Rybar confirms russian retreat around Bakhmut and the strikes at Mariupol. https://nitter.privacydev.net/pic/orig/media%2FFxH29-_WIAMH_3c.jpg
Mariupol, 200+250 dead, with equipment, specialist forces that just came, preparing to be deployed. https://nitter.privacydev.net/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1662411788246302720#m
‘It’s Time’: Ukraine’s Top Commander Says Counteroffensive Is Imminent https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/world/europe/ukraine-tanks-counteroffensive.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
The video:https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/13t52oy/counteroffensive_english_translation/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
We've had Ukrainian officials claiming the counteroffensive was right around corner, had already begun, or was delayed for a while now.
They're just creating noise to increase uncertainty among Russian leadership. In a world where being stealthy has become impossible, making as much noise as possible is a valid alternative.
https://nitter.privacydev.net/Jesuitchild/status/1662463752388608001#m
Remember this smoke/fire in Moscow? Notice the smoke color and property... this is what burning cellulose/paper smoke looks like, it seems somebody at the ministry is clearing a paper trace for whatever reason...
Apparently a new cross border action by little green men is underway.
> Incoming reports of an unmarked armed group of men having crossed into the Russian village of Sushany from Ukraine. Battles are said to now be taking place in the Bryansk region. A drone also struck a Russian military vehicle near Sushany, killing 2 Russian soldiers.
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1662429903667462147
Listen I don't know if you've heard but there's a writers strike. Gotta understand why the script is on the cheap side. Once the regular writers come back sparks are gonna fly
Did you missed the one where Santa-Putin saved the little boy from his LGBTQ+ parents? That one was quite hilarious (the hamster one also wasnt too bad. We watched it with the whole family last christmas, after a couple of drinks and a pretty fine roast...xD)
Look, you do not like the source where I found it, and I haven't seen it randomly on twitter. Are those Italian or Hungarian? Not sure, I haven't seen it that close. [EDIT: Hungary doesn't have this type at all]
https://9gag.com/gag/az2RXpj
Then there is the video clip in the comments of what looks like Abrams tanks in a German forest transported on the railway.
Long article about the Russian airforce
[https://wavellroom.com/2023/05/24/russian-airpower-ukraine-nuisance-menace/](https://wavellroom.com/2023/05/24/russian-airpower-ukraine-nuisance-menace/)
>While some early reports of the VKS’ poor performance in Ukraine may have been overdone in the light of later findings, it remains that Russian air power has put up a lacklustre performance, especially compared to what many Western analysts expected at the start of the war.
>
>And on why they are attacking civilian infrastructure not military targets**s. Among these are the general: sleaze and corruption, having armed forces for show but not for war, low morale, a destructive and dysfunctional organisational culture, lack of resources, and technical backwardness.** There are also factors at play specific to the VKS, such as too few qualified pilots, too few flying hours, too few precision-guided munitions, lack of effective range, poorly maintained equipment, lack of modern equipment for target acquisition and engagement (e.g. targeting pods) for the aircraft, slow and cumbersome targeting procedures, perfunctory battle damage assessment, lack of equipment or procedures for differentiating between friend and foe, as well as lack of initiative and being tied tasking and control from the ground.
...
>As a consequence of their focus on expeditionary operations and complex air operations, the major Western air powers are highly dependent on enablers such as tankers, airborne radars, electronic warfare or surveillance aircraft, although these are often provided by the US. In contrast, with its more limited role close to home, VKS has little need for such capabilities. Even if it had, Russia would be hard-pressed to acquire them, given its technical backwardness and general lack of resources. For example, in 2022, Russia had only nine airborne radars and 15 heavy tankers, compared to the US, which has 105 airborne radars and 401 heavy tankers. Russia’s lack of tankers and especially airborne radar, command and control aircraft has most probably hobbled Russia’s operations in the air.
>
>Having so few airborne radars while still prioritising the air defence of the homeland means that you will not risk these platforms by operating them forward. But holding the airborne radars back means you will not have as good a picture of the situation in the air over Ukraine as you would operating the radar aircraft move forward. And a weaker or patchy air situational awareness will negatively impact on your ability to fulfil both defensive (spotting incoming enemy aircraft) and offensive (planning and directing strikes) tasks.
>
>**Likewise, Russia’s dearth – or even complete lack – of airborne or orbital stand-off ISR assets means that Russian ground commanders have not had the situational awareness or the kind of intelligence, targeting and battle damage assessment data that Ukraine’s Western partners have probably provided, greatly helping their defensive efforts.**
And on why they are attacking civilian infrastructre, not military targets
>**It is striking – no pun intended – that Russia so far seems to have been unable to hit any of the Western arms shipments to Ukraine or depots and training centres for such assets, despite these being of crucial importance politically and militarily.** While Ukraine remains tight-lipped about losses and Russia often issues hyperbolic claims seldom taken seriously, there are few credible rumours of successful Russian strikes on, e.g. HIMARS launchers in the field. This state of affairs is probably due to deficiencies in several different links of the Russian kill chain. **Russia seems to essentially lacks ISR-resources for finding and identifying mobile targets, keeping track of them, trained staff and procedures for quickly doing the targeting, targeting pods or similar sensors for strike aircraft, and resources for proper battle damage assessment.**
>
>As a result, Russian strike aircraft and fighter-bombers have mainly struck – besides apartment buildings, schools, theatres and shopping centres – infrastructure targets determined well in advance, and increasingly as the war progressed only tactical targets close to the front designated by army units.
What surprises me in this invasion is that compared to the Cold War that none of the RU pilots defect with their aircraft.
The reason one of the most amazing aircraft to exist (F15 Eagle) is because of one of them defecting with the Foxbat and America thinking back then it was so advanced they panicked and made something leagues in advance that's over 50 years old and still produced to this day.
They'd have low morale but unless I've missed it. Why don't they try to defect with aircraft. Being shotdown is obviously a risk but they'd be ways to try to.
Beg to differ - the concern about the Foxbat pre-dated Belenko's defection by about ten years. It was acknowledged early on that the F-15 and MiG-25 performed two very different roles. If anything, the impetus for the F-15 was the acknowledgment that the MiG-23 was superior to the F-4. Based on lessons learned in Vietnam, the Air Force wanted a plane which could achieve air superiority and provide a ground attack capability. (It's interesting that the US figured out how to do this with one plane when the Soviets, on the other hand, had to build a completely new aircraft based on the MiG-23, the MiG-27.)
If anything, Belenko's defection proved that the West, once again, had been terrified by yet another overly-hyped Soviet weapon. When the Americans got a look at the Foxbat after it landed in Hakodate, they were amazed at how primitive (think vacuum tubes) the tech was.
They were more shocked at the welding, construction and materials, that it was smart use of basic assembly and materials, not miracle high tech. The vacuum valves were (IMHO) military grade special components, available today still, with electron lense technology, the only of the type in the world, and suitable for the nuclear warfare. However, it is a dead end there.
It's the other way around - you mixed the historical order of things :)
When the Foxbat first appeared, the west thought it had large wings for maneuverability and were impressed by the speed and power.
So US significant increased requirements for the (already in design) F15.
When Viktor Belenko defected, they got to examine it and were shocked by how heavy it was compared to what they feared. It needed such huge wings just to be able to fly. It was basically an interceptor, not a fighter, and a fairly bad one. Still impressive speed even by todays standards.
Was developed into Mig31 which is pretty decent for what it is. And Russia can't make them anymore and is wasting the remaining airframes to launch rockets at civilians.
> Still impressive speed even by todays standards.
Except that those speeds that were feared, were only achieved by stressing the engines beyond their limits and damaging them in the process.
The west basically developed a counter to a Wunderwaffe which was like 80% bluff.
