I would like to poit out one of very important information, fact, which most of commenators don’t understand here.
Links!
We, which are living in Europe, have no possibility to open any of your links, based on RT, or Telegram.
You knew that? No? Hahahahaha….
So, enjoy in your smmall world…
I just have to say, world is bigger that you think…

Posted by: preseren3 | Apr 14 2022 19:51 utc | 104

Intel Slava Z on Telegram posting new stuff about Brit in Ukie Army who was captured. He wanted to quit and flee shortly after the start of the “war”. He said he did not want to fight but would guard. The young man is throwing Zelensky and the Ukie regime of criminals under the bus. I bet the British newspapers will not print this or will say it is under duress. The young man is essentially saying the Ukraine is a corrupt sh*i*t show and he did not want to fight for Zelensky. He is sounding more like me than a Ukie true believer. Maybe he does have common sense too.

Posted by: Jerry1 | Apr 14 2022 19:56 utc | 106

what a sad day from rt.com “Russian flagship sank – military
Missile cruiser ‘Moskva’ went down in the Black Sea while being towed to port, the Russian Defense Ministry said
”

Posted by: Calgary guy | Apr 14 2022 20:03 utc | 108

Is anyone else rather surprised about the lack of info regarding Moskva boat? From typically decent sources I’ve read that it has sunk, that it’s sailing under its own power,and now officially, that it’s being towed. Still no photos. No photos makes me believe attack story more, attack by Western weapons and not Neptune. Hiding the damage caused. Seeing damage caused by Western weapon to boat would give beneficial info to West on such further use of weapon.

Posted by: NJH | Apr 14 2022 20:04 utc | 110

re: Moskva
… sourced to kp.ru apparently FWIW

Posted by: ptb | Apr 14 2022 20:07 utc | 112

… and elsewhere
https://ria.ru/20220414/kreyser-1783626130.html

Posted by: ptb | Apr 14 2022 20:11 utc | 114

Guys when you post comment, do you use notepad++ or bedit? Its a pain to type in links with cbc.ca/news manually.

Posted by: Calgary Guy | Apr 14 2022 20:15 utc | 116

I meant typing links as described in “Please keep your comment short and to the point.
Allowed HTML Tags:” is difficult and time consuming.

Posted by: Calgary Guy | Apr 14 2022 20:18 utc | 118

THERE WAS NO UKRAINIAN MISSILES WHATSOEVER nor was there any “incompetence” due to the Moscova being 35km away from the Ukrainian Coast !! The Saker = The Ukronazis claim that they sunk the Moskva with two Neptune missiles. Wikipedia gives us two important technical details about this missile: its warhead is 150kg and its speed is subsonic which brings this specialized article to add “This missile travels at subsonic speed. It is estimated that due to its subsonic speed that anti-ship missile can be intercepted rather easily, especially by advanced defense system“. The Moskva displaces 12,490 tons, so I will assume that every person reading this will understand that 2x150kgb subsonic warheads are not enough to sink such a ship.
Thus the “sunk by Neptunes” is highly unlikely.
The electromagnetic space over the Ukrainian coast and the Black Sea is chock-full with signals from all the parties to the conflict.
The launch of two Neptune ASM would have been instantly detected not only by the Russians (including the very powerful radars on the Moskva) but also by the USA/NATO yet Kirby said “We don’t know what caused that explosion”, did he not? Yes, he could be lying, but why bother when the morale-boosting lie would be to claim that it was a Ukrainian ASM hit?
It seems that, like with Bucha, the US side is NOT endorsing the Ukronazi lies. I wonder why…

Posted by: opereta | Apr 14 2022 20:23 utc | 120

Suicide?
Unfriendly’ West delaying payments for Russian energy – Putin
https://www.rt.com/business/553864-west-delaying-russia-gas-payments/

Posted by: Kim | Apr 14 2022 20:33 utc | 122

I heard some claims on the Politrussia livestream that returning sailors in Sevastopol essentially confirmed that there was a missile strike and that they had even managed to collect the remains of the missiles. Who knows, there is so much fog of war around the events, these last couple of days in particular.
Another set of helicopter strikes by Ukraine on Russia proper, 7 people horrifically injured, including a pregnant woman and a 2 year old girl, 1 fatality so far. The only rational explanation for why the border isn’t being guarded against this recurring threat of low flying helicopters is that they are, for some reason, unable to do so.

Posted by: Skiffer | Apr 14 2022 20:37 utc | 124

Sweden seem to have a severe case of cognitive dissonance.
Supporting nazis abroad while fighting them back home.
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/ost/oroligt-i-norrkoping-sparvagn-attackerad
They don’t call them nazis, only right-wing extremists and blame a danish guy for the riots.

Posted by: Anne B | Apr 14 2022 20:56 utc | 126

The US propaganda machine is not even striving for credibility anymore. Sloppy.

