The Russians are claiming that Ukraine has launched an offensive with two brigades across the border into Russia’s Belgorod Oblast. If that’s true, this is an operation with anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 troops, although brigade sizes can vary.
The area in question is actually northwest of the city of Belgorod and not far from the Kursk area Ukraine just vacated.
I’m not sure what the point would be in Ukraine attacking here. Other than a couple villages that are basically wide spots in the road, this area is a whole lot of nothing.
Maybe Russia has some assets there. Or maybe Ukraine wants to occupy an area of Russia for political leverage.
Russia is already claiming a glorious victory.
Pro-war Telegram channel Dva Mayora reported that the AFU had tried to enter Russia through the Krasnaya Yaruga district, having amassed troops on the border overnight. The attempted incursion, which cost the AFU four armoured vehicles, three T-72 tanks and about 20 servicemen, according to pro-war military correspondent Yury Kotyonok, was ultimately unsuccessful, and pro-Russian Telegram channel Voenkory Russkoy Vesny shared video footage of what it said was AFU equipment ablaze at the border.
Shame about that helicopter.
There are reports that during the Trump-Putin phone call today Putin agreed to halt attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days.
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⚡️ BREAKING: Putin reportedly ordered the military to stop strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, according to Russian media following Trump’s conversation with Putin.
Putin reportedly supported Trump’s idea of a mutual 30-day halt on energy infrastructure attacks.
— UNITED24 Media (@united24media.com) March 18, 2025 at 12:30 PM
And there is supposed to be a prisoner swap tomorrow.
Fire’s out. Time to hit it again.
Some video from Ukraine’s capture of the village of Shevchenko south of Pokrovsk.
WARNING: Video shows a Russian soldier on fire.
Bavovna with high fives.
Russian soldiers control the ground in Sudzha but not the air.
A column of Russian armored barns is destroyed near Toretsk.
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🇺🇦Toretsk direction: North of the Druzhba village, our brothers from the 28th Motorized Rifle Brigade destroyed the "barn" armored column. We also helped the enemy infantry who were begging for help die with dignity! Also, our operators from KURT&Company destroyed the enemy drones' communication
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— Baba Yaga Fèlla (@babayagafella.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Russians make some gains in Zaporizhzhia.
Russians celebrate shooting down their own drone.
Good job guys.
Three thousand kilometers is roughly the distance from Kharkiv to the Russian city of Omsk, north of Kazakhstan and well east of Yekaterinburg.
One of things that really drives me crazy is when people proclaim — “Hey, they can’t do that. It’s ILLEGAL.”
Illegal is irrelevant if there is no one willing and able to enforce it. That goes for the U.S. and for Russia, where Putin decides what is and is not illegal.
That said, Russia letting disease run rampant among its troops would be concerning if these guys weren’t expected to be dead before long. Why waste medicine and treatment on the walking dead?
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1/ The Russian army is illegally sending soldiers infected with HIV and hepatitis to fight on the front line in Ukraine, where they are unable to get treatment or life-saving drugs. The men's relatives say they are 'slowly dying' and putting other wounded men at risk. ⬇️
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— ChrisO_wiki (@chriso-wiki.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 4:06 AM
4/ Sergei from Murmansk was likely infected with hepatitis after being wounded and was diagnosed while on leave. His company commander told him not to return, in accordance with the law, but the army arrested him anyway as a deserter. He was sent to an army prison in Kamenka.
5/ "Here in Kamenka they don’t treat us at all either, there are no pills, nothing. People are not valued at all, we are expendable material for them. Look – all the hospitals and morgues are full, the attitude towards the wounded and sick in the hospitals is brutal.
6/ "Almost everyone is put in category A [fully fit], without an arm, without a leg, back into battle ... In the center of the [camp] they guard us like prisoners, we sit behind barbed wire, without medicine, almost every week someone is forcibly sent to slaughter."
….
9/ Vitaly from Tver says he got infected with hepatitis either while removing corpses from the battlefield or when being given injections by army doctors. Many of the men he served with also had hepatitis, often acquired in prisons. "[The army] knows that they have hepatitis, but no one cares."
….
12/ Alexey from Voronezh was wounded by a drone in his third month of service and was sent to a field hospital that had been set up in a gym, "where there were hundreds of people all crammed together – it was hard to breathe, there was a terrible smell of rotting meat."
Russia’s success in retaking the Kursk area was due in large measure to Russia’s use of fiber-optic drones, according to this Russian military blogger.
Several factors contributed to the success of Russia’s operation to re-take Kursk. One of these was the presence of large numbers of battle-hardened North Korean troops who had learned from their earlier experience and have become steadily more effective.
Another was the withdrawal of U.S support, in particular intelligence from satellites and other sources which would have given Ukraine vital information about the buildup and location of Russian forces.
But according to Russian Engineer, a military blogger with more than 100,000 followers, the main difference was in the drones:
“This revolution was achieved due to the transition from quantity to quality of our drones, and all other supporting forces and means,” wrote Russian Engineer. “It can be said that the Russian army has mastered a tactical technique of ‘isolating the battlefield’ by modern means in modern conditions. With the help of drones, the supply of the Ukrainian Forces was cut off, and they had no options but to retreat."
Specifically, he describes how Russian forces in Kursk concentrated their most capable drone operators equipped with piloting fiber-optic drones and used them not to strike fo0nt line units but to destroy Ukraine’s logistics support. By attacking vehicles brining food, fuel and ammunition to the front line, and preventing troop rotation and the evacuation of the injured, they isolated frontline forces.
Except these drones don’t have pin-up girls painted on the fuselage.
Mines and cluster munitions were once widely considered to be so crude and dangerous to civilians for years after a war ended that they had to be banned. They are making a comeback as one of the most effective and cheapest ways to stop an enemy willing to send thousands of troops on suicide assaults.
You can’t fix stupid.
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White House Press Secretary just said "there's a power plant on the border between Russia and Ukraine" which is "up for discussion".
There is, of course, no such thing. But there is at Zaporizhzhia a plant close to the frontlines of occupied Ukrainian territory. Trump ignores territorial integrity.
— Arthur Snell (@snellarthur.bsky.social) March 17, 2025 at 2:21 PM
No, it wasn’t part of a strategy. There is no strategy.
By next month Trump will be claiming it was $1 trillion.
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The Trump camp had been claiming that the US had spent $200 billion in assistance to Ukraine. Yesterday Trump exaggerated the number again to an invented $300 billion.
The actual figure is $71.4 billion AND European allies ARE pulling their weight, despite lies to the contrary.
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— Sander (@sanderregter.bsky.social) February 13, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Possible shakeup coming for Ukraine’s military.
Putin will likely kill the ceasefire plan with ridiculous demands.
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Bloomberg reports that Putin demands a 30-day truce with no arms for Ukraine from allies. European sources noted that Europe rejects this, fearing Russia could rearm during the ceasefire while Ukraine remains vulnerable.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Another 1,560 Russians and 42 artillery systems.
They have been talking about this for three years. Just do it already.
Well, at least this is finally getting done.
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🚫🛳️ U.S. prosecutors have been granted permission to auction the superyacht Amadea, owned by Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, - FT
❗️ 106-meter vessel was seized in Fiji in May 2022 on suspicion of violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws. It was later towed to San Diego.
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— MAKS 24 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Rest in peace.