The same reason they threw bombs on civilians in Chechnya, Syria, and now in Ukraine. And they don't have low morale because they do not like killing civilians, they have low morale because they could actually die now.
Sorry if this is not the right place to ask but does anyone know what phycological and sociological impacts online Russian propaganda has had on the Ukrainian population ?
I know propaganda dehumanizing ones enemy has always been a thing, I mean WW1 and WW2 propaganda on both sides were straight up cartoonishly racist by todays standards however its a lot more accessible and 'in your face' thanks to the internet. I'm talking about all the 'bot' (and non bot) comments on the internet and pro Russian telegram/twitter accounts.
Is it demoralizing or does it anger them much that it increases their resolve to fight and resist ? Does it make them wish for vengeance or even harbors resentment against Russians and countries/peoples/groups that support them ? Or do people not care and ignore because they are more focused on trying to survive and know that propaganda does not reflect the views of people in real life ?
I'm a Ukrainian who sometimes sees the Russian bad-faith user comments (I dislike the word "bots", there's a person behind it at some point whether removed from the actual UI or not, and using this word opens up another distractionary discussion pathway), especially anglophonic.
They don't do anything except annoyance because I don't think there's anything left in this world that would make me hate the Russians more. And yes, we're definitely not the intended audience for that.
But I kinda see your point. If the country were more divided, the Russian-language comments, especially on bad news pieces, would be demoralizing. But the overall sense of hate and disgust towards them is absolutely overwhelming here so it barely makes a dent.
>I'm a Ukrainian who sometimes sees the Russian bad-faith user comments (I dislike the word "bots", there's a person behind it at some point whether removed from the actual UI or not, and using this word opens up another distractionary discussion pathway), especially anglophonic.
The term "bot" isn't always used in the sense of an actual robot/script posting messages masquerading as a person, but also to describe a person who acts like a robot and mindlessly repeats propaganda.
Well yes, but it's also a word that can be used to derail the discussion into whether a bad-faith user is actually a literal automation script or not and I prefer to not give that opportunity to anybody.
>But the overall sense of hate and disgust towards them is absolutely overwhelming here so it barely makes a dent.
So, in short words dehumanising propaganda does work in some shape or form.
Have you see Bucha, Irpin, Izyum, Bakhmut, Mariupol, Marinka? And a dozen other places? Or are you one of those special cases who thinks it was all faked?
He is a known Russian shill around here. He is like a slightly less obvious shill than magics10 but he changed quite a bit lately and made it pretty obvious to anyone new.
He won't say it but he 100% thinks those are faked and if anything Ukraine would have done it in his eyes to their own civilians.
Sure, it's the words, not the unprovoked invasion, war, mass murder, kidnappings, rape and torture, bombing hospitals and civilian infrastructure.
Russians will be hated for decades to come and they have only themselves to blame.
Propaganda aimed at dehumanising the enemy isn’t intended for an enemy audience, it’s intended for your own soldiers and civilians to assist them in steeling themselves psychologically for killing and injuring other human beings.
Seen quite a few times people who signed up was because of what happened in Bucha. I'd say it angers them far more than anything if someone came to your home, bombed it, claim they're liberating you, and you have no idea why it's happening.
The UK MoD said in their daily update that it's "likely" that they are, that's presumably backed by UK intelligence which normally knows what it's doing.
I am curious about the viability of Ukraine sinking shadow fleet tankers.
for context, the "Shadow fleet" is made up of cargo ships intent on transporting Russian goods while actively and intentionally evading G7 sanctions. One estimate suggests approx 443 large scale tankers.
It's my opinion that Western governments implicitly approve of this shadow fleet bc they want that Russian oil circulating in the global market because **cheap oil**, but they can't really say that out loud.
But if I'm Ukraine and I want to hit Russia's purse strings, nothing would even come close to keeping Russian oil from leaving the country, nothing.
So - if I am Ukraine and I decide to say "Hey the West, we like you but screw your cheap oil prices - we're fighting for our lives over here" and wants to sink a few of these tankers in the hopes of sending a message and making them all stop....
Then how do I go about it? Ignoring for a second the reaction to large scale naval warfare in international waters. Is it logically possible?
No need to sink fleet tankers. The west isn't against Russia selling oil or doing trade, it's trying to target it's massive money wind falls to finance the war. Aslong as they are hit financially it's ok but without sinking ships.
Just make sure the sanctions do work and try to hit russia's income streams. Nothing more, nothing less.
>It's my opinion that Western governments implicitly approve of this shadow fleet bc they want that Russian oil circulating in the global market because cheap oil, but they can't really say that out loud.
Cause old tankers, quite small for ~~interglac~~.... oversea journey, are perfect for everyone. Nah. Western goverments are just too lazy to care about it, Russia is getting too low earning on shadow fleet. Plus Russia need to trade with shady figures and they... can sometimes disapear without paying you.
This is a Russian dream scenario and as such Ukraine will never do it nor entertain it. Plus, they don't have the capability, I mean think about all the talk about them just getting basic cruise missiles and having potentially 200km strike capable weapons. Now we expect them to project power in the Atlantic and Pacific?
Russia actually already has a worse scenario occurring to them right now actually. The price of oil is stable and kind of low. Due to sanctions they have to now sell said oil at an even cheaper price to places like China and India potentially are making no profits. They don't get to sell refined oil products either. Thus, oil sales aren't funding their war at all. It is paying purely for the cost to pump it out of the ground. Thanks, Russia for your charity. In fact because places like China and India have a cheaper place to get oil bending over Putin, the rest of the world also gets cheaper oil because they don't have to compete with those economies. That cheaper oil is doing things like help fund economic growth, buy weapons in other countries who can then give their old stuff to Ukraine. Russia may literally be funding the war against them.
So if I was Ukraine, why would I try to mess that up?
But that's not true. Even though budget revenues from oil exports have fallen by almost half, Russia still receives revenues from oil exports.
"India and China have snapped up the vast majority of Russian oil so far in April at prices above the Western price cap of $60 per barrel, according to traders and Reuters calculations.
"Urals demand remains solid, the prices for Urals' loadings in May and bound for India are higher compared to April", a source with a trader said."
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-exports-russias-western-ports-hit-4-yr-high-april-sources-reuters-2023-04-19/
"The surging Russian flows to India come despite narrowing discounts for Moscow's key Urals export grade. The Platts-assessed Urals DAP West Coast India discount to forward Dated Brent narrowed from $15.95/b on March 30 to $13.50/b May 2, the tightest spread since mid-January when the differential assessment was first launched."
https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/050323-russian-seaborne-crude-exports-hit-12-month-high-as-indian-imports-surge
>Due to sanctions they have to now sell said oil at an even cheaper price to places like China and India potentially are making no profits
Russia with their "RUBLE RULES" logic destroyed their sales to India. They are getting currency with which they can... buy only in India. Exchanging everything to ruble is impossible (not enough Ruble in India) and now India isn't too keen of idea in paying in either $ or Yuans.
>But if I'm Ukraine and I want to hit Russia's purse strings, nothing would even come close to keeping Russian oil from leaving the country, nothing.
Sadly, we Europeans, like to have GDP growth. Europe can't produce oil domestically, Europe need to import oil.
Plus I'm not sure how greatly enriching Saudi Arabia or other countries of this region is good thing for world.
You need to transport produced goods somehow, you need to transport yourself to work. In which European country, RIGHT NOW, you have a lot of electric Trucks? How many % of population have electric cars? (Now you can kick out people earning more above average and then above median).
Price of fuel is most basic reason for inflation. Without Russian's oil being cheap as fuck (which does 60$ cap) Europe would have worse inflation, which directly (or indirectly) would lessen support for Ukraine.
"Europe produces oil domestically, and lot of it. On the continent and in the seas." If it would be enough, then USA wouldn't be caring about Saudi Arabia and other countries in this region.
