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I’d be interested to know whether the UK MoD is ramping up procurement of ammo. If not, why not, and if so, when did they start?
I was under the impression that when Boris (other Tory PM's have been available) said "we're sending £billion in military equipment to the Ukraine", what was means was "We've sent an amount of kit that will cost us £billion to replace, but was mostly either munitions going out of date, old hardware that was destined for storage/export anyway, but the actual value is relatively negligable". So the budget and purchase orders to replace it would already have been in the pipeline.
A sensible Govt would have been getting quotes as soon as Putin started building up on the Ukraine border, and put them into effect as soon as he went over it … but we don’t have a Govt like that.
If you think the government operates like a current account, then they're a bit stretched at the moment and couldn't afford it.
If you subscribe to MMT then there isn't the unemployment rate to support additional government spending without making inflation worse.
If you're a military planner, it doesn't matter either way. What's Russia going to do to us directly after their army's been decimated (by our kit) in the Ukraine?
Apologies if has been mentioned previously but Google Earth has been updated and is now showing war damage. I've just been looking at Mariopol and the Theatre with "kids" clearly visible from space.... and oh my what a mess.
*Pikachu shocked face*
😂
Anyway, whats Seymour Hersh saying?
*Pikachu shocked face*
Yeah, astounding news. Russia blows shit up and Putin apologists in the West deny the reality before their eyes. Shocking!!!
Past week or two on Twitter, the trending Ukraine tags always lead to anti-Ukraine tweets.
I always find myself asking if Russian officials say [insert story of choice], what actually happened?
It's like the two 500kg bombs that dropped in Belgorod a week ago that were an "emergency release of an air ordnance".
It clearly wasn't part of Russia's 2023 development of 1960s-tech FAB500 bombs that have had a winged-guided unit grafted on so that their aircraft can launch them from Russia (photo here
) They are not quite at JDAM-levels of engineering
It clearly doesn't show that Russian aircraft don't want to get anywhere near Ukrainian airspace (Belgorod is 25 miles inside Russia), or that Russian tech is less than the pinnacle of world armaments (one bomb didn't detonate, never mind either standing-off as intended or landing in Ukraine)
So what's the real story with the Crimean oil storage explosion?
Lighted cigarette of course, just an accident, nothing to see here, move along please.
Reality is its probably heavy oil or bunker fuel for navy vessels. Whilst being a high value military target short term gains will not be noticed on the front line. Plus Russia is not short of oil or refinery capacity so replacement is easy, once a few new storage tanks are sourced
True Russia does have plenty of fuel reserves, but crucially not necessarily in the right place if ukr destroys them.
It also keeps showing how effective ukrs drones are / weak russian defences are - then again we don't know how many missions are launched and how many are countered, we just see the odd success on twitter.
Seems odd the rail network still seems to be functional in the occupied areas, and from reading commentators Russian logistics really upon rail.
Plus Russia is not short of oil or refinery capacity so replacement is easy, once a few new storage tanks are sourced
The fuel needs to be delivered to fuel depots near the fighting. Blowing up the fuel depots means that ships, tanks, aircraft, trucks, etc. can't be refueled. Russia can't just pop down to the hardware store and buy some new fuel tanks, they have to be fabricated and installed, then all the plumbing and control systems have to be installed. That will all take time, so Russia's fighting capacity will be reduced until it's all finished.
I know that, but i also know that aircraft, trucks and tanks do not run on heavy fuel. Pump derv yes, and avtur or jp4 not the thousands of gallons of bunker oil you have to have sitting next to a naval base.
One could argue that stikes against airfield fuel depots would be strategically more beneficial, but having seen Russian military airfield fuel storages and distribution network first hamd they are not in any way as easy to blow up as an overground silo. At least the airfield i explored wasn't. Concrete encased pipework, underground bunds, blast deflectors etc.
One could argue that stikes against airfield fuel depots would be strategically more beneficial,
Ukraine will just be blowing up any Russian infrastructure they can. It won't be a matter of choosing between different targets.
One could argue that stikes against airfield fuel depots would be strategically more beneficial,
Nice visuals for Russian social media - and any Russians (army/civ) still in Crimea
Ukraine will just be blowing up any Russian infrastructure they can. It won’t be a matter of choosing between different targets.
Infers unlimited supply of munitions and target vulnerability, which we know is not the case or it would be like fireworks night, every night. Plus UAF have to go carefully with strikes over borders to avoid collateral damage, wheras Russia litteraly can lob stuff into Ukraine territory without giving a stuff about where it lands.
