U.S. Supreme Court to examine whistleblower claims against financial firms in UBS case
Daniel Wiessner – May 1, 2023
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington
(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine how difficult it should be for financial whistleblowers to win retaliation lawsuits against their employers as the justices took up a long-running case involving Switzerland’s UBS Group AG.
The justices will hear an appeal by Trevor Murray, a former UBS bond strategist, of a lower court’s decision to throw out his 2021 lawsuit that accused the company of unlawfully firing him for refusing to publish misleading research reports and complaining about being pressured to do so.
The appeal involves a technical but important issue – whether whistleblowers who sue their employers for retaliation under the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act must prove that companies acted with “retaliatory intent.”
The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year decided that Murray was required to meet that bar and failed, creating a split with four other federal appeals courts. Those courts have said that defendants in Sarbanes-Oxley cases can raise the lack of intent as a defense, but that plaintiffs do not have to prove employers acted with intent.
A Supreme Court ruling in favor of UBS could significantly curtail financial whistleblower lawsuits because it is often difficult for plaintiffs to prove a defendant’s motives.
Robert Herbst, a lawyer for Murray, said the 2nd Circuit decision ignored the text of the whistleblower law, adding that he looked forward to arguing the case before the Supreme Court.
A UBS spokesperson said, “We expect the court will uphold the 2nd Circuit’s decision.”
Murray, who worked in UBS’s mortgage securitization unit, accused UBS officials of pressuring him to issue skewed and bullish research on commercial mortgage-backed securities in order to support the bank’s trading and underwriting operations. He has said he was fired in 2012 about two months after complaining to supervisors and despite receiving excellent performance reviews.
UBS has denied wrongdoing and said Murray’s termination was part of a cost-cutting campaign that eliminated thousands of jobs.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was adopted in 2002 and created enhanced accounting standards for publicly traded U.S. companies after a series of accounting scandals, along with new legal protections for employees who report illegal conduct.
The Supreme Court is due to hear the case in its next term, which begins in October.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
Hotel housekeeping jobs have fallen by 102,000 during the pandemic. What happened?
Levi Sumagaysay – May 1, 2023
‘Before the pandemic, I never had a problem with getting hours,’ one housekeeper told MarketWatch
The number of hotel housekeepers has fallen since the onset of the pandemic. GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
As some U.S. hotels hung on to practices they adopted during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic — such as eliminating daily room cleanings — the number of hotel housekeepers fell by more than 102,000 last year from prepandemic levels, new data show.
The total number of hotel housekeeping jobs as of May 2022 was 364,990, a 22% decline from the total of 467,270 such positions during the same period in 2019, according to numbers released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Unions representing hotel service workers feared this would happen, and had warned a couple of years ago of such a decline. Since then, they have worked to restore or retain routine daily housekeeping in hotel rooms around the country. In some places that actually began requiring daily cleanings during the pandemic, unions are pushing to make those rules permanent.
In Las Vegas, the Culinary Workers Union is opposing legislation that would repeal daily-cleaning requirements as it tries to protect the jobs of thousands of hotel housekeepers in a travel destination known as the entertainment capital of the world.
“Prior to the pandemic, it was standard that you paid a pretty penny for a nice room and you got service,” Ted Pappageorge, the secretary-treasurer for Culinary Workers Union Local 226, said in an interview. “You didn’t have to chase someone down the hall” to ask for towels or for trash to be taken out of your hotel room, he said.
“Now room rates are higher, 30% or more, [and hotels are] expecting guests to do without,” Pappageorge added.
The biggest U.S.-based hotel chains have reported that their average daily room rates have risen since 2019. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. HLT, +1.05% reported last week when it released first-quarter earnings that its revenue per available room was 8% higher than during the same period in 2019. Marriott International Inc. MAR, +4.98% and Hyatt Hotels Corp. H, +3.06% report earnings this week.
But according to their fourth-quarter earnings filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Marriott’s revenue per available room was up 4.6% over the same period in 2019 and Hyatt’s for that same period rose 2.4%.
Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt did not respond to requests for comment about their daily housekeeping policies. All three hotel chains in earnings updates have reported increasing their numbers of properties. At least one, Marriott, mentioned in its November report that it was dealing with “industry-wide labor shortages” that made it challenging to hire or re-hire for certain positions.
