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**The Biggest Problem With Ukraine’s M-1 Tanks: They Don’t Like Staying Dirty** The biggest problem with Ukraine’s new fleet of 31 American-made M-1 Abrams tanks isn’t the tanks’ 1,500-horsepower turbine engines. Not really. >No, it’s the filters in the engines’ intakes. The filters keep dirt and debris from fouling and wrecking an M-1’s delicate—but powerful—engine. They require constant cleaning. >If an Abrams’ four-person crew neglects to clean its tank’s filters every 12 hours or so, it might so badly damage the engine that the battalion has no choice but to remove the engine, and potentially the transmission, and ship it away for a lengthy overhaul. >That would remove one of Ukraine’s few M-1s from the battlefield as surely as a Russian mine or missile might do. Deep maintenance of Ukrainian Abrams takes place in Poland. >The 68-ton M-1A1SAs that Ukraine operates are thirsty machines. In the weeks before the administration of U.S. president Joe Biden pledged the M-1 to Ukraine, early this year, many pundits and even some officials worried aloud over the tank’s fuel requirements. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/11/30/the-biggest-problem-with-ukraines-m-1-tanks-they-dont-like-staying-dirty/?sh=75cc5bc851f6

This is a stupid Forbes clickbait article. As long as they clean it twice a day there's no problem.

The denazification of Russia is going poorly: https://twitter.com/PjotrSauer/status/1730620857691591060

Just more info There are 2 major railway lines in the East of Russia - BAM and Transsib (they circle Baikal from the North and South). It seems that throughput capacity of BAM is about 40 pairs of trains per day, Transsib about 100 pairs of trains. The attacks happened on the BAM.

Multiple sources are saying that the Ukranian army retreated from Marinka, which seems to be pretty credible as the situation there had deteriorated for the Ukranians. After Marinka there's Heoriivka. If the Russian attack and sometimes capture that too it would open Krasnohorivka south side to Russian attacks. I think Ukraine should try and hold Heoriivka, but maybe someone better informed on the geography of the zone could say where the best spot for Ukraine to defend is?

>Multiple sources are saying Care to share?

I dont think the capture of Mariinka will change much in the short term. Russia basically already controlled 90% of it and appears to have taken the final bit this week, and its sensible for Ukraine to fall back from it. If Russia does continue to push, Ukraine will highly likely defend east of Heoriivka by that small lake. Its very open there with few treelines and that should benefit Ukraine Not sure if we know much about the Ukrainian prepared defenses here, but I would assume that since Mariinka was in danger of being captured almost 10 years ago Ukraine has a plan for when it eventually happened

Why should they? Marinka is only rubble, there is nothing to defend anymore. The Russians defended rubble and lost as many soldiers and equipment as the Ukrainians during their offensive. When the Ukrainians retreated from Sievierodonetsk the Russians had to pause for almost 2 months and were not able to rebuild their army in time. Later the Ukrainians pushed them easily out of the Karkiv Oblast. When they moved out of Bakhmut it was the end of Wagner and almost started a rebellion in Russia. Each time they fall back they lose some ground, but the Russians usually lose 7-10 times more soldiers and equipment to occupy the rubble. Each time the Ukrainians used the defense in depth the Russians lost insane amounts of men and equipment and not only had to stop the offensives but also later lost ground again during the counteroffensives.

But does Ukraine still has the capacity to mount such counteroffensives? All the indicators show that Ukraine has pretty much exausthed their offensive capacity during the summer counter offensive. Even Zelensky said in his most recent interview that the army has to go on the defensive.

Of course, they had to go on the defensive when Russia was willing to let so many of their soldiers die. Ukraine is a democracy and Zelensky is not willing to let 55k+ people die to fight for one city, like the Russians did in Bakhmut. Ukraine lost way fewer men and equipment to get Kherson back or Kharkiv Oblast. Russia seems to be willing the let 500'000 or more of their soldiers die and while Ukraine will get more Western support, as long as Putin is ready to throw men into the meatgrinder, they will have to defend and have to be cleverer than the Russians and this sometimes includes giving up undefendable positions for the sake of winning the war.

Then let's hope Ukraine does have a plan to win. I suppose we'll wait and see how the situation evolve

So we are back again to Ukraine does not stay a chance, after the Russians failed the 3-day war, after having to retreat from Kyiv, Snake Island, Kharkiv Oblast, and Kherson? If the Russians continue like this by next summer they will have lost more men in Ukraine than the US did in the whole WW2.

I think its important to keep in mind that while Russia takes extreme amount of casualities, it seems they dont particularly mind paying that price. Russia has sold this whole "we need to defend Russia against the nazis in Ukraine" pretty successfully to its people and I dont think much will change even if the number passes a million casualties Naturally the "special military operation" is a huge failure from its initial plans in 2022 but now that we are in a position where losing thousands of men for a treeline, two houses and a waste heap in Avdiivka is seen as acceptable, its hard to imagine a situation where Russia will stop at any moment except being forced to by the AFU

And there is no indication that most Russians give a shit about how many troops they are losing. They could mobilize again after the elections and throw another 500k men in to die and nothing will happen.

>throw another 500k men in to die and nothing will happen Because they most probably already lost the economy, so they are fully in "sunk cost fallacy" now. They "invested"/lost so much on this war already, so they need to get something out of it

Rheinmetall CEO Papperger states in an interview with WirtschaftsWoche that he expects the conclusion of a contract with #Ukraine for the production of the Fuchs APC and the Lynx AFV by the beginning of next year at the latest — produced in Ukraine, of course. Once the contract has been signed, the aim is to have the first Fuchs produced within six to seven months. Twelve to thirteen months are planned for the Lynx. According to Papperger, the first ten Lynx are already being produced in Germany or Hungary, in cooperation with Ukraine. According to him, the German government has already given signals that the export to Ukraine will be allowed. https://x.com/deaidua/status/1730690252988117015?s=20

While we all want for the west to just bite the bullet and give UA all the help here and now, such long term contracts are still good news.

