This will be an irregular sort of scattershot update today to clear out some interesting but minor marginalia and technical items that may not fit into larger upcoming pieces.
When you believe your own governments propaganda you loose your ability to choose your own fate. Scary, isn't it. Look at the percentage of people who took the first round of the Vaxx. Here in America it was over 80% who trusted the government. Now, when the 6th booster comes around it is 3%.
But that is just for the Vaxx. The RSV shot killed four babies for every one it saved in trials but they approved it anyway, and Parents! are letting them shoot that into kids. The media which has non-stop lied forever is telling them that Israel is making pinpoint strikes on terrorists in Gaza while showing video of complete city blocks bombed to rubble and they disbelieve their own lyin' eyes.
What's the real issue? Stupidity! "You know how dumb the average person is? Well half the population is dumber than that." 50-70% of people have no inner voice, you know - that conversation going on inside your head. "Did I turn off the coffee pot?" Being the smallest up to thinking about existence, most people don't have enough mental horsepower to make that happen. Life just happens to them.
Ultimately, the philosophies are fundamentally different…
Which is why we have a situation now where American tech (old & now) are failing en masse & headed to the Junkyard at best. At worst; they will malfunction and kill of their many various operators. Tragic!
Yankee tech has never been cutting edge. Yanks have always relied upon numbers, mass production, bullshit and bluster. Going back to the 1970's the M16 was a total piece of shit but the rumours were that it was designed with an unstable bullet that would ''tumble'' and blow limbs off. I can remember some Yanks doing whatever they could to get their hands on a L1A1 chambered for 7.62×51mm NATO. Fuck that 5.5 crap, if it ain't .30 calibre it ain't worth anything.
Blanket bomb, level, burn and walk in victorious. This has been the Yankee way.
Nowadays there are smarter people working smarter with better tech.
Yanks are now resorting to putting out crap like this ;
Most spitzer bullets were made like this once dum-dum bullets were prohibited by the Hague convention 1899, since nose-heavy bullets with a light filling in the back are apt to tumble when they hit something.
The Mk VII was different from earlier .303 bullet designs or spitzer projectiles in general. Although it appears to be a conventional spitzer-shape full metal jacket bullet, this appearance is deceptive: its designers made the front third of the interior of the Mk 7 bullets out of aluminium (from Canada) or tenite (cellulosic plastic), wood pulp or compressed paper, instead of lead and they were autoclaved to prevent wound infection. This lighter nose shifted the centre of gravity of the bullet towards the rear, making it tail heavy. Although the bullet was stable in flight due to the gyroscopic forces imposed on it by the rifling of the barrel, it behaved very differently upon hitting the target. As soon as the bullet hit the target and decelerated, its heavier lead base caused it to pitch violently and deform, thereby inflicting more severe gunshot wounds than a standard single-core spitzer design.[20]
Ukraine Russia has turned out to be the most boring war in history, regardless of all the high-tech dressing! At that pace, we would still be fighting in WWII!
You're being a bit harsh on him. In some ways, this war is fascinating. The geopolitics of it are fascinating. The technological aspects are fascinating. But in other ways it's incredibly boring. Never in the field of human conflict have so many been killed, so statically. After the initial grab in the south and east, territorial advance has been minimal. If you divided the number of fields acquired, by the number of Ukrainian K.I.A., I wonder what the C.P.F.G. would be (corpses per field gained).
Dear Dave Double D: You seem to be having a hallucinatory experience! Hopefully you were on some good shit rather than inherently oriented in making up lunatic assumptions then responding to them through infantile projections onto others! Stop self-induced mental masturbation. You should take care of that before you’re even ready to identify what a good book might be to read!
We are ignoring the unprecedented destruction of all things Western. While Russia rises. Syria has the same feel.
My take; every day that passes sees the West that much weaker and everyone else conspiring to finish us off so the whole world can be freer.
The events of the day hardly matter, our leadership class has been compromised. When they apply all the techniques of our past enemies there is certainly a need to pause. What is the advantage gained from lying about who is winning? Any soldier experiencing reality will not be motivated by lies.
If this is the best our flag waving, omnipotent, error free effete elite, have to offer, we are well and truly ****ed! No election can fix something this broken.
In our Democrat-run state, known for its aerospace, IT and biotech, we have board of education cutting hard-core sciences in favor of "social sciences" and CHOIR - I kid you not! At the time when in China, Russia and Iran the major emphasis in schools is on sciences.
Would love to see the Ukie press gangs drag you off the street and dump you in a frontline trench. My guess is you would not be 'bored', rather piss your pants in fear Mrs. ZebraZZZzzz. You would probably last no more than three hours before death came a callin'. Boring...LOL
Will be really interesting to see what Ru does about Kharkiv. The attacks on Belgorod are obviously a provocation, hoping that either Russia flattens Kharkiv in retaliation (and killing many Ukr-Ru in the city) or getting drawn into a bloody urban seige of a city of 1mn people. They certainly do know how to poke the bear
The better move will to take out targets in Kiev. Bugger up the lives of the elitist kikes that live in luxury while wrecking the rest of the country.
Personally I would like to see ''leaders'' with hand-held non firearm weapons of choice out in a field going for it. Swords. maces, spear. NO long range weapon at all. Up close and personal.
Can you imagine that Yankee warmonger Lindsey Graham there?
Well, the first thing they'll do is make sure folks remember that the name of the city is KharkOv and always has been LOL. As for personal wishes, i'd love it if they brought back the Kharkovchanka polar vehicle which is one of the coolest things I've ever seen :)
More soberly, nobody's dumb enough to directly attack a city of a million residents. the plan, obviously, whatever it is, will involve a combination of a) surrounding and cutting off the city and b) waiting for ukraine's government to self-implode.
They'll never flatten Kharkiv simply because there are way too many Russians there, even more than in Odessa. And they will be very hesitant to start a bloody siege for the same reason. Bakhmut is one thing, Kharkiv is completely another. Hence Kharkiv is very tricky just like Odessa is. If I had to guess, first they'd try to cut off supply routes and bleed the Ukr army to death as much as possible before moving in on Kharkiv or Odessa. And who knows if it's really possible. So I don't think that anything will happen to Kharkiv yet.
Right, I agree, they won't attack Kharkiv. But what can they do then? If they cut the city off I mean you're in Gaza wrt civilian population. Not exactly what the Russians have in mind I don't think.
To me it is quite baffling that you have the two cities just across from eachother and its been more or less quiet for most of the war, and only recently did it flare up. But this war has been pretty weird throughout.
I meant cut off the military supplies primarily. The population will likely suffer as well but unless the Ukr army has Hamas-like set of tunnels all throughout the city, this will end faster and with much less civilian bloodshed like Mariupol did earlier. Plus the Russians are not Israelies and they will actually allow people to leave (if they won't be shot by Azovites that is).
Well, it's a general consensus now from the alt-media that Zelensky is out of options except trying to do stupid PR stunts with the hopes of prolonging the Western support and keeping the morale up. Belgorod very much falls into that category. Also I wouldn't put it past the more hardcore Ukrainians to do stupid stuff without any orders from above, it's not like Zelensky rules with an iron fist.
