Russia-Ukraine Flash Report - 3/19/22 14:30 PDT

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced overnight (Seattle time) they had used a hypersonic missile against an underground ammo storage facility in Western Ukraine. They provided receipts, showing a drone video of a strike against the underground facility.

There is a second video circulating, showing what is alleged to be the hypersonic missile streaking across the sky, complete with the double burp sonic boom.

We have researched this and - it's all fake. The video of the missile flying across the sky is fake. The Kinzhal missile travels at 10X the speed of sound, about 12,400 KPH - that's 206 KPH per minute, 3.4 KPH per second. When you see the video, that's all you need to know. 

The Russian claim to hitting Ivan-Frankovisk 16 former nuclear weapons storage area WITH a hypersonic missile might be true, but the provided video clip doesn't show it. The video clip Russia State Media alleges is of the strike, is an attack about 10 kilometers west of Izyum, and it is likely a laser-guided artillery strike on a small ammunition storage area.

We are making a TikTok about it.

We think the bigger news is The Netherlands and Germany repositioning Patriot Missile systems to Slovakia today.

ASSESSMENT: Slovakia is going to provide their S300s to Ukraine in exchange for Patriot Missile protection or NATO is reinforcing assets to prevent missile strikes west of Ukraine. 

Another situation we've been monitoring is the claims that Belarusian hospitals are overwhelmed with wounded Russian soldiers, and the critically injured and dead are being moved to train stations at night.

Those reports appear to be true. 

Second to last, the reports that the Azovstal Steel Plant in Mariupol is being destroyed are 100% true. Chechen forces released a video showing demolition operations at the plant. Beyond the economic impact, creating ruins aids insurgency behind the advancing lines.

We spoke with a retired United States Air Force Coronel today, and they expressed shock at how insecure combat communications are, and explained how Russian forces are not trained to take initiative at the platoon or squad level. The way the Russian military is structured, higher-ranking officers need to be closer to the front lines to assure their orders are carried out, versus enabling junior officers to take initiative to reach tactical goals aligned to a bigger strategy. 

Her exact words, "they decided, well, this worked in Syria."