Americans Who Fought Putin Share ‘Horrifying’ War Surprises
REALITY CHECK
The Daily Beast
...
“And then essentially, they give us orders for Kharkiv and said, ‘Go kill as many Russians as you can,’” he said.
After some training and preparation, with guns and ammunition from Ukraine’s supplies, the squad was off.
“We did all our own recruiting from foreigners who were already in Kyiv. And we did all our own resourcing, funding, like buying our own cars, funding our own safe houses,” Bam said.
In Kharkiv, their missions were largely self-driven. The Ukrainian government didn’t link them up with Ukrainian or other foreign volunteer units to coordinate, so they took it on themselves, introducing themselves to territorial defense forces, regular army units, airborne units, and Ukrainian Special Operations units.
...
“This is my third war I’ve fought in, and this is by far the worst one,” Offenbecker told The Daily Beast. “You’re getting fucking smashed with artillery, tanks. Last week I had a plane drop a bomb next to us, like 300 meters away. It’s horrifying shit.”
Once he was there, some of his buddies from the military started messaging him asking for information on how to join up, too. But he ignored messages for months.
“To be honest it was pretty bad so I didn’t want to bring anyone else into it,” he said.
The missions were grueling, Bramlette said. In Iraq or Afghanistan, Bramlette had air support, or supporting ISR, or intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. “The worst day in Afghanistan and Iraq is a great day in Ukraine,” he said. “Even when we thought it wasn’t, we were always in control of the situation… versus as a commander of a team in Ukraine,” where there are more unknowns.
On reconnaissance missions in Ukraine, you just have to wait until the team members come back, since comms aren’t reliable. “I would always send a reconnaissance element out first… as soon as those guys leave my side, I’m not gonna really hear from them until they’re back within eyesight. And that may be 24 hours later, maybe 48 hours later,” he explained. “If two of them get injured… there’s no helicopter coming to get you… shit can go south really, really frickin’ quickly. And that’s the kind of stuff that is pretty hard.”
...
“Since we’re a small unit tactics team… you’re running around… in front of the Ukrainian line and in front of the Russian line. You don’t have leaves on the trees, the bushes are bare, the trees are bare, and it’s colder… It’s really bad news bears,” Bramlette said. “You can’t hide.”
Without drastically changing their approach, they were setting themselves up for failure. “I was just afraid we would go out and do what we normally do and we’d all basically die,” he added.
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Well, so goes the "adventures of the Americans at the war with Russia"... You almost start feeling sorry for those poor guys (not really). Those, at least, have a lucky escape.
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REALITY CHECK
The Daily Beast
...
“And then essentially, they give us orders for Kharkiv and said, ‘Go kill as many Russians as you can,’” he said.
After some training and preparation, with guns and ammunition from Ukraine’s supplies, the squad was off.
“We did all our own recruiting from foreigners who were already in Kyiv. And we did all our own resourcing, funding, like buying our own cars, funding our own safe houses,” Bam said.
In Kharkiv, their missions were largely self-driven. The Ukrainian government didn’t link them up with Ukrainian or other foreign volunteer units to coordinate, so they took it on themselves, introducing themselves to territorial defense forces, regular army units, airborne units, and Ukrainian Special Operations units.
...
“This is my third war I’ve fought in, and this is by far the worst one,” Offenbecker told The Daily Beast. “You’re getting fucking smashed with artillery, tanks. Last week I had a plane drop a bomb next to us, like 300 meters away. It’s horrifying shit.”
Once he was there, some of his buddies from the military started messaging him asking for information on how to join up, too. But he ignored messages for months.
“To be honest it was pretty bad so I didn’t want to bring anyone else into it,” he said.
The missions were grueling, Bramlette said. In Iraq or Afghanistan, Bramlette had air support, or supporting ISR, or intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. “The worst day in Afghanistan and Iraq is a great day in Ukraine,” he said. “Even when we thought it wasn’t, we were always in control of the situation… versus as a commander of a team in Ukraine,” where there are more unknowns.
On reconnaissance missions in Ukraine, you just have to wait until the team members come back, since comms aren’t reliable. “I would always send a reconnaissance element out first… as soon as those guys leave my side, I’m not gonna really hear from them until they’re back within eyesight. And that may be 24 hours later, maybe 48 hours later,” he explained. “If two of them get injured… there’s no helicopter coming to get you… shit can go south really, really frickin’ quickly. And that’s the kind of stuff that is pretty hard.”
...
“Since we’re a small unit tactics team… you’re running around… in front of the Ukrainian line and in front of the Russian line. You don’t have leaves on the trees, the bushes are bare, the trees are bare, and it’s colder… It’s really bad news bears,” Bramlette said. “You can’t hide.”
