Belgorod, Kyiv, Kharkov – who will face trial?
Preface. At the beginning of my first article this year, I want to congratulate all VO readers on the upcoming New Year, wish you health and the fulfillment of all your desires. And I want to say right away that this article is more for our readers there, far beyond the borders of our country. I know that there are a lot of them who read “VO” in other languages and their opinions are quite ambiguous. It all depends on what picture the media shows. Therefore, everything below is simply an attempt to show what is happening from the point of view of some facts, voiced, by the way, by the Ukrainian side.
Houses are burning and collapsing. People are dying, I especially feel sorry for the children on both sides of the front line, because in reality the children are not to blame for what is happening. But this happens, more and more often.
It seems that, as they believe in the West, these are quite normal phenomena. So to speak, the results of military operations, since one side attacks, the second has every right to defend itself. This seems to be absolutely indisputable, the only question is – how?
In general, justice in war is very much so-so. History the winners write, with all the resulting consequences, but so far neither side has won - here, of course, the information battlefield is not inferior to the real one in terms of the intensity of the battles.
But, nevertheless, I really want to pay attention to justice. Truth, especially fair truth, is a very difficult matter, especially when information armies do not spare either themselves or the enemy in this war.
And it is completely clear that both fighting sides will blame the enemy for the wrongdoing as much as possible. This is a very classic technique that allows you to denigrate the enemy in the eyes of the world community, enlist the sympathy and help of allies, and so on. And - importantly - to bring individual representatives of the enemy side into the dock in an international tribunal at the end of everything.
So, the Ukrainian side accuses the Russian side of the fact that our missiles are hitting residential buildings and infrastructure, and the same thing is happening on our side.
But there are nuances that you can’t hide from.
What did Russian missiles forget in Kyiv? I pose the question very clearly, because everything further depends on the answer. Are there any targets, in the sense of military facilities, in Kyiv, besides thermal power plants and other things?
1. Kiev Armored Plant, on Borispolskaya Street.
2. Kyiv plant "Arsenal"
3. State enterprise "Antonov"
4. “Phazotron-Ukraine”, “Luch”, “Mayak”, “Remdizel”, Autorepair Plant of the Ministry of Defense, “Electronpribor”, “Kvant”, “Radar”, “Radioizmeritel”, “Kvant-Radiolocator”, “Burevestnik”, “ Generator", Central Repair Plant for Communication Equipment, "Microtek" - all these enterprises belong to the military-industrial complex of Ukraine.
And I will emphasize very boldly: 90% of this list of enterprises are not just located within Kyiv - they are located in the central part, outlined by the circle of Naberezhnoe Highway - Lobanovsky - Teliga - Bandera.
That is, there are worthy goals in Kyiv, moreover, these goals are enough for the unflagging attention of the Russian military. They repair armored vehicles, vehicles, radars, communications equipment and produce new ones.
And it is quite obvious that attacks on military targets have continued and will continue.
Accordingly, the air defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces will try to repel these attacks. This is also quite normal.
What is not normal is how the defenders of the Ukrainian sky do it. I, like thousands of other people with some experience, still do not understand why Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners prefer to be positioned almost right next to (by their standards) protected objects.
Yes, it has been discussed so many times that if Russian missiles were not shot down over residential buildings, then the damage would be much less.
As proof of this thesis, let’s take and analyze this report from the Ukrainian agency UNIAN. The agency as a whole is completely Svidomo, especially in terms of calculating the successes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but something really happens there where quite objective information slips through.
This is the published data on one of the latest missile attacks on Kyiv from the KGVA, the Kyiv City Military Administration. I note that the KGVA, represented by the head Sergei Popko, gave a very honest picture of what happened, which allows us to comment on the results and give them a two-sided fair assessment.
As a result of a missile attack:
- in the Solomensky district, a fire was recorded in two multi-storey residential buildings. 10 victims have already been identified.