Agree totally on Z control. I think at best he is barely keeping everything together and his prime utility was being the money spigot. Now that's been interrupted he must be under a lot of pressure and dealing with factions internally
Re: kharkiv, I continue to be impressed by the composure at the kremlin. A few times this war already I thought to myself if I was in putins position I would have ordered an overwhelming response by now. Each time prudence proved to be the right approach. That's why he is the president of Russia and I'm a dude on the Internet. Then again, this may be a cultural artifact of western programming post 9/11. I enjoy learning new things
By hitting civilians in Belgorod - Ukraine hit the skating rink and the holidays' shoppers, they want to provoke Russia into doing something drastic so they can pull the NATO card (more than now). Putin replied to the wounded soldiers, whom he visited during the New Year celebration, and they asked him why Russia won't hit Ukraine just like they hit Belgorod. Putin said," I too want to take an eye for an eye, and we too can hit their city squares, where their kids are playing and mothers with the strollers, but we don't want to stoop to that. We hit them where it matters the most - military objects, infrastructure, shells storages, decision-making HQ and military personnel gathering"
Kharkov has strategic value whole, but the primary reason not to besiege it is the size of the army it would take to do so. The cascading effect from attrition is working. The Bandera army will run out of corpses and NATO's Military Dependency of Ukraine will collapse probably sooner than later.
Technically, I don't see the problem. People keep bringing up "1 million city" but this is irrelevant. Mariupol was only 2 times smaller than that. Also, lot's of Russians. It's the question of will, not inability
Bypassing cities was Soviet doctrine and Russia has done it on a much smaller scale several times. I expected Russia to do it at Avdeevka , but the Bandera army insists on repeating the imstakes of Artymovsk so I guess the RU must oblige them and allow the Bandera army to continue paying an unnecessary cost for a town that has lost utility for NATO's Military Dependency of Ukraine.
Great Article once again Simplicius. I for one believe that heavy UCAV drones armed with missiles like the Product 305 LMUR TV guided missile can be a serious contender on the battlefield as it allows standoff attack distance immune to the ground mud conditions. If you have hundreds of these working in conjunction with CAS, it can reduce manned aircraft volumes and stress and pilot loss. This is essentially diversion of workload and airframe stress to automated UCAV and unmanned systems. I guarantee you UCAV armed with TV electro-optical guided missiles will make a difference on the battlefield.
I want to see the Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik-B [Hunter-B] rolled out when NATO start all their ''military exercises'' this year.
WTF would you stage massive troop and armament buildups in countries surrounding an actual war and then have ''war exercises'' if not planning to commit a war crime and unlike Russia INVADE a country?
Is Russia still running a blockade of Ukraine's grain or is it a non-issue in the middle of the winter?
If Russia has the available resources it wouldn't shock me to see them push towards Kharkov enough to open another front just to spread thr Ukrainians thinner.
Nobody's been blocking Ukraine's "grain." Russia has been blocking Ukraine's maritime trade, which includes grain but also stuff like rapeseed and sunflower oil. And yes, it's still going on, although Ukraine is rapidly running out of stuff to export.
It is my understanding that Russia is building it's force in Belgorod. I don't know if it is part of the reserve army (conscripts) or going to be another offensive force.
The Bandera territories can still ship grain through the Black Sea. First, it ships the grain by rail to a foreign port on the Danube and is then loaded onto ships. Those ships then have to stay toward the right bank avoiding Bandera waters.
There is no any blockade. Russia simply constantly attacks all Ukrainian ports and destroys their infrastructure. Geraniums/Shaheds, and sometimes missiles, strikes Odessa, Izmail and other port cities at least once a week, but usually more often. So Ukraine simply cannot transport goods by sea in any significant quantities, because infrastructure of seaports is constantly being destroyed by Russia.
I get a strong impression that Russia is simply outsmarting the U.S.-led coalition of morons and incompetents at every level. Russia is the most progressed country in my lifetime. I noticed Russia's improvements before this conflict by looking at its solid growth and stable economy over several years. While the West was predominantly a debt-based economy, Russia reduced its debt and began to unload its holdings of USD's down to nearly nothing while adding gold to its balance sheet. Whoever led this economic turnaround for Russia deserves a medal because Russia now has minimal debt and a real economy with a clean balance sheet which is completely the opposite of the West's runaway deficits, debt, make-believe woke failing economy and printed-from-thin air funny money with nothing but a promise to pay holders of its T-bills. And we all know how much you can trust a promise from the U.S. The West is a Vampire that needs Russia to exploit to survive long-term. But the sun is soon to rise and the Vampire no more shall be but with worthless USD's. lol Well done, Russia.
Michail Mishustin prime minister one of them, who did good job besides Putin. There is still some libtards and saboteurs in Russian government, head of central bank Nabiulina, for example
Interesting. Saboteurs and treasonous politicians, loyal to the WEF and WHO, have infiltrated Western governments. I have read about similar influences in Russia but I can't confirm it as I read conflicting information. Maybe Russia is experiencing internal growing pains which will be interesting to see how things turn out. Time will tell.
Many point to Mr. Putin having attended the WEF Young Global Leaders courses but I believe that was intelligence gathering as he has certainly thrown a few spanners and much swarf into the WEF works when it comes to the 'Great Reset' and global communism.
Getting rid of Chubais was, hands down, the smartest move Putin did over the SMO in terms of dealing with a single individual. As for Nabiulina, not sure why all the hate as she's done a superb job of keeping things in balance under EXTREMELY trying circumstances (including freezing russia out of the ability to pay off some of its foreign debt). Are folks mad about the recent rate hike? Sure. But so what? It seems like a smart move to me.
For anyone like me who worked in Eastern Europe in 1991, Russia's revival is not short of staggering. We're now the commies with the ailing economies and geriatric leadership. Amazing times.
Yet again we have casualty numbers which simply do not correlate with different sources - 30,000 per month would by now imply c 700,000 - almost twice the Russian estimate from a few weeks ago, and even the higher number is much less than other estimates - though accords with my own view. And the comment about sick soldiers is also interesting - what else do you expect putting old men into cold wet conditions the open in mid-winter in eastern Ukraine?
However it does look like the Russians are doing the obvious thing and putting pressure on multiple fronts and in multiple dimensions. At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, I did think this might be the strategy - though I had not considered that Ukraine's arms' industry would be worth attacking.
Every day though the slow slide to collapse appears speeding up. There is about 10 weeks now to the Spring Raputitsa - but I doubt the UAF can be brought to the point of irrevocable defeat in that timescale. However May 2024 looks possible. IMHO it is touch and go as to whether the home front will remain intact and without some sort of coup until then. In any event, it looks like we are entering the beginning of the end game here. I don't personally view this as a stalemate nor do I think this thing can go on for years.
There also was an interesting article in a U.S major mainstream newspaper (cant remember which one), where Zaluzhnyi was quoted regarding the dispute about the upcoming 500.000 conscription as saying that he did not set a clear number of how many new recruits have to be recruited from the upcoming conscription , he just stated that he needs replacement for the losses of the past year, and the expected losses for year 2024. So we can deduce that the incurred and expected losses for 2023 and 2024 are 450 to 500k, , around 20.000
Zaluzhny emphasized that he hadn't said anything about a "need for 500,000 or 400,000" soldiers - only a "general need". To bring home soldiers who'd enlisted at the start of Russia's invasion, he said, Ukraine needed to start training more soldiers now.
"Our needs are resources," Zaluzhny said. "It's weapons, it's ammunition, it's people. We calculate all of this in formulating our needs - people who we have lost, people who we could lose in the next year."
Putting pressure on the opponent everywhere, looking for the weak spot, is as old a tactic as conflict itself.
