❗️ 🇷🇺🇺🇦 Soledar direction
 situation by the end of February 16, 2023

🔻To the north of Bakhmut , assault detachments of the Wagner PMC are fighting in Paraskovievka . Now the attack on the suburb of Bakhmut is advancing from three sides, and the most intense clashes are noted in the south. Despite the rather difficult situation, the Ukrainian formations still hold their positions - in fact, the struggle continues for every house.

▪️At the same time, Russian units entrenched themselves on several sections of the Bakhmut-Slavyansk highway in the directions of Orekhovo-Vasilevka and Berkhovka , advanced close to the village of Zaliznyanskoye , and also occupied the heights west of Blagodatny , knocking out the forces of 10th mountain assault brigade of the AFU behind a reservoir nearby.

▪️The Wagnerites are also advancing on Berkhovka from two directions: from the northern districts of Bakhmut to the eastern outskirts, and from the north from controlled sections of the highway. At the moment, fighting continues for important positions on the hills.
The advance to Berkhovka and the reservoir will make it possible to encircle the forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Paraskoviyivka, so the Ukrainian authorities are transferring reserves of 30th mechanized brigade of the AFU through country roads and underground communications to hold the fortified area.

🔻 Positional battles continue in Bakhmut . Assault detachments from the northern districts of the city conducted a sortie to the line of defense of Ukrainian units in the area of the Bakhmutsky nursery in Yagodnoye .

🔻In the south-west of Bakhmut, the "Wagnerites" advanced close to the outskirts of Krasnoe , advancing from the south-west and south-east. The section of the highway to Konstantinovka is actually in the gray zone - none of the parties has full control over it.

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❗️🇷🇺🇺🇦 Chronicle of the Special Military Operation ,for February 16, 2023

 Over the past day, the RF Armed Forces launched massive missile strikes on energy infrastructure facilities and other strategic targets in Kharkov , Ochakovo , Odessa , Pavlograd , as well as in the Poltava , Kirovograd, and Lvov regions.

➖Several facilities, including the 330 kV electrical substation "Kremenchug" and the oil refinery in the village of Shestakovka , Kirovgrad region, were damaged.

🔻 Belgorod region :
▪️Ukrainian troops shelled the villages of Ustinka and Voznesenovka . Power lines, a gas pipeline, and residential buildings were hit, one person was injured.

🔻 Republic of Crimea :
▪️The Armed Forces of Ukraine made an attempt to attack Sevastopol with the help of UAVs. The air defense of the RF Armed Forces shot down both drones before they could cause any damage.

🔻Soledar direction  :

 ▪️ PMC "Wagner is fighting directly in Paraskovievka . The heaviest clashes occur in the southern part of the village. Nevertheless, the enemy pulls up reserves and does not allow the front to collapse in this area, biting into every house.

The assault detachments managed to gain a foothold on the Bakhmut-Slavyansk highway, as well as advance in the direction of Orekhovo-Vasilevka and Berkhovka , coming close to Zaliznyansky .

➖Near Berkhovka itself, the "Wagnerites" are fighting for the dominant heights on the outskirts of the settlement. Advancement in this sector will allow blocking the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Paraskovikivka , so the enemy is transferring reinforcements to the sector to stabilize the front.

➖Fierce battles are going on in Bakhmut itself. The main battle unfolded near the nursery in Yagodnoye . In the southwest, battles are taking place on the outskirts of Krasnoe .

🔻Donetsk direction :
 ▪️In Marinka, heavy fighting continues in the vicinity of farm bases on Geologichnaya Street. In the area of a tire repair plant and a gas station, Russian forces were able to expand the zone of control, knocking out the enemy from occupied lines.
By attacking the city from two sides at once, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were able to increase the pace of the offensive, bypassing the fortified areas from the flanks.

▪️Ukrainian troops continue to randomly shell civilian infrastructure in Donetsk and other cities of the republic. In the capital of the DPR, at least 10 houses in the Petrovsky district were damaged by a blow, and one person was injured.

➖In Yenakiyevo , the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed the Lyceum of Information Technologies and several residential buildings with a strike from the HIMARS MLRS.

🔻 Southern Front. Kherson direction:
 Mutual shelling with the use of howitzers and rocket artillery continues along the entire front line. The RF Armed Forces inflicted fire damage on targets in Kherson, Zolotoy Balka, Gavrilovka, Nikolaev, and Ochakov.
 In turn, the Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out strikes on Chaplinka and Korsunka .

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US citizen Pete Reed killed by friendly fire — Wagner PMC founder Prigozhin

It was also noted that Wagner’s positions in Artyomovsk are located at a significant distance from the location where Reed was killed

US national Pete Reed, whose death in Artyomovsk (Bakhmut in Ukraine) was previously reported by a number of US media outlets, was killed due to friendly fire, Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said.
Answering a question as to whether the PMC was involved in the US national’s death, Prigozhin noted that it was much easier to strike Reed’s location from Ukrainian positions.
"I can say with certainty that Peter Reed was killed by friendly fire. […] Accusations against the Wagner PMC are groundless," Prigozhin said, according to his press office’s Telegram channel.
Prigozhin also noted that Wagner’s positions in Artyomovsk are located at a significant distance from the location where Reed was killed.