The Las Vegas–based Culinary Workers Union and its members also said less-frequent cleanings could be a safety issue, because housekeepers don’t know what they might find in a room that hasn’t had a hotel staff member inside it in several days. In addition, having fewer people around in massive hotels could mean no one within earshot during attempted assaults on housekeepers, they said.
Housekeepers who spoke with MarketWatch said getting rid of daily cleanings or requiring guests to ask for daily cleanings means not just fewer jobs, but harder work for those who have managed to keep their jobs.
Proponents of the Nevada legislation include the Henderson Chamber of Commerce, which said in a recent letter to state lawmakers that “eliminating health requirements on businesses that are no longer needed is another step in ensuring our economy returns to pre-pandemic levels.”
The general counsel of Wynn Resorts Ltd. WYNN, -2.08% assured the state legislature in a letter that the hotel chain “will continue to clean our hotel rooms daily to maintain our Forbes Five Star designation,” though it does not believe a mandate by law is necessary and supports “the rescission of the statutory requirement which imposes upon resort operators unprecedented business operational requirements.”
Housekeepers who spoke with MarketWatch said doiing away with daily cleanings or requiring guests to ask for daily cleanings means not just fewer jobs, but harder work for those who have managed to keep their jobs.
Nely Reinante, a housekeeper at Hilton Hawaiian Village who told MarketWatch two years ago that she was waiting to return to work full-time because daily cleanings weren’t happening at the time, worked with the union to help restore routine daily cleanings at her hotel. Among other things, they passed out leaflets to explain the situation to guests.
“Our guests are happier now that there is no trash or dirty linens or towels in the hallway,” Reinante said in a recent interview with MarketWatch. She is back to work full time, she said, though some of her colleagues quit because they couldn’t afford to wait around for full-time work.
Reinante said that compared with a couple years ago, she “can breathe lighter now” because it’s easier to handle rooms that are cleaned daily — and she’s not worried about not getting enough hours.
“Guests can support housekeepers by always asking for daily housekeeping when they check in,” Unite Here International President D. Taylor said in an emailed statement. The union and its affiliates, such as the Culinary Workers Union local in Nevada, have worked to restore automatic daily housekeeping in many major cities around the country, Unite Here said.
A housekeeper in the Boston area told MarketWatch earlier this year that some guests thought they were helping housekeepers by opting out of daily cleanings. In reality, the housekeeper said, some staff weren’t being assigned enough shifts.
“Before the pandemic, I never had a problem with getting hours,” said Josefina Lopez, who works at the Element Boston Seaport District and was only getting a couple of days of work a week at the beginning of this year. Lopez also hurt her shoulder because she was having to spend more time cleaning rooms and her work had become harder, she said at the time.
Since then, though, Lopez has resumed full-time work, according to her union.
Taylor, the Unite Here president, said he is proud of restoring automatic daily housekeeping at many union hotels. “But now you’ve got a patchwork effect where some hotels have full service automatically and others don’t, even if they’re part of the same brand,” he said. “That’s not fair to guests. And it only widens the gap between the union standard and nonunion working conditions.”
Al Franken blasts Supreme Court: It’s ‘illegitimate’
Julia Mueller – May 1, 2023
Al Franken blasts Supreme Court: It’s ‘illegitimate’
“The court is a very divisive entity now, institution right now. And the Supreme Court, to me, is illegitimate,” Franken said on “The Al Franken Podcast” in conversation with The Washington Post’s Dan Balz.
Former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is calling the Supreme Court “illegitimate” and Chief Justice John Roberts a “villain,” citing a number of controversies surrounding the nation’s highest court.
Franked resigned from the Senate in 2017 amid sexual harassment allegations.
“The way they didn’t take up [Obama nominee Merrick] Garland and on saying, ‘It’s an election year,’ and then they, of course, put in Coney Barrett like eight days before the election. Then, of course, Dobbs and abortion.”
Balz said the court has “lost credibility” and has become “seen increasingly as one more partisan institution,” though he noted Roberts has tried to counter that perception.
“I think the Chief Justice is actually much more culpable for this division than people think,” Franken said, referencing some of Roberts’s decisions. “I think Roberts is much more the villain in this than people give him credit for.”
Polling has indicated a decline in Americans’ trust that the Supreme Court, with its nine lifetime-appointment Justices, is nonpartisan.
