Agreed, I hope for Ukraine this is true. I find it very hard to believe. Not that Russia would not target the station, but that the only surviving piece would just conveniently happen to be this.
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In case you all hadn't picked up on this, apparently Russia attacked a railway station in Kramatorsk. Over 30 people were killed but the tally may get much higher.
Over 9,000 people were evacuated through that station yesterday and there were apparently thousands of people at the location when the attack happened. This was the scene at the station on Tuesday:
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Here are a few pics of the aftermath of the attack:
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The last series are potentially the worst of all. According to Ukrainian authorities, this is a section of one of the weapons that hit the railway station. The inscription on the rear reads "For the children":
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Now, I have to admit to being somewhat skeptical that the only substantial piece of weapon wreckage includes such an inflammatory message. However, if it's true, then it clearly demonstrates that Russia are deliberately targeting civilians. If it's a piece of Ukrainian propaganda, then I fear Kyiv may be overplaying their hand as it will cause all Ukrainian claims to be questioned. The very best thing Ukraine can do now is accurately report and document atrocities. There should be no need for amplification.
Gilmore has a Ukrainian Daughter in Law and Grandchildren.Pink Floyd has recorded its first music in more than 30 years. "Hey, Hey, Rise Up" features vocals by Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the Ukrainian band, Boombox, who recorded himself in full military gear singing the folk song, "The Red Viburnum in the Meadow,"to the empty streets in Kyiv's Sofiyskaya Square.
I find it hard to believe, after the Russians lined up their artillery on Mariupol, or the bombing of the theater there that was marked "children", or the other crimes committed by Russian troops, that the Ukrainians would feel the need to fake something like that.
But I've been wrong before.
I also find it hard to believe the Russians would be so stupid as to decorate a weapon with such a message.
My understanding is it was an SS-21 Scarab, a short-range ballistic missile in the same category as the old US Lance missile. That could well be the booster segment following along behind the warhead on the ballistic trajectory.Is it known what kind of rocket this was?
Somewhat strange to see a large part of a rocket survive intact. Maybe a dud or the warhead separated from the rest prior to impact?
My understanding is it was an SS-21 Scarab, a short-range ballistic missile in the same category as the old US Lance missile. That could well be the booster segment following along behind the warhead on the ballistic trajectory.
I looked at that wreckage as close as possible and the words doesn't appear to have been applied after it landed, the lettering is distorted in proportion to the buckling of the surface and too low to the ground to have been done afterwards.In case you all hadn't picked up on this, apparently Russia attacked a railway station in Kramatorsk. Over 30 people were killed but the tally may get much higher.
Over 9,000 people were evacuated through that station yesterday and there were apparently thousands of people at the location when the attack happened. This was the scene at the station on Tuesday:
View attachment 664114
Here are a few pics of the aftermath of the attack:
View attachment 664112
View attachment 664113
The last series are potentially the worst of all. According to Ukrainian authorities, this is a section of one of the weapons that hit the railway station. The inscription on the rear reads "For the children":
View attachment 664116
View attachment 664117
View attachment 664115
Now, I have to admit to being somewhat skeptical that the only substantial piece of weapon wreckage includes such an inflammatory message. However, if it's true, then it clearly demonstrates that Russia are deliberately targeting civilians. If it's a piece of Ukrainian propaganda, then I fear Kyiv may be overplaying their hand as it will cause all Ukrainian claims to be questioned. The very best thing Ukraine can do now is accurately report and document atrocities. There should be no need for amplification.
I looked at that wreckage as close as possible and the words doesn't appear to have been applied after it landed, the lettering is distorted in proportion to the buckling of the surface and too low to the ground to have been done afterwards.
In other words, it truly appears to have been applied before being launched
And smacks more of ordnancemen's spontaneous impulse than any kind of official messaging. But the official messaging has clearly sunk in.In other words, it truly appears to have been applied before being launched
And smacks more of ordnancemen's spontaneous impulse than any kind of official messaging. But the official messaging has clearly sunk in.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, acknowledged in an interview published on Thursday that Russia had sustained "significant losses of troops" and called it a "huge tragedy."
There was a photo about a month ago showing the wreckage of an SS-21 in a town square, plus Ukraine Drone footage shows a Bayraktar destroying a BAZ-5921 launcher over a month ago.Agree...it's just "convenient" that the text is entirely visible and even the right way up to be read.
Unsurprisingly, Russia is denying the attack. They're claiming that they don't use SS-21 any more. However, there are obvious holes in that theory, as outlined by the BBC:
Russia has denied the attack on Kramatorsk railway station and claims missile fragments found nearby are from a Tochka-U tactical projectile "only used by the Ukrainian armed forces".
Its ministry of defence announced it had stopped deploying the weapons in 2019 in favour of the more modern Iskander-M missiles, according to Russian media.
Ukraine's Donetsk governor has, however, accused the Russian military of using the Tochka-U to detonate cluster munitions in the attack on Kramatorsk.
Manisha Ganguly, an investigative journalist for the BBC World Service, has been looking into Russia's claims and believes they don't add up.
She says there's evidence Russia used Tochka-U tactical missiles on 24 February during a strike on a hospital in Vuhledar, Donetsk Oblast, which killed four civilians and wounded 10.
An Amnesty International missile investigator analysing photos of the weapon scrap linked to the incident determined a "9M79 Tochka ballistic missile was used in the attack".
These weapons are extremely inaccurate, regularly missing their targets by half a kilometre or more, Amnesty International has said.
Tochka missiles were also used on 19 March in Luhansk, according to the Ukrainian MoD. The Ukrainian military say they shot down one of these missiles with their air defence system.
I chalked a couple of bombs up in 1991 m'self: "Here's a big kiss from the G-man."
In the news:
Kremlin spokesman admits ‘we have significant losses of troops,’ calls it ‘a huge tragedy’
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, acknowledged in an interview published on Thursday that Russia had sustained “significant losses of troops” and called it a “huge trag…thehill.com
I won't repeat the lies he peddled in throughout the interview, but I thought it important that Russia is perhaps admitting what we all already know. Maybe their come-to-Jesus moment is coming soon?
How very Russian of him to call it a tragedy that his invading soldiers have sustained heavy losses yet they launch missiles at women and children.
Let's face it, from the Russian perspective there are misplaced Russian sympathizers in Ukraine, worthy of being "saved" with a little re-education, and everyone else is a nazi, fit only for extermination or for slave labor. The nazis are showing their true colors by voting with their feet or by criminally assassinating Russian troops. Children? "Nits grow into lice!"Strange message on that rocket, if that's really true then Putlers propaganda has worked its way deep into his population (just as intended), it apparently made soldiers believe the Ukrainian "Nazis" are basically "eating children".