The pilots are not in the sky
The Russian Air Force in the Dust: The Case for a Response to the Ukrainians and the Russian War on Relativistic Nuclear Forces
The Ukrainians caused a lot of losses to the advance units and cut off both their supply links as well as their possible withdrawal routes.
“They dropped everything: personal care, helmets,” said the commander, who uses the code name Swat. “I think it was a special unit, but they were panicking. It was raining very hard, the road was bad and they drop everything and move.”
Russia’s aerial onslaught of the last few days has been largely directed at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, using a variety of missiles and newly acquired Iranian drones. The damage has been significant but Ukraine claims that it has taken out around half of the missiles that have been fired, and it expects that success rate to improve as new defense systems arrive.
The Russian air force has not been doing well. Russia has well over 1,000 advanced fighter jets with trained pilots that are not being sent to the skies over Ukraine according to him. “Russian pilots are some of the best pilots in the world,” said Gersten. They are some of the most disciplined pilots in the world. At least for now, Russia has chosen to keep these pilots and their planes on the sidelines. Russia is relying on missiles and drones, which are much cheaper and easier to replace.
The math for Russia is simple: apercentage of projectiles are bound to get through, as Ukraine tries to shore up its missile defenses.
The great unknown is just how far such a blitz is depleting Russian inventories – and whether increasingly they will resort to stocks of older, less accurate but equally powerful missiles.
Some of that inventory was dispatched this week. But Russia has recently resorted to using much older and less precise KH-22 missiles (originally made as an anti-ship weapon), of which it still has large inventories, according to Western officials. Weighing 5.5 tons, they are designed to take out aircraft carriers. A KH-22 was responsible for the dozens of casualties at a shopping mall in Kremenchuk in June.
The Russians have also been adapting the S-300 – normally an air defense missile – as an offensive weapon, with some effect. These have wrought devastation in Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv, among other places, and their speed makes them difficult to intercept. But they are hardly accurate.
Ukrainian long-range strikes coincide with a decline in Russian cruise and tactical missiles. In the fall and winter, Russia has enough missiles to hit at least two or three waves ofUkrainian electrical grids, according to the Ukrainian military intelligence chief.
He told Richard that this was the first time Russia targeted energy infrastructure since the beginning of the war.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that Ukraine needed “more” systems to better halt missile attacks. “These air defense systems are making a difference because many of the incoming missiles (this week) were actually shot down by the Ukrainian air defense systems provided by NATO Allies,” he said. “But of course, as long as not all of them are shot down, of course there is a need for more.”
Last month, the US deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, Sasha Baker, said the US had seen “some evidence already” that the Iranian drones “have already experienced numerous failures.”
Air and missile defense are Kyiv’s greatest needs at this stage in the conflict. US plans to provide Ukraine with the advanced missile defense system are crucial for keeping the country in the fight.
Ukraine’s wish-list – circulated at Wednesday’s meeting – included missiles for their existing systems and a “transition to Western-origin layered air defense system” as well as “early warning capabilities.”
He said the system would not control all the airspace over Ukraine, but it would control priority targets that the country needs to protect. What you’re looking at really is short-range low-altitude systems and then medium-range medium altitude and then long-range and high altitude systems, and it’s a mix of all of these.”
Western systems are beginning to trickle in. The Ukrainian Defense Minister said that a new era of air defense had begun as a result of the first IRIS-T from Germany arriving and two units of the US National Advanced Surface-to- Air Missile System expected soon.
These are not off-the-shelf items. The IRIS-T had to be manufactured for Ukraine. Western governments don’t have a lot of such systems. And Ukraine is a very large country under missile attack from three directions.
Kamikaze and Puma Drones: Which Ukranian Air Defense Systems are Used in Ukraine by Russia? The Ukrainen Defense Ministry Explains Ukraine’s Attack
Poland was thanked on Tuesday by the senior military commander of the state of Ukraine for their assistance with the training of the air defense battalion.
He said that Poland had given the Ukranian’s systems to destroy the drones. Last month there were reports that the Polish government had bought advanced Israeli equipment (Israel has a policy of not selling “advanced defensive technology” to Kyiv) and was then transferring it to Ukraine.
Which drones are being used in Ukraine by Russia? The Ukrainian military says that Russia is using Iranian-made drones. US officials told CNN that Iran was showing Shahed series drones to Russia in July. The drones have a payloads of around 100 pounds and are capable of carrying missiles.
