Other drone news: Back around Aug 26, Ukrainian sources claimed an attack on Kursk airbase destroyed multiple aircraft (https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/08/27/7417295/)
Subsequent satellite imagery showed no obvious damage, calling the report into question…
https://twitter.com/Aviation_Intel/status/1696070712132612233
Two more ships (ANNA THERESA, IMO 9497842 and OCEAN COURTESY 9465198) successfully exited using #Ukraine's unilateral corridor. These are ships that were trapped since the start of the war, remains to be seen whether anyone attempts the inbound voyage, and how Russia responds if so
Oh, hadn't seen this part of the Musk / Starlink debacle "The [Russian] ambassador had explicitly told [Musk] that a Ukrainian attack on Crimea would lead to a nuclear response"
Dude got absolutely *played* by a guy making him feel important
Worrying about about the implications of your product being used off-label by a foreign military is not unreasonable, but if you have a direct line to the national security advisor and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, maybe check with them before cutting it off?
OTOH, possible the Biden admin would have concurred, given their caution in other areas
A previously unreported drone boat, known as a USV (uncrewed surface vessel), appears to have slipped past Russian Navy patrols. The device was found on a beach close to the major Russian Navy base of Sevastopol in Crimea.
The version in Isaacson's biography and WaPo piece was "Elon saw them heading to Crimea and disabled Starlink"
On twitter, he "corrected" it to match what Elon tweeted: "Starlink was always disabled in Crimea"
Ukrainians apparently say the first version was correct (Rushton certainly has good sources, though how close to this particular program is not clear)
I reached out to a source close to the Ukrainian drone programme about these claims. They confirmed Starlink had been previously enabled in the area in question - which is why Ukraine had used USVs that relied on Starlink for navigation - and that Musk had "turned it off".
1/ It has been 3 months since the Russians blew-up the Kakhovka HPP dam on 6 June 2023. What is happening to the Dnipro River hydrology and ecology? What are are the options for rebuilding the HPP and possibility for a Dnipro left-bank beachhead? A #NAFOWeather 🧵 Outline:
Ukrainian forces continued to advance south of Robotyne in western Zaporizhia Oblast and reportedly advanced near Bakhmut on September 10. Geolocated footage posted on September 10 shows that Ukrainian forces have advanced east of Novoprokopivka (18km
UK government claims "Russian military targeted a cargo ship in the Black Sea with multiple missiles on 24 August… intended target was a Liberian-flagged cargo ship berthed in the port" 🤨
Short of direct knowledge of the intended target from HUMINT or SIGINT, how would you know the target was the ship vs shore infrastructure?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-intelligence-shows-russias-targeting-of-a-cargo-ship
Starlink outage (https://twitter.com/Starlink/status/1701772439506894964) and Sevastopol shipyard on fire at approximately the same time
(almost certainly unrelated, but somewhat funny in light of recent news)
https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1701774908403904799
TASS report on the #Ukraine #Sevastopol strike is unusually straightforward. States it was a "Ukrainian strike", and a "non-civilian" object is on fire. Bit of reassuring propaganda at the end "authorities assure that there is no danger to civilian objects in the city" but presumably referring to the fire, not the whole "city being targeted by missiles and drones in an ongoing war" thing
Enforcing sanctions on common dual use electronics is extremely hard: "In cases where Russia needs millions of one particular component, export controls can grind production to a halt. But the chips needed to make a couple of hundred cruise missiles would fit into a few backpacks"
First ships to use #Ukraine's corridor inbound have reached Chornomorsk: Palau flagged RESILIENT AFRICA (IMO 9257204) and AROYAT (IMO 9151395)
Russia's Black Sea fleet has notably had other things competing for attention recently
While Washington "does not encourage nor enable" Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied weapon systems outside of the country, it is "fundamentally" Kyiv's decision how to use those weapons, U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken said at a press conference.
NYT matches (without citing, natch) CIT's reporting that the Kostiantynivka strike was most likely a failed Ukrainian missile, tracing it to a specific Buk launched around that time
#GiftArticle
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/world/europe/ukraine-missile-kostiantynivka-market.html?unlocked_article_code=mdNpTg3Bkjv9j1IZFI7KQz3iALTTn4OtQ5fXP0R74AqZo-XoUehKgzPRYFuIL11Gsu5LmmFM1pWXJ75zLJ7Te9PuxUk6PSmFTB23VwuGNKw-i1QFqUEZsZCGyKM2r9ycwNcX2_Gmauz08Xdv_CggzDTeHeCkmTIsHPCLTivBAKqKSDToIl8gQCleGg1gE2JyxEvRq33qoa1bAJe2h9sEimKLEGQXXhHqfmgGnKbcn8Cx4LE7WqFGFEP8lMi3Jfr1X2WMYq93_Hh-Mrfrm-xXTIUqR-YFg0PzYSu70JbWyjJzvyQujSTrz9M7biPrWvZKCYVBOd10sgLc3ktQOFwfzts6aCrG-LhIeLtGzKrTF3Rottiq&smid=url-share
"Pentagon exempts Ukraine operations from potential government shutdown" - Clearly the right choice, though as noted in the article, there would likely still be impacts
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/21/pentagon-exempts-ukraine-operations-from-shutdown-00117482
Latest US aid package to #Ukraine includes more Sidewinders, specifically "AIM-9M missiles for air defense", as well as "Avenger air defense systems". Once upon a time, there was a project to arm Avengers with AIM-9 🤔
On day 575 of the three day special military operation, everything is going according to plan at Black Sea fleet HQ in #Sevastopol (via https://t.me/chp_sevastopol/21260)
Budanov: "The second point in engaging defenses is that we’re making those holes in the overall air defense coverage. Those holes are exploited for other things" - Yeah, not a coincidence multiple high end air defense systems were hit leading up to the recent #Sevastopol strikes
WaPo reports the cluster munition variant of ATACMS is likely to be provided, which would open up targets that aren't suited to Storm Shadow's big single warhead
#GiftArticle #GiftLink #ATACMS #Ukraine https://wapo.st/3EPtJ8Q
⛴️3 new cargo vessels are on the way to enter Chornomorsk and Pivdenij ports for loading export products. Bulk carriers AZARA, YING HAO 01, ENEIDA is using temporary corridor established by the Ukrainian Navy in order to export 127K tones of agroproducts and iron ore for China…
If you wondered what former Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin was up to, he's been appointed "senator" for occupied Zaporizhzhia. He was previously wounded in a hotel in Donetsk while cosplaying with the Russian army
Увага, насамперед тим, хто оператори дронів. На відео не танк ☝️ орків. Видає при всій реалістичності, відсутність накату. Це надувний, а швидше за все, що натягується на раму, макет-хибна ціль орків. Фальшивий як і вся їхня путінська порода. Будьте уважні, не витрачаєте боєкомплект марно. Їх зараз дедалі більше на полі бою. Attention, first of all, to those who are drone operators. On the video is not an orcs tank ☝️. With all realism, gives out lack of rolling. This is an inflatable, and most likely a frame-stretching mock-up of the orcs. Fake like all their Putin breed. Be careful, do not spend the ammunition in vain. There are more and more of them on the battlefield now.
Reed Mideke
