Kyiv:UAF begin offensive ops in specific areas.

Happy New Year St. Petes!
Reuters
Ukraine says it hit targets in St Petersburg with domestic-made drone
Ukraine hit targets in Russia's St Petersburg overnight using a domestic-produced drone that flew 1250 km (775 miles), a Ukrainian government minister was...
51 mins ago
https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...tack-oil-terminal-military-source-2024-01-18/

 

A fun little analysis of the recent Bradley vs T-90 tank video. Guy knows his stuff and explains things well.

Bradley Vs. T 90 Engagement (YouTube Cut)

 

CD had tied a crap load of riders onto the question....vote yup...and you vote for Taurus and all the other shyte that goes with it.

Also, the Germans are a bit scared that these weapons will be construed as strategic weapons not theater weapons by the Russian.....they don't want that....

 

....huuummmm hope so....but you Yanks have to deal with that mad f**ker Trump and EU has to deal with that mad f**ker Orban from Hungary....

Russia is ramping up military production at the expense of everything else....bad for Ukraine.....currently up to 6.5% of GDP. So diverting a nations resources onto fight a war footing of this scale means that something has to suffer....bad for Russians.

 

Fortunately, Russia ramping up production like this is also bad for them in the long term. Their economy is suffering for it, and they didn't have much of an economy to start with. They've also got demographic issues that the ongoing losses are only exacerbating. Trump and Orban aside, we are in a good position to outlast them, and I only hope that the Ukrainians are prepared to hold on and hold out. It sounds like they are, though. They would fight on without our support and suffer even worse.

 

..yeah...it's early days in this war and may/will have a long time to run yet.

The longer it goes on the more time Ukraine and the West have to re arm Ukraine...we just have to get through 2024...... and even at this early stage Ukraine has started to manufacture their own weapons and you have the likes of Rheinmetall opening plant and equipment in Ukraine to manufacture and repair. Putin may be diverting the nations resources to fighting this stupid war but there's no denying that all they're doing is making and supplying cheaper more degraded items of the same useless equipment operated by people with less and less training.....Europe on the other hand cannot make weapons at scale.....so there are going to be issues

 

...that's the worry....Ukraine will need something like 2,500 new barrels in 2024 and that's a big ask.....I just hope the west is up to the challenge

 

I love our Taurus. He is a very effective weapon.
Once on his way to destroy the Kerch Bridge, no Vatnik can stop him!

I'm German citizen too, but I don't care about the opinion of leftist German cowards who are afraid of their comrade Pooteen.

 

yeah its an issue for the Germans to be sure. I guess all that 1970 / 80s anti-war sentiment..all the atomkraft nein danke...all the tree hugging stuff is being turned on its head....no longer can Germany fudge it's way through the world with its collective head in the sand hoping that all things nasty and horrible will pass them by...sometimes people want to hurt you and Germany can't trade its way out by having it both ways anymore.....trading with the people that want to do you harm will not make you immune anymore....I guess the time has finally come for Germany to wake up and smell the schnitzel...just my take on it.

I guess they could reinstate the Kurorts so all the old socialists could get their doctors to send them...Baden Baden...Bad Homberg....Freiburg all those nice expensive spas; they can gather in comfort and reminisce over the good old days....and get the blood pressure down

 

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 18, 2024
Jan 18, 2024 - ISW Press