Hitting Ukrainian arms making prior to now, wasn't a profitable thing, as most of their supply was from NATO/external sources. Now that Ukraine is forced into more self-reliance, taking it away has a multiplicative effect.
Russian estimates of AFU casualties are based on what they are reasonably certain of. We've discussed in this forum many of the ways these can be an underestimate.
One I don't recall seeing much talk about is sickness, which has *always* killed more than direct conflict, except where you take specific, ongoing and logistic intensive efforts to keep at bay.
Now that "General Winter" has arrived to take part in battle, this logistic effort becomes acute necessity. Soldiers in winter need more food, sources of heat, means of cleanliness and drying etc. which is profoundly difficult for Ukraine.
There's been a definite uptick in Russian assaults where they risk greater casualties lately. I think they see a way to a quicker end too.
The average age of the Ukrainians is high, which will increase the disease and cold issues. Plus, it was noted early on in the SMO that many Ukie soldiers seemed to have been guinea pigs for Western biological experimenting which will also not help. Add to that the huge corruption with respect to supplying proper clothing and supplies of all kinds.
Your mention of biological experimentation is noteworthy, however perhaps more immediate would be the effect of reduced supplies of the various combat pharmaceuticals the Ukrainian military has been noted as using. If *those* are being limited by money and supply chains, then the troops in demoralizing conditions are more useless than ever.
As a flag, please be aware that during WW2 at least (as well as later) both US and German soldiers operated with heavy use of additives. For example, the invasion of France marched on meth.
it could simply be that the Ukrainians are lying again, just this time exaggerating their casualties. This would create a sense of urgency in the West to provide aid to stave imminent defeat. I prefer Russian MoD figures and I always assume they are within 20% of reality (up or down)
The Russian MoD doesn't know how many are returned to their units. They probably are using a skein to identify only severely wounded with an expectation they won't return to duty soon. Lots of presumption everywhere that we have specificity about things we don't have.
Remember that the term 'casualty' is a vey flexible term -- and it may account for some of the discrepancy you note (especially if they are counting temporarily and permanently losses in that term). This has always been a problem when evaluating different countries 'reported casualties' in a conflict (some times the definitions of what is a casualty is fundamentally different -- along with the fact that such numbers can be falsified or under / over reported). Even if the definitions are 'known' and 'constant' and if the number are 'empirically correct', depending on context, you get different 'stories'. The battalion commander in the field cares only about the losses to his immediate combat strength (that may include dead, permanently disabled and wounded, seriously wounded that may someday return to duty, lightly wounded that may be back in a few weeks, lightly wounded that will be back the day after tomorrow, missing, deserted, medically unfit, pyschologically shattered, criminally under arrest, etc.). The military planner (back at the 'Pentagon') might only care about and talk about the true net number (how many really won't be back 'in the line' within a given time frame -- say 6 months). Or at least, I try to keep such 'things' in my mind when I hear about casualty inconsistencies.
For sure that is correct, and as a military history statistics geek it is clear that definitions matter. And some of those who actually announce such figures are unaware and sloppy with what they really mean, if if they intend not to deliberately mislead. However my view is that the UAF is currently working its way through its third or on the fourth iteration of its actual combat troops, and the latter is less well equipped, less well led, has less ammo and is older, more unfit and less motivated than the previous guys. It will suffer an increasing incidence of casualties to its TOE (now c 50% anyway), and an increasing ratio of surrendering to other casualties. This is IMHO very predictable if you look at other wars. But bottom line is , regardless of the actual quantum of losses (and these are opaque) - can the UAF continue to fight for the foreseeable future at current and perhaps enhanced levels of attrition? And my view is NO. A few more months. And it won't be casulties per se that causes the collapse. it will be the realisation that the sacrifice is for nothing.
I agree, although it's a quite predictable arc in the sense that it's obvious what he's trying to do: ingratiate himself to the Russian side so as to be 'chosen' as one of the 'installed' new key members/leaders by the Russians after they oust current Kiev leadership when the war is over. He's gunning for 'amnesty', and will try to erase history and pretend he never agitated for destroying Russia, etc.
Our friend Alexei must not lose sight of the complexity of the strategy he appears to be following. Perhaps it would be advisable for him to study in detail the life and adventures of Mr. Hess...
Oh yeah totally agree he's the definition of an amoral sociopath man has 0 principles, ideals or beleifs except his own power.
The bizarre part is how fing obvious his whole ploy the fact he's egotistical enough to think Putin or the rest of the Russian leadership don't seen through it. They are not stupid men and the idea they would actually trust him anywhere the installed leadership of rump Ukraine is frankly ludicrous. It's quite something to watch him play out this whole melodrama.
The Russian leadership is not stupid and neither was the KGB some of them came from. They understand how to use leverage over people to keep them in line, and Arestovich offers many, many points of leverage. It's not inconceivable that they find utility in him in some fashion, now that any naivety toward the West and it's actors has been knocked out again.
Last year, that SOB was clearly meeting with MI6 and the Brits as they had a really nasty plan to wipe my country (PMR) off the map, so I've got nothing but hate for that guy. just because he's singing your tune now doesn't mean he is to be trusted.
Man's a snake I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. He's the kind of person who professes their undying friendship to you as they silp the knife between your rips. That kind of man needs to be taken behind the shed and taken care of for all our sakes. Also the PMR is based you guys would have wrecked any banderites dumb enough to show their faces Tiraspol.
don't be fooled... he's just trying to play the "kinder gentler Ukrainian nationalist", sortof the sheepdog character (as in Bernie Sanders or RFK, in a very abstract way)
Next time they hold an election (prob not this year or next), they'll just do yet another bait-and-switch for the war-weary Ukie public, or what's left of it. Global experience has shown, sadly, that it's possible to repeat this without limit
Safeguard what edge?? All Russia has done is replicate JDAMS in a cheaper, simpler, easy to make way. The Western MIC could do it too, but where's the profit??
Exactly: the JDAM kit is superior to the Russian UMPK in every way so there's not much US can learn from it. But the problem is: it's superior by 10-15% quality, yet inferior by 200-300% in price. Is it worth paying 200-300% more for 10-15% percent quality? Russia can pump them out like nobody's business and if a couple here and there miss or are duds, it's still worth the trade off.
Actually a lot could be learned; if the West felt itself under enough threat, it would be replicated fairly rapidly and JDAMs would disappear from the arsenal and be replaced by far cheaper weapons, but there is no real threat at this time.
Something to keep in mind when questioning Putin's motives.
There is a bizarre rumor that Lloyd Austin, rather than having some post surgical complications, was actually wounded at a Ukrainian site which took a missile strike?!
Well, it's claimed he has prostate cancer (any truth to the further rumour he's getting fired for hiding that??) for which the surgery has to be considered extremely minor (unless they're removing baseball sized chunks) Barring an amazingly botched/butchered surgery, he *shouldn't* have ended in ICU. He ABSOLUTELY shouldn't have dropped off the radar for 4 days. Not surprising such a rumour arises, too many questions, too few credible answers..
I have no idea WTF is going on with Austin, and I'm sure they're lying about at least some of it. But I have seen many "routine" surgeries go downhill fast thanks to all those absurd practices in Western medicine, i.e. nosocomial infections, abuse of antibiotics, et al.
Lots that can go wrong with a prostate surgery without resorting to those things. The urethra and all the nerves leading down there all pass through that donut.