Franken’s comments also come amid new scrutiny over the Supreme Court’s ethics standards after reporting from ProPublica found Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose a series of luxury trips he’d taken, paid for by Republican donor Harlan Crow, and revelations that the same Texas billionaire had paid for the home Thomas’s mother was living in.
Massive Shockwave From Russian Strike May Have Been A Rocket Storage Facility Detonating
Howard Altman – May 1, 2023
The city of Pavlograd was struck by a Russian missile attack.
The massive explosion and ensuing shock wave seen in video from the Ukrainian city of Pavlograd in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast was most likely the result of a giant secondary detonation. What seems to have been hit, although not confirmed as of yet, was a plant that is used for missile fuel and other highly volatile explosive applications. The facility has been a cause of great concern for locals in the past.
Ukraine claims it downed 15 of 18 Russian cruise missiles launched by Tu-95MS Bear-H strategic bombers, but three missiles apparently evaded air defenses. Videos posted on social media after the Russian barrage show explosions and their aftermath brightly lighting up the night sky.
Ukrainians say a residential area and an industrial complex were hit while Russians claim that Ukrainian supplies for its looming counteroffensive were targeted.
“An industrial enterprise was damaged in Pavlograd,” Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration Serhiy Lysak said Monday on his Telegram channel. “A fire broke out there, which the rescuers have already put out. In the residential area, 19 high-rise buildings, 25 private houses, six schools and pre-school education institutions, and five shops were mutilated.”
There were also dozens of buildings in the surrounding communities damaged as well, Lysak said, including almost 40 residential buildings In Verbkivska. It was the second devastating Russian missile strike on Ukraine in the past several days. More than 20 civilians, including at least four children, were killed Friday in the first mass Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities in more than a month, officials in Kyiv said last week.
More than 30 people were injured and dozens of buildings were damaged or destroyed by a Russian missile strike on Pavlograd, said Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration Serhiy Lysak.(Serhiy Lysak Telegram channel photo)
The Russians, meanwhile, say they were targeting military facilities.
“The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a long-range high-precision air and sea-based missile strike against Ukrainian military-industrial complex facilities,” the Russian Defense Ministry (MoD) reported on its Telegram channel Monday. “The goal of the attack has been reached. All the assigned targets have been neutralized. The enterprises producing ammunition, weapons and military equipment for Ukrainian forces have been disrupted.”
The city is strategically located in an area through which that counteroffensive drive toward Crimea could take place, a route we examined in December.
Pavlograd is located on one possible route for a Ukrainian counteroffensive toward Crimea. (Google Earth image)
But it is also home to the Pavlograd Chemical Plant. That’s where fuel for Ukrainian missiles is produced, according to Euromaidan Press.
The plant is also where old Soviet-era SS24 ICBMs were stored and ultimately supposed to be dismantled as part of the Defense Department’s (DoD) Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program. Also known as the Nunn-Lugar program, the CTR was created “for the purpose of securing and dismantling weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their associated infrastructure in the former states of the Soviet Union,” according to the U.S. State Department.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency said it completed the provision of technical assistance to the State Space Agency of Ukraine and Pavlograd Chemical Plant in December 2018 to: “safely store SS-24 loaded solid motor cases; support the safe removal of propellant; and deliver and commission a complex Eisenmann incinerator to eliminate empty motor cases.”
In 2020, the BBC reported on local residents’ concerns about what would happen if the plant were to explode, with some people calling it a “ticking time bomb” where more than 1,800 tons of expired rocket fuel was stored.
“If we already have a strategic facility in the city with a large amount of explosive fuel, then under no circumstances should the disposal process be stopped,” Svitlana Shaperenko told the BBC at the time. “We’re just a ticking time bomb. If there’s an explosion, that’s the end.”
The administrative building of the Pavlograd Chemical Plant as photographed in 2020. (Mykola Miakshykov / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Old ICBMs aren’t the only explosive items stored at Pavlograd.
The facility is also used to store part of the 55 million stockpiled antipersonnel landmines designated for destruction under the Mine Ban Treaty, according to the International Campaign to Band Land Mines (ICBL).
“In Ukraine, we regret that has been no stockpile destruction since 2020 and the end of an agreement between Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense and NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency to destroy the remaining stockpiled mines at the Pavlograd Chemical Plant,” ICBL stated in November 2022.
