21911

The head of Wagner doesn’t sound optimistic about Bakhmut, which is supposedly his baby:

21912
21913

Newsflash: Herding hundreds of raw recruits into a single large, unfortified building within enemy rocket range, on New Years Eve, with zero operational security and no doubt lots of vodka, is probably not a good idea.

21914

I saw someone post a picture of some dude posing with a gun in the highly and easily identifiable building online.

Basically he was posting their locations online to anyone who wanted to know them.
Turns out the Russias are still really, really bad at infosec.

21915

Good article on how Sumy defended itself. I was amazed that the city never fell during the early invasion.
It’s interesting to read some of the reasons.

21916

That is crazy they were able to hold the city without military support like that.

21917

Per ISW, Ukrainian air defense has a 100% interception rate on drones from Dec 31 - Jan 2, with many of them being shot down by the NASAMS air defense system.

I’m wanting confirmation, but I’ve seen reports that Ukraine now has fire control over the Kreminna-Svatove highway which would seriously hinder Russia’s logistics, if true. I hope it’s the case and it’s a domino falling towards the liberation of Kreminna.

21918

Thanks to you guys a lot of families in NoviBorovychi had candles, powerbanks, batteries, canned food and chocolate for New Years Eve.

The big generator is bought and will probably be transported next week, hopefully before Ukrainian Christmas. Thanks guys to all of you who made this possible!

Anyway, below the update I posted on the Gofundme today in a little more detail:

—————————————-

It has been a bit quiet on our part the last couple of weeks and an update has been long overdue.

So New Years Day has just passed and this seems an excellent opportunity to let you all know what has been happening.

Since this is our first fundraiser some parts have been quite a learning curve. We thought raising the money would be the hard part. Not so, it turned out to be.

Raising the money, thanks to all you generous people, turned out to be the easy part.
Acquiring a generator, figuring out logistics, dealing with tax and bureaucracy issues were something else and provided challenges.

First finding out what kind of generator was needed took longer than expected (regular or ATP) . Next, getting in touch with a tech person in NoviBorovychi who would be responsible for hooking the generator up was more difficult than expected, due to Wifi and power issues. Then there were VAT and logistics issues. Most suppliers we contacted didn’t deliver to Ukraine or did not have the administrative expertise to deliver VAT free. And finally, trying to buy a generator proved a huge challenge. It seemed the whole of Europe and beyond were trying to buy generators. Some generator sales persons did not even answer their mobiles anymore. War profiteers were popping up all over the place who had bought generators with the sole purpose of selling them for extreme profits. It was not a pretty sight.

Fortunately we were not too late and were able to procure a generator that was being built in Spain. The good news is this generator was finished a couple of days ago and was delivered in the Netherlands today. For shipping, we are working together with a Dutch Ukrainian Charity called DeLeeuwKiyv Foundation. They do a lot of transports and have a lot of experience with paperwork. Our generator will probably be transported the coming week.

Because it took a while to get the generator to Ukraine, our Ukrainians asked if we could use some of the funding to send candles to every home in NoviBorovychi before New Year. And with the help of some volunteers (big thanks to Saskia from Haarlem who did amazing work) we were able to collect around 500 big candles. All these candles (and some power banks, batteries, canned food, woolen socks, chocolate) were sent a week before the end of the year and arrived in time.

We will keep you posted on the actual transport of the generator and hope we can get it delivered before Ukrainian Christmas, the 7th of January.

21919

In response to the recent deadly HIMARS strike, a Russian troll is circulating a video claiming that the Russians killed a large group of foreign “mercenaries” and destroyed 6 MLRS launchers, along with a bunch of rockets. It turns out it was an empty ice skating rink previously reported on and videoed by French journalists on site.

They’re not very good at this.

21920

Very nice, thanks for the update! If the Russians bomb a generator I have a piece of, I’m gonna get ticked.

21921

I started making small contributions to WCK after one of the Haiti crisis, but after seeing how much they’ve done in Ukraine, they are now one of my top charities. Minimally bullshit, extraordinary tangible results.

Ron Howard, did fine documentary “We feed people” about WCK. Available on National Geo, or Disney+.

21922

According to Ukraine, the volume of Russian artillery fire is 1/3 of what it was this past summer:

21923

But I’d been told they’d been producing a million+ shells a year since the end of WWII!

21924

If a million men made a million shells for a million years, could they carry them to where they are needed?

21925

Only with good training, but those don’t run on time in Russia, so who knows.

21926

I certainly don’t have any special status or consideration around here, but I would ask: a lot of this mocking about millions of men seems to be predicated on what Janster was arguing earlier, and it’s starting to strike me as a bit crass and ugly. Maybe leave that part alone, provided no one else defends it again? Also, could absolutely be me being way too sensitive.

21927

It is, and maybe let it drop? No idea why Janster is so pro-Russia in the war, but he’s a lonely voice on a message board and doesn’t really matter that much, though I get the satisfaction in letting facts contradict him. He’s been annoying, so slap him down, but maybe he’s been slapped down enough?

21929

Yes. This is the way. If a million brand new A class soldiers carry a thousand artillery rounds each, Russia wins.

Some coherent light bacon guy said so. It is known.

21930

That was my impulse, we’ve argued, we’ve friendly-fought, let’s leave it alone. Rail against Russian propaganda until the cows come home, but I feel there’s a bit of meanness that I don’t like.

21931

I understand how easy it is to do, though. I have to actively fight the urge to post something similar whenever mobilized troop or supply numbers come up. It’s the way he made his arguments that got under the skin of a lot of us. But I agree, it’s at the point where it’s pretty mean to just keep laying on when Janster hasn’t really posted much in weeks.