Yesterday, the Kremlin's pro-war officials, for the first time, mobilized troops who were originally recruited to defend critical infrastructure. This is something I warned might happen, given the Kremlin's long, decades-old involvement in corruption. From what we know so far, the Kremlin sent these mobilized individuals from occupied Luhansk to training grounds before assigning them to the front.

While part of me knew this was only a matter of time — the Kremlin needs every bit of manpower it can get for its meat assaults — what actually surprises me is that the "only" confirmed case of this happening took place in Luhansk of all places. This carries some important implications.

We have no information of this happening inside Russia so far, which makes me think Putin plans to mobilize people from the occupied Ukrainian territories for their assaults so they don't further mess up their country with its mobilizations of young people.

Actually, a huge number of residents from Mariupol are already on the frontlines, fighting against their own country against their will; if that isn't a war crime, then I don't know what is. And of course, we are still waiting for the UN to actually do something about it, or rather do something about Russian war crimes in general.

I also found this image from Mariupol showing the propaganda billboard not functioning right. Also, the haters of west, the Russian Regime is using windows 10 or 11, while their hatred continues:

Anyway, here's a small part of the report that mentioned this:

Those affected were promised training only for the protection of infrastructure — instead, they were sent directly to Russian army training centers… combat deployment on the front lines

Meanwhile, yesterday the Z army bypassed Ukrainian defensive lines in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast during the heavy fog. Because of that, Ukraine's military only found out about it hours later.

The Russians managed to advance about 8 kilometers straight, and actually bypassed the small section of water/river using a pontoon bridge. The whole operation likely took them around 2-5 hours, and reports about the incursion only started coming in after they crossed the water and got close to Novopavlivka.

Ukraine's military later released drone footage showing them striking the Russian convoy there, which had around 10 armored vehicles. The fog was horrific, to say the least:

These Russian units in those vehicles reportedly didn't even try to retreat after Ukraine found them and began striking their vehicles. Instead, they abandoned the vehicles and ran into residential buildings.

A drone caught the scene, showing a Russian BMP parked near two war-torn but still standing residential buildings. I heard Ukraine used around 30–40 drones just to locate the convoy because of the fog:

Since locals still live around these war-torn regions and cities, most of the roads aren't even mined, unless Ukraine's military has a direct presence in that city and has blocked civilian travel on certain roads.

At the same time, Russian Z propaganda channels are already celebrating that their forces managed to advance that far, claiming that after the capture of Novopavlivka, Ukraine's entire Pokrovsk would collapse — in fact, they say it would collapse across the whole Donetsk region.

These Z channels also pushed the same claim about an incursion on the Dobropillia axis, which Ukraine fortunately repelled, costing the Kremlin a large amount of supplies and lives.

Based on what little info is available, Ukraine still holds full control of that city for now, and most of the initial Z equipment used in the assault has been destroyed. I checked today's weather forecast, and it's going to be sunny in Pokrovsk, so there shouldn't be any fog that would give the occupiers an advantage:

Also, Russia's own blogger channels reported their army taking significant losses in Kupiansk. Ukraine's military hasn't claimed victory over Kupiansk yet, even though they pointed out that the situation there is slowly stabilizing and called it a "work in progress."

Right now, Ukraine has Kupiansk pressured from two sides, allowing Ukraine to target Russian supply routes with drones. Russia also doesn't have that many troops there anymore, due to transfers to the Donetsk region.

Also, Ukraine's military shared the following:

This was not the case then, and it is not the case now. Moreover, there is a tendency for the Russians to gradually lose control over the city, over the areas where they were — these are the northern areas, where they entered and tried to gain a foothold, but their numbers there decreased as a result of effective countermeasures. It cannot be called a victory yet, for now it is a working process

Some more information surfaced from the Pokrovsk direction. Russian forces once again continued their assaults targeting Ukraine's stronghold in northern Pokrovsk. What is interesting here is that the occupier's army is primarily using infiltration tactics to move forward. I heard of similar cases involving Zaporizhia as well.

Russian bloggers are already claiming that Myrnohrad and around 90-ish percent of Pokrovsk have been cut off from Ukraine's access, though the Russian side has always exaggerated their claims since the start of the war.

One of the Ukrainian soldiers deploying in the Pokrovsk direction has stated that Russia's infiltration tactics now involve using just three undercover troops instead of five since the start of their operation against Pokrovsk, showing signs of depleted manpower.

ISW reported the following, citing both Russian and Ukrainian sources:

Russian forces are attempting to complete their encirclement of Ukrainian forces in Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad. Russian milblogger claimed that Russian forces conducted the infiltration mission northward from Pokrovsk itself

Ukrainian servicemember operating in the neighboring Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical area told CNN on November 16 that the size of Russian infiltration groups has recently dropped from five to seven servicemembers to a maximum of three servicemembers.

