December 10 2024


A Bloomberg investigation reveals that despite Western sanctions, Russia continues to purchase American components for its military. Russian companies are using online platforms such as getchips.ru and altchips.ru to purchase semiconductor components from companies like Texas Instruments (TI) which are transported through intermediary countries before reaching Russia. These chips are then used to create weapons like drones, missiles, and guidance systems. Although TI and other chipmakers claim to screen purchases, their diligence is lacking and components still flow into Russia relatively freely. From January 2024 through August, one Russian distributor purchased over 4,000 orders for hundreds of thousands of products from Texas Instruments worth $6 million. Roughly $4 million worth of these orders went to Russian military companies. Russian distributors markup the products the import up to 40%.

TI struggles to track shipments of chips because it sells so many at low cost, that the sheer volume of sales alone make it difficult to follow where they end up. TI’s products make up 14% of Western components found in recovered long-range weaponry used by Russia, including various missiles such as the Kh-47 and Lancet kamikaze drones. TI has been criticized for not using risk management databases early in the sales process which would filter out any illegal buyer and for allowing purchases from its website without requiring information on who the end-user will be, making it easier for chips to end up in Russia’s hands. TI routinely makes large sales to companies using addresses that are known to be fronts. These fronts will have many companies “operating” out of these locations even though there are no personnel from the company at the site.

France's Senate announced plans to spend €1.9 billion in 2025 on ammunition orders, including SCALP cruise missiles, AASM bombs, Meteor air-to-air missiles, torpedoes, Mistral and Aster anti-aircraft missiles, Exocet anti-ship missiles, and 155-mm artillery shells. This is an increase of €400 million compared to 2024, or roughly 27%.


The IT Coalition led by Estonia and Luxembourg raised nearly €500 million in 2024 to support Ukraine, with €410 million allocated for IT assistance and €72 million for procurement of equipment. Estonia has pledged €2.5 million this year and will contribute €5 million in 2025. The coalition now includes 14 countries after Finland and Spain joined in September.


On December 7, Ukraine published drone footage showing naval drones attacking Russian-held oil and gas platforms in the black sea, off of the coast of Crimea. The naval drones struck the platforms using standard explosive warheads with great, fiery success. But the footage also shows naval drones deploying aerial FPV kamikaze drones to strike targets such as communications equipment, radars, electronic warfare gear, and Russian soldiers on the platforms. This is the first time this technology has been showcased in the war. Russia media outlet MASH reported that a naval drone attack on December 5-6 near the Zatoka shipyard in the area near Kerch strait involved naval drones armed with machine guns and thermal imagers, as well as Teledyne Gavia submersibles. A bit of footage posted all over Russian social media shows a Russian drone dropping an explosive on a Ukrainian naval drone, leading to a very large explosion. The Russian posting the footage claimed that the naval drone was in the Dnipro River and was deploying YaRM naval mines. These mines sit below the surface of the water and detonate on contact with a boat. They are armed with 3 kg of TNT.

Ukraine has published footage of Ukrainian naval drones armed with machine guns firing at Russian helicopters. The machine gun turrets have some sort of guidance and tracking ability. Reportedly, Russian helicopter crewmen have been wounded and killed by these machine guns and multiple helicopters suffered significant damage and need repairs.


Ukrainian drone and electronic warfare expert Serhii Flash warned that the Russians are recruiting people to hang out near Ukrainian military positions in the rear with radios to listen in on unencrypted radio communications.

He also reported that the number of Russian reconnaissance UAVs in the air has significantly decreased, which leads to fewer Lancet drones, fewer accurate Iskander strikes, and reduced combat effectiveness on the front lines. He says Russia has not replicated Ukraine’s successes in this field, implying there are reasons for that, but he did not go into detail on what those reasons are. He did put a smiley face there though.


The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has signed an €80 million loan deal with Ukraine’s largest oil company, Ukrnafta. The loan will fund the installation of large generators, each capable of producing 10 MW of energy in Ukraine’s central and western regions. The project will fund 10 of these generators. They will help make up for the energy deficit these regions face. These generators can run on gas produced by Ukrnafta. The Netherlands provided €9.5 million and the US provided €12.5 million to the EBRD for the project. This is part of a much larger €1.3 billion project to improve Ukraine’s energy and transportation systems.