Don't underestimate how 'bad' that specific kind of surgery can be -- the complications from even 'routine' and 'successful' operations of that kind can be a big problem (e.g. total urinary incontinence is quite common -- literally 'peeing yourself' 24/7). And that's if nothing goes wrong -- and stuff can go wrong (e.g. infection, or much worse spread of cancer than anticipated). I know about a half dozen older dudes who have had this minor surgery -- and are not the men they were (and some of which spent weeks in the hospital recovering to the point that allowed them to live such a 'diminished' life). Being in the ICU is a different matter (if he was there for genuinely medical reasons -- but in his case there could be exceptions) -- the generally point being that even if the story is true (and it may not be true), 'safe' and 'effective' is not a lie (it's two lies).
A lot of men I know have gone for less invasive stuff "Cyberknife" radiological stuff - or even just said F it and risked death rather than gain the incontinence and impotence that often results.
The facts as I understand them are that Austin underwent an "elective surgical procedure" on Dec. 22nd, and now the DoD says that procedure was related to prostate cancer. Then, he had complications and was admitted to Walter Reed on Jan. 2nd. That date is also the last day of the several-day barrage with long-range cruise missiles of Ukraine by the RA, this time targeting military infrastructure and targets.
I haven't seen any info about it in a while, but maybe a year ago there were some family members of U.S. Army service members raising issue with the large number of deaths by suicide and car accidents at a few bases in the states by service members who were deployed on "training missions" where the destination was classified. The assumption is that they were killed in Ukraine and that fact is being covered up.
There was also the case of both AFU General Zaluzhny and the intelligence chief Budanov being injured in missile strikes, disappearing for some time, and then reappearing. I'm certain some of the videos of both of them after their reappearance were faked. Those videos were designed to prove that the men were not injured and everything was normal. This was around the time of Budanov's utterly bizarre "Shhh!" videos that he put out.
There were reports last night that Austin had been fired by Biden, but nothing today. I'm hesitant to think anything with U.S. leadership is bizarre, but Austin's second-in-command Kathleen Hick's decision not to cut her Puerto Rico vacation short when she took over running the world's largest entity comes close (3 million employees, $750 billion annual budget).
But there is precedent in the Biden administration for that - Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg refused to cut his paternity leave short when full trains of toxic chemicals began derailing and spilling regularly.
Regarding artillery ammunition, I found this pro-western discussion board interesting, where one participant stated that the US is producing about 36.000 shells a month, Europe even less. If we are generous and round it up to 60.000 shells a month, this would fit ukrainian current use. But I cant believe the 10.000 shell figure for the russian side, either its deliberate understating, or RUS is saving up for a renewed offensive, the (conservative) values I remember are a prewar russian production of 300.000 a year, and Shoigus statement about a 17.5 fold production increase, which would amount to 5 Mio+ shells a year or 15.000 a day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcyJAWUnnwQ&t=1381s
The 10k shell figure is per day which is 300k a month of almost 3.5M a year which is roughly on right track at least. Sure Russia likely produces slightly more than they're expending cus you don't want to spend exactly what you're producing, you always want to be laying some away as stockpile.
Chechnya looks bad ass like it could take over most Europe countries by itself.Especially since large pluralities are -co-religionists and might just join up.
A lot of Western European men would join up as they come through Europe to get rid of the degenerate WEF and US infestations in their countries once and for all. We shall see a lot of politicians and degenerates like Blair, Mandelson, "king" Tampon the 1st of England and randy Andy hang before this war is finished, .... mark my words.
WEF started this war I believe to get rid of slavs. Not diverse enough so they decided to kill them. Thier plan is societies with no culture, no religion, solidarity no anything that can upset the looking up to them for guidance then we become slaves. UBI , live in pods, eat bugs, no carbon footprint etc
Because a lot of people won't do anything. Like when I got my pension at 50. Havnt worked and havnt wanted to work. I will do nothing but play the rest of my life.
Also you do not understand male nature or human nature. You at 50 is not most young guys. Most people do want to do stuff with their lives.
Men do not want to be sexless incels, poor men are sexless incels, so men need to get status to get sex and a woman. So men will always have a motive to work and grind and get status.
With these AI drones being immune to EW they will need some kind of mechanical destruction. Any thought on this? Maybe like a mini CIWS with optical ID those could be fully AI too.
Drone wars! Guys with the biggest protractor wins.
Kinda takes the testosterone out of military doesnt it so maybe US army gobalhomo initiative is not wrong. haha.
I saw a demo more than several years ago about a computer aided rifle scope. Whole shouldering the rifle you aim and identify the target by pulling the trigger and holding it. The scope ranges the identified target, adjusts the cross hairs tor bullet drop and waits for the moment your wavering hold of the rifle is just right and fires the bullet.
That could work for drones or jackrabbits. Maybe we could try skeet practice. My favorites are #'s 1, 11 $ 12.
I have seen recent video of US soldiers being trained with such computerized scopes mounted on AR pattern rifles. The targets were balloons being towed by small quadcopters.
When you believe your own governments propaganda you loose your ability to choose your own fate. Scary, isn't it. Look at the percentage of people who took the first round of the Vaxx. Here in America it was over 80% who trusted the government. Now, when the 6th booster comes around it is 3%.
But that is just for the Vaxx. The RSV shot killed four babies for every one it saved in trials but they approved it anyway, and Parents! are letting them shoot that into kids. The media which has non-stop lied forever is telling them that Israel is making pinpoint strikes on terrorists in Gaza while showing video of complete city blocks bombed to rubble and they disbelieve their own lyin' eyes.
What's the real issue? Stupidity! "You know how dumb the average person is? Well half the population is dumber than that." 50-70% of people have no inner voice, you know - that conversation going on inside your head. "Did I turn off the coffee pot?" Being the smallest up to thinking about existence, most people don't have enough mental horsepower to make that happen. Life just happens to them.
我是最後一個和平主義者之一，但我再也不敢這麼說了
Thanks for your hard work sir. Your analysis is the best!
A Skeptic Daily War Reports
https://askeptic.substack.com/p/war-reports-2024-01-09
Western “weapons” are designed to sell.
Russian weapons are designed to kill.
Ultimately, the philosophies are fundamentally different…
Which is why we have a situation now where American tech (old & now) are failing en masse & headed to the Junkyard at best. At worst; they will malfunction and kill of their many various operators. Tragic!
Yankee tech has never been cutting edge. Yanks have always relied upon numbers, mass production, bullshit and bluster. Going back to the 1970's the M16 was a total piece of shit but the rumours were that it was designed with an unstable bullet that would ''tumble'' and blow limbs off. I can remember some Yanks doing whatever they could to get their hands on a L1A1 chambered for 7.62×51mm NATO. Fuck that 5.5 crap, if it ain't .30 calibre it ain't worth anything.
Blanket bomb, level, burn and walk in victorious. This has been the Yankee way.
Nowadays there are smarter people working smarter with better tech.
Yanks are now resorting to putting out crap like this ;
Insane 6th Gen fighters : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jKy_jkOPrw
US scientists announce anti-gravity weapons : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0XCoX8malU
Believe it or not there are MILLIONS of Yanks see this and believe it is real!
More power to BRICS+ free trade and prosperity for all.