The battlespace in Ukraine continues to be the center of the technological offense-defense race between Russian and Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Deputy Chief Major General Vadym Skibitskyi stated on January 18 that Russian forces "learn quickly enough" and have completely adapted the Kh-101 air-launched cruise missile compared to the model that Russia used in 2022. Skibitsky stated that new Kh-101s are equipped with an active electronic warfare (EW) system and "thermal traps" to prevent the missiles from emitting trackable heat signatures. Skibitsky noted that Ukrainian forces need to innovate and adapt in response to Russian adaptations to "prevent the loss of territories." The GUR assessment of Russian technological innovation in the air domain is consistent with ISW's previous observations that Russian forces are adapting their methods and means for conducting strikes on Ukraine, and that Ukraine in turn must adapt and innovate with Western support to respond to such strikes. Moscow Duma Deputy Andrei Medvedev identified similar adaptation-response dynamics in a January 18 post where he discussed the use of drones by both Russian and Ukrainian forces. Medvedev stated that Russia has opted for the mass production of drones, leading to the production of large numbers of drones that lack the technological adaptations needed to compete with Ukrainian drones based on battlefield experience. Medvedev noted that Ukrainian forces are constantly improving their drones and warned that constant Ukrainian innovation may eventually make Russian mass-produced drones ineffective. Medvedev's discussion of the importance of constant technological adaptation and innovation on the battlefield emphasizes ISW's assessment that Russian and Ukrainian forces are engaged in a technological and tactical offense-defense race.

 

More bad news for Putin and Russian military strategists:

"Russian media say four oil tanks caught alight and the fire then spread over an area of 1,000 sq m (10,763sq ft).
Russian authorities in the Bryansk region say no-one was hurt.
The Bryansk governor said the drone was intercepted near the town of Klintsy and its explosives then fell on the oil depot.
The drone strike is the second on Russian oil facilities in two days.
An unprecedented attack targeted a major oil loading terminal in Russia's second city, St Petersburg, on Thursday."

Ukraine war: Russian oil depot hit in Ukrainian drone attack

BBC
https://www.bbc.com › news › world-europe-68029235
4 hours ago — Fire has broken out over a large area of an oil storage depot in southern Russia after officials say it was hit by a Ukrainian drone.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68029235

 

another RuzZki ship has gone to the bottom...at Sevastopol....Tarantul?...or something like it?....this is beyond ridiculous!

 

Partisans confirmed Tarantfil corvette sunk.

"t marks the latest blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose Black Sea Fleet has been targeted by Ukraine in the war as it seeks to reverse his 2014 annexation of Crimea. The region is Russia's central logistics hub for its forces in southern Ukraine."

Russian Black Sea Fleet's Woes Worsen as Ship 'Sunk' by ...

Newsweek
https://www.newsweek.com › ... › Crimea
7 hours ago — Ukrainian drones sank a Russian Tarantul-class corvette near Sevastopol in annexed Crimea late last month, a Ukrainian partisan group said on Thursday.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-black-sea-fleet-crimea-tarantul-corvette-ship-sinks-1862188

 

UKRAINE STRIKES KLINTSY OIL DEPOT: BRYANSK OBLAST ON FIRE. Vlog 580: War in Ukraine

 

Video captures Ukrainian 'meat assaults' on Russian troops


Although the title says "Ukrainian," it is referring to ruZZia's orcish meatwave assaults on Ukraine's defenses. They just keep replenishing the losses and pushing forward with little regard for human life. Their only concern is taking territory to please their Dark Lord.

 

Update from Ukraine | Huge Win! Ukraine Strikes the Biggest Oil Depot in Ruzzia. No fuel for Z-Army

 

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 19, 2024
Jan 19, 2024 - ISW Press



Russia is conducting an information operation to misrepresent NATO’s defensive "Steadfast Defender 2024" exercises – a response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and Russian threats directed towards NATO members - as provocative. NATO’s Steadfast Defender 2024 exercises begin this week and will continue through May 2024.

Russian forces will be able to determine the location, tempo, and operational requirements of fighting in Ukraine if Ukraine commits itself to defensive operations throughout 2024 as some US officials are reportedly pressing Kyiv to do.

 

Modern warfare:

2:54
CNN
Video shows Ukrainian drones droppng bomb on Russian troops in Avdiivka

 

.

New tech is redefining "active defense".


