If he overstepped a red line, he would already meet the window.

could still happen. but then, he is surrounded by his own private army.

Prigozhin has been attacking Kremlin semi-military bureaucrats, Sergei Shoygoe and Commander-in-Chief Valeri Gerasimov for months, but not Putin. In any case, the statements are part of a propaganda war with the intention of coming out as heroic as possible. If ammunition is left behind, it is already clear who the scapegoat is. If supplies do start up again, then the extortion has worked. And if Bakhmut would then finally be captured, Prigozhin could walk away with the credit and stress that the Russian army and its leaders have not achieved any of the goals of their winter offensive, not likely that Shoygoe and Gerasimov are looking forward to that moment.

However, Wagner was long given preferential treatment that ammunition is now being withheld is probably mainly because the army is preparing for the expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, and is understandable in that sense. The Ministry of Defense has to defend the entire front, while Prigozhin only cares about Bakhmut. Yet even the Kremlin seemed to realize each time that it needed the cheap Wagner troops with their thousands of recruited prisoners if it still wanted to get anywhere with its winter offensive. That leniency may well come to an end now that that offensive has failed and Wagner's clout has severely diminished. When Putin sidelined his favorite, General Sergei Suhovikin, early this year as supreme commander in Ukraine in favor of Gerasimov. Was that decision already seen as an attempt to short-circuit Prigozhin's ambitions that might eventually be political.

Thanks Dargo, that worked a treat, must save the link!! :yep:

Yes electronic jamming of gps sucks and it can reduce the effectiveness of offensive weapons. Not trying sound like it isn’t a problem, but I’m sure military planners in the west have already thought of counter measures. Even Elon Musk has software updates for Ukrainian Starlink systems to help bypass jamming.

The downside to any electronic jammer is it reveals its location and quite possibly the location of potential targets they are trying to protect.

Russia has sparked a "mad panic" as it evacuates a town near the contested Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, a Ukrainian official says.

Russia has told people to leave 18 settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region, including Enerhodar near the plant, ahead of Kyiv's anticipated offensive.

The Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, said there were five-hour waits as thousands of cars left.

The UN's nuclear watchdog warned a "severe nuclear accident" could occur.

Rafael Grossi - the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - said the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant was "becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous".

The IAEA statement said that "while operating staff remain at the site" there was "deep concern about the increasingly tense, stressful, and challenging conditions for personnel and their families".

It said IAEA experts at the plant had "received information that the announced evacuation of residents from the nearby town of Enerhodar - where most plant staff live - has started".

On Friday, the Russian-installed regional head Yevgeny Balitsky said that "in the past few days, the enemy has stepped up shelling of settlements close to the front line".

"I have therefore made a decision to evacuate first of all children and parents, elderly people, disabled people and hospital patients," he wrote on social media. .

The IAEA has issued warnings previously about safety at the plant - which Russia captured in the opening days of its invasion last year - after shelling caused temporary power cuts.

In March the IAEA warned the plant was running on diesel generators to keep vital cooling systems going, after damage to power lines.

Since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022 the number of staff at the plant has declined, the IAEA says, "but site management has stated that it has remained sufficient for the safe operation of the plant".

Russian forces occupy much of the Zaporizhzhia region but not the regional capital Zaporizhzhia, which lies just north-east of Enerhodar across the Dnipro reservoir.

On Sunday, the Ukrainian general staff said civilians were being evacuated to the cities of Berdyansk and Prymorsk, further inside Russian-held territory.

The exiled mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, wrote on Telegram that shops in the evacuated areas had run out of goods and medicine.

He also said hospitals were discharging patients into the street amid fears that electricity and water supplies could be suspended if Ukraine attacks the region.

And he claimed that two-thirds of evacuation convoys - allegedly made up of civilians - consisted of retreating Russian troops. The BBC cannot verify this claim.

"The partial evacuation they announced is going too fast, and there is a possibility that they may be preparing for provocations and (for that reason) focusing on civilians," Mr Fedorov added.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65515443

Undead from GDR times are still haunting Germany like ghosts from the past.

https://www.nzz.ch/international/kri...&_x_tr_sl=auto

Additionally: the majority of people in the eastern federal states of what was formerly East Germany are opposed to western aid to Ukraine and demand that Ukraine comply. The glorification of the Soviet past and the GDR dictatorship as well as the trivialization of their crimes and a cult of Soviet militaria and relics and emblems of the glorious socialist past flourish and thrive.

^ Register for free and read on.

Russia faces serious labor shortages due to war

Russia is facing serious labor shortages due to the war in Ukraine and the corona pandemic, reports the UK Ministry of Defense in its daily briefing. The labor market in Russia has not been this bad in decades, according to the British. The war and the pandemic have caused Russia's population to shrink even faster than previously predicted over the past three years, according to the British. Some 1.2 million people left Russia last year alone, including mostly young, highly educated people.

Remarkably, many IT professionals in particular turned their backs on Russia. According to the Russian Ministry of Communications, as many as a hundred thousand highly educated, young IT professionals (about 10 percent of the total) have left and not returned. And then there are the many hundreds of thousands of able-bodied men sent to the front, some of whom have since been killed or wounded. The shrinking workforce will put further pressure on the Russian economy, according to the British. As a result of the invasion of Ukraine and economic sanctions, the Russian economy shrank by 2.1 percent last year, but the International Monetary Fund does forecast modest growth of 0.3 percent again in the coming year.
https://i.postimg.cc/nzTdk1Nh/Fvg-LHK7-Xw-AE7b-V3.jpg

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will arrive in Ukraine on Tuesday, May 9, on the occasion of Europe Day.

As far as i read Prigozhin is not "forced" to stay in Bakhmut, but is now guaranteed support, ammunition and military hardware –
So Wagner will now fight along with Kadyrov's 'Tiktok' battallion and enough resources. This does not look good.

And we all know what Russian guarantees mean :D