Most spitzer bullets were made like this once dum-dum bullets were prohibited by the Hague convention 1899, since nose-heavy bullets with a light filling in the back are apt to tumble when they hit something.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.303_British#Mark_VII
The Mk VII was different from earlier .303 bullet designs or spitzer projectiles in general. Although it appears to be a conventional spitzer-shape full metal jacket bullet, this appearance is deceptive: its designers made the front third of the interior of the Mk 7 bullets out of aluminium (from Canada) or tenite (cellulosic plastic), wood pulp or compressed paper, instead of lead and they were autoclaved to prevent wound infection. This lighter nose shifted the centre of gravity of the bullet towards the rear, making it tail heavy. Although the bullet was stable in flight due to the gyroscopic forces imposed on it by the rifling of the barrel, it behaved very differently upon hitting the target. As soon as the bullet hit the target and decelerated, its heavier lead base caused it to pitch violently and deform, thereby inflicting more severe gunshot wounds than a standard single-core spitzer design.[20]
Some of the tech is pretty good. But it's all got holes like swiss cheese in it. Peer enemies can counter most of the capabilities.
I'd also not like to get hit by a 5.56 ball round. My SAPI plates would stop a 7.62 round but were not assured of stopping a 5.56 round.
Ukraine Russia has turned out to be the most boring war in history, regardless of all the high-tech dressing! At that pace, we would still be fighting in WWII!
I can't stop laughing at this one. Too Much.
Lack of education shows at unexpected moments.
Thanks for acknowledging and sharing your deficits! Please always feel welcome to express your thoughts, no matter how uninformed or trivial they are!
Stop jerking off on ‘Shaving Ryan’s Privates’, ‘Weapons of Ass destruction’, and other shit for imbeciles. Read some good books.
Saw what you did there, Dave!!
You're being a bit harsh on him. In some ways, this war is fascinating. The geopolitics of it are fascinating. The technological aspects are fascinating. But in other ways it's incredibly boring. Never in the field of human conflict have so many been killed, so statically. After the initial grab in the south and east, territorial advance has been minimal. If you divided the number of fields acquired, by the number of Ukrainian K.I.A., I wonder what the C.P.F.G. would be (corpses per field gained).
Dear Dave Double D: You seem to be having a hallucinatory experience! Hopefully you were on some good shit rather than inherently oriented in making up lunatic assumptions then responding to them through infantile projections onto others! Stop self-induced mental masturbation. You should take care of that before you’re even ready to identify what a good book might be to read!
Attrition can be very boring. Boring but effective.
We are ignoring the unprecedented destruction of all things Western. While Russia rises. Syria has the same feel.
My take; every day that passes sees the West that much weaker and everyone else conspiring to finish us off so the whole world can be freer.
The events of the day hardly matter, our leadership class has been compromised. When they apply all the techniques of our past enemies there is certainly a need to pause. What is the advantage gained from lying about who is winning? Any soldier experiencing reality will not be motivated by lies.
If this is the best our flag waving, omnipotent, error free effete elite, have to offer, we are well and truly ****ed! No election can fix something this broken.
In our Democrat-run state, known for its aerospace, IT and biotech, we have board of education cutting hard-core sciences in favor of "social sciences" and CHOIR - I kid you not! At the time when in China, Russia and Iran the major emphasis in schools is on sciences.
Lol! Your knowledge of science is limited to taking selfies on instagram! As dumb as a box of hair!
As far as that goes double 0 you hang out there?
Would love to see the Ukie press gangs drag you off the street and dump you in a frontline trench. My guess is you would not be 'bored', rather piss your pants in fear Mrs. ZebraZZZzzz. You would probably last no more than three hours before death came a callin'. Boring...LOL
Haha ok sure 😂
Turn on a video game or Top Gum
Will be really interesting to see what Ru does about Kharkiv. The attacks on Belgorod are obviously a provocation, hoping that either Russia flattens Kharkiv in retaliation (and killing many Ukr-Ru in the city) or getting drawn into a bloody urban seige of a city of 1mn people. They certainly do know how to poke the bear
The better move will to take out targets in Kiev. Bugger up the lives of the elitist kikes that live in luxury while wrecking the rest of the country.
Personally I would like to see ''leaders'' with hand-held non firearm weapons of choice out in a field going for it. Swords. maces, spear. NO long range weapon at all. Up close and personal.
Can you imagine that Yankee warmonger Lindsey Graham there?
You can only imagine how many times I have pictured a scenario like this. LOL
Yeah that's a vision that goes poof instantly. Hell give em a chance. Knifes and sticks.
Well, the first thing they'll do is make sure folks remember that the name of the city is KharkOv and always has been LOL. As for personal wishes, i'd love it if they brought back the Kharkovchanka polar vehicle which is one of the coolest things I've ever seen :)
More soberly, nobody's dumb enough to directly attack a city of a million residents. the plan, obviously, whatever it is, will involve a combination of a) surrounding and cutting off the city and b) waiting for ukraine's government to self-implode.
Just as Kiev is "Kiev" and has been since the days of Rurik and before.
Amen!
"nobody's dumb enough to directly attack a city of a million residents" - Well...Hitler. But no one else recently.
They'll never flatten Kharkiv simply because there are way too many Russians there, even more than in Odessa. And they will be very hesitant to start a bloody siege for the same reason. Bakhmut is one thing, Kharkiv is completely another. Hence Kharkiv is very tricky just like Odessa is. If I had to guess, first they'd try to cut off supply routes and bleed the Ukr army to death as much as possible before moving in on Kharkiv or Odessa. And who knows if it's really possible. So I don't think that anything will happen to Kharkiv yet.
Right, I agree, they won't attack Kharkiv. But what can they do then? If they cut the city off I mean you're in Gaza wrt civilian population. Not exactly what the Russians have in mind I don't think.
To me it is quite baffling that you have the two cities just across from eachother and its been more or less quiet for most of the war, and only recently did it flare up. But this war has been pretty weird throughout.
I meant cut off the military supplies primarily. The population will likely suffer as well but unless the Ukr army has Hamas-like set of tunnels all throughout the city, this will end faster and with much less civilian bloodshed like Mariupol did earlier. Plus the Russians are not Israelies and they will actually allow people to leave (if they won't be shot by Azovites that is).
Well, it's a general consensus now from the alt-media that Zelensky is out of options except trying to do stupid PR stunts with the hopes of prolonging the Western support and keeping the morale up. Belgorod very much falls into that category. Also I wouldn't put it past the more hardcore Ukrainians to do stupid stuff without any orders from above, it's not like Zelensky rules with an iron fist.
Agree totally on Z control. I think at best he is barely keeping everything together and his prime utility was being the money spigot. Now that's been interrupted he must be under a lot of pressure and dealing with factions internally
Re: kharkiv, I continue to be impressed by the composure at the kremlin. A few times this war already I thought to myself if I was in putins position I would have ordered an overwhelming response by now. Each time prudence proved to be the right approach. That's why he is the president of Russia and I'm a dude on the Internet. Then again, this may be a cultural artifact of western programming post 9/11. I enjoy learning new things
I have been waiting for Russia to reprint Bill Clinton's Kosovo targeting orders as a warning.
The world is closely watching. We know that NATO wages total war. Russia intends to remain on the moral high ground and not repeat those errors.
By hitting civilians in Belgorod - Ukraine hit the skating rink and the holidays' shoppers, they want to provoke Russia into doing something drastic so they can pull the NATO card (more than now). Putin replied to the wounded soldiers, whom he visited during the New Year celebration, and they asked him why Russia won't hit Ukraine just like they hit Belgorod. Putin said," I too want to take an eye for an eye, and we too can hit their city squares, where their kids are playing and mothers with the strollers, but we don't want to stoop to that. We hit them where it matters the most - military objects, infrastructure, shells storages, decision-making HQ and military personnel gathering"
Kharkov has strategic value whole, but the primary reason not to besiege it is the size of the army it would take to do so. The cascading effect from attrition is working. The Bandera army will run out of corpses and NATO's Military Dependency of Ukraine will collapse probably sooner than later.