What are the kinds of drones? Kamikaze drones, or suicide drones, are a type of aerial weapon system. They are known as a loitering munition because they are capable of waiting for some time in an area identified as a potential target and only strike once an enemy asset is identified.
Non-combat operations on the Ukrainian side are being performed by drones. Since the 1990s, Draganfly has made drones for use by the public. It did business in a war zone for the first time last year.
In March, the Pentagon announced it would send 100 “tactical unmanned aerial systems” called Switchblades. In the next month the administration said it would give another 300. The DOD said it would send 120 drones to Ukranian. In July, the United States provided funds for Ukraine to buy 580 more of them.
In August, the Pentagon said it would send Puma drones — small aircraft that soldiers toss into the air to launch and then control by remote control from up to nine miles away. The pumas can stay at altitudes of around 500 feet.
Many of the drones targeted Kyiv, according to the city’s military administration, which said 18 out of 23 spotted in the sky over the capital were intercepted. There were no deaths recorded, but authorities said that one critical infrastructure facility was hit. Emergency services were working to limit the consequences of the attack, according to Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration.
One Ukrainian MiG pilot won folk hero status in Ukraine this month for shooting down five Iranian Shahed-136 drones over the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, only to be forced to eject after crashing into the debris of the last one. The pilot, Karaya — who identified himself by only his nickname, according to military policy — told the local news media afterward, “Within a short period of time, we are adapting to this kind of weapon and are starting to destroy it successfully.”
After colliding with the airborne debris, he said, Karaya steered his MiG away from Vinnytsia and ejected. There were no injuries when the jet crashed into houses in anoutlying area. Karaya later visited the site to apologize.
The First Day of World War II: Anatoliy and Stas Volovyk, Two Reservists, Delivered by NLAWs in Mykolaiv
He said that he went to the scene and apologized for the way he was handling the residents, as well as thanking them for their steel nerves. He said it was a violation of military protocol. “Lost them while leaving the office,” he wrote.
MYKOLAIV, Ukraine — On the second day of the war with Russia, Anatoliy Nikitin and Stas Volovyk, two Ukrainian army reservists, were ordered to deliver NLAW anti-tank missiles to fellow soldiers in the suburbs north of Kyiv. After they stood exposed on the highway, the battle nickname Concrete says they received new orders.
A guy on radio said there were two tanks coming at him. Try to hit one and livestream it!,” recalls Nikitin, sitting on a park bench in the southern city of Mykolaiv, as artillery rumbles in the distance.
Neither soldier had ever fired an NLAW. They hid in some trees and looked up a video on how to do it. They took their positions, prepared the missiles.
The commander said, “Oh, it’s ours!” It’s ours! ‘” recalls Volovyk, who goes by the nickname Raptor. “So, we did not fire. It was a very close call.
They both fight in environments that mix terror, adventure and black comedy. The first days of the war were chaotic, according to the two men who offered an unvarnished view of the fighting.
“It was total chaos,” recalls Nikitin, who is 40, wears a salt-and-pepper beard and heads a construction company. It was lucky that the Russians were more chaotic than us.
Volovyk is a 33-year-old software engineer who learned English by playing video games. He says Russian tactics and decision-making have improved during the war, but he found some of their early actions perplexing. Riot police who were sent by the Russians only to be thrown out of the city.
“We see how they advance, we see how they fight and we were like, ‘Okay, is this their best or are they just mocking us?'” recalls Volovyk, who wears a camouflage cap with the message “Don’t Worry, Be Ready.”
The Russians retreated from the suburbs in late March. Two men following orders and heading to the south to fight a different kind of war. They left behind the protection of suburban buildings and forests outside the capital for sweeping farm fields with little cover. They started by working in the trenches.
Volovyk says it sucks. You dig. You dig. Unless you dig, you’re dead, so that’s the only thing you can do.
The men were offered new jobs after two weeks. It’s a dangerous profession that requires getting close to enemy lines and avoiding detection. But the men leapt at the opportunity — anything to get out of the trenches.
They now operate drones and help guide fire on Russian tanks and other weaponry in the Kherson region.
The soldiers have had some heart-stopping moments. Nikitin recalls traveling with a team of engineers when they came across a Russian soldier in a field.