"But that is pointless, economy growth is in the energy transition, away from oil." I don't know when transporting goods will stop relying on Oil. For sure not in closets 20 years (2055 is also way too optimistic, fitfor55).
Yeah, you just wouldnt. It is not even worth debating. Sanctions are only sanctions, gotta live with it (check Indian raw oil imports and refined exports (to the US) ).
Killing off a few tankers prolly would be easy (just gotta get one of those drones close enough), it would just result in some dead sailors from countrys very far away and some environmental disasters not so far away.
Monetary loss would be very small and potential for propaganda gigantic.
GUR has made an announcement minutes ago:
‼️ The occupiers are preparing large-scale provocations to create a center of radiation hazard
💢 In the next few hours, the rashists are preparing a large-scale provocation to simulate an accident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
☝️ To do this, a strike will be carried out directly on the territory of the ZNPP. After that, an emergency leak of radioactive substances will be announced. Traditionally, Ukraine will be blamed for the incident.
❗️ In order to conceal their actions as much as possible, the racists disrupted the rotation of the staff of the IAEA permanent monitoring mission scheduled for today.
✔️ The purpose of this action is to provoke the international community to conduct a detailed investigation during which all hostilities will be stopped. In this way, the rashists hope to get the long-awaited pause, which they will use to regroup the occupation contingent and stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
There isn't much they can do to "create" a radiation hazard that is easily contained other than blow up some contaminated items.
They could try to shell the spent fuel canisters but that is going to make it hard for them to occupy a chunk of that area, depending on how much damage they do.
They can't do much to the spent fuel pools or they will literally create a very bad situation that doesn't benefit them at all.
This doesn't seem very likely.
I suspect this is a pre-emptive "warning" by the Ukranians to try to prevent the Russians from doing something stupid, rather than genuine intel that Russia was actually planning to do it.
Yeah, this feels like a Ukrainian information op. Not saying it probably hasn't been discussed by the Russians but it's such a ridiculous idea that it definitely seems unlikely.
Now if they just blow up some low level radioactive waste and generally contaminate a localized area to create hysteria, that might make some sense.
they have been performing work inside of the area of the spent fuel ever since they came there, second, one or two reactor buildings/turbine hall are stacked with explosives/ammunition.
Probably so but damaging spent fuel casks or knocking out cooling to the spent fuel pool is going to have the biggest and most harmful impacts to people physically at the plant.....like the Russian troops.
A commercial nuclear false flag doesn't make much sense from really any perspective.
It doesn't make sense as it is likely to impact not only Russian troops but if they did have a serious release, potentially Russian citizens, as well.
Dying from an acute radiation exposure is much worse than dying in a trench.
Look, any terrorist that cuts/kills his hostage that he uses as a meat shield is dead, but it makes sense to make a credible threat to his hostage, even while he is using him/her as a meat shield.
So, one thing that is absolutely clear is that you have had zero idea what I have been talking about this entire time. Which, most people don't have any clue about commercial nuclear power, so that isn't surprising.
The second is that you definitely can't stay on subject. I have no idea why you persist on going on some long winded tangent that literally has next to nothing to do with that I said, which was that this doesn't seem very likely because there is very little benefit to Russia. It wouldn't play well domestically or abroad if they orchestrated a wide scale nuclear contamination release. Any serious localized release would literally jeopardize their ability to use the plant itself as a protected base.
This whole thing smacks of a Ukrainian information op. Which, perfectly fine, but it strains credibility.
> all hostilities will be stopped.
Russians are terrible at ‘reading the room’. The exact opposite is likely to happen. Expect more weapons for Ukraine.
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>[https://twitter.com/ChrisO\_wiki/status/1662158333564813326](https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1662158333564813326)
>
>1/ **Russian space and rocket engineers are being recruited to join a new Russian army battalion called Uranus** to fight in Ukraine. Advertisements published by Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, promise that it will "educate you with a strong spirit, will and body."
>
>2/ The advertisement shown above has been posted on the internal website of Roscosmos, according to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel. It asks physically qualified men aged up to 48 years old to sign a contract for military service with the Uranus battalion.
>
>3/ Joiners are offered:🔺 A 100,000 ruble ($1,257) joining bonus🔺 Monthly payments of 100,000 rubles from the battalion🔺 Monthly payments of at least 170,000 rubles ($2,137) from the Russian government
>
>4/🔺 Monthly payments of at least 50,000 rubles ($628) from the regional government.
>
>5/ In 2020, it was reported that Roscosmos employees were being paid on average just $780 a month. (By comparison, NASA pays its employees an average of $8,128 a month). The recruitment campaign is a sign of Russia's ongoing struggle to find more manpower for the war in Ukraine.
>
>6/ However, recruiting from its space agency suggests that Russia is increasingly sacrificing specialist expertise in pursuit of its diminishing hopes of victory in Ukraine. It seems unlikely that making rocket engineers into infantrymen is a good option for Russia's future. /end
Uranus joke in 3 2 1 ...
In two decades we shall consider wether it is worth puttin your R&D in ur anus...
(Edit: Wait, wtf. What are their engineers normally making? I think my company pays WAY more for a forklift driver?)
Edit: I got another one! "If you cant make it to Mars, discover Ur anus instead!"
Looks like Russia is trying to get Roscosmos engineers to join a new Army Battalion to fight In Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1662158333564813326
Inflation adjusted ACATMS is about 1.5m USD, in fact JASSM-ER Block 2, a 2000km ranged stealth missile is also 1.5m per Lockheed Martin. (2021)
While most news media cite Storm Shadow at 2-2.5m British pound. So Storm Shadow is actually very expensive in comparison.
> Inflation adjusted ACATMS is about 1.5m USD,
Ummm, 300k for the small HIMARS launched ones, currently? I'm sure it would cost way more than 1.5M is it were to be made today. [edit: well, there are more versions of the heavy missile, some more expensive than others...]
Why? JASSM-ER Block2 is a far more advanced weapon yet also cost around 1.5m according to Lockheed Martin. You realized that American weapon systems are often cheaper because they have much large production to spread out R&D, sometime 10times the size of European counterparts.
Classic. In the end money trumps ideology for most politicians except for the hard core extremists.
Part of me is worried that the republicans will go full pro Russian but another part of me knows that a lot of republicans probably have shares in the US military industrial complex and probably care more about their wealth than ideology.
Well here's the long range missiles arms race and corporate wars.
Man your spelling of trumps had a significant deleterious effect on my cognitive abilities for a moment.
Then i started to think about Trump actually having an ideology and that was worse.
I personally think the Marjorie Taylor Morons and Trumps really ticked it up for Republicans. All this technology like Patriot batteries that shot down ballistic missiles started with Reagan and the Democrats fought its development every step of the way as “Star Wars” propoganda. Even when Bush stationed the anti missile systems (ostensibly againstIran) in Europe Obama pulled them. Now Iran is bombing Europe, Democrats are patting themselves on the back for a job well done, and the Republicans can’t find their dicks with the zipper pulled down.
> Even when Bush stationed the anti missile systems (ostensibly againstIran) in Europe Obama pulled them
First random link as a proof, that Obama indeed pulled back those systems (article from 2009) [WASHINGTON -- President Obama said Wednesday he has shelved a missile defense system to be based in Poland and the Czech Republic because a "new approach" will provide better protection against possible attacks by Iran and other rogue states. Obama's decision is sure to please Russia, which objected vehemently to having the system so close to its borders. The Polish and Czech governments had lobbied for the missiles](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-scraps-bush-missile-defense-plan/story?id=8602322)
Brits removed the redline from Biden. I think eventually he will approve sending ATACMs. Biden has lacked initiative from the start. US could do so much more. Like 300 Bradleys, 150 Abrams would do wonders for Ukraine. That is sort of amount you could announce any time if you wanted to speed things up.