Without drastically changing their approach, they were setting themselves up for failure. “I was just afraid we would go out and do what we normally do and we’d all basically die,” he added.
#TransFormatorBuzzes : 💤
Well, so goes the "adventures of the Americans at the war with Russia"... You almost start feeling sorry for those poor guys (not really). Those, at least, have a lucky escape.
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The Daily Beast
Americans Who Fought Putin Share ‘Horrifying’ War Surprises
Two former U.S. troops who fought in Ukraine spoke with The Daily Beast about what they didn’t see coming in Vladimir Putin’s war.
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Tula gunners destroyed an enemy Strela-10 air defence system in the vicinity of Artemovsk
The crew of the "Strela/Arrow" hold a position in the industrial zone. With an accurate blow from the ACS "Acacia", the Russian gunners hit the building in which the enemy was located. The projectile pierced the concrete roof and hit exactly the target — there was an explosion of ammunition.
Due to the high accuracy and large calibre of the projectile, the enemy is afraid of "Acacia". The formidable machine easily opens the fortified areas of the militants and destroys them.
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The crew of the "Strela/Arrow" hold a position in the industrial zone. With an accurate blow from the ACS "Acacia", the Russian gunners hit the building in which the enemy was located. The projectile pierced the concrete roof and hit exactly the target — there was an explosion of ammunition.
Due to the high accuracy and large calibre of the projectile, the enemy is afraid of "Acacia". The formidable machine easily opens the fortified areas of the militants and destroys them.
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Destruction of the ammunition warehouse in the Avdiivka direction
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Ukrainian UAV raid on New Moscow
This morning, the Armed Forces of Ukraine once again tried to strike with drones on the Moscow agglomeration. In total, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence, four UAVs were shot down and one was suppressed by electronic warfare.
Two UAVs were destroyed near the village of Valuevo, one fell on a garage in Krivosheino, another UAF was going to hit a military unit in Kubinka, and an EW crew planted a UAV somewhere in the Odintsovo district.
The problem of Ukrainian drones leaking deep into Russian territory has not gone away. There have been and will be attempts to strike at the capital — this must be understood and saturate the air defence.
There is no strategic sense in this raid, as in previous times - this will not change the situation at the front. The Ukrainian authorities are simply trying to stress the population and divert attention from the lack of visible success on the battlefield.
Judging by the direction, the purpose of the raid, in addition to the military unit in Kubinka, was Vnukovo International Airport. This may be due to the regular flights of Iranian military transport workers. Or maybe the usual desire to sow panic among civilians.
Map with toponyms in English
Translated from Rybar
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This morning, the Armed Forces of Ukraine once again tried to strike with drones on the Moscow agglomeration. In total, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence, four UAVs were shot down and one was suppressed by electronic warfare.
Two UAVs were destroyed near the village of Valuevo, one fell on a garage in Krivosheino, another UAF was going to hit a military unit in Kubinka, and an EW crew planted a UAV somewhere in the Odintsovo district.
The problem of Ukrainian drones leaking deep into Russian territory has not gone away. There have been and will be attempts to strike at the capital — this must be understood and saturate the air defence.
There is no strategic sense in this raid, as in previous times - this will not change the situation at the front. The Ukrainian authorities are simply trying to stress the population and divert attention from the lack of visible success on the battlefield.
Judging by the direction, the purpose of the raid, in addition to the military unit in Kubinka, was Vnukovo International Airport. This may be due to the regular flights of Iranian military transport workers. Or maybe the usual desire to sow panic among civilians.
Map with toponyms in English
Translated from Rybar
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New photos of the wreckage of Franco-British cruise missiles Storm Shadow, intercepted by Russian air defence systems somewhere in the Zaporozhye region.
Cruise missiles of this type is a difficult target to intercept due to the low flight profile and the use of radar-absorbing materials in the design. Their appearance on the battlefield has become a new challenge for the RF Armed Forces.
However, more and more pictures of shot down Storm Shadows appearing on the Web indirectly indicate that Russian air defence may be gradually beginning to adapt to such raids.
Translated from Rybar
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Cruise missiles of this type is a difficult target to intercept due to the low flight profile and the use of radar-absorbing materials in the design. Their appearance on the battlefield has become a new challenge for the RF Armed Forces.
However, more and more pictures of shot down Storm Shadows appearing on the Web indirectly indicate that Russian air defence may be gradually beginning to adapt to such raids.
Translated from Rybar
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We somehow missed it, but you can congratulate later.
Journalist Julian Assange turned 52 yesterday.
Since August 2012, the journalist has been under restriction of freedom, first in the Ecuadorian Embassy, now in a UK prison. The extradition procedure to the United States has been initiated, where he faces virtually life imprisonment.