What appears to be a large storage facility to the north of the town could have been targeted, although the plant has extensive facilities in the city. We are working to clarify this. (Google Earth)
Whatever the case, the explosions in the town of Pavlograd were remarkably powerful. Obviously any production capability for rocket propellant would be a prime target for Russian forces, but a storage area with large decommissioned rockets could have presented a huge secondary explosive potential that Russia specifically pursued.
As of now, cloud cover has made commercial satellite imagery impossible to obtain, so we can’t see exactly what was struck or the extent of the damage. We will update this post when we find out more.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a press conference at the Treasury Department in Washington, on April 11, 2023. (Yuri Gripas/The New York Times)
WASHINGTON — A vote by House Republicans last week to lift the nation’s debt limit in exchange for deep spending cuts was the first step in what is likely to be a protracted battle over raising or suspending the borrowing cap to avoid defaulting on United States debt.
But while Republicans and President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats are gearing up for a fight, a key question is beginning to sow unease in Washington and on Wall Street: How much time is there to strike a deal?
The United States technically hit its $31.4 trillion debt limit in January, forcing the Treasury Department to employ accounting maneuvers known as extraordinary measures to allow the government to keep paying its bills, including payments to bondholders who own government debt. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said at the time that her powers to delay a default — in which the United States fails to make its payments on time — could be exhausted by early June. She cautioned, however, that the estimate came with considerable uncertainty.
With June now just a few weeks away, uncertainty around the timing of when the United States will run out of cash — what’s known as the X-date — remains, and determining the true deadline could have huge consequences for the country.
Tax receipts will be key to the X-date.
Determining the X-date depends on a complex set of factors, but ultimately what matters most is how much money the government spends and how much it takes in through taxes and other revenue.
The Bipartisan Policy Center, which tracks federal revenues, projected in February that lawmakers would need to raise or suspend the debt limit sometime between summer and early fall to avoid a default. The specific date would largely depend on how quickly tax revenues are coming into the government’s coffers.
There are signs that 2022 tax receipts are trickling in too slowly for comfort. Economists at Wells Fargo wrote in a note to clients last week that because tax collections appear to be weaker than expected, there is a chance the X-date could be as soon as early June. However, they continue to believe early August is the most likely default deadline.
“A low but not insignificant probability of a U.S. default is still very concerning, and we would think the last thing Treasury officials want is an X-date that sneaks up on Congress,” they wrote.
Tax day payments are still arriving. Goldman Sachs economists projected last week that by the second week of June, the Treasury Department could have around $60 billion of cash remaining, which would allow the government to keep making its payments until late July.
Natural disasters could fuel a debt disaster.
There is a surprising factor that could cause the X-date to arrive sooner: the weather. Severe storms, flooding and mudslides in California, Alabama and Georgia this year prompted the IRS to push the April 18 filing deadlines in dozens of counties to October.
The IRS said this year that, because of the storms, individuals and businesses in the affected areas could file their returns late. They were also given more time to make contributions to retirement and health savings accounts.
Farmers, who often file their tax returns by March 1, also have received a reprieve until Oct. 16, and estimated payments that normally would have been made in January were allowed to be pushed back to that date.
It is not clear how much tax revenue has been delayed by the storms, but the extensions have given the Treasury Department less wiggle room to keep paying the bills.
An update could come this week.
The Treasury Department is expected to send a letter to Congress in the coming days with a more precise estimate of when it could start running out of cash. It could also lay out new measures intended to stave off a default. This year, Yellen announced that she would redeem some existing investments and suspend new investments in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund.
In a speech last week, Yellen warned that a default would have real consequences for the economy.
“Household payments on mortgages, auto loans and credit cards would rise,” Yellen said in remarks to the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce in California. “And American businesses would see credit markets deteriorate.”
She added, “On top of that, it is unlikely that the federal government would be able to issue payments to millions of Americans, including our military families and seniors who rely on Social Security.”
Here’s what the X-date means for negotiations.
As the X-date approaches, it will put more pressure on lawmakers to take action.
Analysts at Beacon Policy Advisors predicted that if a default could really happen as soon as June, that would increase the likelihood that Congress will pass a short-term suspension of the debt limit through October. If the X-date is expected to hit in July, that might compel lawmakers to file legislation by early May so they have sufficient time to deal with procedural obstacles in Congress.
Although markets have broadly remained calm about the prospect of a default, there are some signs that investors are becoming nervous.
