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Russian stuff blowing up: Estonia and Russia confrontation at sea over shadow tanker [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-05-14

Estonia tried to seize a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker but backed off when a Russian fighter showed up.

x ❗️The 🇪🇪Estonian Navy tried to seize a 🇷🇺Russian "shadow" tanker. The ship's crew refused to enter an Estonian port - then they tried to board the tanker. But suddenly a Russian SU-35 fighter appeared, after which the assault was called off.



[image or embed] — 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@militarynewsua.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 12:00 PM

A Russian assault towards the city of Myrnohrad, which is just east of Pokrovsk, ended in disaster.

x Frontline report: Russian assault force encounters lethal funnel on Hrodivka-Myrnohrad road Russian commanders attempted to exploit the 5-km paved route between Hrodivka and Myrnohrad, to encounter a prepared killzone of mines, observation posts, drone operators

euromaidanpress.com/2025/05/14/f...



[image or embed] — Euromaidan Press (@euromaidanpress.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 7:40 AM

To establish a foothold in Myrnohrad the Russians decided to accumulate forces in Hrodivka from which they would launch a direct mechanized assault towards the town. This is enabled by a 5 kilometer section of a paved asphalt road between Hrodivka and Myrnohrad, allowing the Russian tanks and BMPs to utilize their full speed to reach the city and dismount stormtroopers for urban fighting quickly. The main tactical disadvantages of the Russian forces in this area is the industrial zone of the nearby coal mine in the southern part of Myrnohrad, which includes high-rise buildings of mineshaft elevators that provide fortified concrete observation points that overlook the Russian route of attack. Additionally, two elevated terrikons in the area allow for additional observation points to overlook all Russian movements around Myrnohrad, together with firing positions. Forward Ukrainian positions in the fields before the city include two powerful strongholds built in 2015 and heavily reinforced with concrete bunkers, trenches, and dugouts overlooking the Hrodivka road. Any Russian advance along this route faces deadly ATGM fire from these fortifications. To compound the threat, Ukrainian engineers have scattered anti-tank mines across the road, forcing Russian units to slow and use mine rollers on their lead vehicles, which exposes them further to Ukrainian strikes. To properly advance and evade Ukrainian fire the Russians would need to maneuver across the fields; however, the Ukrainians anticipated this and built a network of anti-tank ditches and dragon teeth across the fields, effectively turning the Russian road of attack into a killzone. This means that the Russians would be forced to attack Myrnohrad by driving slowly along the paved road and deactivating anti-tank mines, since the surrounding fields are covered with anti-tank ditches and dragon teeth, while the Ukrainians positioned at the terrikon, industrial zone, and trench strongholds have a firing solution on them.

The Russians in the tank that is following see the tank up ahead get blasted by a Javelin and quickly throw it into reverse.

Another Russian bike assault goes awry in the Kursk region.

x ⚡️In the Kursk region, Ukraine’s 110th Territorial Defense Brigade reportedly neutralized 14 Russian soldiers and destroyed 4 motorcycles used in assault operations.



[image or embed] — NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) May 14, 2025 at 11:02 AM

Russia continues its assault on civilians.

x ⚡️Russian attacks across Ukraine kill 4, injure 26 over past day. Ukraine's air defense shot down 80 drones, while another 42 disappeared from radars without causing any damage, according to the statement.



[image or embed] — The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) May 14, 2025 at 2:40 AM

Sort of like a trail of breadcrumbs.

Russia only sends its best to Ukraine.

x Russia: 10 inmates transferred from prison to a military training base near Rostov escaped just several days before they were to be sent to the invasion of Ukraine.

They were in prison for murder, rape, robbery, and drug trafficking. — Igor Sushko (@igorsushko.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 12:15 AM

Speaking of Russian criminals.

x 🧵 Russian Nikolai Vilkov stole a $2.5M yacht in Florida and tried to flee to the Bahamas last week.

SWAT had to use tear gas.

Pretended not to know English & repeatedly lied.

Entered US as a refugee in Dec 2022 with his wife Daria and child.

They returned to Russia in 2024. He remained in the US.



[image or embed] — Igor Sushko (@igorsushko.bsky.social) May 13, 2025 at 3:27 PM

So, Putin isn’t going and Lavrov is staying home. Maybe they can send an intern.

Don’t worry. They’ll be easy to find just as soon as they commit new crimes.

x ⚡️ Lavrov won't attend possible Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul, Russian media says. Earlier reporting from the Washington Post cited a former Russian official who claimed Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, would represent Moscow in the talks.



[image or embed] — The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) May 14, 2025 at 11:31 AM

If Lavrov isn’t going, why is Rubio?

x ‼️ US delegation postpones visit to Istanbul for Russia-Ukraine talks to May 16, – Reuters 🤔 Witkoff said in Doha on May 14 that he and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will go to the Russian-Ukrainian meeting in Istanbul not on May 15, as Putin had suggested, but on the 16th.



[image or embed] — MAKS 24 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 10:08 AM

A Chechen soldier discovers that active duty in Ukraine isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

x "Making money in Ukraine isn’t as easy as you think." - says a Chechen fighter, now complaining while carrying the body of a fallen comrade. The war in Ukraine turned out to be nothing like he expected.



[image or embed] — WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 9:10 AM

So, almost twice Trump’s approval rating.

x ⚡️ Zelensky's trust rating rises to 74%, highest since 2023, poll shows. President Zelensky's trust rating increased from 69% in March to 74% in the first half of May, according to a poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).



