Putin beordrar styrkor att gå in i Ukraina - INVASION NU (2022-02-24)

Därför används Azovbataljonen i den ryska propagandan

Trots att Azovbataljonen utgör en bråkdel av den ukrainska militären har den blivit otroligt viktig för den ryska propagandan.

– Det är det mest effektiva sättet att svartmåla sin fiende, att beskriva dem som nazister, säger SVT:s utrikesreporter Carl Fridh Kleberg.

Ryssland har gett Ukrainas högerextrema Azovbataljon skulden för flera uppmärksammade attacker under kriget i Ukraina. Landets försvarsdepartement har bland annat skyllt en attack mot en teater där hundratals civila sökt skydd i Mariupol på bataljonen, och landets utrikesminister Sergej Lavrov har rättfärdigat en attack mot ett sjukhus genom att hävda att bataljonen haft en bas där.

Bataljonens extremnationalistiska ideologi, med antisemitiska och nazistiska kopplingar, gör den till ett kraftfullt vapen för Ukrainas motståndare.

– I grund och botten handlar det här om andra världskriget och den sovjetiska framgången mot Nazityskland, som ju är hjärtat i den moderna ryska statsnationalismen, säger Carl Fridh Kleberg, på plats i Ukraina tillsammans med fotograf Lars Lyrefelt.

Hör mer om bataljonen, som hade omkring 900-2 000 man i den ukrainska militären i början av kriget.

There’s a vehicle park, in Novostepne a mile south of Dzhankoi in Russian-occupied northern Crimea, where Russian forces fighting in southern Ukraine send their damaged vehicles for repair.
On Monday, it exploded. According to Russian sources, a British-made Storm Shadow cruise missile, fired by a Ukrainian air force Sukhoi Su-24 bomber, was responsible for the blast.
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The number of vehicles in Novostepne has varied across the 17 months of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, but a year ago there were hundreds at the repair facility. Satellite imagery from August 2022 reveals tanks, fighting vehicles and trucks parked track to track, wheel to wheel.
A direct hit on a tank or fighting vehicle by a 1.5-ton Storm Shadow would, at the very least, destroy or badly damage that vehicle and any other vehicles for hundreds of yards in all directions.
If some of the vehicles had live ammunition onboard, a chain reaction was possible. To understand how devastating that could be, consider the accidental fire that triggered a series of ammunition explosions at a U.S. Army vehicle park in Doha, Kuwait in July 1991. The conflagration destroyed a hundred vehicles including four M-1 tanks.

Mercenaries from the Kremlin-aligned The Wagner Group captured the town of Klishchiivka, 10 miles south of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, back in December.
Eight months later this week, Ukrainian troops liberated the town. Now the Ukrainians are in a good position to cut the southern supply lines into Bakhmut.
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Ukrainian units including the 3rd and 5th Assault Brigades and the 22nd and 28th Mechanized Brigades counterattacked across the fields and treelines just south of Bakhmut.
In late June, the 3rd Assault Brigade pushed the Russian 57th Motor Rifle Brigade east across the Donets-Donbas Canal, a key defensive position. From this lodgement, the 5th and 22nd Brigades fought their way to the ridge overlooking Klishchiivka from the west.
“The enemy managed to occupy separate adjacent heights, from which he organized fire from anti-tank systems and sniper groups to support their advancing infantry and equipment,” one Russian blogger reported. “Heavy battles have been going on for several days, and enemy reconnaissance and strike drones have an important influence on the development of the situation.”
The 3rd and 28th Brigades meanwhile pushed toward Andriivka, a few miles to the south. On Tuesday, Ukrainian military spokesperson Andrii Kovalov claimed the Russians were retreating from Andriivka.
While all of this has been happening, the Ukrainian 57th Motorized Brigade has been advancing on the opposite side of Bakhmut, aiming for the main road into the city from the north.
The result is a tightening semi-encirclement of Russian forces in Bakhmut. Ukrainian forces have severed one of the roads into Bakhmut from the south. Another, bigger road lies a couple of miles to the east.