Future Timeline

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (Courthouse News) — The International Court of Justice announced on Friday that it will accept submissions from more than 30 countries that are backing Ukraine in a legal fight with Russia over what Kyiv says are false accusations of genocide.

The Hague-based court received interventions last year from a record-breaking 33 countries – including the United States, Canada, Germany, France and Spain – supporting Ukrainian allegations that Russia is violating the Genocide Convention by using fictitious claims of genocide as a pretext for its invasion.

(Voice of America via Eurasia Review) Heavy fighting is taking place in eastern Ukraine, around Bakhmut and Maryinka, where Ukrainian forces reportedly have repelled Russian advances, Ukraine’s general staff said Saturday. Russian forces, it said, “continue to suffer heavy losses which they are trying to conceal.”

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Russian forces carried out 66 airstrikes and launched 39 attacks from rocket systems.

“Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded among the civilian population, private houses and other civil and administrative infrastructure have been destroyed and damaged,” the general staff said in its Saturday evening update, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Earlier Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that “appropriate counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine,” but he did not divulge any information on what’s happening on the battlefield.

However, he did exude optimism, saying his generals “are all in a positive mood, pass that on to Putin,” he said during a news conference in Kyiv alongside visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

(The Drive) As Ukraine's counteroffensive ramps up after days of intense fighting, Russian President Vladimir Putin finally weighed in.

“We can safely state that the offensive has begun. We know this from the fact that the Ukrainian Army tapped its strategic reserves. This is my first point,” Putin said in response to a reporter’s question Friday, according to the Russian Defense Ministry Telegram (MoD) channel. “Second, the Ukrainian troops failed to achieve their goals in all combat sectors, which is clear as day.”

The “intense hostilities have been going on for five days now,” Putin said. “The fighting was intense over the past 48 hours, and the enemy was not successful in any area of operations.”

Putin credited that to “the courage and heroism of our soldiers and the good organization and command of the troops, as well as the high effectiveness of Russian weapons, especially the latest weapons.”

Ukrainian forces, he added, “suffer significant causalities. As is known, losses routinely amount to about three to one during offensive operations. But in this case, they are much higher. I am not going to give these figures, but they are striking.”

(The Drive) U.S. satellites with very high-fidelity infrared sensors detected what appears to have been an explosion at Ukraine's Nova Khakovka dam right before it failed earlier this week, according to a new report. You can read more about what else is known about this incident, over which Ukrainian and Russian authorities continue to trade accusations, in The War Zone's earlier reporting.

The New York Times first reported earlier today on the U.S. government's use of data from infrared sensors on its satellites to try to determine what exactly happened at Nova Khakovka, citing an anonymous official within U.S. President Joe Biden's administration. Though the specific satellites utilized here have not yet been confirmed, this sounds likely to be the work of the Space-Based Infrared System constellation, or SBIRS. These space-based sensors are primarily intended to watch for ballistic missile launches, but are understood to be sensitive enough to gather useful intelligence data in many other contexts.

All told, how long it may be until there is a definitive picture of what happened at Nova Khakovka this week and who might be responsible – if that ever happens – remains to be seen. Data from satellites like SBIRS, however, looks to already be playing a useful part in establishing some of the basic facts about the incident.

Russia appears to have moved to take direct control of Wagner, after months of infighting between defence officials and the private military group.

Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Pankov said on Saturday "volunteer formations" will be asked to sign contracts directly with the ministry of defence.
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But in a furious statement on Sunday, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said his forces would boycott the contracts.
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Last week the group kidnapped a senior frontline army commander, Lt Col Roman Venevitin, after accusing him of opening fire on a Wagner vehicle near Bakhmut.

Lt Col Venevitin was later released, and in a video shared by Russian military bloggers he accused the group of stoking "anarchy" on Russia's frontlines by stealing arms, forcing mobilised soldiers to sign contracts with the group and attempting to extort weapons from the defence ministry.

funkervogt wrote: ↑Mon Jun 12, 2023 1:20 pm Ukraine has lost at least 16 American-made Bradley fighting vehicles since the start of the offensive.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/12/europe/u ... index.html

The Russians are proving themselves to be skilled defenders.