[image or embed] — The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) May 14, 2025 at 4:54 AM

This is counter-productive.

x ⚡️ EU to hike tariffs on Ukrainian imports amid Poland's push, FT reports. The EU plans to significantly increase tariffs on Ukrainian goods after the current duty-free deal lapses on June 6, the Financial Times reported on May 14, citing undisclosed diplomatic sources.



[image or embed] — The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) May 14, 2025 at 1:58 AM

Can’t let a beauty like that fall into enemy hands. 🙄🙄

x The katsaps are seen performing the combat recovery of a damaged light-blue Moskvich 412 open-air MRAP. Ruzzkiy will go to any lengths to prevent the technology from falling into Ukrainian hands. #OSINT



[image or embed] — OSINT Intuit (@urikikaski.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 5:21 AM

The good news is that Germany is building up its military.

The bad news is that Germany is building up its military.

x Chancellor Merz announced today that he intends to upgrade the German Army to be the strongest conventional army in Europe. I approve that message.



[image or embed] — (((Tendar))) (@tendar.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 12:02 PM

Russia continues to stage sabotage operations and massively interfere with elections while Western nations seem either unable to stop it or unwilling to forcefully confront Russia about it.

x ⚡️ Germany detains Ukrainians in alleged Russia-backed sabotage plot, media reports. Two of the suspects were reportedly detained over the weekend, and the third on May 13, during police raids in Germany and Switzerland.



[image or embed] — The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) May 14, 2025 at 5:46 AM

My vote is for temporary mood swing.

x FT’s Guy Chazan reports that the Trump admin is slowly realizing that Putin, not Zelensky, “may be the biggest obstacle to peace” in Ukraine. However, it’s still too soon to say whether this is a true epiphany or just a temporary mood swing. www.ft.com/content/9a75...



[image or embed] — Kevin Rothrock (@kevinrothrock.me) May 14, 2025 at 11:04 AM

Ukraine shifts its tank deployment strategy in the face of losses.

x Forbes: Ukrainians are changing tactics of using tanks after losing 1,000 tanks Ukrainian National Guard brigades are receiving German Leopard tanks as the military shifts to a more dispersed tank deployment strategy.

euromaidanpress.com/2025/05/14/f...



[image or embed] — Euromaidan Press (@euromaidanpress.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 4:08 AM

Ukrainian military planners now recognize that tanks must operate entirely differently to survive. Forbes reports that tank crews must remain “extremely cautious” – concealing vehicles in barns, garages, or specialized bunkers, emerging only briefly to strike before rapidly retreating to cover. This tactical shift transforms tanks from assault spearheads into precision support weapons. Ukraine is effectively creating a leaner, more nimble tank corps specifically engineered to survive in drone-saturated combat zones.

A Russian doctor/deserter, who was forced to be a “field wife” for a commander, says soldiers are sold for profit.

x 1/ A military doctor who has deserted from the Russian army says she was forced to be a commander's 'field wife', had to rate crippled men as fit, saw 'undesirable' soldiers being shot by their officers, and others being "sold for slaughter" for their commanders' profit. ⬇️



[image or embed] — ChrisO_wiki (@chriso-wiki.bsky.social) May 13, 2025 at 2:29 AM

2/ A female military doctor serving in the 19th Tank Regiment (military unit 12322) recorded a video about what she saw and experienced since joining the unit in June 2023. There are around 40,000 women in the Russian armed forces, mostly in medical roles. 3/ After signing a contract, she says she ended up after training "in Totskoye, Orenburg region – under the regiment commander Evgeniy Borisovich Ladnov, to the very commander who is called the 'butcher commander', the 'killer commander'". 4/ To become an officer, she was told she had to become the 'field wife' of the commander. Field wives are a World War 2 Russian army institution that have been revived in the Ukraine war, often as a form of sexual abuse of female soldiers. 5/ The woman served with the 19th Tank Regiment's medical unit. She was told that she had to rate as fit injured soldiers who could no longer fight due to health reasons: 6/ "I had to sit in the medical unit and write ‘fit’ to those who couldn’t fight ... because he simply does not have an arm, leg, prosthetic eye, and so on. That is, I had to send my guys to the slaughter, just give them a one-way ticket." ….. 10/ The doctor says that her commanders were running money-making scams with the dead and wounded, leaving the latter to die on the battlefield."I saw documents in the office of [callsign] “Tobol”, the chief of staff, about, God forgive me, how much each serviceman costs." 11/ "That is, the guys were simply sold, like football players were sold, simply for slaughter...They were live goods for good fat money for the command. …. 16/ Ladnov was reportedly killed by a Ukrainian drone in November 2024. The doctor says that it is "good that he is in hell, the devils are probably roasting him well." However, she says that his successor is just as bad, explaining why she felt she had to desert.

Another 1,270 Russians and 47 artillery systems.

Maybe one of the other streets can be renamed Defenestration Avenue.

France steps up with more Caesar howitzers for Ukraine.

x France will transfer to Ukraine all wheeled CAESAR self-propelled howitzers produced in 2025, President Macron announced. Around 12 units are manufactured each month, so the total could reach up to 144 — several times more than have been delivered throughout all the years of the full-scale war.



[image or embed] — WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 7:01 AM

Should have left it up.

x In Russia, a mural costing 1.6 million rubles was painted featuring a soldier from an ad for the Azov Regiment and contract service in the UAF. After an outcry from locals, the image was hastily painted over, even though the contract had included plans for two more murals on nearby buildings.



[image or embed] — WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 4:23 AM

Eurovision is no big deal on this side of the Atlantic, but it’s a big deal across Europe.

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