Please accept my apology for not publishing this earlier when I had drafted it over a week ago. Mind you, I have subsequently come across more information to add to this post.
The following is Moon of Alabama’s excellent analysis of the missile attack on the Kramatorsk railway station.
“Dozens” were feared dead and injured, a local official said, after a missile strike in Kramatorsk, which had been a main point of evacuation for people trying to leave eastern Ukraine.
Two missiles struck the station, according to the head of Ukraine's national rail system, Oleksandr Kamyshin. Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of Donetsk regional military administration, said the Russian military used Iskander short-range ballistic missiles.
A pro-Ukrainian twitter account also describes this as a result of the missile attack (the time stamp is UTC+2):
The same account describes this as the remains of the booster section of the missile that hit the train station:
Another view of the debris from a different account:
A check with Tineye proves that the pictures above have not be published earlier. They are new.
The booster section of a missile typically departs from the war head in mid-flight and lands separately. However, the booster section shown in the above pictures is from a Tochka-U missile.
When unfolded the fins and the grid stabilizers are clearly identifiable.
Russia, unlike the Ukraine, is no longer using Tochka-U missiles. They have been replaced by Iskandar missile systems. As the not recently edited Wikipedia entry about Tochka operators says:
Russia - 220 launchers. Missile systems have been upgraded since 2004 (replacing the onboard automated control systems) and are scheduled to be replaced by the 9K720 Iskander missiles by 2020
In a March 16 press release Russia denied that its forces still use Tochka-U missiles:
UNITED NATIONS, March 16. /TASS/. Tochka-U tactical missiles are not in service in Russian Armed Forces, Russian mission to the UN said in its letter to the UN Security Council and General Assembly.
"Given the proven record of the Kiev regime promoting false allegations and fake evidence, it should be noted that Tochka-U tactical missiles are not in service in the Russian Armed Forces," the letter says.
~~~ Ukraine, which has retained some 90 launcher systems for Tochka-U missiles from Soviet times, has recently firedseveral of these against Russian and Donbas forces.
I have failed to find any recent reports of the use of Tochka missiles by Russian forces.
This clipping from the most recent Southfront map shows Kramatorsk right in the middle and not immediately near the frontline.
A current situation report says that Russia has recently systematically disabled train tracks along the Ukrainian supply lines to the Donbas front:
As the big showdown in Donbass looms, a lot of forces are pouring in on both sides. Russia has shifted strategies and is now striking railway stations and reinforcement hubs / corridors, as many have hoped it would do. Overnight there were several reports of important railway hubs being hit by missiles. One near Zhytomir, which is possibly the single most important reinforcement hub to the frontlines in all of western Ukraine. Reinforcements being sent to frontlines were reportedly destroyed in the strike, though there’s no visual confirmation. And another in Kharkov region – just south, in Lozovaya – which evoked a video message plea from the Kharkov mayor who said railways were hit, oil has run out, but pleaded for people not to flee (presumably because the militants who control him need citizens to use as hostages / human shields just like in Mariupol). ~~~ As can be seen on this map, the Lozovaya junction is a critical resupply / reinforcement route for the Ukrop Donbass cauldron and specifically their stronghold of Kramatorsk, which had been the central headquarters of the entire JFO for some time. And other reports said a railway bridge was hit leading to that junction as well.
Of note is that so far all Russian attacks on train junctions were reported to have happened at night time.
As Russia has already interrupted the train lines west of Kramatorsk, and thereby stopped resupplies to it, it has no need to attack Kramatorsk station at all.
It is therefore almost assured that it was a Ukrainian missile that today hit Kramatorsk station. It was either aimed badly, went off course or was intentionally aimed at it for propaganda purposes. (The 'for the children' marking in Russian on the booster section may point to the later cause.)
We have no further information for us to decide which is the case.
Posted by b on April 8, 2022 at 10:38 UTC | Permalink
In Kramatorsk, the West blames Russia for a missile attack using Tochka-U's only Ukraine has been using (and using on population centers at that).