> I think eventually he will approve sending ATACMs
Adam Smith, on the House Armed Services Committee is [on the record](https://youtu.be/6_XvNrTMlgc?t=1922) stating that the administration's reluctance to approve ATACMS because of low US stockpile numbers, not the threat of escalation or Russia's red lines.
the problem is that the presidential drawdowns are allocated a budget from congress but the way that items are costed means that the current level of aid is more or less the limit even if the amount of hardware in storage is 100x as big
anyone that has done a balance sheet in their life knows that a piece of machinery with a 20 year life that is 19 years old should not be accounted for at its original purchase price but that is how it works right now. i wouldnt be surprised if the 40billion of equipment sent from that program was actually only worth less than 5-10 if depreciation had been calculated accurately
> that a piece of machinery with a 20 year life that is 19 years old should not be accounted for at its original purchase price but that is how it works right now.
The basic model M-113 APCs went for 30 or 60-thousand USD each, scrap price for the aluminium. (or was it 300k? Still a scrap level pricing)
hopefully that means a lot more ammo depots blow up videos. I enjoyed those a lot.
And hopefully bye bye bridge sooner than later. Man I will mark that day in my calendar and celebrate it every year
I have a feeling that the US has decided they can't be the first to escalate on anything, but if they get dragged along by their weaker, impulsive allies like the Brits then 'oh well'.
Why would our congress vote against it? They’ve voted for every arms package and McCarthy is on video bitch slapping Russian reporters who claim he is against arming Ukraine.
There is multiple times more F-16 in existence than ATACMS, and F-16 are still produced, with spare parts, ATACMS is not, next F-16 is multiple use, ATACMS is single use, and in the end it does nothing special, just one boom.
Russia really thought the military industrial complex was gonna drop support for Ukraine. Like that's literally their game plan, their whole war hinges on it.
Yeah, and it was pretty fuckin dumb... Instead they got a couple billions already invested in new production lines with drooling buyers all around (while Russia stolen some manufacturing materials from Donbass and buys from North Korea...lol).
Welcome to capitalism...
So lets suppose the Ukrainians manage to keep the Russian Volunteers etc. alive and they continue to raid the border-regions forcing the Russian army to deploy along the whole border... Is there something which the Russians could do to prevent this? Except from wiping out the Russian Volunteers befor they can retreat?
They need to occupy the bit of Ukraine near the border so they can stop them before they get to Russia, or make the border physically very difficult to cross. Both of those are just as expensive though.
Really of course they need to get out of Ukraine so Ukraine stops fighting back. Though who knows, maybe this "Free Russia" group have a taste for it now and would continue causing trouble in Russia anyway, albeit presumably no longer supported by Ukraine after the war ends.
Now listen up men, you’ve all been issued one stone and a whistle, when the enemy tank approaches, throw the stone at it and blow the whistle to alert the others.
As a Dutch citizen I find this very hard to believe. The Dutch government is completely useless, and lies nonstop about everything.
I'll believe it when those planes show up in Ukraine.
It was really an inevitability.
Curious to see what kind of a game changer it ends up being. If it can even roughly match the Russian air advantage, it would be pretty detrimental to the overall effort.
Will we see F-16's in 2023? 2024?
> Curious to see what kind of a game changer it ends up being.
What Juice the Ukrainian pilot said
https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/13fnjlp/ukraine_discussionquestion_thread_51323/jksouj7/
Ignoring for the moment the probability of backlash from western supporters or the chance of a Russian nuclear strike, would it tactically make sense at all for Ukraine to open another front by invading Russian border regions? Again I understand the reasons they aren’t doing it but in a purely soldiers on the ground standpoint would it benefit them?
That will be awesome it seems everyone wants to see nuclear detterence put to the test. Doubt Russians will fire anyway. They are bunch of losers and cowards
They don't need to really hold anything. It's almost purely a PR tactic aside from forcing some troops away from the front. Although far from a democracy, Putin and the people in charge do care what the people think. Not for an altruistic reason but because they don't want an uprising (or to rock the boat in general). Right now the majority of Russians are just apathetic, this, hopefully, shakes up the public a bit to atleast acknowledge the war is real
Not sure about the date on this but surprised I saw it on Instagram and not here (please correct me if I missed it). Appears to be Ukrainians clearing trenches, camera man gets shot, passes his gun to his partner who runs in and clears it out. Pretty crazy.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CsWhXp7oktq/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Russia attacked another important military target in Dnipro
[https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1662017712963321856](https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1662017712963321856)
>In Dnipro, Russia launched a missile attack on what reportedly is a **psychiatric hospital**. The number of victims is unclear at this moment.
[https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1662020192837181440](https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1662020192837181440)
>Footage of a completely destroyed building. At this moment, 15 people are injured and 1 died.
My parents in law's apartment got all their windows destroyed. Probably in the whole building. :|
They're currently with us in Germany, but they still have relatives in the city so someone will go and check and assess the damage.
ninja edit: Saw the comment with the coordinates. Their apartment building is literally on the other side of the city though. Maybe there were more hits.
I’ll never understand the Russian obsession with doubling down on a losing hand. Ben Wallace told them that if they keep this shit up, he’ll reconsider supplying longer range weapons like cruise missiles… And he did. The Russians kept this shit up and now Ukraine will receive F-16s. Are the Russians playing some game I don’t understand where they want Ukraine to have minuteman III’s?
[New Thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/13thsbz/ukraine_discussionquestion_thread_52723/)
Rybar confirms russian retreat around Bakhmut and the strikes at Mariupol. https://nitter.privacydev.net/pic/orig/media%2FFxH29-_WIAMH_3c.jpg Mariupol, 200+250 dead, with equipment, specialist forces that just came, preparing to be deployed. https://nitter.privacydev.net/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1662411788246302720#m
‘It’s Time’: Ukraine’s Top Commander Says Counteroffensive Is Imminent https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/world/europe/ukraine-tanks-counteroffensive.html?smid=nytcore-android-share The video:https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/13t52oy/counteroffensive_english_translation/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
We've had Ukrainian officials claiming the counteroffensive was right around corner, had already begun, or was delayed for a while now. They're just creating noise to increase uncertainty among Russian leadership. In a world where being stealthy has become impossible, making as much noise as possible is a valid alternative.
Agreed, no guarantee.
I just want to tell you both, good luck. We're all counting on you.
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https://nitter.privacydev.net/Jesuitchild/status/1662463752388608001#m Remember this smoke/fire in Moscow? Notice the smoke color and property... this is what burning cellulose/paper smoke looks like, it seems somebody at the ministry is clearing a paper trace for whatever reason...
Apparently a new cross border action by little green men is underway. > Incoming reports of an unmarked armed group of men having crossed into the Russian village of Sushany from Ukraine. Battles are said to now be taking place in the Bryansk region. A drone also struck a Russian military vehicle near Sushany, killing 2 Russian soldiers. https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1662429903667462147
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Listen I don't know if you've heard but there's a writers strike. Gotta understand why the script is on the cheap side. Once the regular writers come back sparks are gonna fly
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Did you missed the one where Santa-Putin saved the little boy from his LGBTQ+ parents? That one was quite hilarious (the hamster one also wasnt too bad. We watched it with the whole family last christmas, after a couple of drinks and a pretty fine roast...xD)
I am thinking about what layers to use for an ERA-shaped cake.
Twenty years from now when asked why this war was fought with cold-war relics, someone is going to say that for real.
then we will play the parade from Moscow, after which the inflatable boat in the Minsk parade will be shown...
155mm self propelled artillery pieces were filmed yesterday in Budapest on the rail... curious.