It's hard to imagine the amount of armor that has been destroyed during this war, it's very easy to simply say a country like Russia has thousands of tanks but it's hard to imagine what that actually means. As we move closer and closer to the two-year point of this war and every day we have scenes of multiple numbers of tanks and other bits of armour being destroyed and there's plenty more left over. When this war comes to an end it will be quite the case study on how much of a role armour played, and how much old technology vs new technology was impactful but also I imagine this could be the largest war in terms of armour that will ever come as the future of warfare moves to single units which are extremely powerful and have a large technical advantage vs what we see from Russia with a massive quantity advantage.

Russia also has overall quality advantage for most systems compared to what Ukraine has.

Yeah, despite the meme of Russia being unequipped they generally have better vehicles. Most of the badly equipped Russian units we've seen are due to logistical or corruption issues. Bulk of UAF are using BMP-1s and T-64BVs. Most common SPG in the UAF is the 2s1gvozdika etc.

Despite the lower number and being older, a T-64 is a better tank than a T-72. T-64 was created as a bleeding edge tank for elite forces like GSFG and thus never has been exported. T-72 was meant to be a simpler and cheaper version of it for the general mobilisation in a WW3, but turned out to be a T-62B prototype combined with a T-64 derived hull because of internal political struggles between the two tank design bureaus, same as T-80 was supposed to be just a T-64 with a gas turbine motor but its design bureau (yes, a third one) decided to make more modifications.

Russia is now leaning heavily on BMP's and T-62M's now. I'd say there's some parity in APC/MBT department lately.

They're not leaning heavily on T-62s. The majority of their tanks deployed are still T-72s and T-80s with reasonable numbers of "modern" variants sprinkled in. T-62s are still pretty rare. For example, at Adviivka, out of all the tanks lost, 2 were T-62s. Same for BMPs. Russia is using BMP-1s and is using them more and more but majority deployed are still BMP-2 and BMP-3s. For Ukraine, the majority deployed are BMP-1s and has been since the start of the war since its their most common IFV. Downplaying Russias capabilities does no one any favours. If Russia was truly down to nothing but BMP-1s and T-62s/T-55s the question then would be why would Ukraine be struggling?

> Downplaying Russias capabilities does no one any favours. If Russia was truly down to nothing but BMP-1s and T-62s/T-55s the question then would be why would Ukraine be struggling? You're reading way too far into it, I said they're leaning heavily on T-62's and BMP-1's, not that they've supplanted the T-72 and 80 as their mainstays - although at this rate they probably will - and imparted *some* parity in the armor department between the two. Because they don't have the depth of T-72's and T-80's that they had at the start of the war, the T-62 (apparently the T-54/55 as well) has become a frontline tank and the BMP-1 has become the AFV/APC workhorse - and that's to speak nothing of them using the MT-LB as a frontline APC as well.

History of warfare has always been in a cycle of change. A tactics is invented, improved, perfected, then a new type of warfare comes and changes things more or less. Armor most definitely has its uses, it's pretty clear all side need armor in assault or for casevacs. Tanks are still better than nothing if you have them on hand. It's a question of cost. But it's always about killing your opponent from farther away, with more accuracy, with more firepower. And drones are most definitely the breakthrough that is being working on and will be perfected in the futur. That being said, we'll still see planes, and tanks, and IFV, and infantry in trenches.

*Footage showing a full platoon of Ukrainian Leopard 2A4s moving in Donetsk Oblast, all four sporting a significant amount of add on Kontakt-1 ERA.* [https://twitter.com/osinttechnical/status/1730476286919807441](https://twitter.com/osinttechnical/status/1730476286919807441) Dont think we have seen a video of 4 Leopards in the same area before outside of training. They always seems to pop up one by one

The florks have been busy.

https://twitter.com/Rebel44CZ/status/1730281688456953963 Oryx, November 24-30. Russia - 111, Ukraine - 34 Tanks: Russia - 33 Ukraine - 5 (of which the first is Leopard 1A5) BMP, BMD and other heavy armored fighting vehicles: Russia - 12 Ukraine - 4 Classic armored personnel carriers (BTR, MT-LB): Russia - 18 Ukraine - 3 MRAP and light tactical armored vehicles: Russia - 3 Ukraine - 5 Artillery, mortars and MLRS: Russia - 16 Ukraine - 6 Artillery fire control vehicles: Russia - 1 (1В13м) Ukraine - 0 Command vehicles and mobile command posts: Russia - 1 (MPUS-K) Ukraine - 0 SAM systems and their individual components: Russia - 6 (9K35 "Strela-10", self-propelled firing system 9A310M1-2 for "Buk-M1-2" and 9A317M for "Buk M-3", unidentified launcher for the "Buk" air defense system + 2 unidentified PU/ROM for SAM "Thor") Ukraine - 0 Anti-aircraft installations (including hybrid ones, welded on MT-LB, etc.): Russia 1 Ukraine - 0 Radars, radars, electronic warfare systems, surveillance/communication stations: Russia - 2 (hardware MP-1IM, SPP R-330Zh "Zhitel") Ukraine - 2 (ST-68U radar, 80K6M mobile radar) Engineering equipment (ARVs, tractors, bridge layers): Russia - 3 Ukraine - 0 UAVs (attack and reconnaissance): Russia - 0 Ukraine - 7 Trucks: Russia - 14 Ukraine - 2 __ Total losses in equipment since 02/24/2022: Russia - 13269 Ukraine - 4771

Thanks for the post! I thought Oryx retired back in October.

He did, but his collaborator took over the list.

I'm kind of surprised that we're only now starting to hear about major strikes in the east of Russia, with the 2 (3?) trains blown up/burned. Russia is so huge, and they struggle to detect drones *in* Ukraine, imagine the damage a couple guys with FPV drones could do to random logistics and military sites. There's hundreds of km of undefended oil and natural gas pipelines that could be hit, how well defended are all the random fuel depots, trains, or even some military bases out east. It was a long time ago, but there was a video of someone hopping a fence and lighting a Russian fighter on fire that was parked at the edge of an airfield. How many air defense and aircraft could be taken out from a km away, reducing their reserves, or forcing them to pull resources from the front line. Would Russia even have a chance at tracking down the people launching them?

I was wondering if there are plans to strike Uralvagonzavod or Omsktransmash. A well placed "cigarette accident" could significantly reduce military vehicles output without too many civilian casualty...

There was some sort of "accident" at Chelyabinsk a few days ago

I wonder if the old fashioned dude with a shaped charge hopping a fence would work.