A missile attack on a railway station in eastern Ukraine involving a Tochka-U missile used primarily by Ukraine has been blamed squarely on Russia instead. This is despite Ukraine having previously used Tochka-U missiles on population centers in the Donbas region throughout the current conflict with Russia, and for the past 8 years. The West admits it is waging an information war to compensate for Ukraine’s military weakness - and combined with the fact that Russia incriminating itself in such an attack which serves no tactical or strategic purpose - casts further doubts on Western accusations that it was Russia.
The big news today is that those evil Russkies have fired a Tochka-U missile with a cluster warhead at the city of Kramatorsk, killing scores of innocent civilians. The “entire civilized world” is disgusted and immediately announced even MORE sanctions, MORE condemnation and MORE anti-Russian virtue signalling.
Minor problem: Russia does not have Tochka-U missiles, which are 30 year old Soviet missiles which have been far surpassed by modern Russian missiles (of which Russia has plenty enough). How do we know that it was Tochka-U which was used?
Because of the tail section which separates from the warhеard during the flight. Here it is:
No Russian tactical missile in service with such a tail section, and only the Ukrainian Tochka-U have.
Tochka-U tail and control surfaces
How much of a problem is that for the Empire of Hate and Lies?
Very minor, really. Remember that their PSYOPS are directed at two kind of people:
Those with low intelligence
Those who don’t care about the truth
Russia did not have the old-model Buk which allegedly shot down MH-17 either, which did not stop the Empire of Hate and Lies to instantly blame the shooting down on Russia. And Russia has long liquidated her chemical weapons stores, unlike the US or the UK, by the way.
But who cares about that when hating Russia and Russians is all which really matters?
In fact, this is straight out of the western PSYOPs book:
Execute a false flag, then
INSTANTLY blame Russia and lean on all your colonies to do the same in the name of western “solidarity”
Thereby make absolutely certain that no real investigation can take place or, if it does, it will be so far down the road that nobody will care.
So we have a major false flag in Bucha, and now we have that Tochka-U in Kramatorsk. What will come next?
God only knows, but the goal is to associate “Russians” with “atrocities” in what is left of the mind of the eagerly scatophaging serfs in Zone A.
In the meantime, inside Russia a scandal is brewing with the latest statements of Dmitry Peskov who said a lot of very dumb things in his latest interviews. Frankly, the day Putin fires Peskov I will personally feel an immense sense of relief. During peacetimes having folks like Medinski and Peskov is painful enough, but during war times folks with their mindset are a real DANGER for Russia as they are directly injecting fear, uncertainty and doubt in the mind the the Russian public. The only good news, but it is very good, is that more and more Russians are getting really upset with these characters: they support Putin and the military operation, and they are really getting fed up with the Atlantic Integrationists and their way to patronize 5th columnists (which is what Peskov did).
I very much hope for the day when the likes of Peskov and Medinski are given their retirement package and are replaced by a completely different kind of person.
Now let’s take a look at the recent vote to suspend Russian from the UN Human Rights Council:
First, notice that neither Hungary nor Serbia had the courage and decency to abstain (nevermind oppose).
Second, while this map does not accurately reflect how the actual people in these countries feel about this war, this map does a superb job showing us the list of pure comprador colonial ruling classes. So here is the score for our planet: the Empire, while already dead, still rules, by momentum, over 151 governments and only 24 countries have what it takes to openly oppose the voting directives from the Empire of Hate and Lies. The 58 countries which, like Pilate, have washed their hands from this vote are particularly pathetic, just like those who did not have the courage to even show up for the vote.
As for those who “voted green”, I wish I could send them each a small bag with 30 silvers coins inside.