Technically, I don't see the problem. People keep bringing up "1 million city" but this is irrelevant. Mariupol was only 2 times smaller than that. Also, lot's of Russians. It's the question of will, not inability
The smart thing to do is to bypass cities, but that requires more personnel than Russia has at the moment.
Bypassing cities was Soviet doctrine and Russia has done it on a much smaller scale several times. I expected Russia to do it at Avdeevka , but the Bandera army insists on repeating the imstakes of Artymovsk so I guess the RU must oblige them and allow the Bandera army to continue paying an unnecessary cost for a town that has lost utility for NATO's Military Dependency of Ukraine.
Not sure why the Russian Army is obliged to fight in cities and not surround them and go around them, but go on.
Russia isn't using large offensives. I suppose the new strategy for peer-to-peer conflicts is more piecemeal. Many smaller fronts.
It is apparent that Russia is not using large offensives. The question is "why".
Large concentrations of forces get noticed and attacked. A big offense these days is 20 guys and shitloads of artillery and drone support.
Great Article once again Simplicius. I for one believe that heavy UCAV drones armed with missiles like the Product 305 LMUR TV guided missile can be a serious contender on the battlefield as it allows standoff attack distance immune to the ground mud conditions. If you have hundreds of these working in conjunction with CAS, it can reduce manned aircraft volumes and stress and pilot loss. This is essentially diversion of workload and airframe stress to automated UCAV and unmanned systems. I guarantee you UCAV armed with TV electro-optical guided missiles will make a difference on the battlefield.
I want to see the Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik-B [Hunter-B] rolled out when NATO start all their ''military exercises'' this year.
WTF would you stage massive troop and armament buildups in countries surrounding an actual war and then have ''war exercises'' if not planning to commit a war crime and unlike Russia INVADE a country?
Envision these countries as being susceptible to finlandizing to Russia's foreign policy. Then ask the same question.
Exactly. The same task Su-25's do, does not necessarily need a pilot on board
Is Russia still running a blockade of Ukraine's grain or is it a non-issue in the middle of the winter?
If Russia has the available resources it wouldn't shock me to see them push towards Kharkov enough to open another front just to spread thr Ukrainians thinner.
Nobody's been blocking Ukraine's "grain." Russia has been blocking Ukraine's maritime trade, which includes grain but also stuff like rapeseed and sunflower oil. And yes, it's still going on, although Ukraine is rapidly running out of stuff to export.
It is my understanding that Russia is building it's force in Belgorod. I don't know if it is part of the reserve army (conscripts) or going to be another offensive force.
The Bandera territories can still ship grain through the Black Sea. First, it ships the grain by rail to a foreign port on the Danube and is then loaded onto ships. Those ships then have to stay toward the right bank avoiding Bandera waters.
There is no any blockade. Russia simply constantly attacks all Ukrainian ports and destroys their infrastructure. Geraniums/Shaheds, and sometimes missiles, strikes Odessa, Izmail and other port cities at least once a week, but usually more often. So Ukraine simply cannot transport goods by sea in any significant quantities, because infrastructure of seaports is constantly being destroyed by Russia.
I get a strong impression that Russia is simply outsmarting the U.S.-led coalition of morons and incompetents at every level. Russia is the most progressed country in my lifetime. I noticed Russia's improvements before this conflict by looking at its solid growth and stable economy over several years. While the West was predominantly a debt-based economy, Russia reduced its debt and began to unload its holdings of USD's down to nearly nothing while adding gold to its balance sheet. Whoever led this economic turnaround for Russia deserves a medal because Russia now has minimal debt and a real economy with a clean balance sheet which is completely the opposite of the West's runaway deficits, debt, make-believe woke failing economy and printed-from-thin air funny money with nothing but a promise to pay holders of its T-bills. And we all know how much you can trust a promise from the U.S. The West is a Vampire that needs Russia to exploit to survive long-term. But the sun is soon to rise and the Vampire no more shall be but with worthless USD's. lol Well done, Russia.
Michail Mishustin prime minister one of them, who did good job besides Putin. There is still some libtards and saboteurs in Russian government, head of central bank Nabiulina, for example
Interesting. Saboteurs and treasonous politicians, loyal to the WEF and WHO, have infiltrated Western governments. I have read about similar influences in Russia but I can't confirm it as I read conflicting information. Maybe Russia is experiencing internal growing pains which will be interesting to see how things turn out. Time will tell.
Many point to Mr. Putin having attended the WEF Young Global Leaders courses but I believe that was intelligence gathering as he has certainly thrown a few spanners and much swarf into the WEF works when it comes to the 'Great Reset' and global communism.
VVP was born too early to be in the WEF YGLP. It is (often repeated) propaganda.
What's this "global communism" thing you're talking about?
Getting rid of Chubais was, hands down, the smartest move Putin did over the SMO in terms of dealing with a single individual. As for Nabiulina, not sure why all the hate as she's done a superb job of keeping things in balance under EXTREMELY trying circumstances (including freezing russia out of the ability to pay off some of its foreign debt). Are folks mad about the recent rate hike? Sure. But so what? It seems like a smart move to me.
Chubais should be in front of a firing squad for what he did in the 1990s
Well Glazyev doesn't like the central bank's policies. He thinks they are causing money to leave Russia.
Many reasons for Yankeeland and its Nasty American Terrorist Organisation to war on Russia.
Here is another one from Germany which has been under Yankee occupation for 78 years.
Germany Wants Lithium : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrOgErLVlMg
https://rumble.com/v45xvzn--war-in-ukraine-germany-says-it-wants-vast-lithium-reserves-located-in-the-.html
For anyone like me who worked in Eastern Europe in 1991, Russia's revival is not short of staggering. We're now the commies with the ailing economies and geriatric leadership. Amazing times.
Yet again we have casualty numbers which simply do not correlate with different sources - 30,000 per month would by now imply c 700,000 - almost twice the Russian estimate from a few weeks ago, and even the higher number is much less than other estimates - though accords with my own view. And the comment about sick soldiers is also interesting - what else do you expect putting old men into cold wet conditions the open in mid-winter in eastern Ukraine?
However it does look like the Russians are doing the obvious thing and putting pressure on multiple fronts and in multiple dimensions. At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, I did think this might be the strategy - though I had not considered that Ukraine's arms' industry would be worth attacking.
Every day though the slow slide to collapse appears speeding up. There is about 10 weeks now to the Spring Raputitsa - but I doubt the UAF can be brought to the point of irrevocable defeat in that timescale. However May 2024 looks possible. IMHO it is touch and go as to whether the home front will remain intact and without some sort of coup until then. In any event, it looks like we are entering the beginning of the end game here. I don't personally view this as a stalemate nor do I think this thing can go on for years.
There also was an interesting article in a U.S major mainstream newspaper (cant remember which one), where Zaluzhnyi was quoted regarding the dispute about the upcoming 500.000 conscription as saying that he did not set a clear number of how many new recruits have to be recruited from the upcoming conscription , he just stated that he needs replacement for the losses of the past year, and the expected losses for year 2024. So we can deduce that the incurred and expected losses for 2023 and 2024 are 450 to 500k, , around 20.000
Ok found the source https://www.thepost.co.nz/world-news/350138583/ukraines-top-commander-calls-mobilising-more-soldiers
Zaluzhny emphasized that he hadn't said anything about a "need for 500,000 or 400,000" soldiers - only a "general need". To bring home soldiers who'd enlisted at the start of Russia's invasion, he said, Ukraine needed to start training more soldiers now.
