Lidiya Sribna takes flowers to unidentified graves in the military cemetary in Dnipro. Photograph: Anastasia Vlasova/The Observer
The Guardian: ‘They said my husband had died – but there wasn’t a body’: The families hunting for Ukraine’s missing soldiers
Mothers and wives have been left in the dark, forced to make endless phone calls and scour the internet for clues
Treading carefully between the plots, Lidiya Sribna, 51, goes from grave to grave placing a red carnation on each of the mounds of soil.
Sometimes, on these visits to Krasnopillya military cemetery on the outskirts of Dnipro, in south-east Ukraine, she will balance sweets or biscuits on the black wooden crosses – a Ukrainian tradition – or give the small plaques a wipe and pick up any litter that has been scattered by the wind.
Her son, Kostyantyn, 31, is buried on the other side of the vast scrubland, where those killed in 2022 can be found under the fluttering yellow-and-blue national flags and giant floral displays.
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WNU Editor: Ukraine's commissioner for missing persons says there are 7,200 soldiers listed as missing. Before moving to Winnipeg early this year, my cousin was handling a social media page that was used by families looking for their loved ones who were serving in the military but had "disappeared". At that time she estimated there were 35,000 Ukrainian soldiers who were "missing". She was also told to stop posting, which she complied. Eight months later, she now thinks the number of missing is closer to 60,000.
The TOS-1 flamethrower is every Ukies nightmare. Scattered to the wind as ashes they are now.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I wonder if it's such a good idea to do a yearly display of obliterated combat vehicles in the middle of Kiev. Wives and parents are being told that the body of their man was irrecoverable or simply "gone" and then, walking down the street, everyone sees how these hulking combat vehicles (that both sides are using) get folded like hot plastic. It shouldn't be a surprise that men are hiding in their basements to avoid conscription when this is what's being put in front of them as "inspirational."
ReplyDeleteTOS-1 are theater level assets. I read the Russian had 3 systems and two were taken out. Take the last one out and then go for the Russian keyboard warriors.
ReplyDeleteWith fat Priggy gone, they can go lower down in the food chain :)
Try passing that one off on the Ukes. Pretty sure more than 400k of them would strongly disagree with you
DeleteTOS-1A units were being deployed during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[22] Several sightings of the system were reported during the invasion. A verified image of a TOS-1A claimed to have been captured by the Ukrainian Army has been widely shared across social media.[23] On 9 March 2022, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Twitter that the Russian Ministry of Defence had confirmed the use of the weapon system in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[24][25] Ukrainian forces went on to capture several units which were left abandoned by the Russians, and have used a captured unit against the Russians.[26][27][28]
ReplyDeleteThe TOS-1A was reportedly used by Russian forces during the Battle of Pisky in 2022.[29] One was destroyed by Ukrainian forces in February 2023 during the Battle of Vuhledar.[30] On 9 June 2023, another TOS-1A was destroyed in Zaporizhzhia region during the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive.[31]
Fckers are getting taken out like the propaganda people soon will be too.
"The TOS-1A thermobaric artillery system is so highly prized by the Russian military that its deployment and use is controlled by a theater-level command rather than tactical commanders."
ReplyDeleteLike I said theater level
TOS-1A have a unique radio signature as a theater level asset.
ReplyDeleteGiven the RuAF problems with insecure radio communications, its secure digital spread spectrum radio stands out in the RuAF radio order of battle like a sore thumb to AFU SIGINT listeners.
Time to hunt Putin loyalists!