, really smart people back then,…………. said nobody.
In 1963 on a visit to Saigon, SECDEF Robert McNamara was told by reporters covering the war in Vietnam that the US was losing the war. McNamara responded with this predictable comment from a mindless technocrat: ‘Every number we have tells us we are winning this war.’
Right up until the day we left.
and the same sort of clowns suggesting that “just one more bombing” or “invade kharg” will make the iranians give up…
You think it’s clownish to make the Iranian regime give up their attempts to develop sufficient weapons to fulfill their quest to annihilate us?
For some reason there became a:
North Vietnam
and
South Vietnam
AND
North Korea
and
South Korea
That have been in place for decades…
( while smily c c p (with cloaked dragon ) does it$ incremental infiltrating and selling of precious wooden-nickels etc. over time …
to quietly, eventually set up its …. _____ )
imho
Bobby Mac’s “Whiz Kids”.
The attack on Kiev has been going on for about 80 hours now.
@IntelSlava 8:56 AM Today ECT
— During the past night, air defense forces intercepted and destroyed 313 Ukrainian UAVs over the territories of Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Rostov, and Tula Oblasts, the Moscow region, Krasnodar Krai, the Republic of Crimea, the Republic of Tatarstan, and over the waters of the Sea of Azov and Black Sea, Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported.
@IntelSlava 9:19 AM Today ECT
— Key points from Putin and Lukashenko’s meeting in Moscow
Statements by the Russian President:
• Trade turnover between Russia and Belarus has increased by 12.5% since the beginning of the year.
• Putin highlighted the development of cooperation between the two countries in high-tech sectors, including microelectronics.
• The Russian leader proposed discussing the results of work carried out by the governments of the two countries.
Statements by the Belarusian President:
• Belarus and Russia will overcome all difficulties together.
• The talks with Mishustin held the previous day were productive and substantive.
• Belarus-Russia trade turnover will exceed last year’s figures.
@IntelSlava 9:30 AM Today ECT
— Smoke is still rising from the ammunition depot in the village of Myla, Bucha District, Kyiv Oblast, which was targeted by Russian Geran-4 drone strikes.
The reported death toll has risen to 37, with at least 42 others injured and 381 people evacuated.
Zelenskyy publicly criticized the storage of ammunition near civilian areas, saying the resulting detonations damaged residential buildings and a facility for elderly and disabled people.
@IntelSlava 9:51 AM Today ECT
I suggest we take a breath and might want to watch Chernobyl and the 5 part series that ran on HBO before we fall all over ourselves to believe them and Putin. Because nothing has changed there for the better, IMHO………
great series.
not sure i follow or agree that nothing has changed: communism is gone, and that cannot be underestimated. russia operates more free market, in many ways, than we do, the last couple decades. we have allowed our bureaucratic incrementalism to cloud our judgement about just how UNfree we are.
Glad they are hitting back. Ironic that Z likely isn’t even in country. What a clown.
the video of him supposedly in Zaporozhia was particularly hilarious…
President Putin has given his enemies plenty of time to come to their senses.
They have not and never will. It is their desire to start a war and make it look as though Russia is a big, bad bully.
President Putin has been extremely patient.
Looks as though his patience against constant assaults has run out.
“The Bear” can bare its teeth. A little bit more . . .
But what people had damned well remember is that: “Russia is ‘bad-ass!'” The mere fact that she has still not yet unleashed her full military power does not mean that she can’t. Or, that she won’t. You are recklessly playing with fire.
You are also very foolish to presume that you know how Russia will respond. Since the beginning of the SMO, Russia has never done what you expected. Russia never does. And, Russia does not lose.
So essentially they still have a culture of self-control and morality.
Lennon and Khrushchev always made me nervous now I think I know why.
Lenin — just for clarity’s sake.
Consequences of the explosion in the village of Mila, near Bucha.
Zelensky stated that a criminal case has been opened regarding the placement of an ammunition and weapons depot near residential areas.
Earlier, Russian military officials reported that they had struck warehouses belonging to the FirePoint company, which contained missiles and drones.
@ukr_leaks_eng Today 9:01 AM
The ammunition depot in the village of Mila near Kiev, which was struck by Russian forces, was located where it definitely shouldn’t have been, Zelensky stated.
He called the incident an absolutely unacceptable crime.
@ukr_leaks_eng Today 10:03 AM
i guarantee he would never have admitted that (and it certainly goes on everywhere) unless he was forced to by the scope of the damage
It’s about time.
The EU/Ukraine is lucky Putin doesn’t drop a tactical nuke on them.
Just to get their attention.
Seems like we could all learn a few things from the Russians. I was so impressed when reading about Russian dacha gardens. They saved many Russians from extreme food shortages during the breakup of the Soviet Union. Even now, they contribute a significant amount to Russia’s food supply.
https://smallfarmersjournal.com/russian-dacha-gardens/
I have long argued we need something like the Micro-Homestead Act to encourage more home/kitchen gardens.
Fortunately, from my observations this is happening naturally to a degree. Since the pandemic nonsense there has been a marked increase in my area of homeowners who have started raising goats/chickens and maintaining produce gardens.
Add to that, all the food recalls.
Seeing the Fenway victory gardens a few years ago, was an eye opener. If you have the means, to cultivate even a small patch, do so. Very therapeutic too.
Anyone doubting the staying power of the Russian people must have grown up under a rock and have never opened a history book. Much like Trump misread the Persians, the Russians are going nowhere and are too tough to be even economically defeated. The Russians have exercised great restraint in the Ukrainian war. I don’t condone the Russian invasion but, in war, they have exercised great restraint. I think that restraint is rapidly coming to an end as they reach the conclusion that chances of a peaceful resolution is remote now.
I thought that first picture with the traffic was the Garden State Parkway by the shore on a summer Friday evening.
? the pic might be from China….that is a terribly wide highway for a coty the size of Kiev.
Just in the summertime? LOL
Good thing UKR has the leader of the free world, Z-man!