Do you remember the report that circulated more than three weeks ago about a Russian bunker buster that hit a military base in Western Ukraine and reportedly killed or wounded upwards of 200 NATO officers? That was a garbage report. How do I know? In the aftermath of the blast there was no uptick in U.S. military or NATO aircraft flying from Germany or Poland to Ukraine to pick up bodies or casualties. There was no intel chatter.
Now we have a report, confirmed by Vladimir Putin himself, that Russia hit the headquarters of Ukraine’s military intelligence (GRU) in Kiev on Saturday, May 27. Initial reports that day talked about an earthquake in Kiev. In the succeeding days we learned that access to the GRU Headquarters was shutdown and pictures emerged showing that portions of the eight story building with black scorch marks. Russia claims it hit a bunker with a hypersonic missile that burrowed deep into the earth and destroyed the bunker. Simplicius has a good run down (as usual) on the other signs that Russia launched a successful strike. For example, RYBAR reported that, “a C-21A aircraft of the 86th Air Medical Evacuation Squadron of the US Air Force flew to Rzeszow in an emergency from Ramstein Air Base, presumably to evacuate seriously wounded NATO servicemen.” If true, that corroborates that something significant (and terrible for those in the GRU bunker) happened in Ukraine.
There have been no leaks from the Western side of the ledger confirming the Russian reports. That could mean that nothing happened and that this is just a Russian psy-op. Alternatively it could mean that something did happen and the NATO side is trying to keep a lid on. If the other reports of military medical airlift are true then that would support the view that NATO does not want to admit that Russia scored a big hit.
If you are wondering if Russia is slackening in its bombing/missile campaign targeting Ukrainian military positions throughout western Ukraine, the answer is no. This tells me that Russia is taking the loose talk about a Ukrainian offensive seriously and are taking pro-active measures to pre-empt or weaken the attack when it comes.