“He looks at me, I look at him, and he jumps into the bushes,” recalls Nikitin. He then told the engineers to go shoot the Russian and any of his fellow soldiers.
Nikitin and Volovyk joined the army reserve six years ago, after the Russians invaded Crimea. They knew that Russia would try to take the rest of Ukraine. Here down south, their goal is to liberate Kherson, the regional capital.
Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, is a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen” and blogs at Andelman Unleashed. He formerly was a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.
Russian President Putin has become more efficient at creating new victims and enemies, increasing the number of enemies he wants to conquer, and furthering his determination to destroy those who are against him. There is no limit to Putin’s desire to destroy the world in pursuit of an elusive victory.
Polish and NATO leaders suspect that the first missile to land in Poland was fired by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft rocket, which was a short distance from one of the largest cities in Ukraine. President Zelensky insisted the missile wasn’t Ukrainian.
But the proximate reason for this action was in fact Putin’s utterly inhumane carpet bombing of Ukrainian infrastructure. This is all part of Putin’s misguided, and likely futile, effort to hammer the nation into submission – a hail of rockets designed to knock out electricity, water, and other critical civilian infrastructure as winter looms.
One thing is clear, whatever the circumstances of the missile. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg blamed Russia for its war against Ukrainians.
Recent threats from Russia have acted as a brake on the support of the West for Ukraine.
The mines planted by his forces were similar to those the Khmer Rouge planted in Cambodia in the 1970s. Indeed, Cambodian de-mining experts have even been called in to assist with the herculean task facing Ukraine in 2022. At the same time, Russian armies have also left behind evidence of unspeakable atrocities and torture, also reminiscent of the Khmer Rouge.
A lot of Russian soldiers have rebelled against what they have been told to do and refuse to fight. The UK’s Defense Ministry believe that Russian troops may be willing to shoot retreating and deserting soldiers.
The hotline and Telegram channel was launched by the Ukrainian military intelligence project, called “I want to live,” which was designed to help Russian soldiers who wanted to defect.
Putin finds himself isolated on the world stage. There was only one head of state that stayed away from the session of the G20. Though Putin once lusted after a return to the G7 (known as the G8 before he was ousted after his seizure of Crimea), inclusion now seems but a distant dream. Russia’s sudden ban on 100 Canadians, including Canadian-American Jim Carrey, from entering the country only made the comparison with North Korea more striking.
Above all, many of the best and brightest in virtually every field have now fled Russia. Writers, artists, journalists, and some of the most innovative technologists are included.
One leading Russian journalist, Mikhail Zygar, who has settled in Berlin after fleeing in March, told me last week that while he hoped this is not the case, he is prepared to accept the reality – like many of his countrymen, he may never be able to return to his homeland, to which he remains deeply attached.
Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure have caused a grim cycle in Ukrainian society: a message from Putin and the Kremlin at the G20
Rumbling in the background is the West’s attempt to diversify away from Russian oil and natural gas in an effort to deprive the country of material resources to pursue this war. “We have understood and learnt our lesson that it was an unhealthy and unsustainable dependency, and we want reliable and forward-looking connections,” Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission told the G20 on Tuesday.
Moreover, Putin’s dream that this conflict, along with the enormous burden it has proven to be on Western countries, would only drive further wedges into the Western alliance are proving unfulfilled. On Monday, word began circulating in aerospace circles that the long-stalled joint French-German project for a next-generation jet fighter at the heart of the Future Combat Air System – Europe’s largest weapons program – was beginning to move forward.
Still, he continues to hold, as he did in a Tuesday address in the Kremlin, that “attempts made by certain countries to rewrite and reshape world history are becoming increasingly aggressive, ultimately and obviously seeking to divide our society, take away our guiding lines and eventually weaken Russia.”
According to Zelensky, the Russian attacks on Odesa left as many as 1.5 million people without power on Saturday night, the most recent in a string of assaults on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
The repeated assaults on the plants and equipment that Ukrainians rely on for heat and light have drawn condemnation from world leaders, and thrust Ukraine into a grim cycle in which crews hurry to restore power only to have it knocked out again.
According to the director of the Energy Industry Research Center on Ukrainian TV, power outages had been put in place for a preventative measure to protect the grid. Despite this, he said that the result of Friday morning’s attacks would be unpleasant.
He said that the power system was far from a normal state and called on people to cut their power use.