The UK Ministry of Defense published satellite imagery confirming that Ukraine successfully struck an S-400 air defense system on Crimea on November 29th. The MoD photo shows 2 large impact craters, emergency response vehicles, and debris spread around the impact site.


Denmark is speeding up the delivery of Caesar self-propelled guns to Ukraine. They were originally scheduled for delivery in 2026 but may now arrive in 2025. The Danish government is also giving more money to buy military equipment for Ukraine, adding $380 million to the funds already promised.


Jake Sullivan, U.S. National Security Adviser said that Russia's economy is facing increasing challenges, with "warning bells" growing louder in recent weeks. Sullivan pointed out that economic and military pressures will play a major role in future peace talks.


Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova reported that the bodies of Ukrainian prisoners of war who were supposedly killed in the crash of a Russian transport plane in January 2024 have been repatriated. The Ukrainian military is believed to have shot down the plane and maintains that the plane was full of military supplies such as air defense missiles. The Russians insist the plane had 65 POWs that were planned to be swapped. The plane was shot down over Belgorod. There are a lot of unanswered questions about the events surrounding this incident, including whether or not these POWS were even on the plane or if they died elsewhere and the plane is a cover story.


A Russian drone attack in Kindiika, Kherson Oblast, killed a 73-year-old man and injured four others, including a 42-year-old man, a 59-year-old man, a 40-year-old woman, and a 79-year-old woman. Additionally, two men, aged 56 and 62, were injured in Kherson city by a Russian drone attack. Financial Times reported that Russians are targeting civilians with drone attacks to hone their skills as drone operators. They are killing civilians for practice.


Pro-Russian hackers are suspected to be behind a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyberattack on several Danish municipal websites on December 9, 2024. The attack disrupted the websites of cities like Århus, Vejle, Esbjerg, Dragør, and Frederiksberg.


India and Russia are close to completing a $4 billion deal for the sale of a Voronezh-type over-the-horizon radar system. The system will be mostly produced in India and is expected to be located near Chitradurga in southern India. The radar is designed to detect space objects, ballistic missiles, and some cruise missiles, with a range of up to 6,000 km. The exact version of the radar India will buy and any specific changes needed are not yet known.


Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) reports that Russian arms exports will have decreased by 93% by the end of 2024, as compared to their pre-war levels. By the end of the year, Russia will have generated less than $1 billion in revenue from arms exports this year. In 2021, Russian arms exports generated $14.6 billion, in 2022, they generated $8 billion, and they earned $3 billion in 2023. A representative of CEPA said that one of the reasons for the drop in exports was that Russia needed this war material for their own military.


Angstrem, one of Russia's largest chip manufacturers, has begun the bankruptcy process. The plant used to be a major manufacturer of microchips, but it owes 1 billion rubles to Zenit Bank, which was ordered to be paid by the courts in 2019 but that debt has not been paid yet. The plant was supervised by Leonid Reiman, a close friend of Putin’s, and received over $1 billion in government funds and over 800 million euros worth of credit to build new facilities to manufacture processors, smart cards, and electronic passports in 2008. The plant accumulated a debt of over 147 billion rubles in debt and stopped operating and paying loans in 2014. There are ongoing legal proceedings involving an additional 500 million euros. This summer, Reiman’s other companies received several billion rubles worth of government funds and began constructing a new plant in Saransk. This plant is supposed to manufacture electronic goods to substitute for electronics Russia can no longer easily import, including tablets, smartphones, computers, and laptops.


According to a Kyiv School of Economics study, foreign banks operating in Russia earned a net profit of $2.3 billion in the first nine months of 2024, a 30% increase compared to the same period last year. Raiffeisenbank earned $1.2 billion. While some foreign banks like UniCredit, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase downsized or exited Russia entirely, foreign banks remained more profitable than local ones.


Cammy Day, the leader of the Edinburgh City Council has resigned after allegations were made that he sexually harassed Ukrainian refugees. Police are investigating inappropriate messages he sent over social media. He sent various women sexually explicit messages and invited them to meet and drink wine with him.



Zelenskyy reported that Ukraine’s military had suffered 43,000 deaths and 370,000 wounded troops have been treated. He added that roughly 50% of Ukraine’s wounded return to combat, so that 370,000 includes lightly wounded soldiers and soldiers who have been wounded more than once. He added that Russia has suffered 198,000 deaths and more than 550,000 had been wounded. He also said that since September, Russia has been suffering 5 times as many battlefield losses as Ukraine has.