This is one of the houses that caught fire. From the picture you can see that a downed air defense missile clearly crashed around the house. The fire in the house is not accompanied by destruction from the detonated warhead; it is obvious that burning debris or part of the burning unspent fuel hit the balcony.
- in the Desnyansky district there is a preliminary fire in a supermarket.
Not a word about a missile hit, the supermarket could have caught fire for another reason, but if the culprit was debris, the picture would be like that of a high-rise building.
- non-residential premises were damaged in the Darnitsky district.
- in the Goloseevsky district, debris fell in an open area.
- in the Pechersky district - on the roof of a 9-story residential building; for another multi-storey building and a private house.
- in the Obolonsky district there is a fire in a residential building, falling debris onto the territory of non-residential buildings and warehouses.
- in the Podolsk region there was a fire on the territory of the market. A gas pipe was damaged and debris fell onto a non-residential building. A fire in a residential building is also possible.
- Shevchenko district - falling debris onto an open area.
As you can see, the picture is the same, as if written according to the same script. The fragments of sold missiles and UAVs, often burning, fall on various infrastructure facilities and slightly damage them, sometimes causing fires.
Where should we start to be surprised? Where air defense works successfully, shooting down enemy missiles over residential areas? Yes, it would be worth it. With the help of NATO surveillance equipment, the Ukrainian Armed Forces know very well when our planes take off from the ground and go to the launch areas. Why, excuse me, is it necessary to wait until the last minute and shoot down missiles over residential buildings - the answer is simple, and more about it at the end.
By the way, here is another illustration.
Here is a sensational video on the Internet showing how a rocket hits and explodes in a residential building in Kyiv.
Very impressive. However, Anatoly Shariy’s channel published another video, shot by a different person and from a different angle. And it was simply clearly visible that a rocket that had already been shot down and was on fire had arrived at the house. And an explosion in a house is not an explosion of a warhead, but of an engine and remaining fuel. This is simply clearly visible, since the explosion occurred not inside, but outside the house.
The two shooting points make a very significant difference in understanding what happened.
In fact, of course, it is not for us to give advice to Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners, but if they shot down our missiles, which, according to them, is done very effectively, on approach to Kiev, there would be many times fewer casualties among the civilian population.
But alas, for some reason it is more convenient for the Ukrainian military to do their work directly above Kiev
There is an opinion, and it is not only mine, that two problems are being solved here at the same time: there is a fight against Russian missiles, and a political demonstration of the “atrocities” of the Russian army.
However, if ours are not “disturbed” in this way, then they hit extremely accurately. Was the production of clothing and tactical equipment "M-Tas" destroyed (as an example)? They smashed it.
The X-101 arrived in all its beauty and the factory was gone. And if the air defense “could”, it is possible that all this would fly into a residential building.
So it turns out that it is much more profitable for the Ukrainian side to shoot down missiles over residential buildings in order to receive a double benefit: preserving its production and facilities on the one hand, and earning political bonuses on the other.
Everything is clear here. What about Belgorod?
Yes, everything was fine in Belgorod. Not a single military plant, no military units (they all somehow happened at a distance), nothing like that. Mining and manufacturing industries, food…
The whole problem with Belgorod is that the border with Ukraine is on average 30-35 km. And a city with a population of 300 thousand people is just a gorgeous target. Another question is for whom. But it is very convenient to shoot at the city with Alder MLRS missiles (the Czech Vampires cannot reach) for those who just need to shoot at residential buildings.
We all saw footage of missiles arriving in Belgorod. We saw the consequences. We saw the air defense work. There is only one question: where did the Alder shells fly? Where are the military targets and military enterprises? There weren't any.
It is clear that it is very convenient to drive the Alder to a safe distance to the border at night, quickly shoot the package and just as calmly go back. A package of 12 missiles is fired in 48 seconds. The flight range of 70 km allows you not to approach the border point-blank, but to work from your own territory, which has enough forested areas in which it is very convenient to hide the car before the final throw.