Russia have sacked the Admiral of their Pacific Fleet after snap exercises that were designed to impress the Chinese and by all accounts did anything but.
In more deckchair rearranging fun, the Russian army’s head of logistics (who was only appointed about 6 months ago) has been replaced.
If I didn’t know any better I’d suggest that they’re all basically incompetent..
If I didn’t know any better I’d suggest that they’re all basically incompetent..
Sounds very much like Tory leaders.
Leonid Bershidsky said this in 2018, "Years of thought suppression, the erosion of intellectual life and educational institutions, and Putin’s clear preference for personal loyalty over competence have taken a toll on Russia’s public service, including the intelligence community"
Past week or two on Twitter, the trending Ukraine tags always lead to anti-Ukraine tweets.
Qu’ell surprise? I mean, considering who Putin’s sock-puppet is who now owns the whole teetering edifice.
If I didn’t know any better I’d suggest that they’re all basically incompetent...
Most Russian military officers do like to stand around and look impotant…
The UK-administered International Fund for Ukraine (IFU) was expanded in August and partners UK, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and Lithuania
The second bidding round has opened for worldwide suppliers of mobility support (tank transporters, bridging and minefield breaching) and long-range strike missiles (100-300km)
Maybe, as with the supply of Challenger 2 main battle tanks, the fund will shake loose additional similar supplies from the US and Europe
A c130 emptying its flare bin
Nostalgia time for you 😀
There seems to be a trend emerging of fuel supplies inside Russia being destroyed.
Taman is just over the border inside Russia, as is Bryansk where a fuel train was derailed for the second time in a couple of days
I've also just seen a tweet that the weather is rather dry and warm for the next few weeks now. I wonder if the much talked about spring offensive might start...
I’d expect plenty of “false starts” and pressure across the line to keep the Russians guessing first.
Interesting article on the beeb about the 'immortal parade' being moved online citing security concerns, or, potentially the authorities are worried about the number of recent photos that will be held up from those who've been killed in ukraine
Could be homegrown discontentment but easier to blame Ukraine.
symbolism is pretty striking
Russia claiming it was an attempt on Putin's life
Russian drone made to look like it hit .. to push for full draught of fighting aged males. Almost like another desperate act .
Yeah, my money is on a Russian false-flag attack for propaganda purposes.
Russia claiming it was an attempt on Putin’s life
Even though he wasn't in the building!
“The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit,” it said.
What, like say regularly shooting missiles, launching drone strikes and occupying the country the perpetrators are suspected of being from? Yeah no problem.
I've seen fireworks make a bigger bang and flash than that!
My money is on staged to do as little damage as possible, but to show how terrible those Ukrainians are.
A very symbolic act though - the Russians blew up the Swastika on the top of the Reichstag Building at the end of WWII.
I wonder if this is just a pretext to launch an even wider mobilisation on victory day
or increased vengeful brutality, hopefully not a tactical nuke. Pretty cheeky really when they've been trying to kill Zelenskyy for over a year now.
Why are there some people climbing on the Kremlin roof at the time of the drone explosion?
Why is the drone able to fly - apparently there is electronic jamming or similar systems?
Such a small drone did not arrive from Ukraine - that has to be internal?
(etc)
hmmmmm
I wonder if this may be a 'pipeline explosion' moment...
Purely for the domestic audience that.
From what I can see, it doesn't even hit the building. It comes in from top-left, gets lost briefly in the flare around the moon, then goes just beyond the flagpole before exploding. So if it's been launched from within Russia and is indeed a false-flag job, it's a pretty piss-poor effort at things. On the other hand, if it's flown all the way from Ukraine, and gets within 10ft of its intended target, then that's not a bad job.
Lolz
Remember when those drones shut down Gatwick
Russia's going full paranoid
https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1653794280111054848?s=19
https://twitter.com/michaelh992/status/1653796412381954050?t=-IMNRNn2KD3lNubUFaBDKA&s=19
So either an excuse to call up more in the draft or cancel the may day parade.
It's not like Putin lives in the Kremlin I'd be surprised if he has any windows in his secret lair nevermind a flagpole
Let’s not forget that the Russians have a history of false flags.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_allegedly_involved_in_Russian_apartment_bombings
"Mother Russia is under attack! To the army and man the barricades my comrades!"
R4 news reporting a 5 day curfew has been put in place across Kherson region - both sides of the front line...