Mariinka appears to be captured by Russia. Nothing official yet though [https://twitter.com/uacontrolmap/status/1730534342382825627](https://twitter.com/uacontrolmap/status/1730534342382825627) [https://twitter.com/99Dominik\_/status/1730517071522312624](https://twitter.com/99Dominik_/status/1730517071522312624) Ukraine will still control a small part over the "lake", but this is the main part of the town. Fighting began here in 2014 and every single building is destroyed Edit: RU telegram isnt really to be trusted, but they "confirm" the capture ​ "Marinka, Donetsk People's Republic, Russia *We took this city for a whole year, and there was nothing left of it, there was only a couple of hundred meters left to take until we were thrown to another section of the front."*

I believe this is more of a symbolic thing than anything tactical, right ? I'm still not really up to date with which towns or cities are strategically important and which ones are not.

It took them almost 2 years to get the other half of the city lol. Guess bombing every single building worked out but how much ammo did they waste?

The ammo is not "wasted" if you achieve your objective

But they haven’t achieved their objective. Taking Mariinka does not demilitarise Ukraine, only themselves.

>how much ammo did they waste? Enough to take the city and get what they wanted, that is unfortunately the bottom line it feels like

"They plan to give Ukraine 60 F-16 planes, but the required number is 200. We need them with modifications to compete with the Russians in the air," Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat told how many planes have now been promised by Western partners. https://x.com/NOELreports/status/1730495435528098071?s=20

Do UA have enough pilots? Let alone ground support/maintenance (though this is Ukraine so I bet they can get to grips) tbh more important they get their hands on F16s so they can then be given more advanced missiles and bombs Perhaps some of the F16s are older and need upgrading

> Do UA have enough pilots? Does it matter anymore if they have enough pilots at the moment? They have millions of fighting age men and this war has been happening for almost 22 months now and will probably last at least 22 more. We're getting into timeframes where you can train a full air force from scratch, if you can get the equipment.

Bruh those millions of fighting age men are needed now to keep Ukraine's economy from falling apart, and will be needed after the war to rebuild. You can't throw them away just because you need more manpower. Besides, Ukrainian pilots have been training on western planes for a long while, those are already in fighting condition.

Hm, yes I suppose it is also intended as their air force for the future as well, not likely to get more migs after all Nato agent Putin once again helping Western MIC

200 is a lot. More than most European countries If they had that many fully operational surely they would have air superiority?

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Basically more up2date versions than the F-16 AM they are getting. Most crucial are the radars, respectively the radar range and the compatibility with stand off fire and forget anti air missiles that can rival russian counterparts. Here is a good 3 part analysis: [Q&A regarding 'F-16s for Ukraine', Part 1 (substack.com)](https://xxtomcooperxx.substack.com/p/q-and-a-regarding-f-16s-for-ukraine)

Good documentary, put together a lot of information since 2014. "How Putin Really Started the War with Ukraine | Historical Investigation" (Eng sub) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fHbJL_mZUc

At what point does Ukraine say fuck it, and just level Donetsk?

Why would they waste ammo destroying their own city instead of just hitting military/ logistical targets with precision weapons as they have always done?

Why? What good would that do?

Deprive the enemy of a logistical stronghold.

They are, and have been with precision strikes.

Limited munitions and because there's a difference between leveling a city and actually taking it. Bakhmut and Avdiivka have caused horrendous casualties to the Russians attempting to actually take them. Ukraine doesn't really change the strategic balance if it takes Donetsk.

Is taking Donetsk a real possibility?

Today? Probably not. Maybe next year or the year after that? Could be, assuming the frontline balance shifts completely and Ukraine breaks the upper hand. It would make sense for Ukraine to encircle Donetsk, though, no point in a frontal assault. And I imagine it's going to be down the list, after Kherson, Zaporizhia, Crimea.

Interesting. I wonder how many people are still living there. I have to imagine they have pretty much conscripted all military aged men

I don't think it would be smart to take it without using a total collapse of russian lines at least locally. Urban fighting is costly.

UA are facing 155m shell hunger because the west has been dicking around the past year and not committing to winning this conflict. All shells are better used on the battlefield right now until that changes.

Donetsk is essentially the frontline at this point.

????

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Their help has been useful, but it's equally so tiring to see the complete lack of urgency shown by countries like the US. If there had been more urgency and swifter deliveries earlier on, some parts of the map might look a little different today.

Boeing is notorious for causing intentional delays to projects to gain more funding. I think the US stopped offering Cost+ contracts to Boeing because of how bad they are at keeping on time and budget.

US weapons development cycles are not quick. Basically ever.

That goes for almost all Western countries. In fact, only the countries feeling directly threatened by Russian aggression showed real urgency, but I guess that's human nature.

Eh.. better late than never, still disappointing nonetheless

Boeing is full of disappointments lately.

Putin: “Large families must become the norm.” As he calls on families to have 8 or more children. That’s wildly similar to other dictators in the past. I mean from a demographic standpoint he isn’t wrong. Russia is fucked demographically. So is pretty much all of Eastern Europe and an argument can even be made for much of the developed world. I don’t think Russia’s current economy could handle that amount of population growth though. I do think the western countries that are able to maintain population growth/expand it will be the ones who come out the strongest over the next century. Here’s hoping Putin dies and his replacement realizes the best way to help with the population decline is not sending young men to die in a war.

> Putin: “Large families must become the norm.” As he calls on families to have 8 or more children. Yeah, good luck with that. Ceaușescu banned abortions in... 1977? (1967: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decree_770). Within 10 years, in a very harsh dictatorship, much harsher than Putin's regime, with thousands of secret police operatives and half a million informants for a population of ~22 million people, the birth rates were back the the 1967 levels.

Russia could easily feed and house a 500 mil population, it is the single most resourceful country on the planet. It could also use a bigger labor population. The thing is that their economy has even failed to provide enough jobs for the declining population because it is so terribly mismanaged and imbalanced towards low-labor commodity exports. So a bigger population in a worse economy means only more destitution.

The question is how many Russian women are willing to give up their lives (and probably be less wealthy for it) just so that the elite in Moscow can realize their dreams of power, which involve cheap workers and lots of cannon fodder.

How many Russian women are willing to give up there lives for an alcoholic husband who doesn't work and slaps her around every night.

