(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . More Russian stuff blowing up, plus a fifth column in Kupiansk [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-15 Ukraine discovers a unique way to locate mines. x Ukrainian sappers use new demining tactics - CNN When it gets dark and the air cools, sappers launch drones with thermal imagers. On the screens, the mines heated by the sun during the day become noticeable and seem to "shine". Detected mines are undermined by special… pic.twitter.com/t7WKmXIqGM — Oriannalyla 🇺🇦 (@Lyla_lilas) August 15, 2023 These people don’t deserve this misery. But neither did the Ukrainians downstream from the dam that Russia intentionally destroyed. x Ussuriysk, the second largest city in Primorsky Krai, Russia is completely flooded due to the collapse of the dam. In total, 4,368 homes with 5,654 adjoining plots and 7 apartment buildings were flooded in Primorye. Local residents demanded answers from the authorities as to why… pic.twitter.com/goygp9TBbL — Natalka (@NatalkaKyiv) August 14, 2023 An update on the partisan attack in Mariupol. x 💥 After the attack on the military base in the Yuriivka village, 50 occupiers were brought to the Mariupol hospital! "13 have already died. In Mangush, the hospital is full, there are 5 dead occupants", - Mariupol Mayor Boychenko — MAKS 23 👀🇺🇦 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) August 15, 2023 He chose poorly. x ⚡️Media: Member of influential Gaza Strip family killed fighting against Ukraine. Rami al-Farra, a member of the al-Farra family from the Gaza Strip, has been killed while fighting for Russia in the war against Ukraine, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said in an investigation… — The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) August 15, 2023 Ukraine has found that drones can deliver mortar rounds more accurately, thus avoiding wasting scarce rounds. x A quick anecdote to underscore the value of drones for Ukraine. This weekend I sat down with a Ukrainian SOF drone operator, and he described an operation in which a Ukrainian mortar unit fired 46 120 mm rounds at a Russian target — only 1 out of those 46 shots was a direct hit.… — Nolan Peterson (@nolanwpeterson) August 15, 2023 This weekend I sat down with a Ukrainian SOF drone operator, and he described an operation in which a Ukrainian mortar unit fired 46 120 mm rounds at a Russian target — only 1 out of those 46 shots was a direct hit. The SOF drone team then took over. Using a single drone, they flew four back-to-back sorties and dropped four 120 mm rounds (taken from the nearby mortar unit) on the Russian target. Four out of four direct hits. The target was done. In an attritional war in which ammunition supplies are a limiting factor, drones are a potent force multiplier. They are an invaluable way to increase precision — both through ISR, as well as strikes — in order to maximize the effect of available ammunition. Ukraine still has a fifth column to worry about. You’d think these people would see the death and destruction that Russia has brought to them and react. x How do you defend a town where some civilians are out to get you? Ukrainian forces in Kupiansk district are wrestling with this question regularly. @IgorKossov spoke with soldiers, police officers and others about pro-Russian sympathizers in Kupiansk. https://t.co/u4CKnphp9V — The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) August 15, 2023 Besides the Russian military, there’s another thing that Ukrainian troops and police are being forced to contend with. According to interviews with dozens of soldiers, police officers, and civilians around Kupiansk, many of the local residents that remain are pro-Russian. Some of them are former or active collaborators of enemy troops. "Subjectively speaking, there are many separatists here," said Yevhen Didkovskyi, a community relations officer with the 138th Battalion deployed in the area. "People who hate us on principle." Kupiansk is not a separatist city as such. According to local police, pro-Russian people were in the minority, especially before most residents fled west. But closeness to Russia’s border, prolonged Soviet entanglement and nonstop access to Kremlin propaganda conspired to breed resentment and pro-Russian sympathies at higher rates than normal. This can be deadly for the troops and the civilians who help them. Multiple soldiers told the Kyiv Independent that their living quarters were targeted in ways that suggest that someone fed coordinates to the enemy. A few soldiers quipped that people in the local marketplace are the first to know to clear out of the way when there’s something incoming. Russia bombed a kindergarten in Lviv. A kindergarten. x This hole from the russian missile in the Lviv kindergarten yard sums up all of terrorists' intentions: kill as many Ukrainians as possible, terrify, make feel insecure & drive out those whom they can't murder. How come the Never Again moment is repeated so violently & defiantly? pic.twitter.com/FZw3ZMPYPP — Olena Halushka (@OlenaHalushka) August 15, 2023 Russia is missing at least one, maybe two, colonels. x During yesterday's L-39 crash in Russia, the commander of the training aviation base, Colonel Vadim Gurov, died. The senior flight instructor of the flight test center, Mikhail Lipatkin, was injured and was taken to the hospital. https://t.co/luU0d4v39N — Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 15, 2023 x Some unconfirmed rumours begin to appear in Russian sources that during the strike on Yurivka, today, Russian Colonel Kovalev Viktor Anatolievich was killed. (Still strong accent on the “unconfirmed rumours” part) https://t.co/Ow1oDiYsrw — Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 14, 2023 It’s easy to give away other peoples’ land. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry rejected this idiotic idea almost immediately. x NATO Chief of Staff Stefan Jensen suggests that Ukraine could be granted NATO membership in exchange for giving up part of Russia's territory, and that this could be part of ending the war in Ukraine, Norway and Ukrainian media write. This is big news only because it is the… — Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) August 15, 2023 This is big news only because it is the first time that an element of the legal discussion about how Ukraine could become a NATO member has been discussed publicly. One of the accession scenarios could involve the rejection of the territories if Ukraine does not return them but insists on joining. After all, if there were practical tools to force Russia to return the Ukrainian occupied territories, they would have been used by now. Ukraine does not have to join NATO if it has to give up its territories. On the other hand, I think this discussion is too early, because it is unlikely that NATO will consider Ukraine's accession in the coming years. And we have the capabilities and resources to regain our territories. Non-military aid from the United States for Ukraine. x As Russia cynically and callously tries to cut off Ukrainian grain to the world, the United States is enabling Ukraine to create & expand alternative export routes. This week, through @USAID, we delivered 50 grain wagons to Ukrainian company Nibulon to help move grain to Danube… pic.twitter.com/s4rsaOqHc3 — Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) August 15, 2023 I wonder what a song about love of Putin would sound like. x Women who danced to a Ukrainian song at a waterpark in Crimea are made to 'repent' in this video, asking forgiveness of the Russian people & singing their love of Putin "Putin is a great politician, leader and fighter. He raised our country up" Their faces tell the whole story https://t.co/sKW58LBDS8 — Sarah Rainsford (@sarahrainsford) August 11, 2023 They signed up to fight for glory. x Students of Russia's top university, Higher School of Economics, volunteered to take part in the invasion of Ukraine. Why? "Classics [of Russian literature] have said it all," explains one of them, quoting lines from Akhmatova: "And we will preserve you, O great Russian speech." pic.twitter.com/U9mi49yNlz — Oleksandr Polianichev (@OPolianichev) August 14, 2023 This cat takes a break from advising Ukrainian commanders. x 🇺🇦About to go to bed and saw this picture that brightened up my evening♥️ This is what we are fighting for in #Ukraine, cats god dammit!😁 pic.twitter.com/d9pZpKv9ap — Sofia Ukraini (@SlavaUk30722777) August 15, 2023 And finally, puppies and kittens. 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