Bombing of Putin's Most Feared Fighters Infuriates Russia

[Zorro]

Ukrainian authorities say the Russian military is “carefully concealing” its losses in a HIMARS strike that hit the group’s headquarters.

The Russian mercenaries hailed by their leader as the most skilled and experienced soldiers in the war against Ukraine have gotten themselves blown up over the weekend.

Pro-Kremlin Russian media channels were the first to reveal the strike Sunday on a hotel in the occupied Luhansk region, furiously noting that “the enemy used HIMARS to hit the hotel in Kadiivka where Wagner fighters were located.”

Photos showed the building, a hotel called “Zhdanov’s Guest House,” blown to smithereens, though no details were immediately given on how many Wagner fighters were killed. Russian state-run media was largely mum on the whole affair (with the exception of a Kremlin-friendly tabloid saying the site had been targeted because the U.S. knew Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin frequented the private army’s headquarters there.)

Ukrainian authorities say the Russian military is “carefully concealing” its losses in the strike. Serhiy Haidai, the Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, confirmed the strike and quipped on Telegram that “many” Wagner mercenaries would undoubtedly be absent for their next roll call.

On Tuesday, Haidai issued a statement saying “hundreds” of Wagnerites have been killed before reaching the frontline in the last week and a half, either by “‘explosions’ caused by smoking in their headquarters or their barracks.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bombing-of-vladimir-putins-elite-wagner-group-fighters-in-ukraine-infuriates-russia

Tsk tsk tsk...ain't that a shame...

[Walleye]

1. Smoking is bad for their health

[Bev54]

3. Russians are terribly negligent with their cigarette butts, so many fires.

[mitch96]

21. Yup, Especially dem very accurate "Lucky Strikes"....

[Walleye]

24. Good one

[2naSalit]

26. +1

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. A link to uanews ...

https://fed.celp.de/@uanews

[grumpyduck]

4. Sure, infuriated about this but

it's okay to hit civilian apartments and other non-targets.

[LiberalLovinLug]

15. Yes well, I'm sure they'll send a few extra vollies and blow up more kids now.

To soothe their poor fragile egos.

[Journeyman]

5. Warfare. Soldiers die. It's never pretty and rarely worthy of song . . .

What was it Patton said? Wars are won by making some other dumb bastard die for his country. This group of Wagners has finally arrived at its Götterdämmerung. Only this time, it was a Ukrainian composer who piped them off history's pages.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

6. Fliegt heim, ihr Raben!

[wnylib]

14. War is a terrible thing.

I find myself feeling happy for the Ukrainians, but also thinking how strange and awful it is to be happy about the deaths of human beings.

Yes, those killed soldiers would have killed Ukrainians, civilians as well as military, so it is good that Ukrainians are successfully defending themselves. But that's what war does to people - makes them happy over the deaths of others, so that they can't hurt you and yours.

[Lonestarblue]

16. The Wagner Group soldiers are reputed to be among the most brutal possible. I cannot feel

sorry for them. My wish is that their evil leader was blown up with them.

[wnylib]

22. It's not the Russian soldiers that I feel sorry for.

I feel sad in general that war means death, of necessity, for self protection. It's what war does to people that is sad. I am happy for the Ukrainians that they have wiped out this group. I am just feeling the sadness of how awful and unnecessary war is. Putin had no business, no justification whatever in starting the killing process.

[Lonestarblue]

28. Could not agree more! I hate war, but too ,any people are so focused o their personal power that

war is just a side show. Putin in one of those. Trump was a wannabe, but perhaps he has been neutered. We can all hope.

[LiberalLovinLug]

19. I share your pain

I would call myself a pacifist for the most part.

But everytime I hear about a story like this, even knowing hundreds of Russian conscripts were blown to bits, or forever maimed, I can't help but cheer inside.

I even like watching footage of tanks etc. being bombed into firey explosions. Knowing some poor Russian schlub is inside.

Like you, I write that off as being thankful that those dead soldiers now cannot kill Ukrainians.