The Alder's guidance is modern. Inertial with the ability to adjust in flight using GPS and GLONASS signals. When using only an inertial guidance system, the average deviation of the rocket is 50 m, when using GPS correction - about 7 m. The inertial correction is based on a laser gyroscope produced by the Kyiv Arsenal Design Bureau.
That is, when they want to get into the Ukrainian Armed Forces where they need to go, they, as is typical, get there. List of successful missile strikes on the same ships and structures of the Black Sea fleet - the best confirmation of this. But these are really military purposes. Real warships and real military.
What's real in Belgorod?
Nothing. These are simply retaliatory strikes in the best traditions of German fascism during the Great Patriotic War.
As always, I will give you a historical excursion.
On June 13, 1942, my Voronezh was raided by German aviation. In general, the city had been bombed before; after all, the war had been going on for almost a year, but this bombing turned out to be the bloodiest, because several bombs hit the Pioneer Garden in the center of the city. A completely useless attack that claimed the lives of 71 people, 45 of them children. In total, 247 people were injured in the city. This is according to an information certificate dated June 14, 1942, presented to the regional party committee of the Voronezh region, found in the archive by Evgeny Shkrykin.
On the memorial sign, next to which a monument was recently erected, the figure is somewhat inflated, but this does not at all detract from the scale of the tragedy. And today, to this sign, people of the city bring toys and flowers, leaflets with the words “Belgorod, we are with you.”
But we really are with them. We are not animals. We are able to ache in our souls and cry for the dead children of Belgorod, Kyiv and Kharkov, just as we rooted for the children of Lugansk and Donetsk. Those who were deprived of their childhood, many were deprived of their parents. Together we helped children from a boarding school in Alchevsk in 2014. We have proven our humanity through deeds.
And we can also regret that children are dying in Ukrainian cities. This will not please normal people, but what is our fault if Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners prefer to shoot down our missiles over urban areas? Here, indeed, not every court will decide who is more to blame: the Russian military man who aimed the missile at a military plant in the center of Kyiv, or the Ukrainian one who shot down this missile over residential buildings.
Perhaps such a trial will take place someday. And it will be really interesting to hear the arguments of the parties.
But the option with Belgorod is somewhat different. This is like a war crime - attacks on a city in which there are no troops, no military enterprises, no warehouses. Where strikes by very accurate Ukrainian missiles (I wasn’t the one who boasted that they often hit with zero CEP) occur on residential buildings. Not fragments of downed missiles, but missiles.
And who should end up in the dock after everything is the operators of those MLRS that fired at Belgorod. And not in The Hague, no. In Moscow.
But the Ukrainian military constantly complains about the lack of long-range missiles. And so, when they suddenly appear through the titanic efforts of Ukrainian workers, for some reason they are spent on war crimes against the civilian population.
No, not The Hague. We will have to organize our own. And take on the fighters of the 107th Rocket Artillery Brigade, who were armed with Elbrus, Tochki and Smerch, and now Alder. And ask questions to everyone, from the brigade commander, Colonel Kelembet Alexander Mikhailovich, to the last cook.
By the way, the motto of the brigade (oh, how they love beautiful and loud mottos in Ukraine!) sounds like “Duty and Honor!” It’s as if the duty of the artillerymen is precisely to destroy the manpower and equipment of the enemy army. Well, how much honor can be gained by shooting at residential buildings, I can confidently say.
It's pulling on a rope. Execution is a matter of respect for an honest enemy. In our case, a rope.
Well, the last quote, which says a little and a lot at the same time.
“We also have the ability to hit areas. In Kyiv, for example. In places where people walk. But we are hitting military targets, and very sensitively. And we will continue to do so."
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
Everyone makes their own choice. If Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners so want to kill their own people with such interception tactics, excuse me, but God will not be their judge.
Information