Andrii Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, announced that five Ukrainian children were returned from Russia and occupied territories to Ukraine. A family of four, including two children and a 77-year-old woman were also repatriated. This was possible due to the "Bring Kids Back UA" initiative, which involves Ukrainian government agencies, volunteers, NGOs, and international partners. Since November, Ukraine has returned 1,002 children from occupied territories.

Trying something new. We have long wanted more battlefield coverage, but that is hard without videos and maps and many other people are already doing that. So The Daily Hog is trying something different: just pure reports from Ukrainian accounts sorted by region. Some of it will be repetitive information, but that sort of functions as confirmation to some extent. Future editions will work on sorting this better. It’s a work in progress.
 
This was the result of compiling battlefield reports from various Ukrainian sources including: Stanislav Osman, officeralex_33, Petrenko_IHS, and Muchnoy Jugend.

Pokrovsk direction:

    • The enemy captured Novotroitskoye, advanced into Shevchenko, and continues to press in the area of Vidrodzhennya, Dachenskoye, Pushkino, south of Starye Terny, and in the area of Sazonova and Sazonovka gullies. The situation in the direction remains very difficult.
    • The situation in the Pokrovsk direction remains difficult. Russian troops continue attacks in the direction of Dachenskoye, near Vidrodzhennya, in Shevchenko, in Novotroitskoye, near Pushkino, in Zarya, and in the area of Starye Terny.
    • West and south of Shevchenko and west of Vidrodzhennya, the enemy has advanced along a number of forest belts and the railway, closing the pocket that has formed. In the area of Starye Terny, enemy maneuver groups are attempting to advance in the direction of the western outskirts of Kurakhovo.
    • In the Pokrovsk direction, the enemy advanced south of Dachenskoye and continues to attack the settlement from the southeast.
    • In the Pokrovsk direction, the enemy advanced in the southwestern part of the settlement of Shevchenko and along the forest belt in the direction of the settlement of Vidrodzhennya (Novy Trud). The enemy is increasing pressure in this area in order to speed up the formation of the southern flank for the offensive on Pokrovsk.
    • The enemy had some successes south of Pokrovsky! So, for now, the boars have taken control of most of the Shevchenko village, which is very important for them in strategic terms. Nevertheless, the enemy is advancing west of the village in order to move further towards the Pishchane village. This already poses another additional threat to us southwest of the city. If the enemy breaks through the Pishchane-Zvirovo-Pershe Travnya defense line, he will be able to capture the city from the west.
    • The enemy was able to enter the southern part of Dachenske, 2 boxes of [Russians] that were additionally advanced there were destroyed. The enemy also entered the village of Novy Trud. Also, half of the strategic village of Shevchenko is under the control of the boars, there is a partial presence of them, they are also entrenched in Novotroitsky! At the same time, the [Russians] have advanced in the Pushkin area and are trying to reach Ukrainka.
    • The enemy continues to move, now they have started to use light and armored vehicles at full speed, most likely fresh enemy forces have arrived for rotation.
    • Novotroitske is occupied, most of Shevchenko is occupied. In the captured settlements, the enemy immediately sets up masts with antennas, probably for drone operations.
    • The enemy is mainly restrained by our drones, there is a critical shortage of infantry, most people are tired and demotivated due to constant fighting.
    • The prisoners also talk about the lack of motivation for assault operations due to huge losses, but they are threatened with executions, no one can retreat, rotation only after the full non-BG personnel.
• They continue to storm Novopustynka on foot. They have success in Shevchenkovo, gain a foothold on the southern outskirts, and try to bypass this enclave from the southern and southwestern sides. With the involvement of equipment, they stormed in the direction of Novy Trud. They suffer heavy losses, but due to the large number of units they move forward, bypassing our positions. Current situation in the Pokrovske direction.
        ◦ There is little good news: most of Shevchenko has been taken by the [Russians], and in just a few days; Novotroitske is completely occupied by the enemy; from the Pustinka side they are trying to push through.
    • From foot assaults, they have switched to assault actions by vehicles. If this continues, the [Russians] will be firmly entrenched south of Pokrovske, to which there will be several fields.
        ◦ The actual LBZ is along the Siryak. The [Russians] occupied the settlement of Shevchenko in front of Pokrovske… A small part of the settlement is in the gray zone, but purely because it is a kill zone for the [Russians], ours are not there.