They have sold government bonds that mature in three months — around the time policymakers have said the United States could run out of cash — and snapped up bonds with just one month until they are repaid.
The cost of insuring existing bond holdings against the possibility that the United States will default on its debts has also risen sharply. Still, analysts say the market reaction would need to be much more pronounced to force a fast deal.
“This has caused some heartburn among policymakers but not enough to move the negotiating needle in a meaningful way,” the Beacon analysts wrote. “There needs to be a bigger market response and a more definitive X-date to get negotiations going in full.”
That has yet to happen, however. While Biden has indicated he is open to talking with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about ways to get the nation’s fiscal situation on a better track, the two have yet to schedule a meeting after the House passage last week.
Ukrainian units go for counterattack in Bakhmut: Russians leave some positions
Ukrainska Pravda – May 1, 2023
Ukrainian defenders repelled all Russian attacks on the Lyman front and captured 10 occupiers; in Bakhmut, the defence forces made invaders leave some occupied positions with their counterattacks.
Source: Military Media Center citing General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander of the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Quote: “To advance, the enemy uses maximum effort and does not care about anything. Despite significant losses, new assault groups of Wagner, fighters of other private companies, and paratroopers are constantly rushing into battle. But the enemy is unable to take the city (Bakhmut – ed.) under control.
The situation is quite complicated. At the same time, the enemy was counterattacked by our units and left some positions in some parts of the city.”
Details: According to Syrskyi, intensive combat operations continue on the Bakhmut front, but Russians have not succeeded in breaking through the defence of Ukrainian positions.
During the last few days, defenders of Ukraine have repelled numerous assaults on the Lyman direction. Russians were also unable to seize Ukrainian positions. The occupiers suffered losses, and 10 invaders were captured.
Why Republicans Want Voters to Fear Kamala Harris As President
Jessica Washington – May 1, 2023
GREENBELT, MARYLAND – APRIL 25: In this handout image provided by NASA, Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks during a tour of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center with President Yoon Suk Yeol of the Republic of Korea, on April 25, 2023
Just read what she said on Fox News last week; “He announced that he’s running again in 2024, and I think that we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely,” said Haley, 51.
Rather than run against Biden and his record, Republicans like Haley want to make this election about Harris, says Jo Von McCalester, a Political Science Lecturer at Howard University. “To imply that [Biden] is not going to live and if you vote for him, it’s really going to be her,” says McCalester, “is to dog whistle to people that you could end up with a Black woman as President in your country.”
Nina Smith, a political strategist and former senior advisor to Stacey Abrams, agrees with McCalester’s assessment. “It’s definitely the GOP trying to weaponize an inherent bias that we have against women in leadership,” she says.
Ted Cruz Chimes in on Biden’s Age
Haley isn’t the only Republican trying to position this as a race against Harris, not the sitting President. In an interview last week, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz made similar jabs.
“Joe Biden is 142 years old,” said Cruz on Fox News. “Can you imagine Kamala Harris sitting across from Putin or Xi and just cackling?”
The imagery employed by Cruz is very intentional, says McCalester. “The idea of her sitting across from Putin gives two visuals,” she says. “It gives the visuals of a Black person that you don’t believe sounds intelligent enough to sit across from a ‘world power or leader.’ It also harkens to the fact that she’s a woman.”
This isn’t the first time Republicans have tried to make Harris the focus of their attacks on the Biden-Harris ticket, says Cliff Albright, Executive Director of Black Voters Matter Fund, a voting rights organization.
“They tried it to a certain extent in the last presidential election, right? But there, there really wasn’t a consensus on the strategy,” says Albright. “It’s likely to increase this time because now, unlike in 2020, it’s even more clear what Biden’s merits are. They’re starting to realize that we’re gonna have a hard time running against his record.”
Is Making The Election About Harris a Winning Strategy?
The bigger question is whether Republicans can win by making the election about Harris. According to Smith, it might be the most effective tool in their arsenal, especially for someone like Haley.
“Nikki Haley is barely registering in polls. She’s not making up any ground when it comes to beating Donald Trump in a primary,” says Smith. “I think they know they have to split this ticket up… if you split them up, then his age becomes a question, and her experience becomes a question.”
“It’s really pathetic,” says Albright. “It’s a sign that they know they can’t win just on the strength of their case… and so when all else fails in the Republican party, what do they lean on, and the usual answer is good old racism.”
