Map of Russian fortification lines on the Zaporozhye front.

The counteroffensive has begun, after a series of failed Ukrainian attacks in the preceding few days. The axis of attack does appear to be towards Tokmak, which is also the strongest part of the Russian defensive line.

From the late night of June 7th/very early morning of June 8th onwards, Ukraine has been sending waves of forces in to attack Russian defense lines. Ukrainian air defense is barely active if at all, with Russian aviation able to freely attack Ukrainian columns going through minefields. We've seen potential glances of Leopards and various western armored vehicles. Russian morale seems high so far.

Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Here is the archive of important pieces of analysis from throughout the war that we've collected.

This week's first update is here in the comments.

This week's second update is here in the comments.

This week's third update is here in the comments.

Links and Stuff

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Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists

Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Add to the above list if you can, thank you.

Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. I recommend their map more than the channel at this point, as an increasing subscriber count has greatly diminished their quality.

Moon of Alabama, which tends to have decent analysis. Avoid the comment section.

Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources. Beware of chuddery.

Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.

On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting in the warzone.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Telegram Channels

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

Pro-Russian

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.

https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist (but still quite reactionary in terms of gender and sexuality and race, so beware). If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.

https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.

https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.

https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ Another big Russian commentator.

https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia's army.

https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.

https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.

https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine

Almost every Western media outlet.

https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.

https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.

Last week's discussion post.

  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporozhye front continue but at a lower pace and they achieve little. Wouldn't be surprised if they try another big night attack soon.

    edit: three columns of 7-10 BMP (each?) inbound on the front. Russia is engaging.

    edit: 6 Russian strategic missile carriers are in the air. explosions hitting/due to hit Kiev, Dnipro, and Ukrainian forces being rotated from Kherson to Zaporozhye.

    Dmitry Rogozhin:

    “I do not share the joyful reports about the “defeat of the enemy”.

    Yes, we repulsed the first attack. Yes, well done.

    But the enemy has not yet introduced the main forces of the breakthrough, primarily large tank wedges, has not driven them into our forward positions. And they are only in the vicinity of Orekhov in the most tank-dangerous direction - about 600 tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, not counting the infantry fighting vehicles.

    Therefore, it is too early to rejoice, gentlemen. First, let's win, and only then we will "throw caps into the air."

    edit: Ukraine's attack on the front is reaching its second hour. Russian aviation is working. Drones are in the sky. Ukraine is reporting that they've breached a line but nothing I've seen supports this yet.

    edit: the front line is stable for now. fighting continues. Russian missiles fired over Caspian Sea have now entered Ukrainian airspace.

    edit: most of my feeds have been deathly quiet for over an hour, aside from news about Russian missile/drone strikes across Ukraine, including as far as Lvov. no idea what's been targeted yet.

    final edit: hitting the hay. if Ukraine isn't in Melitopol by the time I wake up I will be very disappointed

    • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      You think they’d call it a rest for the day after the fourth human wave attack in 24 hours had been rebuffed by Russia yet again without much issue. This has to be just absolutely devastating for morale, but I guess that’s where Ukraine is at regarding the thoughtfulness of spending human lives in this conflict.

      • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        BMP is the Russian acronym for an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV). I use them interchangeably.

          • MoreAmphibians [none/use name]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Mercouris would say that he's going to say BMP instead of IFV at the beginning of the video and then say "a BMP, which is of course the Russian term for an IFV" every single time instead.

          • keepcarrot [she/her]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I actually like using bitmap as a shortening and used to use it in Operation Flashpoint. Short, punchy, and easily identifiable over crackly radio.