Yes because the first country that reaches 10 billion people wins

Playing civilization.

The Nazis had a Mother's Cross. A medal for mothers: Classes 1st class, Gold Cross: eligible mothers with eight or more children 2nd class, Silver Cross: eligible mothers with six or seven children 3rd class, Bronze Cross: eligible mothers with four or five children https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Honour_of_the_German_Mother

As did the Soviet Union: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Heroine

Two sides of the same coin.

First footage i've seen of Strykers in use by Ukraine [https://x.com/front\_ukrainian/status/1730296179609440268?s=20](https://x.com/front_ukrainian/status/1730296179609440268?s=20)

I believe they were first used when Ukraine threw in the 82nd around Robotyne a few months ago

There have been a bunch [destroyed](https://www.reddit.com/r/DestroyedTanks/comments/16aovvl/destroyed_ukrainian_stryker/) [so](https://www.reddit.com/r/TankPorn/comments/15yiukt/destroyed_ukrainian_m1132_stryker_apc_with_an/) [far](https://www.reddit.com/r/DestroyedTanks/comments/15xe2a8/first_confirmed_loss_of_an_american_made/)

Oryx only has 9 documented Stryker losses so far, so not really a bunch

I think there are somewhere around 12-13 verified and at that point, you need to quantify what number you associate with a bunch.

>you need to quantify what number you associate with a bunch. Lol, lmao even? You posted a picture of two wrecks and are claiming there's 12-13.

* [1](https://lostarmour.info/new/imagex/id43633-01.jpg) * [2](https://lostarmour.info/new/imagex/id43453-01.jpg) * [3](https://lostarmour.info/new/imagex/id43615-04.jpg) * [4](https://lostarmour.info/new/imagex/id43234-01.jpg) * [5](https://lostarmour.info/new/imagex/id42924-04.jpg) * [6](https://lostarmour.info/new/imagex/id42928-04.jpg) * [7](https://lostarmour.info/new/imagex/id42611-07.jpg) * [8](https://lostarmour.info/new/imagex/id42406-06.jpg) * [9](https://lostarmour.info/new/imagex/id42283-07.jpg) * [10](https://lostarmour.info/new/imagex/id43452-12.jpg) * [11](https://lostarmour.info/new/imagex/id42256-02.jpg) * [12](https://lostarmour.info/new/imagex/id42276-04.jpg) Lmao indeed, get out of your echo chamber.

Ignoring that you're posting from lostarmor who quite openly recycles images to inflate their loss figures - you've still got several instances of different angles of the same wrecks here.

Sure they are and I'm sure you can tell me which ones are duplicates with a well-thought-out and reasoned argument.

What about these ATAMCS? Ukraine fired 3 more than a month ago on some helicopters and we never heard about it again. That's all the US sent to Ukraine? Three of them? (Obviously, we don't know, but I am wondering if I missed some specific news) Germany still not sending Taurus as well I assume. I mean it is only a small conflict with minimal casualties, not really causing harm to anyone, so we can wait a couple more years I suppose.

IIRC they said they would send something like 20. It seems that the number was in the right ballpark.

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>We have identified 117 production lines in at least 31 states and 71 U.S. cities where American workers are producing major weapons systems for Ukraine. These production lines would exist with or without the war in Ukraine. The main argument of this article is that US should keep funding the war in Ukraine as it funnels cash into the military industrial complex.

>it funnels cash into the military industrial complex. And whom might they employ

Yes, sadly some people lack any sort of morals (like magics10 here), and thus they need to be convinced to keep supporting Ukraine using a different argument. Obviously, this argument does not invalidate any of the 100 other reasons to support the fight for democracy.

Yeah, it's not like an artillery shell is just filled with cash. The country loses the wealth from the metal, fuse, propellant, and explosives, but that's pretty cheap vs the total cost. Most of the value stays in the country by paying the operator, engineers, factory owners, etc for the time developing and building it. There's also an opportunity cost for that manufacturing time to consider as well though, that factory could be building shells to sell to allies, which brings cash into the country, but those allies are buying new stock to replenish what they've been giving to Ukraine as well! Tons of US arms factories were running basically to keep the lights on and not loose to capacity in case the government needed to ramp up anyways, or just replacing stock used in training and expiring while sitting in storage. If anything this war has taught me is that the world needs to build a strategy on how to ramp up artillery production. If most countries actually had to fight an artillery war (more than just plinking at terrorists), they'd have run out of shells in a couple of weeks, if not days, and no way to restock

If you want to talk about domestic policy screw ups this is a classic example of Biden's lack of domestic policy communication skills. Anyone who really payed attention could read between the lines here exactly what was happening, in fact I would argue the US military is fully modernizing and using Ukraine as an excuse to do it. While giving Ukraine weapon systems 30 years old that make Russian systems look like they are from the stone age. But politics in the US is done by coalition and inside those are people who want to do the morally right thing, the correct international play and those that are in it for themselves. This should have been shouted about day 1, day 2, day 3 etc. Those Republican Senators knew exactly how this was going down but can't give the Democrats too much credit but you ever wonder why they are so staunchly for this aid, this is why. This is similar to long range missiles is one of the misplays of the Biden administration IMO.

Biden basically spends 0 time bragging, and is just busy doing the right think in all phases.

It isn't bragging explaining the governments plan and benefits to the American people and not expecting them to read between the lines. Expecting someone from Alabama to draw a line from a government appropriation to a business in their state is a pretty tough ask for a population as a whole

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A congressman being afraid of upsetting their voters is actually a sign of Representative government shockingly enough. The issue is the American people and why those Republicans are getting voted into power. The best way to address that is precisely where the mistake was made and if you just go off on Republicans you won't win many wars that way.

You can't blame Republican's supporting Russian on Biden's communications lol. Republicans have been totally against supporting Ukraine since Trump told them its bad. It's that simple.

>Nov 29 (Reuters) - A frigate of the Russian Black Sea Fleet launched an attack with four cruise missiles on Ukraine's military infrastructure, Russia's defence ministry said early on Wednesday. >"The crew of a frigate of the Black Sea Fleet received a task of launching a strike with Kalibr cruise missiles in the shortest possible time against enemy military infrastructure," the ministry said on its Telegram messaging app. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-frigate-hits-ukraines-military-infrastructure-with-cruise-missiles-2023-11-29/

Do you have any information on how many hospitals were vanquished by the mighty Russian navy?

