Good News:
5th Russian General eliminated (as they say) – I wonder if there are bounties on their heads to the snipers – actually this is celebrated around the world.
Confirmed: Colonel Sergey Sukharev, Russia's 331st Regiment Commander, has been eliminated in Ukraine.
He was directly responsible for the Ilovaisk massacre of 2014.
Audacity:
The Kremlin's ambassador to the UN has said that a theatre, reportedly full of hundreds of civilians, which was ripped apart in the besieged city of Mariupol was not bombed by Russia.
Bad News:
Canadian celebrated sniper who went to the Ukraine was killed almost instantly on being deployed on first mission, hunted by Russian SOF
As Putin calls in thousands of mercenaries from “all the usual places” it is clear that the Russian General Staff has become very sensitive to their fear that a world-wide campaign may have been started to attract professional killers to come to the Ukrainian theater to hunt and kill Russians – shades of World War I and World War II when killing Russians was considered “sport” or something to do “on a sunny Wednesday.” Always a dark fear and one now that seems to have gotten the senior command’s attention.
On March 13th the Ukrainian MoD reported that a Russian precision missile strike was accomplished on military facilities near Ukraine’s western borders that reportedly killed several dozen Western professional combatants and their trainers that had arrived and were being processed to join Ukrainian ground units in the war effort. This strike joined others that were part of a renewed campaign to engage Ukrainian targets on the Western areas now being resupplied and taking in replacement troops as it was felt that the Eastern area has been strengthened and was more stable for Russian forces. The Russian Defense Ministry noted that supply dumps and known cashes would be attacked.
During those attacks, it was reported that “up to 180 foreign mercenaries” (Western volunteers) were “liquidated” (confirmed killed). Generally, it has been seen that these volunteers have come to the Ukraine for ideological reasons and deep sympathy for the struggle of the Ukrainian people against Russian aggression.
The strike, conducted with use of “high-precision long-range weapons,” namely large, long range cruise & hypersonic missiles including the “Kalibr” family of cruise missiles (land, sea, submarine, & air launched) and “Iskander” hypersonic ballistic missiles fired of a dedicated mobile missile launcher or a specific model of the MiG-31now deployed to Kaliningrad – all hundreds of miles away from the Ukrainian battle space. The overall targeting set was to attack “the training centers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine” in the villages of Starichi and at the so called Yavoriv polygon. These facilities served as “a base for the training and combat coordination of foreign mercenaries before they were sent to the combat zones to fight against Russian military personnel,” and stored “weapons and military equipment coming from foreign countries.”
“As a result of the strike, up to 180 foreign mercenaries and a large quantity of foreign weapons were destroyed,” the Russian Defense Ministry elaborated, stressing that foreign fighters arriving in Ukraine “would continue” to be targeted. Ukraine’s military situation remains tenuous but strengthened by the damage inflicted upon the Russian units. Air bases and aircraft have been lost but they achieved more kills on Russian aircraft.
Among the arriving western volunteers was a well-known Canadian Sniper, Oliver Lavigne-Ortiz, called “Wali” (in Arabic or “the Guardian”) by the Afghan war lords and considered in the community of professional snipers the “World's Deadliest Sniper”. Unfortunately, despite his fame, “Wali” was killed by a Russian air strike directed by Russian Special Ops Forces just a few days after arriving into the Ukraine and about 20 minutes after going into action in Mariupol, Ukraine. He was a veteran of the NATO intervention in Afghanistan serving with the Royal Canadian Infantry’s 22nd Regiment from 2009 to 2011, the sniper known in Arabic as Wali - or ‘the Guardian who then traveled to Iraq and volunteered with Kurdish militias to fight the Islamic State terror group. The sheer number of kills gained against Iraqi and Afghan insurgents gained him the title of NATO’s deadliest sniper - with some reports indicating that he had a record of 40 kills in a day. An active sniper under normal combat conditions would do well to gain more than 5-6 kills.
Carrying a Finnish-built Lapua Magnum .338 sniper rifle, Oliver Lavigne-Ortiz was reportedly killed within days of entering Ukraine by Russian forces although the circumstances of his death remain unknown however it appears his notoriety preceded him and the communications surrounding that was picked up by Russian intelligence which resulted in an air strike killing Ortiz and other volunteers. Think about OPSEC and Cyber security, Ortiz died because of the sloppy way radio and cell communications were done. But also, two of the four Russian generals were killed in the same manner blaming unsecure communications that pin-pointed locations. One Russian general by a sniper at 1.5km away.
a war his country wasn’t involved in.
(Assuming these reports are true.)
Excluding the Army Air Corps.
Amazing incompetence.
(no message)
And doesn't the precision strike on Western forces suggest that Putin hasn't targeted Zelensky yet?
(no message)