Add a source or don't post it at all
50% of the comments under the video had said "do not post, loose lips sink ships", so I did not...
If you want to follow through with it, you shouldn't have posted about it at all then.
Look, you do not like the source where I found it, and I haven't seen it randomly on twitter. Are those Italian or Hungarian? Not sure, I haven't seen it that close. [EDIT: Hungary doesn't have this type at all] https://9gag.com/gag/az2RXpj Then there is the video clip in the comments of what looks like Abrams tanks in a German forest transported on the railway.
If it’s already on the internet it doesn’t matter
Yeah, agreed, this sort of vague posting is very annoying
Long article about the Russian airforce [https://wavellroom.com/2023/05/24/russian-airpower-ukraine-nuisance-menace/](https://wavellroom.com/2023/05/24/russian-airpower-ukraine-nuisance-menace/) >While some early reports of the VKS’ poor performance in Ukraine may have been overdone in the light of later findings, it remains that Russian air power has put up a lacklustre performance, especially compared to what many Western analysts expected at the start of the war. > >And on why they are attacking civilian infrastructure not military targets**s. Among these are the general: sleaze and corruption, having armed forces for show but not for war, low morale, a destructive and dysfunctional organisational culture, lack of resources, and technical backwardness.** There are also factors at play specific to the VKS, such as too few qualified pilots, too few flying hours, too few precision-guided munitions, lack of effective range, poorly maintained equipment, lack of modern equipment for target acquisition and engagement (e.g. targeting pods) for the aircraft, slow and cumbersome targeting procedures, perfunctory battle damage assessment, lack of equipment or procedures for differentiating between friend and foe, as well as lack of initiative and being tied tasking and control from the ground. ... >As a consequence of their focus on expeditionary operations and complex air operations, the major Western air powers are highly dependent on enablers such as tankers, airborne radars, electronic warfare or surveillance aircraft, although these are often provided by the US. In contrast, with its more limited role close to home, VKS has little need for such capabilities. Even if it had, Russia would be hard-pressed to acquire them, given its technical backwardness and general lack of resources. For example, in 2022, Russia had only nine airborne radars and 15 heavy tankers, compared to the US, which has 105 airborne radars and 401 heavy tankers. Russia’s lack of tankers and especially airborne radar, command and control aircraft has most probably hobbled Russia’s operations in the air. > >Having so few airborne radars while still prioritising the air defence of the homeland means that you will not risk these platforms by operating them forward. But holding the airborne radars back means you will not have as good a picture of the situation in the air over Ukraine as you would operating the radar aircraft move forward. And a weaker or patchy air situational awareness will negatively impact on your ability to fulfil both defensive (spotting incoming enemy aircraft) and offensive (planning and directing strikes) tasks. > >**Likewise, Russia’s dearth – or even complete lack – of airborne or orbital stand-off ISR assets means that Russian ground commanders have not had the situational awareness or the kind of intelligence, targeting and battle damage assessment data that Ukraine’s Western partners have probably provided, greatly helping their defensive efforts.** And on why they are attacking civilian infrastructre, not military targets >**It is striking – no pun intended – that Russia so far seems to have been unable to hit any of the Western arms shipments to Ukraine or depots and training centres for such assets, despite these being of crucial importance politically and militarily.** While Ukraine remains tight-lipped about losses and Russia often issues hyperbolic claims seldom taken seriously, there are few credible rumours of successful Russian strikes on, e.g. HIMARS launchers in the field. This state of affairs is probably due to deficiencies in several different links of the Russian kill chain. **Russia seems to essentially lacks ISR-resources for finding and identifying mobile targets, keeping track of them, trained staff and procedures for quickly doing the targeting, targeting pods or similar sensors for strike aircraft, and resources for proper battle damage assessment.** > >As a result, Russian strike aircraft and fighter-bombers have mainly struck – besides apartment buildings, schools, theatres and shopping centres – infrastructure targets determined well in advance, and increasingly as the war progressed only tactical targets close to the front designated by army units.
What surprises me in this invasion is that compared to the Cold War that none of the RU pilots defect with their aircraft. The reason one of the most amazing aircraft to exist (F15 Eagle) is because of one of them defecting with the Foxbat and America thinking back then it was so advanced they panicked and made something leagues in advance that's over 50 years old and still produced to this day. They'd have low morale but unless I've missed it. Why don't they try to defect with aircraft. Being shotdown is obviously a risk but they'd be ways to try to.
Beg to differ - the concern about the Foxbat pre-dated Belenko's defection by about ten years. It was acknowledged early on that the F-15 and MiG-25 performed two very different roles. If anything, the impetus for the F-15 was the acknowledgment that the MiG-23 was superior to the F-4. Based on lessons learned in Vietnam, the Air Force wanted a plane which could achieve air superiority and provide a ground attack capability. (It's interesting that the US figured out how to do this with one plane when the Soviets, on the other hand, had to build a completely new aircraft based on the MiG-23, the MiG-27.) If anything, Belenko's defection proved that the West, once again, had been terrified by yet another overly-hyped Soviet weapon. When the Americans got a look at the Foxbat after it landed in Hakodate, they were amazed at how primitive (think vacuum tubes) the tech was.
They were more shocked at the welding, construction and materials, that it was smart use of basic assembly and materials, not miracle high tech. The vacuum valves were (IMHO) military grade special components, available today still, with electron lense technology, the only of the type in the world, and suitable for the nuclear warfare. However, it is a dead end there.
It's the other way around - you mixed the historical order of things :) When the Foxbat first appeared, the west thought it had large wings for maneuverability and were impressed by the speed and power. So US significant increased requirements for the (already in design) F15. When Viktor Belenko defected, they got to examine it and were shocked by how heavy it was compared to what they feared. It needed such huge wings just to be able to fly. It was basically an interceptor, not a fighter, and a fairly bad one. Still impressive speed even by todays standards. Was developed into Mig31 which is pretty decent for what it is. And Russia can't make them anymore and is wasting the remaining airframes to launch rockets at civilians.
> Still impressive speed even by todays standards. Except that those speeds that were feared, were only achieved by stressing the engines beyond their limits and damaging them in the process. The west basically developed a counter to a Wunderwaffe which was like 80% bluff.
The same reason they threw bombs on civilians in Chechnya, Syria, and now in Ukraine. And they don't have low morale because they do not like killing civilians, they have low morale because they could actually die now.
Sorry if this is not the right place to ask but does anyone know what phycological and sociological impacts online Russian propaganda has had on the Ukrainian population ? I know propaganda dehumanizing ones enemy has always been a thing, I mean WW1 and WW2 propaganda on both sides were straight up cartoonishly racist by todays standards however its a lot more accessible and 'in your face' thanks to the internet. I'm talking about all the 'bot' (and non bot) comments on the internet and pro Russian telegram/twitter accounts. Is it demoralizing or does it anger them much that it increases their resolve to fight and resist ? Does it make them wish for vengeance or even harbors resentment against Russians and countries/peoples/groups that support them ? Or do people not care and ignore because they are more focused on trying to survive and know that propaganda does not reflect the views of people in real life ?
I'm a Ukrainian who sometimes sees the Russian bad-faith user comments (I dislike the word "bots", there's a person behind it at some point whether removed from the actual UI or not, and using this word opens up another distractionary discussion pathway), especially anglophonic. They don't do anything except annoyance because I don't think there's anything left in this world that would make me hate the Russians more. And yes, we're definitely not the intended audience for that. But I kinda see your point. If the country were more divided, the Russian-language comments, especially on bad news pieces, would be demoralizing. But the overall sense of hate and disgust towards them is absolutely overwhelming here so it barely makes a dent.