None of these strategies are new, says Albright pointing to the infamous Willie Horton ads used against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. But in the modern era, he argues, they have their limits. “They’re effective to a certain extent with the base, but all recent elections are showing us that it can go only so far,” says Albright, adding. “So, will it be more effective than going after Biden? I think so. Will it be effective enough for them to win? I don’t believe so.”
Hillary Holley, Executive Director of Care in Action, a nonprofit progressive labor organization, and a former Democratic strategist in Georgia, says she doesn’t believe these tactics can win if Progressive groups are on the ground making a case for the administration and Harris’ accomplishments. “People may be concerned that voters may fall for these distractions, these lies,” says Holley. “Our allies have proven that we know how to talk to voters. We can tell voters the truth, and we once we do that massive robust outreach, they end up voting for progress.”
McCalester is more skeptical. This could “absolutely” be a winning message for Republicans, she says. “It’s the we’re gonna appeal to racists, we’re gonna appeal to sexists [strategy],” she says. Unfortunately, it’s worked repeatedly for Republicans, says McCalester, and there’s no reason to think it can’t work again.
US says 20,000 Russians killed in Ukraine war since December
Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller – May 1, 2023
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Thursday, April 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Monday it now estimates that just since December Russia has suffered 100,000 casualties, including more than 20,000 killed, as Ukraine has rebuffed a heavy assault by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.
In what has become a grinding war of attrition, the fiercest battles have been in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russia is struggling to encircle the city of Bakhmut in the face of dogged Ukrainian defense.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. estimate is based on newly declassified American intelligence. He did not detail how the intelligence community derived the number.
Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in November that Russia had suffered well over 100,000 killed or wounded in the first eight months of the war. The new figures suggest that Russian losses have dramatically accelerated in recent months.
Troops from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group and other forces are fighting Ukrainian troops house-to-house to try to gain control of what has become known as the “road of life” — the last remaining road west still in Ukrainian hands, which makes it critical for supplies and fresh troops. Both sides have cited gains in recent days.
Kirby said nearly half those killed since December are Wagner forces, many of them convicts who were released from prison to join Russia’s fight. He said the Wagner forces were “thrown into combat and without sufficient combat or combat training, combat leadership, or any sense of organizational command and control.”
The White House has repeatedly sought to highlight the cost — both human and weaponry — to Russia of Bakhmut, which it argues has limited strategic importance to the overall trajectory of the war. Some analysts, however, note that taking control Bakhmut could be helpful to Russian efforts to advance on the larger cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in the Donetsk region
Kirby said the Russian casualty count for “this little town of Bakhmut” was in line with some of the fiercest periods of fighting during World War II, including the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front, and the Guadalcanal campaign, the first major Allied offensive against Japan.
”It’s three times the number of killed in action that the United States faced on the Guadalcanal campaign in World War II and that was over the course of five months,” Kirby said.
Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the head of Ukrainian ground forces, said Russia continued to exert “maximum effort” to take Bakhmut but that it so far had failed.
“In some parts of the city, the enemy was counterattacked by our units and left some positions,” he said.
Kirby declined to say how many Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded in the fighting. Milley said in November that Ukrainian casualties were probably also about 100,000.
Ukrainian defenders oust Russian forces from some positions in Bakhmut -Ukraine general
Reuters – May 1, 2023
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian service members fire a howitzer D30 at a front line near the city of Bakhmut
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian units have ousted Russian forces from some positions in Bakhmut amid fierce battles, a top Ukrainian general said on Monday, as the White House believes that more than 20,000 Russian fighters have been killed in Ukraine since December.
“The situation (in Bakhmut) is quite difficult,” Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian commander of ground forces, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
“At the same time, in certain parts of the city, the enemy was counterattacked by our units and left some positions” in recent days, he said.
The 10-month-long battle for the eastern Ukrainian city has taken on a symbolic importance for both sides. It has become the fulcrum of a war that has seen little shift in front lines since late 2022, leaving both sides looking for a breakthrough.
On Monday, Russia unleashed a fresh volley of missiles on Ukraine overnight that killed two people in the east, set off huge blazes and damaged dozens of homes and other buildings.
The White House said on Monday that Russia has exhausted its military stockpiles and its armed forces with some 100,000 Russian troops killed or wounded in Ukraine in the past five months. Of the 20,000 killed, half have been from the Wagner Group.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner, said on Telegram on Monday that his fighters needed some 300 tonnes of artillery shells a day for the assault on Bakhmut, but were receiving only a third of that amount.
