Silicon Bites #74 - Ukraine Launches Bold Counterattack in Kursk Oblast Surprising Russian Forces

Edition No74 | 05-01-2025 - Ukraine has launched a new offensive in Russia's Kursk Oblast. Early reports on its success are incomplete and mixed. Much of the detail is coming from the Russian Z-blogger community and therefore needs to be view as potentially unreliable. This has not stopped the first media headlines reporting on Ukraine’s surprise counterattack in Kursk today from leading with the reactions of the Russian voices and incorporating their phraseology into article headlines. ---------- SILICON CURTAIN FILM FUNDRAISER A project to make a documentary film in Ukraine, to raise awareness of Ukraine's struggle and in supporting a team running aid convoys to Ukraine's frontline towns. https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extras ---------- Trucks under Christmas Tree https://donorbox.org/trucks-under-christmas-tree/fundraiser/silicon-curtain The Goal of the Campaign for Silicon Curtain: € 10,000 to purchase 1 truck to save Ukrainian lives. ---------- ‘Last ditch attempt’ to catch Russia off guard, and ‘last chance’ to take back land, scream the headlines, directly reflecting quotes from Z-bloggers. But both statements involve massive assumptions, and indeed reflect Russian interests, rather than reality. There’s no way to tell how many new offensives or counter-offensives Ukraine has the resources for, or will have in 3 months’ time, 6 months’ time, etc. Throughout the war, it’s served the interests of Russia to reinforce the myth that it cannot be beaten, that a Russian victory is inevitable, that ever setback for Ukraine is de facto a catastrophe, and every catastrophe for Russia is of no consequence. And many in the media have duly complied, in their use of both explicit and implicit language, to add to this strategic mythology of Russian invincibility, their capacity to apparently tolerate any hardship, and their infinite resources. None of this is of course true. Phrases such as ‘bold’ and ‘surprising’ could equally be applied to the situation, but it seems there is a reflexive bias in the minds of some journalists and policymakers, to automatically position Ukraine as a victim, incapable of achieving victories, and underplay their successes. ---------- NEWS SOURCES: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/05/ukraine-launches-surprise-operation-in-kursk-region-according-to-reports https://www.vietnam.vn/en/tong-thong-ukraine-thong-bao-ton-that-nang-ne-cua-quan-doi-nga-va-trieu-tien-o-kursk/ https://www.politico.eu/article/hundreds-north-korea-troops-dead-kursk-ukraine-war/ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14250611/Putins-forces-slaughtered-attack-Kursk-village.html https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-kursk-losses-2008486 https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/01/05/ukrainian-forces-launch-attacks-in-multiple-directions-in-russias-kursk-oblast-officials-say/ https://kyivindependent.com/russia-claims-2/ ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: Save Ukraine https://www.saveukraineua.org/ Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org NGO “Herojam Slava” https://heroiamslava.org/ kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemysl https://kharpp.com/ NOR DOG Animal Rescue https://www.nor-dog.org/home/ ----------