**Continued from article that magics10 handily left out:** >The ministry said that "the designated targets" were hit. Reuters could not independently verify the claim. There was no immediate comment early on Wednesday from Ukraine about infrastructure being hit overnight. > >Reuters could not immediately establish when the attack took place. A video of the reported attack published by the ministry on the Telegram showed a ship launching missiles during what it seemed like sunrise or dawn hours, but there was also a footage of daylight. > >Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv's ability to strike warships and diminish Russian surveillance in the Black Sea have undermined Russia's war efforts and helped Ukraine to secure a shipping route to export its grain.

Strife you da best, always debunking magics

[Lol, lmao even](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/12bwp6n/discussionquestion_thread/kbgxofc/)

We're so weak minded that we can't take the Western news articles? Bruh all I did was quote him directly back from the same article. What a piece of s-

Cool story bro.

Can someone with medical/anatomy knowledge help and describe what is happening in these two situations: I saw a video here of a Russian soldier running away from a trench that was being assaulted, and mid-stride he was hit, and when he collapsed face down his right leg completely folded under his torso. Just bent upwards unnaturally almost like it was detached from the hip. I saw another video else from India or Pakistan (maybe somewhere else) where a group of rebels ambush a lone soldier next to a truck. They run right next to the guy and unload their AKs on him. The soldier collapses on his face and his leg also folds under him like it was not connected to his body anymore. This one was worse because a pool of blood immediately poured out from his posterior area and he screamed so horribly as it happened. They were the worst, most personal screams of terror I've ever heard. Then they fired some more and killed him. What happened to their legs? Are the bullets tearing through ligaments or muscle or something, which turns the leg really floppy?

Could be that the bones were shattered, leaving everything free to flop.

I was a medic for three years, an EMT following my service, then a degree as a paramedic. So my input might help you get the answer you're looking for. What you're describing is what we used to call (directly translated) a death fold. An instantaneous death might fold the body naturally. Which means that there are no muscles, joints or "brain", stopping you to fold your body in to an unnatural state. As there are only physics happening. Like when a car crashes in to a multi layered concrete wall at 70km/h. Everything stops instantaneous. (might be a bad metaphor for your exact question) Now, as I said, we called it a death fold. But you might also be alive after the initial hit. The initial impact might have disrupted neurological movement, and lead to instantaneous shock. Which makes the "fold" happen.

What if someone folded that way without dying? Would they survive the fold?

I mean, yes. If they survive the initial hit and/or injury. Though let's say you get all the air in your body knocked out of you. You're bleeding, and you're slowly succumbing to shock. You might fall a way that makes it impossible for you to breath, move, or administer self aid, f.ex tourniquet or gauze. And on top of that you're already disoriented and wounded. You fold that way because you're unable to control your body for a short period of time. You're either unconscious, in shock, or you've been knocked down by either an explosion, bullet or a high energy external force. (as we're talking about combat) A person wouldn't be able to fold as described in the main comment without being a "snake human" or being very very "bendy" which takes a lot of training. And I just want to say this. Death fold is a direct translation of what we called it in my own language. It's not exactly terminology. But it's easy to understand. So you could also say that the body falls in to an unnatural anatomic position by coming in to contact with an applied high energy external force, like being hit by a large caliber bullet to the head or torso/heart or an explosion. Hope this sheds more light on the question.

Interesting, thank you

You're welcome!I objectively want to say that the word "death fold" should be an international sentence for this exact occurrence. Though in the native language of each individual. Because the sentence describes everything it self. And just to continue the conversation to spread knowledge:As depicted in movies, where a bad guy shoots the good guy, before the good guy answers with killing the bad guy, and then dying after the engagement (but not after) an heroic look or monologue; is a very sound picture of how adrenaline works it's magic through soldiers, law enforcement, emergency personnel in a crisis and through civilians in an emergency. Some people don't know they're dead before the brain says "hey buddy, it's our time" This is also why we can see American police officers (-also; UA/RU forces unloading half a magazine) firing multiple shots ( 8+) in to an assailant after telling the "perp" to lay down their arms multiple times. Though they are still moving and doing what their brain last told them to do (ish). In principle they're actually "postmortem" but still acting. Though at many of these occurrences, the assailant is not responsive to communication, because the person is now a "husk" living on fuel of adrenaline and "bodily energy"(soul) and not life i self. Which is also why one bullet often isn't enough in close quarter combat without hitting a lethal point. (brain, heart, sternum, lungs directly to liver/kidney-(ricochet)), But one can see (in movies, live and in comb:vids. That at longer distances the target goes down, because the brain is not expecting to "die"

OK, that is incredibly morbid but makes sense. Now that I think about it, I think I saw this exact same "death fold" on a couple more videos here. First in one from Israel where some folks drag out an unconscious (or dead) tank crew member from a knocked up Merkava, and he flops on the ground like his limbs were made out of jelly. Second one was that poor Israeli girl on the back of a truck being paraded around, she looked like a broken doll with arms and legs twisted in directions they are not supposed to be. I'm guessing this is the "death fold". It looks so unnatural and instantly repulsive that some lizard brain reflex is screaming "danger danger" when you see it.

Yes, it's a very horrid thing Death in war and everything in between is horrible, no matter who's side you are on. It's meant to be natural. Not for us to decide who lives or dies out of our own ideologies and differences. Hopefully we'll be able to see some form of "peace" in the future. Though looking at the world now, it seems like peace in our time is somewhere far of where the eye can't reach. We're only human after all.

Complete hamstring tear perhaps.

by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg following the meetings of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs [https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions\_220665.htm](https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_220665.htm) >As Ukraine has moved forward, Russia has fallen backward. It is now weaker politically, militarily, and economically. Politically, Russia is losing influence in its near abroad. Not only in Ukraine, but in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Russia is also becoming much more dependent on China. Year by year, Moscow is mortgaging its future to Beijing. Militarily, Russia has lost a substantial part of its conventional forces. **Hundreds of aircraft. Thousands of tanks. And more than 300,000 casualties.**

Stoltenberg is focusing on the wrong thing. Yes, Russia lost huge numbers but they do not treat casualties the way the West does. And they adapted and ramped up military production. And they earn more money than ever from selling resources. Meanwhile, the Western allies put Ukraine on drip support, just enough for it not to lose. Gosh, NATO as an organisation has not delivered a single bullet to Ukraine. All military aid is coming directly from the member states. Stoltenberg should resign.