It must be understood. Even if there are no heavy missile strikes, this does not mean that there are no problems,” he continued. There is a lot of shelling and other missile attacks in different regions. It is almost every day that energy facilities are hit.
Denys Shmyhal, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, told a government meeting that they had set a goal to leave Ukrainians without light, water and heat.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said explosions had hit the city and that three districts had been struck in the onslaught of rockets, disrupting water supplies across the capital. He suggested that people not leave shelters and prepare a stock of drinking water as technicians work to restore the supply.
Residents bundled in winter coats, hats and scarves gathered in Kyiv’s underground stations as the sirens wailed. Their faces were illuminated by their phones as they scrolled through updates.
In the central city of Kryvyi Rih, officials said a Russian missile had hit a three-story residential building, killing at least two people and that emergency services were digging through the wreckage. “There may be people under the rubble,” the deputy head of the presidential administration, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said.
The southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia was hit by more than a dozen missile strikes, according to Oleksandr Starukh, chief of the regional military administration, but it was unclear what had been targeted.
The city of Kherson in the south was liberated by Ukrainian forces in November, and four people died in the ensuing shelling and rocket attacks. Shelling also set a multi-storey apartment building ablaze, and the body of a man was found in one apartment, the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office said. Basic services are still not available in the city.
The Defense Ministry said that at least three people are dead after debris fell on the air base that houses Tu-95 and Tu-160 strategic bombers that are involved in launching strikes on Ukraine.
The air attacks in Ukraine took place over Belarus and an aircraft that can carry a Kinzal hypersonic missile was seen in the sky. But it was not clear from their statement whether a Kinzal was used in the attacks.
“We know that their defense industrial base is being taxed,” Kirby said of Russia. “We know they’re having trouble keeping up with that pace. We know that he’s (Russian President Vladimir Putin’s) having trouble replenishing specifically precision guided munitions.”
He wouldn’t give any details on the new security assistance package, but he said that it would include additional air defense capabilities.
Christmas Trees and Air Defense for the Ukrainian People: General Relativity, Independence, and Security in the Context of the Cold War
The Air Force stated that the Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 drones were launched from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov.
Popko added that two areas in central and western Kyiv bore the brunt of the damage. There’s a damaged road and fragments of a drones flying on a high rise residential building.
“I thank everyone who carries out these repair works in any weather and around the clock,” Zelensky said. “It is not easy, it is difficult, but I am sure: we will pull through together, and Russia’s aggression will fail.”
Ukrainians far away from the eastern and southern fronts of the ground war seek for some semblance of normality in the run-up to Christmas.
An artificial Christmas tree has been installed and decorated in the city center and will also be powered by a generator at certain times.
Roughly 1,000 blue and yellow balls and white doves will decorate the tree in Sophia Square, with a trident placed at the tree’s summit. Flags of countries that are supporting Ukraine will be placed at the bottom.
Zelensky said in a virtual address to the Joint Expeditionary Force leaders that Ukrainian children are requesting air defense and weapons for victory.
The Russian War on Nuclear Propaganda in the Cold War, and the Implications for the United States, the West, and Ukraine
Russia will keep doing this because it works. And US President Joe Biden and other Western leaders consistently reassure Russia that it works by explicitly referring to the fear of escalation – precisely the fear Russia wants to stoke.
Russia has free rein to act as it chooses, despite the UN Security Council veto and fear it instills through nuclear propaganda, without worry of interference from a global community.
Moscow is struggling to equip and develop its conventional forces, and it appears to be running out of new cards to play. China and India joined the West in statements against use of nuclear force, which makes that option less likely.
Russia will search for new weapons as it tries to get missiles to launch at Ukraine. Iran may be the only one that will supply Russia in the future.
It’s hard to imagine any other country being given the latitude to wage the kind of campaign Russia has in Ukrainian and Syria before it; still less with an overt agenda.
That sets a disastrous example for other aggressive powers around the world. It says possession of nuclear weapons allows you to wage genocidal wars of destruction against your neighbors, because other nations won’t intervene.
If that’s not the message the US and the West want other aggressor states around the world to receive, then supply of Patriot should be followed by far more direct and assertive means of dissuading Moscow.
US President Joe Biden is expected to announce an additional $1.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s expected visit to the White House. The increase in aid is expected to be headed by the security systems included in the package, a US official told CNN.