"Our needs are resources," Zaluzhny said. "It's weapons, it's ammunition, it's people. We calculate all of this in formulating our needs - people who we have lost, people who we could lose in the next year."
Putting pressure on the opponent everywhere, looking for the weak spot, is as old a tactic as conflict itself.
Hitting Ukrainian arms making prior to now, wasn't a profitable thing, as most of their supply was from NATO/external sources. Now that Ukraine is forced into more self-reliance, taking it away has a multiplicative effect.
Russian estimates of AFU casualties are based on what they are reasonably certain of. We've discussed in this forum many of the ways these can be an underestimate.
One I don't recall seeing much talk about is sickness, which has *always* killed more than direct conflict, except where you take specific, ongoing and logistic intensive efforts to keep at bay.
Now that "General Winter" has arrived to take part in battle, this logistic effort becomes acute necessity. Soldiers in winter need more food, sources of heat, means of cleanliness and drying etc. which is profoundly difficult for Ukraine.
There's been a definite uptick in Russian assaults where they risk greater casualties lately. I think they see a way to a quicker end too.
The average age of the Ukrainians is high, which will increase the disease and cold issues. Plus, it was noted early on in the SMO that many Ukie soldiers seemed to have been guinea pigs for Western biological experimenting which will also not help. Add to that the huge corruption with respect to supplying proper clothing and supplies of all kinds.
Your mention of biological experimentation is noteworthy, however perhaps more immediate would be the effect of reduced supplies of the various combat pharmaceuticals the Ukrainian military has been noted as using. If *those* are being limited by money and supply chains, then the troops in demoralizing conditions are more useless than ever.
As a flag, please be aware that during WW2 at least (as well as later) both US and German soldiers operated with heavy use of additives. For example, the invasion of France marched on meth.
I didn't think meth was that hard to produce in industrial quantities?
it could simply be that the Ukrainians are lying again, just this time exaggerating their casualties. This would create a sense of urgency in the West to provide aid to stave imminent defeat. I prefer Russian MoD figures and I always assume they are within 20% of reality (up or down)
The Russian MoD doesn't know how many are returned to their units. They probably are using a skein to identify only severely wounded with an expectation they won't return to duty soon. Lots of presumption everywhere that we have specificity about things we don't have.
Remember that the term 'casualty' is a vey flexible term -- and it may account for some of the discrepancy you note (especially if they are counting temporarily and permanently losses in that term). This has always been a problem when evaluating different countries 'reported casualties' in a conflict (some times the definitions of what is a casualty is fundamentally different -- along with the fact that such numbers can be falsified or under / over reported). Even if the definitions are 'known' and 'constant' and if the number are 'empirically correct', depending on context, you get different 'stories'. The battalion commander in the field cares only about the losses to his immediate combat strength (that may include dead, permanently disabled and wounded, seriously wounded that may someday return to duty, lightly wounded that may be back in a few weeks, lightly wounded that will be back the day after tomorrow, missing, deserted, medically unfit, pyschologically shattered, criminally under arrest, etc.). The military planner (back at the 'Pentagon') might only care about and talk about the true net number (how many really won't be back 'in the line' within a given time frame -- say 6 months). Or at least, I try to keep such 'things' in my mind when I hear about casualty inconsistencies.
For sure that is correct, and as a military history statistics geek it is clear that definitions matter. And some of those who actually announce such figures are unaware and sloppy with what they really mean, if if they intend not to deliberately mislead. However my view is that the UAF is currently working its way through its third or on the fourth iteration of its actual combat troops, and the latter is less well equipped, less well led, has less ammo and is older, more unfit and less motivated than the previous guys. It will suffer an increasing incidence of casualties to its TOE (now c 50% anyway), and an increasing ratio of surrendering to other casualties. This is IMHO very predictable if you look at other wars. But bottom line is , regardless of the actual quantum of losses (and these are opaque) - can the UAF continue to fight for the foreseeable future at current and perhaps enhanced levels of attrition? And my view is NO. A few more months. And it won't be casulties per se that causes the collapse. it will be the realisation that the sacrifice is for nothing.
Morale, in a nutshell. BS only works to a point.
The Arestovich turn has been absolutely fascinating and bizarre to watch. Good stuff.
I agree, although it's a quite predictable arc in the sense that it's obvious what he's trying to do: ingratiate himself to the Russian side so as to be 'chosen' as one of the 'installed' new key members/leaders by the Russians after they oust current Kiev leadership when the war is over. He's gunning for 'amnesty', and will try to erase history and pretend he never agitated for destroying Russia, etc.
Our friend Alexei must not lose sight of the complexity of the strategy he appears to be following. Perhaps it would be advisable for him to study in detail the life and adventures of Mr. Hess...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Hess
Oh yeah totally agree he's the definition of an amoral sociopath man has 0 principles, ideals or beleifs except his own power.
The bizarre part is how fing obvious his whole ploy the fact he's egotistical enough to think Putin or the rest of the Russian leadership don't seen through it. They are not stupid men and the idea they would actually trust him anywhere the installed leadership of rump Ukraine is frankly ludicrous. It's quite something to watch him play out this whole melodrama.
The Russian leadership is not stupid and neither was the KGB some of them came from. They understand how to use leverage over people to keep them in line, and Arestovich offers many, many points of leverage. It's not inconceivable that they find utility in him in some fashion, now that any naivety toward the West and it's actors has been knocked out again.
No way are the Russians going to forget who Arestovich is. The guy who instructed Azov to make snuff videos of Russian PoWs? (https://alipmcg.substack.com/p/what-preceded-attack-on-yelenovka) He'll be lucky if he gets to go to prison
Last year, that SOB was clearly meeting with MI6 and the Brits as they had a really nasty plan to wipe my country (PMR) off the map, so I've got nothing but hate for that guy. just because he's singing your tune now doesn't mean he is to be trusted.
Man's a snake I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. He's the kind of person who professes their undying friendship to you as they silp the knife between your rips. That kind of man needs to be taken behind the shed and taken care of for all our sakes. Also the PMR is based you guys would have wrecked any banderites dumb enough to show their faces Tiraspol.
don't be fooled... he's just trying to play the "kinder gentler Ukrainian nationalist", sortof the sheepdog character (as in Bernie Sanders or RFK, in a very abstract way)
Next time they hold an election (prob not this year or next), they'll just do yet another bait-and-switch for the war-weary Ukie public, or what's left of it. Global experience has shown, sadly, that it's possible to repeat this without limit
Trust I'm not buying his BS believe me. Good shout out on the Bernie Sanders, RFK analogy btw I think it's very apt actually.
I am not trusting him. He seems like the sort of "controlled opposition", or he would have fallen out of a window by now.
“... though of course some sort of self-destruct mechanism for the module could have been useful.”
Yep!
Again, the edge Russia is gaining needs to be safeguarded as much as possible...
Safeguard what edge?? All Russia has done is replicate JDAMS in a cheaper, simpler, easy to make way. The Western MIC could do it too, but where's the profit??
Exactly: the JDAM kit is superior to the Russian UMPK in every way so there's not much US can learn from it. But the problem is: it's superior by 10-15% quality, yet inferior by 200-300% in price. Is it worth paying 200-300% more for 10-15% percent quality? Russia can pump them out like nobody's business and if a couple here and there miss or are duds, it's still worth the trade off.