Velikonovoselkovsky direction:

    • In the Velikonovoselkovsky direction, the enemy advanced east of Rivne along a number of forest belts to a depth of up to 2.2 km.
    • In the Velikonovoselkovsky direction, the enemy advanced east of Rivnepol in the direction of Storozhnevoye in a section up to 6 km wide and up to 2.1 km deep.
    • The enemy again gathered forces and attacked on the western bank of the Mokry Yaly River and were able to advance 2 km. If they succeed here, they will be able to reach the village of Storozhevo from the west! Which is already blocked by the podarami from the east from the Blagodatne direction. There will also be a threat from the west to the village, thus the enemy will simply squeeze it from both sides and will squeeze us to the north!

Toretsk direction:

    • In the central part of the city, the enemy has consolidated its positions along a number of streets from the block of multi-story buildings to Rudnichnaya Street.
    • In the south, Russian troops have occupied the northern part of the Zabalka district and the eastern part of the second waste heap of the Tsentralnaya mine.
    • The intensity of military actions remains high in the central and southern parts of the city. To the east of the Central Park, Russian troops are attempting to gain a foothold in the buildings along Lesi Ukrainky Street. Fighting for multi-story buildings continues along Druzhby Street and in the area of the intersection of Svetlaya and Druzhby Streets. The enemy has occupied five buildings along Mykola Khvylovy Street and continues attacks in the direction of the Tsentralnaya mine.
    • In the Zabalka district in the city, it is already actually under enemy control, the [Russians] have also advanced in the city center.
    • It's been crazy in Toretsk in recent days, non-stop infantry assault actions in residential areas, running from house to house in endless numbers, really like in zombie apocalypse movies.
    • The Zabalka district in the city is already actually under enemy control, the [Russians] have also advanced in the city center.
    • In the New York area, it's the same story - constant assaults, but already on vehicles to rush through open areas, and they use such junk that only stands in museums. However, the enemy is not having any success in this area.

Kurakhiv direction:

    • Fierce battles continue for Hannivka! Despite the semi-encirclement, our Cossacks are holding on tightly and can hold out for a long time, so I wish the soldiers to survive the difficult battle. There are also battles in the area of Uspenivka and Sukhye Yaly, here too we are repelling attacks and holding positions.
    • At the same time, the enemy began to move towards Dachny along the bed of the Vovcha River and actually reached the outskirts of this village. Very soon the assault on this village will begin, while the bastards are warming it up with artillery, further advancement will bring them to the Kurakhiv-Zaporozhye highway.
    • North of the Volcha River, the enemy has cleared the rest of the territory between Sontsivka and Stary Terny. Now the paratroopers are regrouping and doing it very quickly, tomorrow they will hear the Kurakhiv section being pressed. Currently, there is an operational pause in the Sukhyi Yaly area and to Rozdolne. The main battles are taking place for Hannivka, if ours have already retreated, then this is the last remnant in this pocket. The enemy has also cleared Veselyi Gai and continues to stubbornly move downstream to Uspenivka.

Velyka Novoselka area:

    • No significant changes, the enemy is now trying to gain a foothold on both sides of the Mokry Yala River. Also, develop success on the hills southwest of the village, in order to take control of Storozhevo and cut a path to Neskuchny. Further north, fighting is still ongoing between Rozdolny and Novy Komar - so far, no advance by the bastards! Our soldiers control this area and understand the importance of this breakthrough.

Chasiv Yars direction:

    • The enemy was able to advance from the south both in the refractory plant itself and in the northern part of the "Northern" microdistrict, thereby reaching its outskirts! Thus, our troops at the plant are already trapped on 3 sides, while we hold on!

Terny:

    • In Terny, the butts are trying with all their might to gain a foothold in the northern part of the village. There are only foundations of houses and holes in them (entrance to the basement).
    • After the change of army commander in the direction, they are relying on buggies, vehicles, and motorcycles, trying to fly on them, out of fear they are driven into basements, where death awaits them. Therefore, it is actually a gray area, we are not there, but they cannot gain a foothold either.

Quote of the Day:
“As hedgehogs have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing.”
― La Rouchefoucauld