There are two key headline deliverables: first, the Patriot missile systems. Complex, accurate, and expensive, they have been described as the US’s “gold standard” of air defense. NATO preciously guards them, and they require the personnel who operate them – almost 100 in a battalion for each weapon – to be properly trained.
The second are precision-guided munitions for Ukrainian jets. Ukraine, and Russia, largely are equipped with munitions that are “dumb” – fired roughly towards a target. More and more Western standard precision weaponry has been provided by the Ukrainian government.
The new deal will likely include the supply of guidance kits, or Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), which Ukraine can use to bolt on to their unguided missiles or bombs. This will help increase their accuracy and the amount of time they burn through the bullets. A lot of the $1.8 billion is expected to fund munitions replacements and stocks.
The Russians were foolish if they thought the war would not affect anyone in Russia or anywhere else. “As we know, such things are happening a lot more and more often, and let’s hope this will benefitUkraine,” said Ihnat.
Western analysts have noted that Russia has protested continually about these deliveries, but was somewhat circumspect about its response to the crossing of what may have been considered a red line.
Biden wants Putin to know that the headline figures in the billions are for Russia, to make him more determined, to push European partners to give more, and to make Ukraine seem more powerful than it is.
This is trickier. Congress’s likely new Speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, has warned the Biden administration cannot expect a “blank cheque” from the new GOP-led House of Representatives.
The Patriot System: a Radar System for defending Ukraine’s most strategic enemy, and how the US Military can help Russia in its war of choice
The remnants of the Trumpist “America First” elements of that party have echoed doubts about how much aid the US should really be sending to the edges of eastern Europe.
Realistically, the bill for the slow defeat of Russia in this dark and lengthy conflict is relatively light for Washington, given its near trillion-dollar annual defense budget.
Zelensky’s physical appearance in Washington is surely designed to remind Republicans of the urgency of Ukraine’s fight and how a defeat for Kyiv would lead Moscow’s nuclear-backed brutality right to the doorstep of NATO, and then likely drag the US into a boots-on-the ground war with Russia.
He is an inspiring rhetorician, and – as a former reality TV star turned unexpected president – the embodiment of how Putin’s war of choice has turned ordinary Ukrainians into wartime heroes.
The capabilities of the system are what they are supposed to protect the ground on very specific targets, said a retired Major General.
According to a description from the Center for Strategic International Studies, the Patriot’s radar system combines stealth, tracking, and engagement functions in one unit. The system is almost entirely self-reliant, aside from needing a final launch decision from the humans operating it.
And in Ukraine’s case, Hertling says offensive operations are far more important than the Patriot system. CNN first reported last month that the US was considering a dramatic increase in the training provided to Ukrainian forces by instructing as many as 2,500 troops a month at a US base in Germany. The Pentagon said this month that combined arms training of battalion-sized elements, which will include infantry maneuvers, would begin in January.
“These systems don’t pick up and move around the battlefield,” Hertling said. “You put them in place somewhere that defends your most strategic target, like a city, like Kyiv. Someone doesn’t know how the system works, if anyone thinks it’s going to spread across a 500- mile border between Ukraine and Russia.
Not to mention the significant logistical needs; just one battery is operated by roughly 90 soldiers, and includes computers, an engagement control system, a phased array radar, power generating equipment, and “up to eight launchers,” according to the Army.
CSIS recently said in a report that the missile rounds for the Patriot come in at roughly $4 million each. Rounds that expensive likely won’t be used to shoot down every missile Russia launches toward Ukraine, Hertling said.
The system was sent to Poland to help it defend against Russia, after Russia invaded the country of Ukraine. The military made it clear that the system was for defensive purposes, and would not support any offensive operations when it was sent to Poland.
According to Hertling, the weapon system is a defensive and anti-ballistic one. “You don’t win wars with defensive capabilities. You win wars with offensive capabilities.
The homicide of a Ukrainian drone by air defenses in Saratov oblast on Monday: “There are no emergency situations left in the city”
The three Russian servicemen were killed on Monday when a Ukrainian drone was shot down by air defenses near an airfield deep inside Russian territory, according to the defense ministry.
The Governor of Saratov Oblast said on Monday that law enforcement agencies are investigating the incident at the airfield. The comments were posted on his Telegram channel, just after unconfirmed reports of an explosion.
He added that there were “no emergencies in the residential areas of the city,” and that no civilian infrastructure had been damaged. He said the government would provide assistance to the families of the servicemen.