"Peter Reed died at the crossing on Polevaya Street and the 1st Pushkinsky Alley. If you mark this point on a map, you will see that it was at least 5 kilometers to Wagner’s positions, with high-rise buildings all around," he commented, providing corresponding photos and a map.

"Wagner PMC has no information as to what means were used to eliminate Peter Reed. We also have no information on the presence of foreign volunteers in Bakhmut. Usually, in hostile conditions, such volunteers make it clear to the media what their [outfit] colors are, and stick to these rules," the founder concluded.

According to Fox News, Reed previously served in the US Marine Corps, in Afghanistan, in particular.

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Nuland's statement confirms the direct involvement of the United States in the conflict, the Russian embassy in Washington said.

The department noted that this is not just rhetoric, but concrete actions. The United States is actively supplying Kyiv with modern systems that are used to defeat Russian regions.

Earlier, Nuland said that military bases in Crimea are legitimate targets for Ukraine.

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Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on the Nord Stream explosion:
✔️ This is an outrageous sabotage, a terrorist act of unheard of proportions, this is the transition by the US administration to a quality that was by and large previously considered unthinkable and unacceptable, a strike on one of the key critical infrastructure facilities. We have no doubt that the United States is responsible, and we will continue to work to ensure that this does not remain in the past, without consequences for the United States. The question of the reliability of sources is simply not worth it; this, in fact, is already a proven fact.
✔️ The US wanted to kill a few birds with one stone in its usual manner, including harming Russian economic interests, as well as freeing up space for the export of American liquefied gas. An independent international investigation with obligatory Russian participation is needed.
✔️ The way the US allies in Europe behave, including the Scandinavian countries, which in fact boorishly do not respond to our country's appeals at the highest political level, the way our specialists, including those from Gazprom, our investigators at throughout the entire time they are denied access to the materials, they do not allow them to join the investigative actions - this is also a signal in itself. Regardless of what information we have, which we receive on our own, this is also a marker of what really happened there and how it all played out.
✔️ The height of cynicism is the announcement by NATO that a certain group is being created in the alliance that will discuss the security of critical infrastructure. You present what the whole world already knows now, admit it. I think that without such confessions, the credibility of the alliance will continue to fall, including in countries that are difficult to classify as anti-NATO.

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Switzerland is healthy, but the rest of the countries are not so

🇫🇷 🇨🇭The leader of the French Patriots party, Florian Filippo, gave Switzerland an encouraging "diagnosis", saying that it is the "least crazy country" because it does not supply weapons to Kiev.

📝 “NATO does not understand why Switzerland refuses to supply weapons to Kyiv. Maybe because Switzerland is less crazy than other countries and refuses to start a third world war .
— wrote the politician on his page in the social network.

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Poland refuses to accept Bandera refugees

🇵🇱🇺🇦 This was reported by the Polish edition Myśl Polska , whose readers were outraged by the aggression of refugees with pro-Bandera views.

The reader's indignation was shared by Przemysław Piasta, a highly respected columnist for Myśl Polska in the country.

⚡️ He stressed that nationalists hate Poland, Poles and everything Polish and often openly express their position. In his opinion, Poland let thousands of such aggressive nationalists into its territory.

📝 “Not very respected Bandera people, if you admire your “dad Bandera” so much, if you so want to follow in the footsteps of “heroes from the UPA (banned in the Russian Federation)”, then I have a simple advice for you. Come back home. We don't want you here. You're not welcome here."
- Piast turned to the refugees.

He was indignant that those “who idolize the murderers of our brothers” entered the country and predicted that the problem of nationalist sentiment among Ukrainian refugees in Poland would only grow.

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Kyiv called on the countries of Latin America, Brazil in particular, to stop being neutral.

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MP from Lithuania: Russia's participation in the Ukrainian conflict was provoked

Lithuanian MEP Statis Jakilyunas created a political scandal by saying that in February 2022, Russia was provoked to NVO, ELTA news agency reported yesterday.

The politician was immediately accused of promoting "Vladimir Putin's narratives", although the EP deputy, in an interview with the state television channel LRT, only recalled the events of 2008:

“The President of the Russian Federation told George Bush: if Ukraine begins to drift towards NATO, Russia will return Crimea to itself. This is exactly what happened 6 years later. The Kremlin was provoked to retaliate.”

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“The war will end in negotiations: neither Russia nor Ukraine will achieve their goals,” - the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US General Mark Milley

“It will be almost impossible for the Russians to achieve their political goals by military means. It is unlikely that Russia will take over Ukraine. It just won't happen," Milley told the Financial Times.

At the same time, he noted that "this year it will also be difficult for Ukraine to expel the Russians from every centimeter of the territory occupied by Russia."