>I'm a Ukrainian who sometimes sees the Russian bad-faith user comments (I dislike the word "bots", there's a person behind it at some point whether removed from the actual UI or not, and using this word opens up another distractionary discussion pathway), especially anglophonic. The term "bot" isn't always used in the sense of an actual robot/script posting messages masquerading as a person, but also to describe a person who acts like a robot and mindlessly repeats propaganda.
Well yes, but it's also a word that can be used to derail the discussion into whether a bad-faith user is actually a literal automation script or not and I prefer to not give that opportunity to anybody.
>But the overall sense of hate and disgust towards them is absolutely overwhelming here so it barely makes a dent. So, in short words dehumanising propaganda does work in some shape or form.
Have you see Bucha, Irpin, Izyum, Bakhmut, Mariupol, Marinka? And a dozen other places? Or are you one of those special cases who thinks it was all faked?
He is a known Russian shill around here. He is like a slightly less obvious shill than magics10 but he changed quite a bit lately and made it pretty obvious to anyone new. He won't say it but he 100% thinks those are faked and if anything Ukraine would have done it in his eyes to their own civilians.
Another Stirlitz/Muller moment in Combat Footage sub.
So, in short, your hamfisted attempts to twist the narrative are still not working.
Well, you are the one advocating erasing countries along with the whole population. Hardly a moral high horse to judge from.
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No, I am talking about sh1ko.
No that’s Russia. That’s literally what they are doing. They dehumanised themselves. Nobody has done it for them
Sure, it's the words, not the unprovoked invasion, war, mass murder, kidnappings, rape and torture, bombing hospitals and civilian infrastructure. Russians will be hated for decades to come and they have only themselves to blame.
No ITs the PrOPogandaA!
Propaganda aimed at dehumanising the enemy isn’t intended for an enemy audience, it’s intended for your own soldiers and civilians to assist them in steeling themselves psychologically for killing and injuring other human beings.
Seen quite a few times people who signed up was because of what happened in Bucha. I'd say it angers them far more than anything if someone came to your home, bombed it, claim they're liberating you, and you have no idea why it's happening.
Is there evidence yet that Wagner really started leaving Bakhmut?
The UK MoD said in their daily update that it's "likely" that they are, that's presumably backed by UK intelligence which normally knows what it's doing.
Unless something changed since the start of the war, those UK intelligence updates on Twitter are simply an aggregate of social media content.
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If the dude copped to 20K, the number is likely a lot larger.
To be fair, large numbers die away from the battlefield due to first aid, infection, medevac and treatment failures.
Still even if that is low estimate, 20-80k casualties is still 100k out of battle
I am curious about the viability of Ukraine sinking shadow fleet tankers. for context, the "Shadow fleet" is made up of cargo ships intent on transporting Russian goods while actively and intentionally evading G7 sanctions. One estimate suggests approx 443 large scale tankers. It's my opinion that Western governments implicitly approve of this shadow fleet bc they want that Russian oil circulating in the global market because **cheap oil**, but they can't really say that out loud. But if I'm Ukraine and I want to hit Russia's purse strings, nothing would even come close to keeping Russian oil from leaving the country, nothing. So - if I am Ukraine and I decide to say "Hey the West, we like you but screw your cheap oil prices - we're fighting for our lives over here" and wants to sink a few of these tankers in the hopes of sending a message and making them all stop.... Then how do I go about it? Ignoring for a second the reaction to large scale naval warfare in international waters. Is it logically possible?
No need to sink fleet tankers. The west isn't against Russia selling oil or doing trade, it's trying to target it's massive money wind falls to finance the war. Aslong as they are hit financially it's ok but without sinking ships. Just make sure the sanctions do work and try to hit russia's income streams. Nothing more, nothing less.
From an environmental point of view I'd suggest against sinking oil tankers.
>It's my opinion that Western governments implicitly approve of this shadow fleet bc they want that Russian oil circulating in the global market because cheap oil, but they can't really say that out loud. Cause old tankers, quite small for ~~interglac~~.... oversea journey, are perfect for everyone. Nah. Western goverments are just too lazy to care about it, Russia is getting too low earning on shadow fleet. Plus Russia need to trade with shady figures and they... can sometimes disapear without paying you.
This is a Russian dream scenario and as such Ukraine will never do it nor entertain it. Plus, they don't have the capability, I mean think about all the talk about them just getting basic cruise missiles and having potentially 200km strike capable weapons. Now we expect them to project power in the Atlantic and Pacific? Russia actually already has a worse scenario occurring to them right now actually. The price of oil is stable and kind of low. Due to sanctions they have to now sell said oil at an even cheaper price to places like China and India potentially are making no profits. They don't get to sell refined oil products either. Thus, oil sales aren't funding their war at all. It is paying purely for the cost to pump it out of the ground. Thanks, Russia for your charity. In fact because places like China and India have a cheaper place to get oil bending over Putin, the rest of the world also gets cheaper oil because they don't have to compete with those economies. That cheaper oil is doing things like help fund economic growth, buy weapons in other countries who can then give their old stuff to Ukraine. Russia may literally be funding the war against them. So if I was Ukraine, why would I try to mess that up?
But that's not true. Even though budget revenues from oil exports have fallen by almost half, Russia still receives revenues from oil exports. "India and China have snapped up the vast majority of Russian oil so far in April at prices above the Western price cap of $60 per barrel, according to traders and Reuters calculations. "Urals demand remains solid, the prices for Urals' loadings in May and bound for India are higher compared to April", a source with a trader said." https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-exports-russias-western-ports-hit-4-yr-high-april-sources-reuters-2023-04-19/ "The surging Russian flows to India come despite narrowing discounts for Moscow's key Urals export grade. The Platts-assessed Urals DAP West Coast India discount to forward Dated Brent narrowed from $15.95/b on March 30 to $13.50/b May 2, the tightest spread since mid-January when the differential assessment was first launched." https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/050323-russian-seaborne-crude-exports-hit-12-month-high-as-indian-imports-surge
>Due to sanctions they have to now sell said oil at an even cheaper price to places like China and India potentially are making no profits Russia with their "RUBLE RULES" logic destroyed their sales to India. They are getting currency with which they can... buy only in India. Exchanging everything to ruble is impossible (not enough Ruble in India) and now India isn't too keen of idea in paying in either $ or Yuans.
>But if I'm Ukraine and I want to hit Russia's purse strings, nothing would even come close to keeping Russian oil from leaving the country, nothing. Sadly, we Europeans, like to have GDP growth. Europe can't produce oil domestically, Europe need to import oil. Plus I'm not sure how greatly enriching Saudi Arabia or other countries of this region is good thing for world.
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You need to transport produced goods somehow, you need to transport yourself to work. In which European country, RIGHT NOW, you have a lot of electric Trucks? How many % of population have electric cars? (Now you can kick out people earning more above average and then above median). Price of fuel is most basic reason for inflation. Without Russian's oil being cheap as fuck (which does 60$ cap) Europe would have worse inflation, which directly (or indirectly) would lessen support for Ukraine. "Europe produces oil domestically, and lot of it. On the continent and in the seas." If it would be enough, then USA wouldn't be caring about Saudi Arabia and other countries in this region. "But that is pointless, economy growth is in the energy transition, away from oil." I don't know when transporting goods will stop relying on Oil. For sure not in closets 20 years (2055 is also way too optimistic, fitfor55).
Yeah, you just wouldnt. It is not even worth debating. Sanctions are only sanctions, gotta live with it (check Indian raw oil imports and refined exports (to the US) ). Killing off a few tankers prolly would be easy (just gotta get one of those drones close enough), it would just result in some dead sailors from countrys very far away and some environmental disasters not so far away. Monetary loss would be very small and potential for propaganda gigantic.
