Putin Strikes Back – Destroys Ukraine’s Intelligence Headquarters

by SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER

For the first time, Putin himself nonchalantly confirmed that Ukraine’s intelligence headquarters were hit:

⚡️⚡️⚡️ A video has leaked to the Internet, where drunk Goncharenko in shorts confirms the hit on the GUR headquarters😱

Many are speculating that this is tied to the big ‘earthquake’ in Kiev that was reported days ago. The common consensus is that there were deep underground bunkers beneath the GUR building where NATO intelligence officers were helping to coordinate the war effort with the GUR/SBU and Russia used some sort of powerful ground-penetrating munition—perhaps a Kinzhal with penetrating head—to hit it.

These theories are further supported by various rumors, like that NATO flights were taking off from Reszow, Poland toward an American military hospital in Berlin:

‼️Rybalsky melted in the bloody fog…

My source in Kyiv said that as a result of a strike on a military facility on Rybalsky Island, one of the control centers was hit. With the beginning of the air raid, the personnel of the center descended into the shelter, but the Russian Aerospace starwars Forces used a missile with a penetrating warhead, which pierced through the building, penetrated the foundation and exploded, destroying the shelter, where at that moment there were up to a hundred officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and civilian personnel, including twenty foreign military from the USA and Great Britain, who interacted between the Center and similar Western headquarters. A rescue operation was immediately launched. Its results are unknown, but, according to the call center of the Kyiv “Ambulance”, more than ten cars were immediately pulled there and about thirty flights were made. On the same evening, two helicopters urgently took off from Kyiv towards the border with Poland.

Rybar states the following:

The vague statements of the Ukrainian authorities and the very confused attack on Moscow in order to break the news coverage confirm the version about the exact hit of the Russian troops. According to some reports, more than 30 members of the SMM were wounded in varying degrees of severity as a result of the attack.

And that is not all: Yesterday, 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.

Now, I’m going to go through this piece by piece because there is a lot of circumstantial evidence.

Firstly, the Rybalsky area is seen here on the map of Kiev. The red arrow is pointing to the Gavansky/Havansky bridge.

 
The white building on the top of this image is the GUR headquarters. Here’s another satellite view from above:

 
If you want to follow along, plug these geolocation coordinates into google maps: 50.47141384333114, 30.528840685203477

So, the first interesting thing is that, we do have confirmation that the Havansky bridge is in fact suddenly closed, or was as of yesterday, blocking access from getting to the isolated part of the district where the headquarters building is located:

Putin: #Russia attacked #Ukrainian military intelligence headquarters (GUR) a few days ago in #Kiev. “We have already talked about the possibilities of striking at decision-making centers.” Footage shows Havana bridge that leads to GUR HQ. It has been closed last 2 days.

In Kyiv, the Havansky Bridge, which connects Rybalsky Island with Podil, has been blocked for traffic since the morning. Yesterday and last night the enemy worked on the island… And on the island there is an office of the Main Intelligence Directorate and the Kuznya plant. Of course, there is no information about the results and possible arrivals at these objects, but … remember Budanov’s angry video, where the mask of composure could hardly hide the anger. I don’t think it just happened.

👉 Ukrainian Post

First, here is how the frontage of the GUR HQ building looks from google maps in its normal state, as viewed from Rybalsky street which goes along the Havana bridge:

 
And here is an archived photo that appears to show the rear portion whose orientation would be looking from northwest towards southeasterly direction:

 
Now, the new photos which have appeared show the building looking as follows:

 
Clearly it’s been badly burned and a portion of it covered with some type of construction covering to conceal the damage. A few important things to note, which will play a role in the analysis:

• Note the roof, there appears to be some damaged equipment which is now lopsided as if it was torn off its supports by a powerful blast or shake
• Note how a building in the distant background also appears to have windows blown out and possibly charred
• Note how the GUR HQ itself, its greatest visible damage actually appears not at the top, where you would expect a missile to come in from, but rather a set of windows much lower down on what looks like the 4th or 5th floor (click on the image to open a larger version)

Most of the black smoke/fire damage does appear to have poured from that floor.

