(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Ukraine Invasion Day 404: military blogging can be dangerous [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-02 Probably easy to make enemies in Wagner much like accusing Erik Prince of wanting to be Viceroy of Afghanistan. Prominent military blogger #VladlenTatarsky killed & 30 wounded in cafe in #StPetersburgBlast No claim of responsibility Tatarsky had been critical of #Russia commanders Cafe owned by #WagnerGroup leader #Prigozhin, who is in rivalry for power in #Moscow Fomin’s assassination at Prigozhin’s bar is likely part of a larger pattern of escalating Russian internal conflicts involving Prigozhin and Wagner. Fomin had attended another event earlier in the day without incident, so it appears that the attack was deliberately staged in a space owned by Prigozhin. [19] Advisor to Ukrainian Presidential Office Mykhailo Podolyak stated that Fomin’s death was a result of antifighting and political competition among Russian actors. [20] Some Russian political analysts also speculated that Prigozhin was supposed to attend Fomin’s event, although there is no confirmation of that speculation. [21] Fomin’s assassination may have been intended as a warning to Prigozhin, who has been increasingly questioning core Kremlin talking points about the war in Ukraine and even obliquely signaling an interest in the Russian presidency, whether in competition with Putin or as his successor. [22] Fomin’s biography and behavior bear a resemblance to Prigozhin’s as both became prominent ultranationalist figures after being imprisoned and receiving pardons. www.understandingwar.org/... Prominent pro-war Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky has been killed in a blast at a cafe in central St Petersburg , Russia’s interior ministry has said. Russian media said a bomb was hidden in a statue presented to Tatarsky in a box as a gift. Another 30 people were injured. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has called for Russia to free the detained American journalist Evan Gershkovich in a rare phone call with his Moscow counterpart. The American’s plea was rejected by Sergei Lavrov, who responded by saying that US officials and media outlets must “not make a fuss” or try to politicise the plight of the Wall Street Journal reporter. More than three dozen editors of news organisations from across the world have signed a letter condemning Gershkovich’s detention. “Russia is sending the message that journalism within your borders is criminalized and that foreign correspondents seeking to report from Russia do not enjoy the benefits of the rule of law,” says the letter. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the heavily fought over city of Bakhmut is “especially hot” right now. The comment, in his regular evening address, came as the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that his forces had raised the Russian flag over Bakhmut’s administration building. Prigozhin has issued some premature success claims before and the Guardian could not verify his claim. Saudi Arabia and other Opec+ oil producers including Russia have announced further cuts in their production amounting to around 1.16 million barrels per day in a surprise move that analysts said would cause an immediate rise in prices. Russia has suffered up to 200,000 casualties in the war in Ukraine but a “significant number” of these are due to “non-combat causes” , the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update. “Other leading causes of non-combat casualties likely include poor weapon handing drills, road traffic accidents and climatic injuries such as hypothermia,” it said. Russia plans to form a division of special-purpose submarines that will carry Poseidon nuclear-capable torpedoes as part of the country’s Pacific Fleet by the end of 2024 or first half of 2025, Russia’s Tass news agency has reported. www.theguardian.com/.. Key inflections in ongoing military operations on April 2: Russian forces continued limited ground attacks along the Svatove-Kreminna line. [27] Russian sources claimed that Russian forces made marginal gains northwest of Kreminna. [28] Russian forces continued to attack Bakhmut and its environs. [29] Russian forces likely seized the AZOM plant in northern Bakhmut as ISW has previously assessed. Ukrainian forces conducted a missile strike on the plant on April 2. [30] Russian forces continued to conduct ground attacks along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line. [31] Ukrainian Tavriisk Direction Forces Joint Press Center Spokesperson Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi stated that Russian forces retreated from unspecified positions in the Donetsk direction. [32] Ukrainian forces conducted a HIMARS strike against a rail depot in Melitopol, Zaporizhia Oblast, the third strike against the city in the past week. [33] The UK Ministry of Defense assessed that a significant minority of Russia’s 200,000 casualties in Ukraine are due to poor discipline and training outside of combat, including due to excessive alcohol consumption and mishandling of small arms. [34] Former Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) official Rodion Miroshnik denied ISW’s April 1 report citing Miroshnik that Russian authorities are deporting Ukrainian children to Russia under rest-and-rehabilitation schemes.[35] Miroshnik claimed that mothers and children from Horlivka, Donetsk Oblast went to Russian sanitoriums for medical treatment.[36] Miroshnik denied being closely affiliated with the current occupation regime, claiming that he has not served as advisor to the Head of the LNR for a year.