Ukraine War Update NEWS: Overnight & Other News
Table of Contents 📖
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"I think history will judge the invasion of Ukraine to be an absolutely terrible decision from any which way you look at it."
Hello Team!
Jonathan explains he sometimes gets words muddled up due to having primary progressive multiple sclerosis which affects word recall. He tries not to but it's a symptom of his condition.
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🪦 DISCLAIMER FOR GENERAL STAFF LOSSES DATA
- These are real people with real lives and real families who love them. Don’t let the numbers sap your humanity.
- These numbers probably aren’t accurate but they’re the best we have and we don’t need them to be accurate to be indicative of patterns of activity.
- All losses are estimates. Losses cannot be counted with accuracy because of the conditions on the ground.
- Both sides would see it to be of their advantage to minimize their own losses maximize the other side’s losses.
- Neither side releases their losses but we have enough transparency from the Ukrainian side to have confidence in they are indicative.
- Personnel losses are hard to count. If a soldier gets injured, heals up, and returns to the front line only to get injured again, is that one loss or two? Also, how to deal with losses from PMC’s or soldiers fighting with RF from occupied territories?
- Equipment losses are hard to count. If an AA complex involves several parts and one part gets disabled, is that a loss, or a fraction of a loss? If a tank gets disabled, repaired, back into the fight, then disabled again, is that one lost tank or two?
- All recorded losses are vulnerable to multiple reporting. We have already seen numerous cases of multiple drones in the air reporting the same loss from different angles as multiple engagements.
- Losses are not always reported on the same day they occurred. It is frequent that drone losses are reported at least 24 hours after other terrestrial equipment losses. Certain losses may not be reported for days or weeks for military intelligence reasons.
Russian Losses
The Ukrainian figures for Russian losses for 25th April:
- 640 liquidated personnel (consistent with last 1-2 weeks but not as high as record 1,100 days)
- 4 tanks, 11 APCs (fairly high number), 14 artillery systems (significant and high number)
- 1 anti-aircraft warfare system (being targeted ahead of counter-offensive)
- 3 UAVs, 8 vehicles and fuel tanks
- 7 pieces of special equipment (highest ever recorded and a 700% increase on the ~1 per day average)
Targeting Russian Equipment
Footage shows a Russian electronic warfare system designed to jam drones and GPS being spotted by a Ukrainian drone and taken out with a single hit by GPS-guided ammunition, likely an Excalibur round. This is important to allow Ukrainian drones and aircraft to operate effectively and safely ahead of the anticipated counter-offensive.
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JDAM Strikes in Bakhmut
Footage of what are believed to be JDAM strikes on a Russian ammunition storage in Bakhmut. JDAMs are guided bombs dropped from aircraft that were previously 'dumb' munitions but have been upgraded with guidance kits. The strikes cause significant damage, similar to the FAB-500 bombs Russia has used recently.
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Drone Warfare
- A Ukrainian drone destroys a $100k Russian surveillance complex at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant by precisely hitting it through a tiny window.
- Another first-person view drone flies underneath a shed roof to hit Russian supplies inside.
- Jonathan predicts drones will become even more precise, able to hover and detonate on command, and potentially be used for assassinations.
- Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with drones in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. Only 3 were shot down. Russia likely using this tactic to fix Ukrainian air defences away from the front lines.
Fires Across Russia
There were multiple significant fires across Russia on 25th April:
- Sosva, Sverdlovsk Oblast - 92 buildings destroyed in a massive fire that spread from a lumber yard
- Transbaikal region - a timber processing plant and village of Balyaga burned down after a controlled grass burning went wrong
- Yekaterinburg - a reinforced concrete plant had a big blaze after 2 loud explosions
- Rubtsovsk, Altai region - a town cemetery caught fire after a controlled burn of dry vegetation with no firebreak
- Reports of 2 train fires
Since the invasion, conscripted soldiers who would usually fight the seasonal fires have been sent to Ukraine, leaving regions short of emergency response personnel.
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Military and Humanitarian Aid
The Netherlands has delivered 85 tanks to Ukraine (45 T-72s, 33 Leopard 1s, 7 Leopard 2s) despite not owning any tanks themselves. This makes them the 2nd largest tank donor to Ukraine. They also provided many YPR-765 APCs early in the war. The UK has sent thousands of rounds of Challenger 2 ammunition to Ukraine, including controversial depleted uranium armour-piercing rounds. These are useful against Russian tanks as the dense metal punches through armour. Russia has complained this is escalatory but uses such rounds themselves.
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Geopolitics
- Yahoo News has obtained Russian strategic documents on influencing the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in a similar way to previously leaked documents about Moldova and Belarus. The intention was to spread Russian influence and culture and reduce NATO's role. However, the invasion of Ukraine has had the opposite effect, with more NATO troops now in the Baltics and those countries taking active steps to reduce Russian influence.
- Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia are suspending imports of Ukrainian grain and other products like sunflower oil to protect their own farmers and markets. This is causing tension as the EU wants to help Ukraine's economy by reducing tariffs but member states want to look after their own producers too.
- 45% of Germans support maintaining military aid to Ukraine, 28% want to increase it and 22% want to decrease it. Support for reducing aid is higher in former East Germany. The Green party is one of the strongest supporters of military assistance.
- Russian TV propagandists are inviting the recently fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson to work for them.
- The US and allies are working to curb the influence of the Russian Wagner private military company worldwide after their role in Ukraine has raised their profile. They are seen as enriching themselves through seizing resources like diamond mines in Africa as well as doing the Kremlin's bidding.
- Sweden has expelled 5 Russian diplomats for suspected spying, part of a trend of European countries removing Russian embassy staff who are intelligence agents.
Odds and Sods
The Ukrainian community in southern Brazil has renamed their local football team to FC Mariupol after the Ukrainian club of the same name whose facilities and stadium were destroyed in the Russian invasion. AA Batel from Prudentópolis will take on Mariupol's colours and logo in solidarity. The region has a 70% Ukrainian heritage population. Satellite images of the destroyed city of Mariupol can now be seen on Google Maps outside Russia. For many residents seeing the scale of the devastation for the first time has been emotionally devastating.
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Wrap Up
Jonathan encourages viewers to like, subscribe and share the video. He plugs his other videos coming out later today including a front line update and an 'extra' video. He also suggests checking out his fiction book series 'Survival of the Fittest' available on Amazon and other booksellers.
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