Now this is most peculiar because a missile entering from the roof or top floors would likely create the most damage at the top, not at the lower or middle floors. So this could give credence to the theories that in fact an underground bunker beneath the building was blown up, whose fires and damage spread upward through the building.

And the evidence for that is two new satellite photos showing a before and after from days prior to the strike and immediately after the strike:

 
Photo on the left is 5/25, on the right is 5/30. When you look closely the difference is the appearance of a lightened area right at the point of the GUR HQ building that many are interpreting as being ‘upturned earth’ or a large hole in the ground.

 
I’ve pored over higher quality zoomed in versions and, personally, I’m not as convinced. What it looks to me is not like upturned earth but rather a satellite photo taken at a different part of the day (morning) whereby the light is striking the building adjacent directly to the west of the HQ building, lighting up its easterly-facing facade, and making a ‘highlight’ of that sort. I could be wrong, of course, but that’s what I’m seeing. I have seen similar attack profiles, i.e. a building that looks a bit burned out but not destroyed. This has previously been the result of Geran drone attacks which don’t quite have the penetrative power of a missile due to their slow speed. But for that to be the case, the Geran would had to have hit the building from the other side we’re not seeing, or something like that.

Either way, it is an odd strike. The building appears damaged “from below” rather than above, and does coincide with a huge ground-rumbling earthquake which was said to have come from some underground explosion. Rumors of NATO generals being ferried now abound, though I take those as low confidence.

Popular Russian frontline correspondent, Rudenko V., claims to have insider info:

Rudenko V: “According to my information, a headquarters was set up in Kiev, which included the Western curators of the operation in Ukraine. The second time we hit the bull’s eye. The first time such a headquarters was destroyed by “Daggers” in the Lviv region, then about two hundred foreign soldiers were killed.”

Now, of course, there are the obligatory rumors that GUR head Budanov is missing and some claiming he was killed in the strike. Just recently coming off from the Zaluzhny debacle, I remain skeptical. But it’s definitely possible and we’ll just have to wait for any further information and see. After all, aspiring Bond-villain Budanov is a camera whore that loves making idle threats and zinging Russians so it is very odd that he’s suddenly so quiet. Recall, that after the previous round of strikes, the righteously indignant Budanov immediately recorded a threatening video, which I posted last time, where he told Russia that something is coming “soon” for them. One would think that after a hit completely burns out his HQ he would at least make some kind of retort, no?

Anyway, there’s a lot of funny business around this attack. For instance, Patriot missiles were similarly recorded falling from the skies in an area that appears to be near the HQ, as one can see something that could be the bridge in the background:

 
The middle fins look slightly different, leading to some disagreement. However, this could be a product of visual distortion of various characteristics, like speed of object, camera settings, and foreshortening of the missile in relation to the viewer.

The fact is, it fits every single other alternative even much less. Only BUK-2 missile comes close yet the one in the freeze-frame still fits Pac-3 better. Myself and others have compared it to every other possible missile type, including potential Russian cruise missiles, and it matches none of them. There could even be slightly damage or bending of a fin that could make it look slightly different. Also, the missile is coming straight down in a ballistic arc, which cruise missiles generally don’t do, and would come in at a diagonal trajectory. The only other thing that could come down in such a arc is a failing AD missile that’s gone haywire.

But the fact is, other videos and photos of crashed Pac-3 missiles now abound from all over Kiev, so it raises the probability that this one is a Pac-3 as well. For instance:

 
What’s interesting is the above was geolocated to right near the Rybalsky district as well:

 
So are these the failed Patriots which tried to stop the strike on the GUR HQ?

 
These Patriots really aren’t doing well, but there are clearly still some left at least.

@Stellarman22 did a deep dive on Twitter and estimates the following:

Why I am high confidence:

– Sat imagery confirms crater anomaly

– Bridge has been closed for 2 days

– Reports of construction equipment in area

– Direct statement by Putin

– SBU freaking out and arresting anyone that films anything

– Kiev Shaking 5/28

He’s right on the above, the SBU has now launched into an even more rabid pursuit of anyone filming arrivals. Not only have multiple new people been arrested (this is on top of the 32+ arrested during Kiev strikes last week which I already reported on), but Kiev’s webcams are now being mercilessly hunted:

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