There will be a repetition of the situation after the Russians launched a missile strike on December 5. We have to remember to proceed to the shelter, take it into account in our plans and be prepared for this.
Earlier this month, CCTV footage appeared to show an explosion lighting up the sky in Engels. At the time, Gov. Busargin also reassured residents that no civilian infrastructure was damaged and that “information about incidents at military facilities is being checked by law enforcement agencies.”
Nikopol, Ukraine — a quiet city targeted by the Russian forces since the Ukraine attack on New Year’s Day at the Kherson nuclear power plant
In Ukraine, the night from Sunday into Monday appeared unusually quiet. The governor of Dnipropetrovsk reported on Telegram that the Russian forces did not shell the region for the first time in weeks.
The areas surrounding the city of Nikopol have had three quiet nights in the last six months. Nikopol is located across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under control of the Russian forces.
Ukrainian-controlled areas of the neighbouring Kherson region were shelled 33 times over the past 24 hours, according to Kherson’s Ukrainian Gov. Yaroslav Yanushevich. There were no casualties.
Since some cruise missiles are launched from bombers that fly from the airfields hit in the attacks, the strikes could potentially destroy the missiles on the ground at the Russian airfields before they can be deployed.
Mr. Zagorodnyuk, clarifying that he did not speak for the government and could not confirm the strikes, added: “You cannot consider, this person will attack you because you are fighting back. There is absolutely no reason not to try and do this.
The Kinzhal, the most advanced missile in Russia, can reach targets in minutes and is all but impossible to shoot down, is in short supply.
The Ukrainian military, pro-Russian military and former officials say that a large number of Russian troops have been killed in an apparent Ukrainian strike.
Ukrainian and pro-Russian accounts claim that a strike took place on New Year’s Day at a school that housed Russian conscripts.
The attack has led to criticism of Moscow’s military from pro- Russian military writers who claimed the troops lacked protection and were quartered near a large cache of weaponry which was supposedly exploded when Ukrainian rockets hit the school.
The Russian defense ministry on Monday acknowledged the attack and claimed that 63 Russian servicemen died, which would make it one of the deadliest single episodes of the war for Moscow’s forces.
Russian senator Grigory Karasin said that those responsible for the killing of Russian servicemen in Makiivka must be found, Russian state news agency TASS reported Monday.
Abandoned Donbas: A Russian Prisoner’s Paradox and a Serendipitous Case of Mass Destruction in the Era of War
Video reportedly from the scene of the attack circulated widely on Telegram, including on an official Ukrainian military channel. Almost no part of the building appears to be standing in the picture.
“Greetings and congratulations” to the separatists and conscripts who “were brought to the occupied Makiivka and crammed into the building of vocational school,” the Strategic Communications Directorate of the Chief Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Telegram. “Santa packed around 400 corpses of [Russian soldiers] in bags.”
The high command is unaware of the weapon’s capabilities, said Daniil Bezsonov, who was a former official in the Russian backed DONETSK administration.
Bezsonov hopes those responsible for the decision to use this facility will be reprimanded. The abandoned facilities of Donbas have sturdy buildings where personnel can be quartered.
A Russian propagandist who wrote about the war effort on Telegram claimed that the building was almost completely destroyed by the secondary detonation of ammunition stores.
“Nearly all the military equipment, which stood close to the building without the slightest sign of camouflage, was also destroyed,” Girkin said. Many people are still missing and there are still no final figures on casualties.
Girkin has long decried Russian generals whom he claims direct the war effort far from the frontline, calling them “unlearned in principle” and unwilling to listen to warnings about putting equipment and personnel so close together in HIMARS range. The Dutch court of mass murder found the former minister of defense of the self-proclaimed, Russian-backed DONETSK PEOPLE’s REPUBLICAN to have been responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine.
A person who writes under the name Colonelcassad says that an inability to grasp the experience of war continues to be a serious problem.
“As you can see, despite several months of war, some conclusions are not made, hence the unnecessary losses, which, if the elementary precautions relating to the dispersal and concealment of personnel were taken, might have not happened.”
The Bakhmut air war in Ukraine is coming: a big bang for the Russian army, but what does it have to do with F-16?