The journalist's fault is that he posted documents and videos of numerous crimes committed by the US military against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"People have the right to know and the right to question and challenge the government, this is real democracy."
(Julian Assange).
We wish the true fighter for the truth perseverance and freedom. This is the most important thing.
Above is one of the videos from the WikiLeaks archive.
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Journalist Julian Assange turned 52 yesterday.
Since August 2012, the journalist has been under restriction of freedom, first in the Ecuadorian Embassy, now in a UK prison. The extradition procedure to the United States has been initiated, where he faces virtually life imprisonment.
The journalist's fault is that he posted documents and videos of numerous crimes committed by the US military against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"People have the right to know and the right to question and challenge the government, this is real democracy."
(Julian Assange).
We wish the true fighter for the truth perseverance and freedom. This is the most important thing.
Above is one of the videos from the WikiLeaks archive.
As found by our subscriber 🙏
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Big explosion in Donetsk (presumably Makeevka)...
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COVID-19 Pandemic EIDL and PPP Loan Fraud Landscape
U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted this review to provide a comprehensive estimate of the potential fraud in the SBA's pandemic assistance loan programs.
About this document and download:
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted this review to provide a comprehensive estimate of the potential fraud in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) pandemic assistance loan programs. Over the course of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, SBA disbursed approximately $1.2 trillion of COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds.
In the rush to swiftly disburse COVID-19 EIDL and PPP funds, SBA calibrated its internal controls. The agency weakened or removed the controls necessary to prevent fraudsters from easily gaining access to these programs and provide assurance that only eligible entities received funds. However, the allure of “easy money” in this pay and chase environment attracted an overwhelming number of fraudsters to the programs.
We estimate that SBA disbursed over $200 billion in potentially fraudulent COVID-19 EIDLs, EIDL Targeted Advances, Supplemental Targeted Advances, and PPP loans. This means at least 17 percent of all COVID-19 EIDL and PPP funds were disbursed to potentially fraudulent actors.
OIG collaboration with SBA, the U.S. Secret Service, other federal agencies, and financial institutions has resulted in nearly $30 billion in COVID-19 EIDL and PPP funds being seized or returned to SBA.
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U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted this review to provide a comprehensive estimate of the potential fraud in the SBA's pandemic assistance loan programs.
About this document and download:
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted this review to provide a comprehensive estimate of the potential fraud in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) pandemic assistance loan programs. Over the course of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, SBA disbursed approximately $1.2 trillion of COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds.
In the rush to swiftly disburse COVID-19 EIDL and PPP funds, SBA calibrated its internal controls. The agency weakened or removed the controls necessary to prevent fraudsters from easily gaining access to these programs and provide assurance that only eligible entities received funds. However, the allure of “easy money” in this pay and chase environment attracted an overwhelming number of fraudsters to the programs.
We estimate that SBA disbursed over $200 billion in potentially fraudulent COVID-19 EIDLs, EIDL Targeted Advances, Supplemental Targeted Advances, and PPP loans. This means at least 17 percent of all COVID-19 EIDL and PPP funds were disbursed to potentially fraudulent actors.
OIG collaboration with SBA, the U.S. Secret Service, other federal agencies, and financial institutions has resulted in nearly $30 billion in COVID-19 EIDL and PPP funds being seized or returned to SBA.
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The delegation of the Russian Federation to the UNHRC pointed to the ideas of Nazism in the armed formations of Ukraine
All this is happening with the tacit approval of the "collective West", said Russian representative Kristina Sukacheva.
GENEVA, 4 July. /TASS/. Nazi ideas dominate among the Ukrainian armed groups that commit crimes against the inhabitants of Donbass with the tacit approval of the collective West. This was stated on Tuesday by the Russian delegation at the 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) taking place in Geneva.
"A totalitarian system of government with strict censorship has been built in Ukraine, independent media have been liquidated, the opposition has been destroyed, state propaganda dominates in society. Nazi ideas dominate among Ukrainian armed groups that commit crimes against the civilian population of Donbass," said Christina Sukacheva, representative of the Russian delegation, in her speech at the session. "All this is happening with the tacit approval of the 'collective West'," she stressed.
"Neo-Nazism has been raising its head in the Baltics for a long time, where "veterans" of the SS troops regularly march in parades and collaborators are glorified. The alarming situation in Poland and the Czech Republic," the diplomat continued. "Despite the relevant legal mechanisms functioning within the UN, racist ideas and values are being openly promoted in a number of countries, is justified by hypocritical references to alleged freedom of expression."
The representative of the Russian delegation called on Alisa Vayrima Nderita, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General for the Prevention of Genocide, to "take a closer look at these disturbing trends."