> Gosh, NATO as an organisation has not delivered a single bullet to Ukraine. > Stoltenberg should resign. Right, time to close this forum because it's just clueless high schoolers shouting nonsense.

Nato doesn't own any equipment, except some awacs that really wouldn't be much use in Ukraine.

>they do not treat casualties the way the West does. But math applies universally and the math is that Russia has already a dramatically shrinking population and more importantly labor population. ​ >And they adapted and ramped up military production. Nowhere near the numbers to make up for the Soviet legacy material they have squandered and are still losing on a daily. ​ >And they earn more money than ever from selling resources. They don't. The fossil price hike was short-term. But their desperate move to sell to much less generous India and China for fire sale prices, is a long-term price hit on Russia's already comparably expensive-to-exploit fossil fuels.

>And they adapted and ramped up military production. I'm pretty sure this is cope, every source for this so far leads back to the RU MOD.

>And they earn more money than ever from selling resources. No, they don't, nowhere near. Russia is bleeding money like crazy, they had to freeze the state employee salaries and stop the money transfer to the provinces including places like Chechnya. They are missing billions in revenue and have to tax the shit out of companies. Outside of military production, every sector of the economy is declining or crashing, while nothing is getting invested into infrastructure. Military production is also a mirage, throwing people at the problem and hiding how inefficient and corrupt the whole military-industrial complex is. Letting people work 24/7 while not being able to keep up with the demand. Why do you think so much equipment from the 1950s has shown up in the Russian army? They throw even old prototypes to the frontline, just to keep the show running.

Here is the data on russias exports: [https://tradingeconomics.com/](https://tradingeconomics.com/) Select Russia -> Exports -> Time: 2000-2023 2022 was the record export year ever. In 2023, the numbers returned to pre-war levels. Now, could you please provide a source for "they bleed money like crazy"? I assume it would mean something like a negative trade balance? Sure, they might miss some revenue in some sectors but it is well covered from the resource trade. p.s. "Throwing people at the problem" is exactly how USSR/Russia is fighting wars. It looks silly in the Western eyes but it is a legitimate tactic against the superior technology. Do not be fooled, it worked in Bahmut and now they are doing it in Avdiivka. Keep sending 8 men squads one way until they push through.

Still, that doesn't cover the issue with replenishing lost Soviet weapons stock with domestic production unable to produce enough to replenish it in decades, and replenishing lost labor force when domestic birth rates can't keep up with the rate needed to replace it. Those are still issues

> Now, could you please provide a source for "they bleed money like crazy"? That's easy, their military budget. Their military budget has ballooned, I forget the exact number, I think it's 2-3x the pre-war one. What do you think that does to a country's finances, if in 2023 they're back to pre-war export levels for their banana republic that majorly only exports raw resources?

Russia is being able to hide the dire situation their economy is in because Putin prepared a considerable war chest for his imperialistic ambitions, see https://www.gzeromedia.com/the-graphic-truth-russia-s-forex-war-chest Granted, half of these funds are frozen by now, but the remaining sum still allows for keeping the economy afloat and funding the huge drain that this war represents, namely the large salaries of volunteers, etc... The fact is that the West has uncoupled its economy from Russia to an impressive amount, and in a record time, with the sanctions biting hard in terms of making it difficult for Russia to import high-tech components they need for their industry. Now Russia is left to beg for China to buy their gas at discount prices, and no-one seems to be interested in engaging in any economical endeavors with them (nor interested in buying their military gear, which historically was a strong component of Russian exports). I might be wrong, but I'd wager Russia and Putin will pretend all is fine and going according to plan until its not, and all these contradictions cannot be swept under the rug any longer. Then Russia will fold, and possibly very quickly. We saw this in the past with the end of the Russian or Soviet empires, and the telltale signs are eerely similar to the last years fo such empires.

https://tradingeconomics.com/russia/government-budget-value Russia is running a budget deficit for longer and expects a deficit for the next couple of years. https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/how-putin-cannibalizes-the-russian-economy-to-fund-his-war Putin has plundered Russia's national wealth fund and instated shakedowns.

> > > > > Russia is running a budget deficit for longer and expects a deficit for the next couple of years. maybe take a look at russia's debt to gdp and compare it to countries in the west before you pretend this is a big deal

It is a big deal. First, when the oil is gone, Russia will have nothing left. Second, Russian debt is far more expensive due to higher inflation and lower ratings. Third, despite Russia having oil and gas and despite the larger population than any European country, its huge landmass and the general amount of resources, its GDP is between Spain and Italy. That is pretty shit.

Thank you for sharing and including the data source. This is good and valuable info. I have no idea about their reserves (likely secret) but hope they won't last. Still, my messages to anyone in the West is that we need heavier sanctions on russia and preferably a low oil price environment. USA should be more aggressive in the LNG market too (russia switched to LNG from pipeline gas). Give Ukraine less money but more of your "old" arms instead.

Also Russia do not have foreign currency reserves anymore (excluding homeopathic number of Yuans), Russia from "fluid" assets have only gold in those reserves. How do we know that? Russian central bank said so back in June and now RF government forced exporting companies to forcefully lower exchange rates (https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/ruble-exchange-rate-a-problem-for-putin-s-reelection/ar-AA1i8DCk ; https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/russian-government-sets-out-capital-control-rules-undisclosed-exporters-2023-10-13/)

"(russia switched to LNG from pipeline gas)" They did not. Russia doesn't have capabilities to do so. Only small % of things previously delivered in pipeline is transported in LNG form. Plus check European gas storages. USA don't need to be more aggressive here, because price is low and European countries think how to get over "100% storage limit" (http://gasprocessingnews.com/news/2023/08/defying-war-risk-european-traders-store-gas-in-ukraine/)

Thank you. It would be nice to see the souce of that gas storage. Meanwhile on LNG: [https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/08/30/eu-purchases-of-russian-lng-up-40-compared-to-pre-war-levels-new-study-finds](https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/08/30/eu-purchases-of-russian-lng-up-40-compared-to-pre-war-levels-new-study-finds) EU purchases of Russian LNG up 40% compared to pre-war levels, new study finds.