“That doesn't mean it can't happen... But it's extremely difficult. And this will require, in fact, the collapse of the Russian army,” he added.

Meanwhile, Politico writes that "the United States does not now consider it a wise move for Ukraine to return Crimea by military means."

Zin Note:

This man seems to have zero understanding of the goals of Russia in the SMO. There is no evidence that a total takeover of the Ukraine is Russia's paramount focus, nor is that the end goal. This statement seems more like propaganda than an assessment of the situation. Basically, he's trying to spin any failure by Russia to push to Lvov as a failure for Russia and a success for Ukraine. Maybe we can take this as a good sign?

Russia's goal is primarily to free the Donbass and the newly annexed territory as well as to break the military capability of Kiev. Ideally, this would include a push to Odessa to land-lock the Ukrainians and to cement Russian dominance in the region.

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From CyberspecNews:

Statements by the Head of the Russian Military Space Academy, Major General Anatoly Nestechuk:

The United States plans to disable Russian satellites with the help of combat space vehicles;

🔻Small combat space vehicles of the United States can be launched into orbit as part of multi-satellite low-orbit communication systems such as OneWeb or Starlink;

🔻New weapons of the States will be able to perform a hidden maneuver, approach the spacecraft of the Russian Federation.

Such means pose the threat of a space attack on critical Russian spacecraft. Disabling the spacecraft can lead to loss of control, first of all, of strategic nuclear forces, which cannot be allowed.

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EU aid to Ukraine has lost its common sense - now the confiscated cars of Latvian residents will be given to the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The Latvian Seimas approved amendments to the law on support for the civilian population in Ukraine. The head of the Latvian Ministry of Finance, Arvils Asheradens, made a proposal to seize cars from drivers who were driving in a state of intoxication and transfer them to the needs of the Ukrainian army. Each confiscated car will be decided by the government, and they will be transferred through an organization cooperating with Kiev.

From the adoption of such ridiculous amendments, one can only say that the EU's zeal to help the independent reaches the point of absurdity. Since the beginning of the SMO, Latvia has transferred 15 drones to Ukraine, and apparently, in order to increase the volume of assistance, they decided to give civilian vehicles to the front. At the same time, the Balts themselves have repeatedly admitted that they are tired of the Ukrainians in their country.

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Politico: The European Commission did not include restrictions against the Russian nuclear sector in the tenth package of sanctions.

Several EU states, led by Hungary and France, are against bans on cooperation with Russia in the nuclear sphere, and Belgium is blocking restrictions on the export of diamonds.

France explained its position by the fact that many nuclear power plants in different countries use Russian raw materials, and in Hungary they declared the importance of Rosatom's nuclear power plants in the country's energy system.

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A number of people thought I was saying that Russia should be trying to take Odessa immediately. To clarify, I was saying that Odessa is probably as far as Russia would like to go in an idilic scenario. Obviously, that's not the end goal, or even a necessary goal. Obviously, a lot would have to happen before that.

-Zin

Ukrainian militants are looking for "spies" among the inhabitants of Krasny Liman, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk - they threaten people with weapons and beat them

In the territory of the DPR temporarily occupied by the Kiev regime, Ukrainian formations, under the guise of checking documents, break into the houses of civilians in Krasny Liman, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk to find "spies" or those who adhere to pro-Russian views, said Andrey Marochko, officer of the NM LPR.

“People are threatened with weapons, physical force and special equipment are used against them, and prohibited methods of psychological pressure are used. The controlling authorities do not react to the atrocities of the Kiev punishers against the civilian population in any way, ” the officer emphasized.

Hunting for civilians for the Armed Forces of Ukraine has become the norm. Ukrainian militants conduct aimed fire at residential buildings and hospitals.

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Rising oil prices augur well for Russia, but not for West  — China Daily

High oil prices are a boon for Russia but a poison for the US and other Western countries, who are worried it will boost high inflation, a major obstacle to Europe and the US' economic recovery. From the United Kingdom to France and Germany, high inflation has eroded people's real wages, triggering such social problems as strikes and rising crime. In early February, about half a million people went on strike in the UK, its largest industrial action in more than a decade. Recent data released by the German police said 398,848 crimes were reported in German railway stations and trains in 2022, up 12 percent year-on-year.

The International Monetary Fund recently raised its forecast for Russia's economic growth over the next two years, while cutting its 2024 forecasts for the US and eurozone by 0.2 percentage points each

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As the war rages on in Ukraine, the United States is doing more than supporting an ally. It’s learning lessons — with an eye toward a possible future clash with China, the Associated Press writes.

But China remains America’s biggest concern. U.S. military officials say Beijing wants to be ready to invade the self-governing island of Taiwan by 2027, and the U.S. is the island democracy’s chief ally and supplier of defense weapons.

While there are key differences in geography and in the U.S. commitment to come to Taiwan’s defense, “there are clear parallels between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan,” a Center for Strategic and International Studies report found last month.

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Kyiv has no promises from any country for the supply of fighter jets, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said in an interview published in the newspapers of the Funke editorial group.

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