But what bothers me is that there must be hundreds, thousands probably, of unwilling conscripts there. Some university students, some dragged from protests against the war even. Many from poorer small villages and of minority ethnicities. Draining whole villages of their younger men. And then those are the ones sent up front to be shot first. And shot if they try and run back. Horrible.

There must be approaching 100,000 mothers now who have lost a son in this special military operation. I keep waiting for some kind of mother uprising in Russia. That dam has to break one of these days

[Takket]

7. good riddance!!!!!!!!!!!

[AverageOldGuy]

8. Well, . . .

. . . I'm just heartbroken.

[Evolve Dammit]

9. Russians need to wake up to what Putin is doing to their "blood and treasure."

[Botany]

10. Zelenskyy, "... the Russian Army turned into burnt ruins"

Ukrainian HIMARS Destroy Barracks in Russian-Occupied Melitopol—Reports


https://www.newsweek.com/ukrainian-himars-destroy-barracks-russian-occupied-melitopol-reports-1766193

Way to go Vlad bring in your Wagner Troops (prisoners released to fight in Ukraine) and put them all into
a hotel and a gym right next door, let them get some food and booze into them, and then go to bed.

[Cha]

20. TY for telling

What the Wagner troops are.

[TomSlick]

11. A legitimate military target.

Send them to hell.

[Mysterian]

12. Highly paid mercenaries living in a hotel

All nice and close together for a missile strike.

Good soldiers live in the terrain and stay dispersed.

[Wicked Blue]

13. So they kidnap children and rape 10 year olds

and slaughter and torture civilians, but those things are okay to them.

But if Ukraine fights back against monstrous mercenaries? Nooo.


F**king savages.

[ancianita]

17. Killing a lot of the Wagner Group is a BFD. Good on Ukraine!

[Wounded Bear]

18. If your "Most feared fighters" are foreign mercenaries, maybe something is a bit off...

and your soldiers hearts are not in the fight.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

23. Boo Hoo

[James48]

25. Another incident of smoking.

They should at least go open the windows.

[NullTuples]

27. I'm off to dive down the rabbit-hole, but it's interesting that they are called the Wagner fighters.

...especially given the many connections between Putin, his version of an ideal Russia and our own white supremacist Nazi Republicans.

(and yes, I already know RW died decades before Hitler rose to power)

[Igel]

29. Wiki link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_Group#Origins_and_leadership

In 2021, the Foreign Policy report noted the origin of the name "Wagner" to be unknown.[52] Others say the group's name comes from Utkin's own call sign "Wagner", reportedly after the German composer Richard Wagner, which he is said to have chosen due to his passion for the Third Reich (Wagner being Adolf Hitler's favorite composer).[77][78] As such, some believe he is a neo-Nazi,[79][80] with The Economist reporting that Utkin has several Nazi tattoos.[78] Members of Wagner Group say Utkin is a Rodnover, a believer of Slavic native faith.[81] Radio Liberty cited insiders as saying that the leadership of the Wagner Group are followers of the Slavic Native Faith, a modern Pagan new religious movement.[7] In August 2017, the Turkish newspaper Yeni Şafak speculated that Utkin was possibly a figurehead for the company, while the real head of Wagner was someone else.[82]

[NullTuples]

31. Thanks. That's a whole lot of little indicators that add up to a likelihood that they're pro Nazi.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

32. Vladamir Lenin was also a great admirer of the music of Richard Wagner. As is the current Pope.

As was the Fabian-socialist playwright George Bernard Shaw, and the anti-Nazi German-exile author Thomas Mann.

Why?

Because Richard Wagner wrote arguably the most sublime music in human creation. An absolute genius.

[EndlessWire]

30. What always surprises me

is how surprised and amazed Russia is that their enemy fights back. They're outraged? What did they think, that they could shoot and kill civilians, babies, and destroy all the infrastructure, and no Ukrainian would actually shoot back? This is fascinating psychology. They are furious that enemy soldiers inside the borders of Ukraine are targeted?

Tell that to the raped toddler, or to the mother of the dead two day old baby...or to the families of all those dead civilians...or the Ukrainian soldiers, who wouldn't be dying themselves if it weren't for Putin.

But, don't be surprised. Gonna happen again.

[progressoid]

33. Video...