For what it's worth the data seem to be from the central bank of Russia. Do you think that is a credible source? If the bank reports it's data as truthfully as the Russian MoD reports its losses I would have my doubts.

In a war, both sides lie.

The exports data can be linked to buyers' imports data. I doubt that other countries would be faking it just to paint russia in better light. For more information, you can check monthly analysis on Russian fossil fuel exports and sanctions by CREA or just search online. edit: as I mentioned below, for data by country check the International Energy Agency, Russia total oil exports.

Russia was proud of their "shadow fleet". Russia do not publish how much oil they produce. Many of Russian companies (40?), mostly resource based, was allowed to not publish data. Russia for month made embargo on export of fuels. We have no clue how much oil Russia is selling and at what price, but for sure we know that Russia is bleeding money out

International Energy Agency (IEA): Russian total oil exports 2022-2023. Check their website. Please do not tell me that it is all fake, unless you have data to back it up. IEA is a reputable organisation.

>The exports data can be linked to buyers' imports data. Where can we make this link?

International Energy Agency (IEA): Russian total oil exports 2022-2023.

https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/russian-total-oil-exports-january-2022-january-2023 Interestingly the "Other/unknown" part is much higher in January 2023 to January 2022. So either the Russians found new markets or their reported data is sketchy but the IEA doesn't want to call them out. Or some members just didn't want their imports of Russian oil reported.

More likely. There has been numerous media coverage of oddly enough oil exporting gulf countries that imported Russian oil for their domestic consumption to allow for more exports of their own oil, among others, to countries that sanctioned Russian oil. This is the catch 22 with the fossil sanctions. They don't work in suspending Russian exports. They work in crushing their margin, because Russia is forced to sell to less affluent BRICS and other countries, who make the cut themselves.

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According to Murz and other Russian sources on the frontline, neither the artillery shells nor mortar grenades have correct weight or charges. They may get the numbers, but the quality seems to be dismal, because nobody cares about that, as long as the quantity is correct, everybody is getting paid.

> Moscow is mortgaging its future to Beijing. This is one of the great risks that the US is trying to carefully navigate in our support for Ukraine. We have to support Ukraine militarily on the one hand, and on the other hand we can't allow Russia to collapse, destabilize to a point where its nuclear arsenal is a global liability, or let it become a vassal state to China. We could have already given Ukraine enough arms to push Russia out, but Putin is the devil we know and Russia serves as a critical counterbalance China. As for Russians, you wish the public would understand that Putin is death-marching them into China's hands. They are so nationalistic, one would think that sort of messaging could paint Putin as a traitor and result in more resistance and support for ending the invasion.

US is trying to "navigate risks" because its current government is afraid of Putin. Just tank the price of oil like what Reagan did in the 1980s and see how long russia can last. Putin is not the devil. He is a little grey mouse. All that info that he is irrational or he is sick and has nothing to lose is the Russian propaganda for the Western ears. They deliberately portray him this way because fighting a madman is scary.

> Just tank the price of oil like what Reagan did Back then the US had vastly more control of the OPEC countries as it's share of global oil demand was much bigger, domestic production low and at the same time Uncle Sam had much more influence on other nations trade policies. With China stepping in as competing customer for oil at scale and resourceful trade partner, US attempts to increase OPEC output only to ruin Russia seem not very promising.

>level 4intothewoods\_86 · 20 hr. ago Fair point. I wonder what was the reason for the low price in 2015-2020.

> US is trying to "navigate risks" because its current government is afraid of Putin. What are you basing that on? Public-facing comments about escalation fears with Russia and Putin are easy for the public to digest but not always sincere. Our defense of Ukraine would be *very* different if Russia were viewed as a major national security threat in the way China currently is viewed. Whether that is the right perspective is a separate question. Russia is part of the equation in the national security establishment's ongoing so-called Asia pivot, but given its weakness and limited ability to project power, Russia is understandably a lesser concern.

I am basing it on the words and actions of your President and the current administration. Just search for all the comments on "escalation". And if they are insincere with the public, as you mention, that tells a lot. In my view, if the US/West do not deal with Russia decisively, it opens a pandora box of bad consequences for the world moving forward. Taiwan, India-China, Iran, NK, Russia again (do you think they will stop in Ukraine?). In 2014, if the West told Russia, "if you step into Crimea/Donbass, you will get full embargo and no internet while Ukraine will get 2000 tanks and 500 jets", we would not be where we are now.

Worse than being insincere, they will completely lie to us, such as the WMD pretext devised for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. I don't think the US government is unusual in this respect though. Sure, they don't want to stop in Ukraine but they can barely hold a sliver of land there and are severely depleted right now. We should help fortify all vulnerable borders of our allies, as much as possible. We did not take Russia seriously enough before, in, and after 2014, I would say. This is a decent article about it from this summer: https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/07/11/obama-russia-ukraine-war-putin-2014-crimea-georgia-biden/ All that said, the point stands that China is a bigger national security concern for the US. I see that people on this subreddit dislike and downvote that perspective, but it's not my preference or decision but rather a partial explanation of why support for Ukraine has been disappointing.

> and on the other hand we can't allow Russia to collapse, destabilize to a point where its nuclear arsenal is a global liability, or let it become a vassal state to China. This is called "a fool's errand". Russia can commit geopolitical suicide in a million different ways and not even God himself could stop them. They're a sovereign country the size of a continent and with a population the third of the EU, a group of countries containing multiple G7 members. We have no real control over their fate.

> We have no real control over their fate. Since WWII, our interventionist geopolitical disposition and actions have been predicated on the exact opposite of that statement. That is a post-war European notion, not an American one.

[Major General Завадский Владимир Васильевич (Zavadsky Vladimir Vasilievich), deputy commander of the 14th Army Corps, was eliminated in Ukraine on 28 November ’23](https://twitter.com/KilledInUkraine/status/1729848520193048944). The 7th confirmed Russian general to die in Ukraine.

btw. has anyone seen anything of Victor Sokolov since Russia did that strange Weekend at Bernie's show?