Russia’s leadership has ordered its troops to remove any evidence of crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine, and now they are using 13 mobile crematoriums to burn civilian bodies in the city of Mariupol.
The relevant statement was made by the Main Intelligence Department of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Telegram, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Posted by: Passerby | Apr 14 2022 21:02 utc | 128

Skiffer @122–
Clearly, Russia must finish the job. Helos flying nape-of-the-earth are very hard targets to detect and engage. If outside, it’s possible to hear the rotors but hard to detect from what direction, and they don’t stay long overhead to present a target–that’s why they fly that way. On treeless steepe, there’s no advantage, but in forested or suburban areas where line-of-sight is very limited, it’s hard to get a shot off.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 14 2022 21:05 utc | 130

@ 11, 112, 115, 117
Thank you for the updates!
@118
That’s a very fake an unrealistic attempt to throw mathematics against reality (much like einstein and his cult). Mass isn’t at question here, the boat’s mass will increase as it takes on water, it doesn’t matter if it was a 500kg missile or a 1gm drillbit that made the hole, we’re not talking about applying force pushing or moving the boat, we’re talking about making holes in the boat. Saker is a classically trained warfare academic, and has been a quasi good source of opinion since 2014, he has his pitfalls though as Mr. Bentley has pointed out since 2014. The Russia will not have all her majestic EW and a2ad gizmos anywhere near this conflict neither land or sea based. Protecting the Russia capital, major cities, special asset and production locations yes any piece of unwanted electronic found approaching domestic site will fall to earth fast. R&D then production of EW cost many more than the decades old boat, and using them when not under great threat will quickly render them obsolete and useless i suppose.

Posted by: NJH | Apr 14 2022 21:06 utc | 132

Scott Horton received a tweet-threat from Google.
“Careful what you say there, warns Google in my email box.” . .Important Notice here which essentially says there are no Nazis in Ukraine and we will “pause monetization” of any other claims. . .It’s all abut the monetize.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 14 2022 21:12 utc | 134

Exile @1–
Russia’s going to be in Ukraine a very long time–deNazification will take several generations. On the military side, given Russia’s December security proposals, rolling-back NATO to its 1997 status comes next. Latvia has active Nazi militia a la Azov, and Poland is Poland. I rather doubt Poland or the Baltics will want to abandon NATO, but then it’s not so much about what they want. The European phase of the Outlaw US Empire’s War against the Eurasian Bloc could last the rest of the decade or it could end by 2023. It’s all dependent on what NATO members abutting Russia do as they have two choices: First, they can say that they’ll honor their OSCE Security commitment and leave NATO or Second, they can say Make Me. Russia will be happy to oblige regardless the answer.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 14 2022 21:21 utc | 136

Sad to hear that the Moskva sank after all. I was hoping she could be saved. Hopefully most of the sailors made it to safety.

Posted by: ptb | Apr 14 2022 21:24 utc | 138

The Belgrano–excuse me–the Moskva has sunk. I sincerely hope there were no fatalities. However, and even if the latter proves the case, it strikes me as a bad augur indeed. Assuming that batteries in Odessa were responsible how is it possible that they had not been destroyed? Quite evidently the Black Sea is far from being a “Mare Russum” and consequently supremacy neither over nor air has been achieved by Russia. This surely limits Russian maneuverability and attack capacity, including protective cover for Russia not only in the contested Mariupol but over the south and east of Ukraine as a whole. A veritable fortress and command center has been lost by Russia and how is it that this debacle was not avoided in the very home of the Black Sea fleet? In short, how is that this far and this deep in the “Special Operation” Russia still can’t declare air and sea supremacy in the Black Sea litoral?

Posted by: Ludovic | Apr 14 2022 21:26 utc | 140

This thread, I would say, is mostly full of silliness. Here is what I say will happen. Probably within one to three weeks, Russia will be accepting Ukraine’s absolute total surrender. There is a high likelihood of tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers getting liquidated. Russia will set up about 15 permanent military bases in Ukraine. It pretty much is just that simple.

Posted by: blues | Apr 14 2022 21:34 utc | 142

Posted by: Ludovic | Apr 14 2022 21:26 utc | 138
Maybe because they’re not just facing Ukrainian? After all NATO have 8 years to embed and entrench themselves to Ukrainian territory.

Posted by: Lucci | Apr 14 2022 21:35 utc | 144

well, b has certainly got his next assignment / tomorrow’s article laid out for him: the sinking of the Moskva
I certainly can’t trust anything they say in the western propaganda system – so perhaps he can fill us in with the real skinny
IF the ship was hit by a neptune anti-ship missile that would be very very bad news; if it was an internal explosion that did the damage, that still looks pretty bad for Russia on the public relations front, not that the russians are very good with that either, I must say.
the narrative in the West is tightly controlled and getting tighter every day, and I’d like to see him give us his detailed/update take on that one too – twitter is less and less useful as several good sources have recently been suspended, like Scott Ritter, Pepe Escobar and others….