“Three hundred tonnes a day is 10 cargo containers – not a lot at all,” said Prigozhin, who has often clashed with Russia’s defence establishment over its conduct of the war in Ukraine.
In a separate posting on Monday evening, Prigozhin said his troops had advanced some 120 metres (400 feet) into Bakhmut at the loss of 86 of his fighters.
Syrskyi said that new Russian units are being “constantly thrown into battle for Bakhmut” despite taking heavy losses, Syrskyi said, adding: “But the enemy is unable to take control of the city.”
Russian forces have steadily made incremental gains in Bakhmut, but Ukraine said on Sunday that it was still possible to supply the defenders with food, ammunition and medicine.
Kyiv is widely expected soon to launch a counter-offensive to retake swathes of territory in the east and south that were occupied by Russian forces following the invasion 15 months ago.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Olekshandr Kozhukhar, Ron Popeski and Lidia Kelly; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Gareth Jones, Cynthia Osterman and Michael Perry)
A muddy mess in Ukraine is making trouble for new howitzers so sensitive to dirt they come with their own vacuum cleaners
Jake Epstein – May 1, 2023
Ukrainian army from the 43rd Heavy Artillery Brigade fire the German howitzer Panzerhaubitze 2000, called Tina by the unit, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near Bakhmut, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, February 5, 2023.REUTERS/Marko Djurica
Spring conditions have limited mobility for both Ukrainian and Russian troops.
Ukraine’s recently obtained German-made self-propelled howitzers are particularly vulnerable to mud.
Soldiers have to be very clean and careful when entering the vehicles, The New York Times reported.
Springtime mud is plaguing the war-torn battlefields of eastern Ukraine, creating mobility issues for Russian and Ukrainian forces, slowing down their respective operations. It’s also affecting some weapons.
The state of the terrain is proving to be a hurdle for Kyiv’s troops assigned to a specific piece of military hardware acquired from Germany during winter — German-made 155mm howitzers that are extremely sensitive to the dirty and grimy conditions.
Germany has sent 14 Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, according to an inventory of its military support to Kyiv. These weapons contain electronics that are so vulnerable to dirt and moisture that soldiers have to wear slippers or booties when they enter the vehicles so they don’t track in any mud, the New York Times reported on Monday.
Each howitzer even comes with a vacuum cleaner, and the barrels sometimes have to be cleaned with a long brush. “The Panzer really loves cleanliness,” an artillery commander named Mykola told the Times, referring to a nickname for the Panzerhaubitze. “If you fire off two full loads of ammunition, you need to spend a day servicing it.”
Serhii, a lieutenant with the 43rd Separate Artillery Brigade, even decided to recall the howitzers from the field out of fear that should the machines come under Russian fire, mud will prevent them from escaping the bombardment, the Times reported. In Germany, these vehicles were kept in climate-controlled garages.
That said, the Ukrainian forces operating the German-made howitzers have reportedly seen some successes against Russian tank and infantry units despite the current conditions on the ground.
Ukrainian soldiers from the 43rd Heavy Artillery Brigade drive the German howitzer Panzerhaubitze 2000, called Tina by the unit, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near Bakhmut, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, February 5, 2023.REUTERS/Marko Djurica
It’s not the first time that Ukraine’s forces have dealt with the challenge of weaponry getting stuck in the mud. Units have reported that their Soviet-era T-64 tanks were getting trapped in the sludgy terrain — one of several issues troops found with the decades-old tanks.
Britain’s defense ministry shared in a recent intelligence update that mud was likely impacting operations on both the Russian and Ukrainian side in the wake of the cold winter months, although the surface conditions were expected to improve within a few weeks as the weather gets better.
“With soft ground conditions across most of Ukraine, severe mud is highly likely slowing operations for both sides in the conflict,” the April 21 update read.
Ukrainian forces have been gearing up to launch a much-anticipated counteroffensive against Russia after receiving a massive influx of heavy armor and advanced military hardware from the US and its Western partners. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters last week that nearly all the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine have been delivered, and Ukraine’s defense minister said his country was nearly ready to hit with an “iron fist.”
“That means over 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks and other equipment, including vast amounts of ammunition,” Stoltenberg said of the deliveries. “In total we have trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian armored brigades, this will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory.”