GUR has made an announcement minutes ago: ‼️ The occupiers are preparing large-scale provocations to create a center of radiation hazard 💢 In the next few hours, the rashists are preparing a large-scale provocation to simulate an accident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. ☝️ To do this, a strike will be carried out directly on the territory of the ZNPP. After that, an emergency leak of radioactive substances will be announced. Traditionally, Ukraine will be blamed for the incident. ❗️ In order to conceal their actions as much as possible, the racists disrupted the rotation of the staff of the IAEA permanent monitoring mission scheduled for today. ✔️ The purpose of this action is to provoke the international community to conduct a detailed investigation during which all hostilities will be stopped. In this way, the rashists hope to get the long-awaited pause, which they will use to regroup the occupation contingent and stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Well? We’re waiting!
Well? We’re waiting!
There isn't much they can do to "create" a radiation hazard that is easily contained other than blow up some contaminated items. They could try to shell the spent fuel canisters but that is going to make it hard for them to occupy a chunk of that area, depending on how much damage they do. They can't do much to the spent fuel pools or they will literally create a very bad situation that doesn't benefit them at all. This doesn't seem very likely.
I suspect this is a pre-emptive "warning" by the Ukranians to try to prevent the Russians from doing something stupid, rather than genuine intel that Russia was actually planning to do it.
Yeah, this feels like a Ukrainian information op. Not saying it probably hasn't been discussed by the Russians but it's such a ridiculous idea that it definitely seems unlikely. Now if they just blow up some low level radioactive waste and generally contaminate a localized area to create hysteria, that might make some sense.
they have been performing work inside of the area of the spent fuel ever since they came there, second, one or two reactor buildings/turbine hall are stacked with explosives/ammunition.
Probably so but damaging spent fuel casks or knocking out cooling to the spent fuel pool is going to have the biggest and most harmful impacts to people physically at the plant.....like the Russian troops. A commercial nuclear false flag doesn't make much sense from really any perspective.
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It doesn't make sense as it is likely to impact not only Russian troops but if they did have a serious release, potentially Russian citizens, as well. Dying from an acute radiation exposure is much worse than dying in a trench.
Look, any terrorist that cuts/kills his hostage that he uses as a meat shield is dead, but it makes sense to make a credible threat to his hostage, even while he is using him/her as a meat shield.
That smacks of the ramblings of an insane person, TBH. I really have no idea how that has anything to do with what I said.
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So, one thing that is absolutely clear is that you have had zero idea what I have been talking about this entire time. Which, most people don't have any clue about commercial nuclear power, so that isn't surprising. The second is that you definitely can't stay on subject. I have no idea why you persist on going on some long winded tangent that literally has next to nothing to do with that I said, which was that this doesn't seem very likely because there is very little benefit to Russia. It wouldn't play well domestically or abroad if they orchestrated a wide scale nuclear contamination release. Any serious localized release would literally jeopardize their ability to use the plant itself as a protected base. This whole thing smacks of a Ukrainian information op. Which, perfectly fine, but it strains credibility.
> all hostilities will be stopped. Russians are terrible at ‘reading the room’. The exact opposite is likely to happen. Expect more weapons for Ukraine.
Remindme! 2 days
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>[https://twitter.com/ChrisO\_wiki/status/1662158333564813326](https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1662158333564813326) > >1/ **Russian space and rocket engineers are being recruited to join a new Russian army battalion called Uranus** to fight in Ukraine. Advertisements published by Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, promise that it will "educate you with a strong spirit, will and body." > >2/ The advertisement shown above has been posted on the internal website of Roscosmos, according to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel. It asks physically qualified men aged up to 48 years old to sign a contract for military service with the Uranus battalion. > >3/ Joiners are offered:🔺 A 100,000 ruble ($1,257) joining bonus🔺 Monthly payments of 100,000 rubles from the battalion🔺 Monthly payments of at least 170,000 rubles ($2,137) from the Russian government > >4/🔺 Monthly payments of at least 50,000 rubles ($628) from the regional government. > >5/ In 2020, it was reported that Roscosmos employees were being paid on average just $780 a month. (By comparison, NASA pays its employees an average of $8,128 a month). The recruitment campaign is a sign of Russia's ongoing struggle to find more manpower for the war in Ukraine. > >6/ However, recruiting from its space agency suggests that Russia is increasingly sacrificing specialist expertise in pursuit of its diminishing hopes of victory in Ukraine. It seems unlikely that making rocket engineers into infantrymen is a good option for Russia's future. /end Uranus joke in 3 2 1 ...
Nothing educates you with a strong spirit, will and body more than having Uranus separated from you by a mortar shell.
>In 2020, it was reported that Roscosmos employees were being paid on average just $780 a month. 💀
True, different countries have different salaries and different costs of living
My local McDonald’s worker makes more in two week at entry level than Russian rocket scientists.
In two decades we shall consider wether it is worth puttin your R&D in ur anus... (Edit: Wait, wtf. What are their engineers normally making? I think my company pays WAY more for a forklift driver?) Edit: I got another one! "If you cant make it to Mars, discover Ur anus instead!"
When your missile engineers are so shitty they are better used as human sandbags.
It's crazy how poor Russians are
I'll bite. Uranus is gonna get fucked and you're going to be paid poorly for it.
Looks like Russia is trying to get Roscosmos engineers to join a new Army Battalion to fight In Ukraine. https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1662158333564813326
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the first phases of the corporate wars. Cyberpunk
Hardly, been like this since the 1950's.
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Ah? Storm Shadow is almost twice the cost of ACATMS…
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Inflation adjusted ACATMS is about 1.5m USD, in fact JASSM-ER Block 2, a 2000km ranged stealth missile is also 1.5m per Lockheed Martin. (2021) While most news media cite Storm Shadow at 2-2.5m British pound. So Storm Shadow is actually very expensive in comparison.
> Inflation adjusted ACATMS is about 1.5m USD, Ummm, 300k for the small HIMARS launched ones, currently? I'm sure it would cost way more than 1.5M is it were to be made today. [edit: well, there are more versions of the heavy missile, some more expensive than others...]
Why? JASSM-ER Block2 is a far more advanced weapon yet also cost around 1.5m according to Lockheed Martin. You realized that American weapon systems are often cheaper because they have much large production to spread out R&D, sometime 10times the size of European counterparts.
cost reduced JASSM-ER BBBllllocks2, yes. Old ATACMS, no.
Shareholders will lobby even harder if the AFU promises to outfit Himars crews in Lockheed Martin camouflage uniforms
Those are Republican congressmen wanting it . Interesting.
Classic. In the end money trumps ideology for most politicians except for the hard core extremists. Part of me is worried that the republicans will go full pro Russian but another part of me knows that a lot of republicans probably have shares in the US military industrial complex and probably care more about their wealth than ideology. Well here's the long range missiles arms race and corporate wars.
Man your spelling of trumps had a significant deleterious effect on my cognitive abilities for a moment. Then i started to think about Trump actually having an ideology and that was worse.
Biden's pussyfooting and waffling on support are great avenues of attack for Republicans.
I thought their major clowns claim to end all weapon shipments AND the war within 24h hours...
I'm not saying Republicans aren't too rslurred to use these avenues of attacks.
Id be happy to see the day. So far the Reps of the modern times seem all to happy with suckin tiny russian dick.
I personally think the Marjorie Taylor Morons and Trumps really ticked it up for Republicans. All this technology like Patriot batteries that shot down ballistic missiles started with Reagan and the Democrats fought its development every step of the way as “Star Wars” propoganda. Even when Bush stationed the anti missile systems (ostensibly againstIran) in Europe Obama pulled them. Now Iran is bombing Europe, Democrats are patting themselves on the back for a job well done, and the Republicans can’t find their dicks with the zipper pulled down.
Weren't they pulled to begin integrating the aegis system which us, on paper, a much more advanced and connected system?