Fighting remains tense there; however, there is no point in hiding the fact that Russians have been slowly establishing their positions in northern Pokrovsk, which is the only area/corridor Ukraine realistically controls, which allows their troops to later withdraw from deeper parts of that city after the assaults or lack of supplies.

In regard to the Zaporizhzhian direction, the Russian military is either very close to seizing a chunk of the main road that Ukraine uses for transporting supplies or already controls it.

There is a T-0401 highway between the settlement of Pokrovske and Hulyaipole; in combination with this logistical problem, Russian forces are pressing in from the northeastern part of Hulyaipole. I highlighted this highway:

If the Z meat assault units advance four/five more kilometers directly northeast of the city, Russian FPV drones will be able to reach Hulyaipole.

Meanwhile, a report surfaced claiming that Russian units shot three captured Ukrainian troops, adopting the resolution of its state propagandists who previously called for such actions from its troops. A graphic video was published; I won't include it here.

Lastly, to touch on more positive developments and politics in general, several reports surfaced claiming that Trump is in favor of implementing a 500% tax on the buyers of Russian petroleum products. Trump added the following:

The Republicans are putting in legislation that is very tough, sanctioning, etcetera, on any country doing business with Russia. We may add Iran to the list, I suggested that. Any country doing business with Russia will be very heavily sanctioned.

I am honestly intrigued to see how this would work out, given that the US hasn't really sanctioned China heavily before. Both China and India remain the biggest buyers of Russian oil products, and with India's struggling economy, they really don't have much choice but to rely on Russia to keep their population's vehicles running.

In regard to China, a lot of news surfaced about China's growing activity in the South China Sea, which doesn't even legally belong to them.

Whatever the case might be, four Chinese warships violated Japan's international waters around the Senkaku Islands, which are located right next to Taiwan. China believes those islands are theirs "as well."

This happened shortly after Japan announced it would help Taiwan in case of an invasion from China. These four warships were later "shadowed" by the Japanese navy according to available information..

It's good to know that the two arguably worst regimes on the planet — one in Russia, or rather the Soviet Union given their officials' recent claims… and the other in China — both heavily connected, are causing global tensions.

Socialism really was and still is the problem. Venezuela would also be on the list, but since they are militarily weak they haven't caused much problems apart from illegal drug shipments to US and other nations.

Yet Kremlinists hide behind excuses about Ukraine having ties with a nazi regime, while the current Russian regime itself is the one truly following actual Nazi-style ideology given its evident actions. China is in the same boat, though they're more worried about their fragile economy than wars per se.

Also, reports surfaced of the logistics, loading of supplies in Novorossiysk port resuming. It turns out, the damage dealt to Novorossiysk port had forced Russia to withhold the shipment of 4.4 millions barrels of crude oil, based on available information. The report read the following:

Russia's Novorossiysk port resumed oil loadings on Sunday after a two-day suspension triggered by a Ukrainian missile and drone attack, two industry sources said and LSEG data showed.

Novorossiysk and a neighboring Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal temporarily suspended oil exports — equivalent to 2.2 million barrels per day

As I said before, this is the main port Russia uses to transport its petroleum products and grains through the Black Sea. Interestingly, Russia didn't even bother using other ports for similar shipments while Novorossiysk was in the early stages of being repaired. And of course, those 4.4 million barrels are in addition to the four destroyed S-400 systems and a few others that took shrapnel damage. So, a big deal to say the least.

Lastly, Zelenskyy will soon sign an agreement with Macron in France that would grant Ukraine what Zelenskyy called "… what truly helps Ukraine defend itself and achieve our goals."

The signed agreement will legally allow France to send its fighter jets to Ukraine, as well as real ground air defense systems and radars together with missiles.

The exact number of promised fighter jets wasn't revealed. Still, this is a major gain for Ukraine, because Ukraine and Sweden already signed a deal that gives Ukraine the ability to buy over 120 Swedish fighter jets. And of course, this is in addition to the several dozen F-16s already deployed in Ukraine's air force.

One of the air defense systems Ukraine will receive soon is the Ground Fire 300 Multi Function Radar, which has a 400-kilometer range. It has similar mobility to HIMARS — it can quickly move from one location to another without needing much time to lower the radar or power down its systems.

Here's how this system looks like:

The radar is mounted on a Renault truck chassis, which screams of a large scale production to me, since Renault is a major French vehicle manufacturer. More than likely, this will be one of the most advanced radars Ukraine has ever received in history.

Missile shipments will also be part of the agreement, so these French fighter jets will come with missiles, which would grant Ukraine immediate access to combat operations, though I assume training pilots will still take time.

To my understanding, Ukraine rather needs large bombs that can tear through Russian positions. Missiles carry small warheads compared to Russian FAB bombs, which have no problem wiping out whole neighborhoods.

And since Russia barely uses fighter jets near Ukrainian-controlled airspace, these missiles don't seem very valuable to me. The best use these missiles will see might on Russian soil, but we will see as time moves forward.