[37] LNR People’s Militia Press Service called Miroshnik “advisor to the LNR Head” as recently as January 29, 2023, however.[38] Miroshnik claimed on his Telegram channel that he served as LNR Ambassador to Russia as recently as November 13, 2022.[39] www.understandingwar.org/... x ⚡️ WAR IN #UKRAINE - APR 2 20:9 🇷🇺/🇺🇦 added by Oryx VISUALLY CONFIRMED: 3.16x losses to date ➡ 2.83x since 🇺🇦 counteroffensive (Aug 29) ⬆ 4.10x 30-day average ⬆ 📈 https://t.co/JBZ8VR3eVF pic.twitter.com/XzGYCmnTIY — Ragnar Gudmundsson 🇮🇸🇺🇦 ragnarbjartur@masto.ai (@ragnarbjartur) April 2, 2023 www.understandingwar.org/... The Russian Wagner Paramilitary Group claimed Monday to take over the town hall in Bakhmut, a city in eastern #Ukraine, saying the takeover means it now controls the city "in the legal sense" www.understandingwar.org/... www.understandingwar.org/... www.understandingwar.org/... www.understandingwar.org/... Unknown actors killed Russian milblogger Maksim Fomin in a deliberate and targeted attack during an event in a St. Petersburg bar reportedly belonging to Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin on April 2. Social media footage showed Fomin receiving a statue as a gift from a female audience member who introduced herself as a sculptor moments before the explosion. [1] Fomin was making a public presentation at the Street Food Bar #1 Café in downtown St. Petersburg. Russian authorities reported that the explosion killed Fomin and wounded 30 audience members who had gathered to listen to Fomin discuss his experience as a frontline correspondent. [2] The event was advertised as open to the public and had approximately 100 attendees. Prigozhin confirmed that he had offered his Street Food Bar #1 Café to the Russian ultranationalist movement “Kiber Front Z,” to hold Fomin’s event and other nationalist gatherings. [3] Witnesses stated that the woman who presented the statue to Fomin identified herself as Nastya and told the audience that the event’s security asked her if there was a bomb inside the statue during a Q&A session. [4] Witnesses noted that there was no security when entering the event, however, and that the explosion occurred within three to five minutes after the exchange between Fomin and the woman. [5] Russian Interior Ministry sources told Russian state media that the explosive may have remotely detonated and that the woman or other unknown individuals may have been responsible for this attack. [6] Russian state media published unconfirmed information that Russian police detained St. Peterburg resident Daria Trepova, who had previously been arrested for anti-war protests in February 2022. [7] Russian Interior Ministry sources also revealed that Russian special services had known about assassination plans against Fomin for a long time. Russian officials and propagandists have accused Ukraine of staging a “terrorist attack” to assassinate Fomin. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Kyiv of Fomin’s assassination and praised Russian milbloggers for their war coverage—seemingly ignoring the fact that Fomin and other milbloggers routinely criticize the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the Russian Foreign Ministry (MFA). [8] Russian propagandist Tina Kandelaki stated that Russia needs to punish terrorists who still have “power, water, working railways, restaurants, and internet”—likely referring to Ukrainians who survived the Russian missile campaigns against the Ukrainian energy infrastructure during the fall of 2022 and the winter of 2023. [9] Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan echoed Kandelaki’s calls for retribution against Ukraine for this assassination. [10] Russian milbloggers claimed that Ukrainian agents have likely been attending similar milblogger events, blaming the attack on Ukrainian special forces and the failures of Russian security. [11] www.understandingwar.org/... x write a children's book, or tell everybody Ukrainians on a boating holiday wrecked Nord Stream, if we make a dark evil empire happy, we get rewardedhttps://t.co/L9y1j6C9Fo — D'ARAMITZ (@2ndNewMoon) April 2, 2023 It’s been six weeks since I published a report, based on anonymous sourcing, naming President Joe Biden as the official who ordered the mysterious destruction last September of Nord Stream 2, a new $11-billion pipeline that was scheduled to double the volume of natural gas delivered from Russia to Germany. The story gained traction in Germany and Western Europe, but was subject to a near media blackout in the US. Two weeks ago, after a visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Washington, US and German intelligence agencies attempted to add to the blackout by feeding the New York Times and the German weekly Die Zeit false cover stories to counter the report that Biden and US operatives were responsible for the pipelines’ destruction. Press aides for the White House and Central Intelligence Agency have consistently denied that America was responsible for exploding the pipelines, and those pro forma denials were more than enough for the White House press corps. There is no evidence that any reporter assigned there has yet to ask the White House press secretary whether Biden had done what any serious leader would do: formally “task” the American intelligence community to conduct a deep investigation, with all of its assets, and find out just who had done the deed in the Baltic Sea. According to a source within the intelligence community, the president has not done so, nor will he. Why not? Because he knows the answer. seymourhersh.substack.com/... 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