Radovka posted an interesting map showing how the world is split:
Legend: from L to R: pro Ukraine, sympathetic to the Ukraine, neutral, sympathetic to Russia, pro Russian
And here is a sanctions map I came across recently:
Of course, this is just a still-shot of an evolving situation. But the real value of these maps is that it shows three different groups:
The real modern Nazis (CA+US+EU+AUS+NZ+JP).
The comprador regimes who vote “correctly” but many of which do not want to put their money where their mouth is and who also want to get good and services from Russia (I think of them has countries which huge stomachs but tiny balls).
The 25 countries which dared to defy the Empire of Hate and Lies and openly voted “no”.
Since the beginning of this war, the Russians have suffered many casualties trying hard NOT to harm civilians or the civilian infrastructure. The Ukronazis did the polar opposite: not only have they kidnapped thousands of people who have been “disappeared”, they have openly attacked civilians in the LDNR and since the SMO they have unleashed their hatred against almost every town they had to evacuate (to make the local “separs” pay and to blame it all on “Russian atrocities”.
And the West noticed absolutely *nothing*.
At least officially. In reality, of course, this is directly the result of the kind of “instruction” the Ukronazis have received from their Anglo masters.
Here is the ugly truth nobody wants to openly admit: the West wants to genocide Russia and the West is ALREADY genociding the people of the Ukraine. If the Empire of Hate and Lies has its way, this war will last as long as possible, include as many horrible atrocities as possible and a total destruction of the civilian infrastructure of the Ukraine.
As for Russia and the Russian people, there is only one thing I have not heard from our wonderful western neighbors yet: the screams “crucify them! crucify them! crucify them!”. Of course, that is not how the modern Crusaders express their feelings, they just want to “cancel Russia” – different words, same meaning.
If all this sounds demonic, it is because it is. Literally. And Russia history is filled with such genocidal invasions, and today, in conclusion, rather that use words I want to use a few paintings by the Russian artist Il’ia Glazunov. I don’t want to “explain” them, just look at them and you will maybe understand the Russian people and their history a little better than before, at least that is my hope.
Andrei
For those of us who look behind the headlines of the legacy media, there is an obvious co-ordinated agenda to blame the atrocities they choose to highlight on Russia.
You will have noticed that Lozovaya was mentioned in the Moon of Alabama report published the 8th of April which I shared above. I will repeat the relevant section for emphasis:
A current situation report [published by The Saker] says that Russia has recently systematically disabled train tracks along the Ukrainian supply lines to the Donbas front:
As the big showdown in Donbass looms, a lot of forces are pouring in on both sides. Russia has shifted strategies and is now striking railway stations and reinforcement hubs / corridors, as many have hoped it would do. Overnight there were several reports of important railway hubs being hit by missiles. One near Zhytomir, which is possibly the single most important reinforcement hub to the frontlines in all of western Ukraine. Reinforcements being sent to frontlines were reportedly destroyed in the strike, though there’s no visual confirmation. And another in Kharkov region – just south, in Lozovaya – which evoked a video message plea from the Kharkov mayor who said railways were hit, oil has run out, but pleaded for people not to flee (presumably because the militants who control him need citizens to use as hostages / human shields just like in Mariupol). ~~~ As can be seen on this map, the Lozovaya junction is a critical resupply / reinforcement route for the Ukrop Donbass cauldron and specifically their stronghold of Kramatorsk, which had been the central headquarters of the entire JFO for some time. And other reports said a railway bridge was hit leading to that junction as well.
Of note is that so far all Russian attacks on train junctions were reported to have happened at night time.
I will end with Brian Berlectic’s comments regarding “the numbers” reported by couch potato “open source intelligence” which are then parroted by Western governments and legacy media talking heads.
Here is Brian’s description for the video:
“Open source intelligence” (OSINT) has been cited regularly by the Western media to depict Russia as “losing” in Ukraine. However, the numbers presented by these sources and repeated by the Western media do not add up - with articles put out by the Western media and statements made by the Ukrainian government directly contradicting the “success” these numbers otherwise depict.
