Offshoot

Interviews with some soldiers of I gather the 93rd brigade. They were near Izyum for months but were replaced very shortly before it was retaken, then relocated to near Bakhmut. They really seem to have got the short end of the stick and seem tired but resigned to their lot. The English captions work pretty well.

Could be as simple as Lukashenko getting scared that Ukraine might take a left turn after kicking the Russians out, or at least of the instability that will result when Russia is seen to lose

Yesterdays UK MoD briefing covered similar ground more generally, talking about factional competition within the Russian MoD itself: "Surovikin’ s appointment likely reflects an effort by the Russian national security community to improve the delivery of the operation. However, he will likely have to contest with an increasingly factional Russian MOD which is poorly resourced to achieve the political objectives it has been set in Ukraine."

Is it curious though that the collapsed sections of bridge, which were presumably closer to the explosion, are not so scorched? The white road markings are even still visible on them. I wonder how much of that scorching came from fuel from the train.

This the the first frame that isn't normal. The flash starts at the bottom of the frame. In another video, you can see something moving under the bridge These both come from this thread that was linked to before (https://twitter.com/INTobservers/status/1578633947109810176). You can see the moving boat in the first video.

Someone in the comments of that thread did say "Look, as a Motor T Marine I am all about this **** except for one thing: 8- to 10-round bursts, my turret guy. Little taps on the trigger will jam your M2. Hold that butterfly down so Mama Deuce can say her piece: "Die, motha****a, die!"

Purportedly a Ukrainian advance using HMMWVs in the Kherson region demonstrating a "dagger" attack. They are certainly using live ammo. https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/xwowrw/breakthrough_of_the_front_in_the_kherson_region_a/

I don't know about before, but if his latest thinking is not just words, Navalny doesn't want Russia to have a president (someone posted this link here earlier - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/alexei-navalny-parliamentary-republic-russia-ukraine/ )

Nah, that's just Ukraine's new 'cross now' sound. These five fellows seem to be taking on the entirety of Kyiv's traffic control system by themselves.

Maybe using captured Russian equipment (this is the guy who was involved in locating the original Russian attempts to cross the Siverskyi Donets oh so long ago)

That thread continues and on 28th they said "Local sources report that the Russians are again constructing a barge structure under the bridge".

It's been the worst kept secret, but Prigozhin admits publicly for the first time his links to Wagner. So why now after so long, even suing people who suggested he was connected to them? Does it have something to do with a play for power? - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/26/putin-ally-yevgeny-prigozhin-admits-founding-wagner-mercenary-group

A chink in the armor of the middle might be the nuclear threat. This thread has talked a lot about Putin's nuclear threats and how the west perceives them, but not about how Russians perceive them. A journalist born in Soviet Ukraine who has written a couple of books on Russian propaganda suggests Putin's threats could backfire. He does acknowledge the passivity of the Russian middle, but perhaps this angle could be exploited by psyops to push them to act, and without even having to lie necessarily (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/25/nuclear-threat-might-change-the-mood-in-russia-itself-stoking-widespread-fear) "Putin’s threat of nuclear war may backfire, too. It’s meant to intimidate the west and Ukraine but it can upset his own people more. If there’s one thing Russians fear more than Putin, it’s nuclear war – and now he’s the one bringing it closer. For both the elite and the “ordinary” Russians who I’ve spoken to recently, the calculation is about whether the risk of going against Putin is bigger than the risk of sticking with him. So far, rebelling has seemed the bigger risk; does the nuclear topic change that? Much depends on how the international community reacts. We need to show that the closer he gets to a nuclear threat, the more devastating the reaction will be: military, economic and diplomatic. He will even lose China."

This sounds like a complicated and not very efficient way to rig a referendum. Definitely possible then.

Oh, I'm sure they just didn't want to put ticks on papers for promotional videos because they didn't want to inadvertently affect anyone's choice

On second thoughts, do you have a PPSh41?

Not true, the Queen/King has the right to vet any law that affect's the crown's interests (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/08/royals-vetted-more-than-1000-laws-via-queens-consent) "The investigation uncovered evidence suggesting that she used the procedure to persuade government ministers to change a 1970s transparency law in order to conceal her private wealth from the public. The documents also show that on other occasions the monarch’s advisers demanded exclusions from proposed laws relating to road safety and land policy that appeared to affect her estates, and pressed for government policy on historic sites to be altered."

This guy is claiming that a train with T-62s was hit near Donetsk city. Did the train complete it's journey - tiketty-tokkity tiketty-tokkety?

Reinforcing some context for the recent discussions

Kherson cat did a thread on it. They were definitely shooting at a building or two. Also, in the first video in that thread at the 1 sec mark you can see an incoming round bounce off the road into the vehicle. Is it easier for the Russians to say it was staged than that they started shooting at each other?

An interview with a Russian tank driver POW who is now allowed to help out with trophy vehicles. It's low level stuff, but he talks about how little training he received to drive a tank, the poor state of Russian equipment, and how his tank crew were the only people he really knew in his unit.

Compared to the evacuation and treatment of Ukrainian wounded throughout Europe.

This is what I thought Prigozhin's speech was meant to convey - that he is a man of such authority that he will convert convicts into moral people who will defend Russia and the people. I saw a twitter title saying the video was leaked, but if it was I imagine he leaked it himself (he also has his own media company). It was an absurd pitch to make to murderers, rapists and thieves - you can die for Russia but you will not loot or rape - so it likely wasn't meant for them. And my apologies for my fruity joke emphasizing the absurdity of his speech

I hear the Kherson watermelons are sweet this time of year.