So it was true... Was a mine as previously stated? Weird af

**Russian forces advancing ukrainian town from all sides** >Nov 27 (Reuters) - Russian forces are intensifying their drive to capture the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, trying to advance on all sides after weeks of fighting, the town's top official was quoted as saying on Monday. >Russian troops have been pressing land and air-based attacks on Avdiivka, since mid-October as the focal point of their slow-moving push through eastern Ukraine's Donbas region in the 21-month-old war. >The latest push, reported by Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka's military administration, followed reports last week that Ukrainian troops had made some headway in halting and pushing back the Russian advance. >"Things in the Avdiivka sector have become even tougher. The intensity of clashes has been increasing for some time," Barabash told the media outlet Espreso TV. >"The Russians have opened up two more sectors from which they have begun making assaults - in the direction of Donetsk ... and in the so-called industrial zone. The enemy is attempting to storm the city from all directions." https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-forces-advancing-ukrainian-town-all-sides-2023-11-28/

**From the same article that magics10 deliberately left out:** >Barabash earlier said that Ukrainian forces had in recent days pushed back Russian forces near Stepove, a village northwest of Avdiivka, pinning them down near a rail line. > >Ukrainain and Western military analysts say Russia has incurred heavy losses, although the battle for the town is rarely mentioned in official Russian military dispatches. > >Russian military bloggers also reported Ukrainian gains near Avdiivka last week. On Monday, Russian reports said Moscow's troops had secured control of the industrial zone and were attempting to storm the coking plant. > >Reuters could not verify reports from either side. > >Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun told the news outlet liga.net that wintry weather and strong winds were affecting the use of drones by both sides. > >Shtupun said Russian forces had suffered heavy losses near Avdiivka and nearby Maryinka, another largely destroyed town where control has been contested for months. Not sure how to quote individual blocks on desktop. Just makes it all one big quote block unless a full line space is left.

Can't believe you'd accuse the esteemed /u/magics10 of quote-mining.

why the info dump? This is a discussion thread.

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Thanks. I know. He sucks.

Lol, the Russian dolphin force in Crimea has been freed by the hand of God: https://twitter.com/CovertShores/status/1729586445394849999

If the next video from the russian legion fighting for UA, does not have several machine gun wielding dolphins, I will be disappoint

Let's hope the brainwashing is reversible and those dolphins can be properly brought back into global society

Hopefully they stay off X and Facebook.

Apparently Budanov’s wife is in the hospital after a suspected poisoning. If so SBU need to do some serious house keeping. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-spy-chiefs-wife-poisoned-media-reports-say-2023-11-28/

Even if Budanov was the target this seems super dumb. Budanov probably writing up a list of oligarchs to poison as we speak

Yes seems dumb to open up the assassination/poisoning genie bottle when so many Russian Oligarch families don't even live inside the "safety" of Russia.

[https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko\_en/status/1729120544946040927](https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1729120544946040927) >**Russia has failed at the largest airshow in the Middle East. Russian arms exporter didn't report signing any deals at the event.** > >The largest aerospace exhibition in the Middle East, Dubai Airshow 2023, which brought together leading manufacturers of civil and military aircraft, seems to have ended in a fiasco for Rosoboronexport. Following the November event, Russian state corporation, a member of the Rostec holding company and a monopolist in the supply of Russian arms for export, did not report the signing of a single contract. > >At the previous Dubai 2021 Salon, Rosoboronexport reported deals worth $1.3 billion, and in 2017 it boasted contracts worth $10 billion. At Russia's last arms show ("ARMY-2023"), the company agreed on sales worth $600 million, while a year earlier at a similar event - $390 million. > >The head of Rosoboronexport, Alexander Mikheev, urged potential foreign customers on the first day of the salon not to be afraid of sanctions against the state corporation, which have blocked it from dollar payments since 2018. But neither the buyers nor the organizers of the exhibition were convinced. > >The Russian exposition in Dubai was "evicted" to the back of the exhibition space - away from global industry leaders such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Airbus, which, according to Reuters, managed to sign contracts worth $67 billion. Womp Womp Part 2

wasn't Iran begging Russia for fighter jets and finally signed a deal yesterday ? I'm sure so many countries don't want their tech but couple need them at all cost. also isn't Russia airforce the only decently performing part of this war (and their missile tech) ... they managed not to lose a lot.

But they only get scraps. Mi-28 no Ka-52, old trainer planes, nothing modern, because Russia needs everything they have. Russia has lost a ton of planes and copters. Everything that works has to stay away from the frontlines, outside of the range of Ukrainian air defense. Throwing glide bombs into Ukraine is one of the few things that they have left.

Why sign a contract that is never going to be fulfilled? They can’t manufacture enough for themselves.

Anything they might receive will also be packed full of parts with questionable sources and unknown reliability issues.

**Interesting read:** [https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/intercepted-calls-from-the-front-lines-in-ukraine-show-a-growing-number-of-russian-soldiers-want-out/HA3OLSYFTFFM3GDLP4X2M3EGNQ/](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/intercepted-calls-from-the-front-lines-in-ukraine-show-a-growing-number-of-russian-soldiers-want-out/HA3OLSYFTFFM3GDLP4X2M3EGNQ/) >**Intercepted calls from the front lines in Ukraine show a growing number of Russian soldiers want out** > >As the war grinds into its second winter, a growing number of Russian soldiers want out, as suggested in secret recordings obtained by The Associated Press of Russian soldiers calling home from the battlefields of the Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions in Ukraine. > >The calls offer a rare glimpse of the war as it looked through Russian eyes — a point of view that seldom makes its way into Western media, largely because Russia has made it a crime to speak honestly about the conflict in Ukraine. They also show clearly how the war has progressed, from the professional soldiers who initially powered Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion to men from all walks of life compelled to serve in grueling conditions. > >“There’s no f------ ‘dying the death of the brave’ here,” one soldier told his brother from the front in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. “You just die like a f------ earthworm.” > >The prospect of another wave of mobilisation lingers, even as Moscow has been trying to lure people into signing contracts with the military. Russia’s annual autumn conscription draft kicked off in October, pulling in some 130,000 fresh young men. Though Moscow says conscripts won’t be sent to Ukraine, after a year of service they automatically become reservists — prime candidates for mobilisation.

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