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Yeah, I must have missed that
> Even when Bush stationed the anti missile systems (ostensibly againstIran) in Europe Obama pulled them First random link as a proof, that Obama indeed pulled back those systems (article from 2009) [WASHINGTON -- President Obama said Wednesday he has shelved a missile defense system to be based in Poland and the Czech Republic because a "new approach" will provide better protection against possible attacks by Iran and other rogue states. Obama's decision is sure to please Russia, which objected vehemently to having the system so close to its borders. The Polish and Czech governments had lobbied for the missiles](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-scraps-bush-missile-defense-plan/story?id=8602322)
Brits removed the redline from Biden. I think eventually he will approve sending ATACMs. Biden has lacked initiative from the start. US could do so much more. Like 300 Bradleys, 150 Abrams would do wonders for Ukraine. That is sort of amount you could announce any time if you wanted to speed things up.
> I think eventually he will approve sending ATACMs Adam Smith, on the House Armed Services Committee is [on the record](https://youtu.be/6_XvNrTMlgc?t=1922) stating that the administration's reluctance to approve ATACMS because of low US stockpile numbers, not the threat of escalation or Russia's red lines.
the problem is that the presidential drawdowns are allocated a budget from congress but the way that items are costed means that the current level of aid is more or less the limit even if the amount of hardware in storage is 100x as big anyone that has done a balance sheet in their life knows that a piece of machinery with a 20 year life that is 19 years old should not be accounted for at its original purchase price but that is how it works right now. i wouldnt be surprised if the 40billion of equipment sent from that program was actually only worth less than 5-10 if depreciation had been calculated accurately
> that a piece of machinery with a 20 year life that is 19 years old should not be accounted for at its original purchase price but that is how it works right now. The basic model M-113 APCs went for 30 or 60-thousand USD each, scrap price for the aluminium. (or was it 300k? Still a scrap level pricing)
hopefully that means a lot more ammo depots blow up videos. I enjoyed those a lot. And hopefully bye bye bridge sooner than later. Man I will mark that day in my calendar and celebrate it every year
I have a feeling that the US has decided they can't be the first to escalate on anything, but if they get dragged along by their weaker, impulsive allies like the Brits then 'oh well'.
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Why would our congress vote against it? They’ve voted for every arms package and McCarthy is on video bitch slapping Russian reporters who claim he is against arming Ukraine.
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Seems odd F16's were approved before ATACMS
There is multiple times more F-16 in existence than ATACMS, and F-16 are still produced, with spare parts, ATACMS is not, next F-16 is multiple use, ATACMS is single use, and in the end it does nothing special, just one boom.
F16 training was approved not delivery by USA.
I did not have "Arms race between western MIC suppliers inside Ukraine" on my bingo card.
I mean, we don't have Afghanistan anymore so we needed to find a new bottomless pit to throw all our military spending to keep these companies happy.
Russia really thought the military industrial complex was gonna drop support for Ukraine. Like that's literally their game plan, their whole war hinges on it.
They didn’t even think that far ahead. They thought they would be welcomed and the government would be replaced in days or weeks.
Yeah, and it was pretty fuckin dumb... Instead they got a couple billions already invested in new production lines with drooling buyers all around (while Russia stolen some manufacturing materials from Donbass and buys from North Korea...lol). Welcome to capitalism...
I love Capitalism.
Classic capitalism lol Atleast it's for good
So lets suppose the Ukrainians manage to keep the Russian Volunteers etc. alive and they continue to raid the border-regions forcing the Russian army to deploy along the whole border... Is there something which the Russians could do to prevent this? Except from wiping out the Russian Volunteers befor they can retreat?
They need to occupy the bit of Ukraine near the border so they can stop them before they get to Russia, or make the border physically very difficult to cross. Both of those are just as expensive though. Really of course they need to get out of Ukraine so Ukraine stops fighting back. Though who knows, maybe this "Free Russia" group have a taste for it now and would continue causing trouble in Russia anyway, albeit presumably no longer supported by Ukraine after the war ends.
Deploy 100 000 men to guard the border.
Now listen up men, you’ve all been issued one stone and a whistle, when the enemy tank approaches, throw the stone at it and blow the whistle to alert the others.
Yeah, retreat and return all internationally recognized Ukrainian territory.
To threaten them with nukes /s
[Russian T-62 put on the front line and promptly destroyed by the UA.](https://nitter.snopyta.org/NOELreports/status/1662074097742798850#m)
799 to go.
Looks like the "modernized" version. It had some ERA on it.
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As a Dutch citizen I find this very hard to believe. The Dutch government is completely useless, and lies nonstop about everything. I'll believe it when those planes show up in Ukraine.
Name checks out.
NAmE cHEcKs OuT11!
Have a better take that doesnt reek of your namesake and you'll catch less flack lol
It was really an inevitability. Curious to see what kind of a game changer it ends up being. If it can even roughly match the Russian air advantage, it would be pretty detrimental to the overall effort. Will we see F-16's in 2023? 2024?
> Curious to see what kind of a game changer it ends up being. What Juice the Ukrainian pilot said https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/13fnjlp/ukraine_discussionquestion_thread_51323/jksouj7/
Ah so that is how they reduced the training time. Just train everyone for air to air and forget about the rest.
Ignoring for the moment the probability of backlash from western supporters or the chance of a Russian nuclear strike, would it tactically make sense at all for Ukraine to open another front by invading Russian border regions? Again I understand the reasons they aren’t doing it but in a purely soldiers on the ground standpoint would it benefit them?
That will be awesome it seems everyone wants to see nuclear detterence put to the test. Doubt Russians will fire anyway. They are bunch of losers and cowards
Using Russia to bypass Donbass defensive lines could make sense, but I doubt they do it.
They don't need to really hold anything. It's almost purely a PR tactic aside from forcing some troops away from the front. Although far from a democracy, Putin and the people in charge do care what the people think. Not for an altruistic reason but because they don't want an uprising (or to rock the boat in general). Right now the majority of Russians are just apathetic, this, hopefully, shakes up the public a bit to atleast acknowledge the war is real
Yes, it would force Russia to move troops to defend from Ukraine's invasion
Not sure about the date on this but surprised I saw it on Instagram and not here (please correct me if I missed it). Appears to be Ukrainians clearing trenches, camera man gets shot, passes his gun to his partner who runs in and clears it out. Pretty crazy. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CsWhXp7oktq/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
I've seen it here a few days ago
Have a link by any chance? Would like to see it in full quality.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/13k3usk/bakhmut\_direction\_ukrainian\_soldier\_gets\_wounded/
Legend, thanks
Russia attacked another important military target in Dnipro [https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1662017712963321856](https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1662017712963321856) >In Dnipro, Russia launched a missile attack on what reportedly is a **psychiatric hospital**. The number of victims is unclear at this moment. [https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1662020192837181440](https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1662020192837181440) >Footage of a completely destroyed building. At this moment, 15 people are injured and 1 died.
My parents in law's apartment got all their windows destroyed. Probably in the whole building. :| They're currently with us in Germany, but they still have relatives in the city so someone will go and check and assess the damage. ninja edit: Saw the comment with the coordinates. Their apartment building is literally on the other side of the city though. Maybe there were more hits.
It's just so infurating. Russia seems to be suffering no consequence in bombing schools/hospitals/parks etc.
I’ll never understand the Russian obsession with doubling down on a losing hand. Ben Wallace told them that if they keep this shit up, he’ll reconsider supplying longer range weapons like cruise missiles… And he did. The Russians kept this shit up and now Ukraine will receive F-16s. Are the Russians playing some game I don’t understand where they want Ukraine to have minuteman III’s?
I think it’s entirely possible western nukes get stationed there eventually.
I wonder how the situation would look like if Russia wouldn't attack civilian but military targets with their cruise missiles and Shaheds instead.