Made simple for killing people, not complex for making a killing
Actually a lot could be learned; if the West felt itself under enough threat, it would be replicated fairly rapidly and JDAMs would disappear from the arsenal and be replaced by far cheaper weapons, but there is no real threat at this time.
Something to keep in mind when questioning Putin's motives.
There is a bizarre rumor that Lloyd Austin, rather than having some post surgical complications, was actually wounded at a Ukrainian site which took a missile strike?!
Well, it's claimed he has prostate cancer (any truth to the further rumour he's getting fired for hiding that??) for which the surgery has to be considered extremely minor (unless they're removing baseball sized chunks) Barring an amazingly botched/butchered surgery, he *shouldn't* have ended in ICU. He ABSOLUTELY shouldn't have dropped off the radar for 4 days. Not surprising such a rumour arises, too many questions, too few credible answers..
I have no idea WTF is going on with Austin, and I'm sure they're lying about at least some of it. But I have seen many "routine" surgeries go downhill fast thanks to all those absurd practices in Western medicine, i.e. nosocomial infections, abuse of antibiotics, et al.
Lots that can go wrong with a prostate surgery without resorting to those things. The urethra and all the nerves leading down there all pass through that donut.
The prostate cancer surgery complicated by infection is plausible, but there are no 2024 images of a living Austin or Zaluzhny.
Don't underestimate how 'bad' that specific kind of surgery can be -- the complications from even 'routine' and 'successful' operations of that kind can be a big problem (e.g. total urinary incontinence is quite common -- literally 'peeing yourself' 24/7). And that's if nothing goes wrong -- and stuff can go wrong (e.g. infection, or much worse spread of cancer than anticipated). I know about a half dozen older dudes who have had this minor surgery -- and are not the men they were (and some of which spent weeks in the hospital recovering to the point that allowed them to live such a 'diminished' life). Being in the ICU is a different matter (if he was there for genuinely medical reasons -- but in his case there could be exceptions) -- the generally point being that even if the story is true (and it may not be true), 'safe' and 'effective' is not a lie (it's two lies).
A lot of men I know have gone for less invasive stuff "Cyberknife" radiological stuff - or even just said F it and risked death rather than gain the incontinence and impotence that often results.
Pelvic infections after prostate surgery can be life threatening. It is possible.
Where is a living Lloyd Austin?
The facts as I understand them are that Austin underwent an "elective surgical procedure" on Dec. 22nd, and now the DoD says that procedure was related to prostate cancer. Then, he had complications and was admitted to Walter Reed on Jan. 2nd. That date is also the last day of the several-day barrage with long-range cruise missiles of Ukraine by the RA, this time targeting military infrastructure and targets.
I haven't seen any info about it in a while, but maybe a year ago there were some family members of U.S. Army service members raising issue with the large number of deaths by suicide and car accidents at a few bases in the states by service members who were deployed on "training missions" where the destination was classified. The assumption is that they were killed in Ukraine and that fact is being covered up.
There was also the case of both AFU General Zaluzhny and the intelligence chief Budanov being injured in missile strikes, disappearing for some time, and then reappearing. I'm certain some of the videos of both of them after their reappearance were faked. Those videos were designed to prove that the men were not injured and everything was normal. This was around the time of Budanov's utterly bizarre "Shhh!" videos that he put out.
There were reports last night that Austin had been fired by Biden, but nothing today. I'm hesitant to think anything with U.S. leadership is bizarre, but Austin's second-in-command Kathleen Hick's decision not to cut her Puerto Rico vacation short when she took over running the world's largest entity comes close (3 million employees, $750 billion annual budget).
But there is precedent in the Biden administration for that - Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg refused to cut his paternity leave short when full trains of toxic chemicals began derailing and spilling regularly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcNYDc2-Msw
https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/schrodingers-generals
https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/schrodingers-generals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcNYDc2-Msw
Regarding artillery ammunition, I found this pro-western discussion board interesting, where one participant stated that the US is producing about 36.000 shells a month, Europe even less. If we are generous and round it up to 60.000 shells a month, this would fit ukrainian current use. But I cant believe the 10.000 shell figure for the russian side, either its deliberate understating, or RUS is saving up for a renewed offensive, the (conservative) values I remember are a prewar russian production of 300.000 a year, and Shoigus statement about a 17.5 fold production increase, which would amount to 5 Mio+ shells a year or 15.000 a day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcyJAWUnnwQ&t=1381s
And if N Korea supplied a further 10M shells, that's enough for a BIG push, lasting months..!
The 10k shell figure is per day which is 300k a month of almost 3.5M a year which is roughly on right track at least. Sure Russia likely produces slightly more than they're expending cus you don't want to spend exactly what you're producing, you always want to be laying some away as stockpile.
From the bomb making video
“To put the parachute, a female scyth is required... and here the male force is already needed” 😂
Every time I ask the tech store where the male to female usb-c adapter is I cringe...
The videos of the speeches in Chechnya are badass. Banderites are going to absolutely wrecked by those men. Good hunting.
Chechnya looks bad ass like it could take over most Europe countries by itself.Especially since large pluralities are -co-religionists and might just join up.
A lot of Western European men would join up as they come through Europe to get rid of the degenerate WEF and US infestations in their countries once and for all. We shall see a lot of politicians and degenerates like Blair, Mandelson, "king" Tampon the 1st of England and randy Andy hang before this war is finished, .... mark my words.
WEF started this war I believe to get rid of slavs. Not diverse enough so they decided to kill them. Thier plan is societies with no culture, no religion, solidarity no anything that can upset the looking up to them for guidance then we become slaves. UBI , live in pods, eat bugs, no carbon footprint etc
Culture is a euphemism for racism and essentialism, religion is for swivel-eyed nutters and sad bastards and solidarity is for the working class.
Oh dear. Get a life.
Already got one, join me.
Is that sentence supposed to make sense? It appears to be nonsense or gobbledygook.
Join me when you've got a life, simples.
why do all the nutters hijack the important topics?
Why is UBI bad?
Because a lot of people won't do anything. Like when I got my pension at 50. Havnt worked and havnt wanted to work. I will do nothing but play the rest of my life.
A lot of people do not do anything now, or their work is harmful to society.
Also you do not understand male nature or human nature. You at 50 is not most young guys. Most people do want to do stuff with their lives.
Men do not want to be sexless incels, poor men are sexless incels, so men need to get status to get sex and a woman. So men will always have a motive to work and grind and get status.
There is no real, recent evidence that the Chechens are even in the fight any longer.
With these AI drones being immune to EW they will need some kind of mechanical destruction. Any thought on this? Maybe like a mini CIWS with optical ID those could be fully AI too.
Drone wars! Guys with the biggest protractor wins.
Kinda takes the testosterone out of military doesnt it so maybe US army gobalhomo initiative is not wrong. haha.
I saw a demo more than several years ago about a computer aided rifle scope. Whole shouldering the rifle you aim and identify the target by pulling the trigger and holding it. The scope ranges the identified target, adjusts the cross hairs tor bullet drop and waits for the moment your wavering hold of the rifle is just right and fires the bullet.
That could work for drones or jackrabbits. Maybe we could try skeet practice. My favorites are #'s 1, 11 $ 12.
I have seen recent video of US soldiers being trained with such computerized scopes mounted on AR pattern rifles. The targets were balloons being towed by small quadcopters.