NEW SCIENTIST, Technology, What does Ukraine’s million-drone army mean for the future of war?, In 2024, Ukraine will have more drones than soldiers in its armed forces, and the aerial vehicles and the artificial intelligences that can control them are changing the way war is waged, By David Hambling, 19 January 2024.
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...illion-drone-army-mean-for-the-future-of-war/

 

ANOTHER Ship Sunk! Ukraine strikes deep into the Russian Hinterland!

 

ISW
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 20, 2024
Jan 20, 2024 - ISW Press

Russian President Vladimir Putin falsely claimed that Russia supports the “unconditional equality” and “sovereignty” of all states in a January 20 letter to the Non-Aligned Movement Summit, contradicting Russia’s official position on its war in Ukraine and its wider imperial ambitions. Putin claimed that Russia rejects “neocolonialist ambitions, double standards, as well as forceful pressure, dictatorship, and blackmail as a means of achieving foreign policy and foreign economic goals.” Russian officials have routinely denied Ukraine’s sovereignty and refused to treat it as an equal. The Kremlin rejects Ukrainian statehood and nationhood by incorporating Ukraine into the ideological and geographic conception of the Russian World (Russkiy Mir), which includes any Russian speakers and ”carriers of Russian history and culture“ as “compatriots“ and includes all of the former territories of Kyivan Rus, the Kingdom of Muscovy, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the contemporary Russian Federation.” Russia uses the framework of “Russkiy Mir” to justify Russian imperialist expansion and the subjugation of independent, sovereign states and their peoples within a pseudo-cultural and historical context. Russian officials have routinely justified the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by claiming that Russia aims to protect its “compatriots” abroad, again rejecting Ukraine‘s sovereignty. Russia also continues to trivialize the sovereignty of other post-Soviet countries and has been setting information conditions to escalate tensions in the Baltics and Moldova under the guise of protecting its “compatriots” abroad. Russia has been in violation of its own commitments to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and “inviolability of borders” and its agreement to center relations with Ukraine on ”non-use of force or threat of force” and “non-interference in internal affairs” undertaken in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum since its initial invasion in 2014. Putin's false claims that Russia respects “equality” and “sovereignty” are likely intended to cater to states that the Kremlin desires to pull into its wider sphere of influence, much as it initially intended to do with Ukraine before the initial 2014 invasion.

 

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 21, 2024
Jan 21, 2024 - ISW Press



Ukrainian forces reportedly conducted successful drone strikes against targets in Leningrad and Tula oblasts, where repeated Ukrainian drone strikes may fix Russian short-range air defense systems defending potentially significant targets along expected flight routes. Ukrainian media, citing unnamed sources within Ukrainian special services, reported that Ukrainian forces conducted drone strikes against the Shcheglovsky Val Plant in Tula City, Tula Oblast and the “Novateka” plant and gas terminal near the port of Ust-Luga, Leningrad Oblast on the night of January 20 to 21. The Shcheglovsky Val Plant reportedly manufactures Pantsir-S and Pantsir-S1 air defense systems, and the Ust-Luga complex reportedly processes stable gas condensate into light and heavy naphtha, diesel, kerosene, and naval fuel.

 

Update from Ukraine | Ukraine Did it! Drone Strike on Oil and Gas Port! Awesome news!

 

Retired general explains 'fascinating' development in Russia's war against Ukraine

 

Millions of Russians are finally learning the inconvenient truth about Putin's foolish war of aggressive conquest.

“I understand perfectly well the general hatred for Russians and for everything Russian. I accept and understand it because what Russia is doing is wrong,” Kosgorov told Al Jazeera. “Every time I want to say that it’s difficult for the Russians who left, something inside me protests, because Ukrainians have it more difficult than us.”
According to estimates, up to one million out of some 144 million Russians left the country in 2022 and 2023 in what has been the largest brain drain since the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

Al Jazeera
‘I no longer have a country’: Antiwar Russians who fled unlikely to return Huge waves of Russians left after the Ukraine war began. Many still feel a sense of guilt over the conflict.
8 hours ago
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/22/russian-exiles-unlikely-to-return