The town is a key player in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces tried to take it for three months. Victory for Moscow here would make it harder for the Ukrainians to shut down a nearby railroad that links Donetsk with Russian-occupied Crimea and allow the Russians to begin a northern “hook” as part of their anticipated spring offensive.
The military said that Russian forces have killed 760 people since last night and have continued to try to take over Bakhmut.
Russian units have been pressing an offensive towards the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk for months but have suffered heavy losses as Ukrainian forces have targeted them in what is largely open rural territory.
Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine over the weekend as fresh rounds of Russian missile strikes hit several regions. The attacks killed at least six people in the Donetsk, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions, while a man was injured early Monday.
All previous air wars of the past century have had pilots, yet this one is different. And this goes very much against the traditional perception of air combat.
“Top Gun: Maverick is Oscar-nominated this year for Best Picture. And here we are, watching an air war happening. Kelly Grieco is a senior analyst at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank.
Some of the aircraft that are flying are piloted. But we’re talking a very small number of sorties compared to compared to past wars,” said Grieco, who keeps close tabs on the air war.
He knows these tenets well. Gersten flew combat missions as an F-16 pilot early in his career, and later commanded U.S. drone operations in the Middle East. He saw drones play a major role in the U.S. air campaigns. But piloted U.S. war planes played a significant role in those conflicts as well, and the U.S. alone dominated the skies.
“We were contacted by an American (aid group) that couldn’t get their ambulances into besieged cities and asked if it could use our drones,” said Chell, who’s based in Vancouver.
“When I ask about F-16, I never heard about a problem with the spare parts or the supply chain. The answer was normally, ‘Oleksii, you know, it’s a very long period of training courses for your pilots.'” But President Biden has been clear. The U.S. is sending air defenses, but not fighter jets — which would put more vulnerable pilots and expensive planes in the sky.
The battle of Bakhmut, Ukraine: The 155th Marine Brigade as a battleground for the liberation of the eastern Ukrainian town
Somewhere in the battle for the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, Russian soldiers are being torn apart, and burned, as the ground itself erupts when the rockets find their target. There’s no time to reflect – the effect of the rockets will get passed back to the pilots later. Staying alive is their task now.
He said that the attacks launched in the last week of January were flawed. Cooper wrote on his website that they were advanced along a relatively narrow route, all the time in sight of Ukrainian observers posted atop of high buildings in Vuhledar.
The Ukrainian military released videos of at least 20 Russian tanks and infantry vehicles that were disabled or destroyed in a matter of days. Satellite images show intensive patterns of impacts along tree lines where Russian tanks tried to advance.
The Russian Defense Ministry has insisted the assault on Vuhledar, where the 155th Marine Brigade is prominently involved, is going according to plan. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that themarine infantry is working as it should. Right now. Fighting heroically.”
Denis Pushilin, the leader of the self-declared Russian-backed DPR acknowledged Friday that the area was a hot spot, and that it had slowed down the liberation of the settlement.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/13/europe/russia-ukraine-vuhledar-donetsk-fiasco-intl/index.html
The Russia-Vuhledar War: A Battleground for the Military High Command? Commentary on Russian Defense on Telegram and Twitter
Cooper says the Russians built a formidable force around Vuhledar, “say, a total of about 20,000 troops, 90 MBTs There are at least two times as many IFVs and some 100 pieces of artillery.
Critics of Russia’s military high command say the handling of the latest offensive is worse still, with one military blogger describing it as a “shameful debacle.”
Strelkov said that the best tank and paratroopers were wiped out.
In another post on Telegram, Strelkov wrote: “Only morons attack head-on in the same place, heavily fortified and extremely inconvenient for the attackers for many months in a row.”
Hundreds of millions of subscribers to Telegram is where Russia’s military Bloggers can be found. They have been highly critical of previous episodes in the campaign.
A range of factors, including lack of trained personnel, coordination, and resources across the front, are said to be the reasons why there is more Russian casualties in places like Vuhledar.
How can tanks, armored personnel carriers, and infantry fight without columns? And then how to coordinate any actions if there is no communication and situational awareness?” he wrote.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/13/europe/russia-ukraine-vuhledar-donetsk-fiasco-intl/index.html
On the 155th Battle of Ugledar, Ukraine: Muradov’s Execution in December 1994 and its Implications for the War in the Nearby Region
Several Russian commentators have called for the dismissal of Lieutenant General Rustam Muradov, the commander of the Eastern Grouping of Forces. Muradov was in charge in November when men of the 155th protested that his tactics had caused disastrous losses.
