The D Brief: Fires in Russia; Rising morale in Ukraine; US fugitive fighting for Putin; Assessing troops in Syria; And a bit more.
A Russian oil depot is in flames for a third consecutive day following a Ukrainian drone attack over the weekend in the southern Rostov city of Proletarsk, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. “There are 500 firefighters involved in the operation, and 41 of them already have been hospitalized with injuries,” AP writes, citing Russian state-run media.
The view from Kyiv: Russia is not invincible, President Volodymir Zelenskyy seemed to say in his nationwide address Monday evening. “The whole naive, illusory concept of so-called red lines regarding Russia, which dominated the assessment of the war by some partners, has crumbled these days somewhere near Sudzha,” said Zelenskyy.
Sudzha is a town of about 5,000 people in western Russia that Ukrainian troops now occupy. It’s located about 10 kilometers from the Ukrainian border; the Washington Post visited the town Saturday while accompanied by Kyiv’s forces.
Russia unleashed missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure overnight, causing “a huge fire in the west of the country,” in the Ternopil region, “resulting in an increase in chlorine levels in the air,” Reuters reported Tuesday from Kyiv. Blackouts also affected residents in the Sumy region, bordering Russia.
Recruiting update: An estimated 50,000 Russians “have deserted or refused orders to fight,” the Wall Street Journal reports, citing rights activists. That’s partly why officials have launched campaigns to punish draft dodgers and track down deserters, which often leads to imprisonment.
Foreign fighter update: A former U.S. Airman who fled the country in January on child pornography charges showed up Monday wearing a Russian uniform in a propaganda video released by Moscow’s Defense Ministry.
His name is Wilmer Puello-Mota, age 28, and he entered active duty back in 2013. He later transferred to the Massachusetts Air National Guard in 2019, but came up on charges of soliciting and possessing child pornography the following year. “Prosecutors later filed additional charges against him including obstruction, forgery and counterfeiting,” according to Stars and Stripes. He separated from the Air Force in 2022, and was scheduled to appear in court this past January—but fled to Russia two days before that mandated appearance. Since signing a contract with the Russian military this spring, he said his job is now to shoot down drones launched by Ukrainian forces.
“I don’t consider myself a traitor,” he said in the video posted Monday. Lots of outlets picked up on the story after that video was posted to Telegram. Task and Purpose, Military.com, Newsweek and others have more.
Additional reading:
Welcome to this Tuesday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Ben Watson and Lauren C. Williams. Share your newsletter tips, reading recommendations, or feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1940, Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was attacked with an ice axe while exiled in Mexico City; he died the next day.
A U.S. soldier was just indicted for lying on his SF-86 about his membership in a hate group. He was also “charged with one count of dealing in firearms without a license and two counts of selling a stolen firearm,” according to the Justice Department.
Indicted: Kai Liam Nix, also known as Kai Brazelton, age 20. He was stationed at North Carolina’s Fort Liberty at the time, and appeared in federal court Monday for four criminal counts, including two concerning illegal firearm sales, which carry a maximum of 30 years in prison.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Nix was known as “Patrick NC” within the white nationalist hate group Patriot Front. He also “appears to be the operator of a Telegram channel that worked in conjunction with white power groups in the South to release sensitive personal information about perceived political enemies including their names, photos, phone numbers and addresses,” SPLC reports. “Their targets included nine journalists, a business owner who spoke up about how antisemitism affected their community, activists in left-leaning groups, lawyers and cybersecurity analysts.” WRAL news from North Carolina has a bit more, here.
Developing: The Army plans to payback soldiers after an IT glitch snagged the tuition reimbursement process, the service said on Friday. The Army’s IgnitED platform has long had technical difficulties and most recently caused soldiers enrolling in fall classes to delay their studies or choose to pay out of pocket, Military.com reported.
The Pentagon just unveiled a new biodefense-focused supercomputer. The system is part of a collaboration with the National Nuclear Security Administration and aims to “provide unique capabilities for large-scale simulation and AI-based modeling,” reports Nextgov/FCW, Defense One’s sister publication.
U.S. troops near Yemen say they destroyed an aerial drone and a drone boat off the Yemeni coast Friday and Sunday. Both were determined to be imminent threats to U.S. and coalition forces and local merchant vessels, Central Command said.
Commentary: The U.S. military presence in Syria carries substantial risks, but so does complete withdrawal, says Ohio State University’s Sefa Secen, writing this week for The Conversation.
The U.S. still has about 1,000 military personnel in Syria with more on the way as tensions rise in the region, Secen writes. Their presence helps tamp down Islamic State activity, while also curbing Iranian and Russian influence as both countries have a military presence in Syria. But the United States’ “indefinite” involvement could be problematic, not just due to the costs of a lengthy stay, but by “antagonizing NATO ally Turkey, which views Syria’s Kurdish groups as a cross-border threat.” Read the rest, here.
Related reading:
Lastly today: President Joe Biden took an inaugural ride in the brand-new Marine One on Monday. Sikorsky delivered the last batch of 23 new VH-92A Patriot helicopters for presidential transport to the U.S. Marine Corps last week, Military Times and the Associated Press reported.
Jesus Christ is King
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