The HRC is an intergovernmental body of the UN system. It was created in 2006 as a successor to the Commission on Human Rights, which has often been criticized for being biased. The council consists of 47 states, each of which is elected by a majority vote of the members of the UN General Assembly by direct secret ballot. Russia is not currently a member of the HRC, but the Russian delegation is actively participating in the discussions. The 53rd session of the Council, which started on June 19, will last until July 14. The agenda of the forum includes the situation in Ukraine, Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua and other countries, as well as issues of ensuring the right to education, independence of judges, guarantees of the rights of migrants and displaced persons.
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All this is happening with the tacit approval of the "collective West", said Russian representative Kristina Sukacheva.
GENEVA, 4 July. /TASS/. Nazi ideas dominate among the Ukrainian armed groups that commit crimes against the inhabitants of Donbass with the tacit approval of the collective West. This was stated on Tuesday by the Russian delegation at the 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) taking place in Geneva.
"A totalitarian system of government with strict censorship has been built in Ukraine, independent media have been liquidated, the opposition has been destroyed, state propaganda dominates in society. Nazi ideas dominate among Ukrainian armed groups that commit crimes against the civilian population of Donbass," said Christina Sukacheva, representative of the Russian delegation, in her speech at the session. "All this is happening with the tacit approval of the 'collective West'," she stressed.
"Neo-Nazism has been raising its head in the Baltics for a long time, where "veterans" of the SS troops regularly march in parades and collaborators are glorified. The alarming situation in Poland and the Czech Republic," the diplomat continued. "Despite the relevant legal mechanisms functioning within the UN, racist ideas and values are being openly promoted in a number of countries, is justified by hypocritical references to alleged freedom of expression."
The representative of the Russian delegation called on Alisa Vayrima Nderita, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General for the Prevention of Genocide, to "take a closer look at these disturbing trends."
The HRC is an intergovernmental body of the UN system. It was created in 2006 as a successor to the Commission on Human Rights, which has often been criticized for being biased. The council consists of 47 states, each of which is elected by a majority vote of the members of the UN General Assembly by direct secret ballot. Russia is not currently a member of the HRC, but the Russian delegation is actively participating in the discussions. The 53rd session of the Council, which started on June 19, will last until July 14. The agenda of the forum includes the situation in Ukraine, Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua and other countries, as well as issues of ensuring the right to education, independence of judges, guarantees of the rights of migrants and displaced persons.
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TACC
Делегация РФ в СПЧ ООН указала на идеи нацизма в вооруженных формированиях Украины
Все это происходит при негласном одобрении "коллективного Запада", заявила российский представитель Кристина Сукачева
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The footage shows one of the episodes of the work of FPV pilots of the RF Armed Forces.
Antonovsky bridge. Comments are superfluous. Mission accomplished.
Translated from Sudoplatov official
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Antonovsky bridge. Comments are superfluous. Mission accomplished.
Translated from Sudoplatov official
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TASS: 25 people were injured during the shelling of Makeyevka by the AFU. This was announced by the acting head of the DPR Denis Pushilin
"Late in the evening, the enemy inflicted fierce blows on residential quarters and the hospital complex of the Chervonogvardeysky district of Makeyevka. The blast wave was felt by most residents of Makeyevka and Donetsk. At the moment, 25 victims are known, including two children injured: a girl 2 years 9 months old and a boy 7 years old. Everyone is receiving the necessary medical care," he wrote in his Telegram channel.
During the attack by the APU, one person was killed in Makeyevka. This was reported to us by the mayor of the city Vladislav Klyucharov.
The number of victims of the shelling of Makeyevka by the AFU has increased to 36. This was reported by the representative office of the DPR in the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination of Issues Related to War Crimes of Ukraine.
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"Late in the evening, the enemy inflicted fierce blows on residential quarters and the hospital complex of the Chervonogvardeysky district of Makeyevka. The blast wave was felt by most residents of Makeyevka and Donetsk. At the moment, 25 victims are known, including two children injured: a girl 2 years 9 months old and a boy 7 years old. Everyone is receiving the necessary medical care," he wrote in his Telegram channel.
During the attack by the APU, one person was killed in Makeyevka. This was reported to us by the mayor of the city Vladislav Klyucharov.
The number of victims of the shelling of Makeyevka by the AFU has increased to 36. This was reported by the representative office of the DPR in the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination of Issues Related to War Crimes of Ukraine.
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Nine health institutions of the DPR were damaged in Makeyevka during the shelling of the territory by the AFU. This is stated in the message of the DPR representative office in the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination of Issues Related to War Crimes of Ukraine.
Video and photo: Dmitry Yagodkin/TASS
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Video and photo: Dmitry Yagodkin/TASS
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