Another Russian blog with more than 500,000 followers said of Muradov’s team: “These people killed a significant number of personnel and equipment [in November] and did not bear any responsibility. After which, with the same mediocrity, they began to storm Ugledar [Vuhledar]. Impunity always breeds permissiveness.”
The Institute for the Study of War says that the 155th Naval Infantry brigade is made up of poorly trained mobilized personnel instead of poor command, and that it’s only part of the problem.
The Ukrainian military officials say there are a number of Russian forces in the area, including professional units, the militia of the DPR and the infantry of a private military company.
The commander of the Ukrainian forces said effective fire damage, which requires an appropriate amount of weapons and ammunition, was the key to success.
Col. Serhiy Cherevaty, the spokesman for the armed forces, said on television that soldiers need to keep building defensive lines. But he also said that part of the reason for the order a day earlier barring civilians, including aid workers, from entering the city was to keep military operations secret.
Bakhmut is not a good prize for either Moscow or Kyiv. Its significance comes more from the amount of blood spilled to claim it.
“Even if Bakhmut were to fall, it would not have a strategic impact on the overall war,” said the National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby. “I would go so far as to say it won’t even have necessarily a strategic impact on the fighting in that part of the country.”
On the mission of the Sikorsky Brigade to fight in a civil war in DRC: a U.S. air force response to the Kiev attack
Western officials don’t know whether the campaign to get more powerful weapons for Ukraine will be a success.
Already, allies have given all manner of different Western weapon systems to Kyiv’s war effort, most recently pledging to supply it with battle tanks. Mr Austin said that the priority right now was to make sure that the Ukrainian troops were trained on how to use these weapons effectively in a way that was efficient.
Asked in Brussels on Tuesday whether fighter jets had been discussed, Mr. Austin, the American defense secretary, said, “I don’t have any announcement to make today.”
The horizon disappears for a moment as the nose of the helicopter rears. There’s a faint thump as rockets trailing brown smoke arc ahead. The aircraft looks as if it has been hit on its side.
We are always surprised that we are here. But, well, we are and we’re never going to stop,” says the deputy commander of the Sikorsky Brigade – his name and location are military secrets.
Both Serhiy and Hennady have been pilots for more than two decades. They spent much of the early 2000s flying for the United Nations on peacekeeping missions in Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
They say that the experience had been useful. It kept their hours up and gave them experience of flying low and in difficult circumstances – like the ongoing civil war in the DRC.
The Mi-8s in this flight were originally conceived as transport helicopter but now are mounted with rockets. Unlike modern, or even Soviet-era attack helicopters, they’ve got no armor to protect the pilots.
Dangerously close to the front line, he could not stay on the ground so, after a quick inspection, took off on his damaged blades. Engineers were able to swap equipment with three others from the other helicopter at the rear location.
Zelensky’s security mission in Ukraine: the need for new helicopters and Russian drones? – The Ukrainian pilot Serhiy tells CNN
President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked NATO and other alliances for jets and other aircraft. The response so far has been close to nil.
The United Kingdom has offered to boost Ukraine’s helicopter fleet with a handful of ancient Sea King aircraft that have been decommissioned from the military. Portugal, meanwhile, has given six Russian-made Ка-32А11VS – none of which are even airworthy and which, its defense minister said, Ukraine would have to fix itself.
Serhiy, the Ukrainian pilot, is in need of the equipment soon. Speaking to CNN at the brigade’s operation base, he says, “Of course we need newer helicopters because we have aircraft from the Soviet era. We are trying everything to get out of them.
His team hides fuel and bullets near the front line. The support crews are hiding. Perimeter security exists but it’s invisible.
But he had to wait 24 hours to learn this from Ukrainian drone operators who’d called him in to give him the news. Because by the time his rockets hit the ground, he was racing away below tree height.
“The Russians can find and hit us from more than 30km away. He said that their radar can track them and sometimes they can shoot at us or hide behind hills.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/17/europe/ukraine-pilots-helicopter-russia-intl-cmd/index.html
Friend of Serhiy. The sadness of his friend’s death and I’m sorry for the loss of a loved one
The pain of losing a loved one is still raw. In December, Serhiy’s close friend died. There are a lot of people that have already died. I am upset and it is very painful.
