The city of Kerch is linked to Russia's Krasnodar Krai via the strategic Crimean Bridge. On Aug. 17, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the President’s Office, said that the Crimean Bridge should be destroyed as a legitimate military target.
Full-scale invasion and national resilience, broadcasted live.
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Explosions entendues à Kerch en Crimée occupée
Media: Explosions heard in Kerch in Russian-occupied Crimea. Oleg Kryuchkov, an advisor to the head of the Russian occupation government in Ukraine's Crimea, claimed on Telegram that Russian air defense had shot down a target in Kerch.
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Worst job in the Russian Army: Ammunition handler
Worst job in the Russian Army…ammunition handler! https://
x.com/RugeBoris/stat
/RugeBoris/status/1560353640543666176
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Filatyev awakes to rocket artillery at dawn on 24 February
22/ At 04:00 on 24 February, Filatyev awoke to the sound of rocket artillery. "I hear a roar, a rumble, a vibration of the earth, I feel a sharp smell of gunpowder in the air, I look out of the body [of the truck], throwing back the awning, I see that the sky has become bright…
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Troops unaware of destination, Z symbol revealed last minute before invasion
21/ The troops were still unaware of where they were going. Even the infamous Z symbol was kept secret until the last minute. Soldiers taped two horizontal white stripes to their vehicles on 19 February, and only added the diagonal of the Z hours before the invasion started.
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Filatyev disbelieved Russian attack on Kherson and Kyiv
19/ Even at this late stage, with ammunition and grenades being issued and rumours that the force was going to attack Kherson, Filatyev believed such a prospect was "nonsense" and that the Russians would most likely go to the Donbas. He disbelieved that Kyiv would be targeted.
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Pay rise signals impending invasion, soldier believes
18/ On 23 February, the day before the invasion, the divisional commander turned up "to congratulate us on this occasion and announced that our pay would be $69 a day from tomorrow." This was a major pay rise and signalled to Filatyev that "something
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Conscripts illegally deployed in invasion, wounded by friendly fire
14/ Conscripts were meant to have stayed in the garrison, as deploying them to conflict zones is supposed to be illegal, but they were also among the invasion force. Filatyev later met one conscript who told him how he had been badly wounded in a 'friendly fire' incident.
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Filatyev repairs rusty machine gun, regiment moves out
13/ Filatyev was given a rusty machine gun with a broken belt, which jammed after the first few shots. He spent a long time oiling and repairing it. On 20 February, his regiment – now numbering 500-600 men – assembled and prepared to move out towards an unknown destination.
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He assumed being sent as peacekeepers for Donbas annexation referendum
7/ He assumed that he would be sent to the Donbas as "it seemed logical to me that [we] would carry out an operation under the guise of peacekeepers", defending the region while a referendum was being held to annex "the woeful Donbas" to Russia.