Posted by: michaelj72 | Apr 14 2022 21:40 utc | 146

@ Boo 5
Given the how poor morale and pay in the Russian navy and the previous 2 disasters with the Admiral Kuznetsov, with the final fire that basically gutted her taking place in drydock in freezing conditions after the last fire (How many have there been?) there is absolutely plausible to me that this was an accident. I note that we don’t have an indication of fatalities which would fit more with this being a fire that broke out and which the crew were able to get a safe distance from before the explosion as opposed to the idea that it got hit by 2 anti-ship missiles. If you’re announcing that the ship has sunk and the crew ‘evacuated’ why not announce a serious loss of life?
That said, was it Ukrainian sources that first announced the ship was in trouble? That would basically confirm they hit it if so. A very serious escalation that might portent the Russians doing worse or a NATO/Ukrainian team up to knock out more ships if they don’t keep a greater distance. Serious because it raises the risks of Russia losing in a way that is very seriously existential.
Sean Penn was recently on Fox News bemoaning how the US not being willing to use nukes or threaten them credibly against Russia in Ukraine and how that would impact the value of the nuclear deterrent in future. (Yes, try explaining that to 2003 Sean Penn) He said this without noting the obvious, that this could also be said for Russia. And infact, be much more true for Russia since they regard winning this war as existential. For the US this isn’t existential as evidenced by how they haven’t put any soldiers on the ground so it’s use of nukes would actually be crazy and inappropriate. For example, nobody would consider it rational for the US to threaten nuclear war if the PRC invaded Taiwan. There might well be an air and naval battle for sure but if the US lost, nobody would expect them to nuclear.
They keep not appreciating that things like this going nuclear not being in their control.

Posted by: Altai | Apr 14 2022 21:44 utc | 148

There is zero evidence for any missile attack. Seriously, did the ukies suddenly realize 7 weeks into the fight they had a few missiles to lob at a Russian ship? All the evidence points to a fire and massive explosions in the 130 mm ammo compartment on the bow end. The damage such explosions would cause more than explain what happened. So while it is sad the ship floundered being taken in to port, it is understandable and the reality is that ship was over 40 years old and didnt even fit into the doctrine the new Russian navy is pursuing.

Posted by: nook | Apr 14 2022 21:52 utc | 150

Posted by: james | Apr 14 2022 18:02 utc | 67 and 68
This has been making the rounds on Twitter today, via Matt Taibbi and others. No doubt this character’s real name isn’t what’s on the passport, and that he’s a part of this secret army.
https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-inside-militarys-secret-undercover-army-1591881
I’m not sure why it didn’t get much traction last year when it was published.
Apropos to your post:

The signature reduction effort engages some 130 private companies to administer the new clandestine world. Dozens of little known and secret government organizations support the program, doling out classified contracts and overseeing publicly unacknowledged operations. Altogether the companies pull in over $900 million annually to service the clandestine force—doing everything from creating false documentation and paying the bills (and taxes) of individuals operating under assumed names, to manufacturing disguises and other devices to thwart detection and identification, to building invisible devices to photograph and listen in on activity in the most remote corners of the Middle East and Africa.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 14 2022 22:10 utc | 152

Posted by: Boo | Apr 14 2022 22:16 utc | 151
Actually, these NSMs could have been in Odessa since last year, there was a post somewhere describing delivery with a fake commercial aircraft.

Posted by: Boo | Apr 14 2022 22:19 utc | 154

On the Battleships of every Navy, Paul Keating was right:
“I always say to these American admirals that every great battleship went down in the first week at sea in the Second World War,” the former prime minister told the Lowy Institute in Sydney.
“Just like these American carriers are going to be going down when the nasty fight starts. And I said to this [admiral] they all sound the same you know … glug, glug, glug”‘, he added, to slightly startled laughter from an audience dominated by foreign policy wonks.
Link

Posted by: Menz | Apr 14 2022 22:24 utc | 156

PeterAU1 @ 149
Thanks
Do I understand correctly? The system would be NATO – or EUCOM or whoever – communicates with many small scale units? That would make some sort of sense and would correspond with what we see. It is also going to be difficult and labor intensive. And would work better if there were lots and lots of trained liaison officers. It would also clue every line officer that they were not part of a national army but rather a catspaw. Maybe they like working direct for the big boss. Or maybe you meant something else?

Posted by: Oldhippie | Apr 14 2022 22:33 utc | 158

@ 149 & my 156
Wouldn’t that type of comms be vulnerable to jamming?

Posted by: Oldhippie | Apr 14 2022 22:43 utc | 160

This apparently is an Austrian military assessment of what is happening in Donbas.
Original article here https://www.bundesheer.at/cms/artikel.php?ID=11332
Translated in three twitter posts here https://twitter.com/GeromanAT/status/1514661731599106050
This the first section (Yandex translate).
What are you waiting for Russia? Why does it all for longer? It is necessary to establish the General Dwornikow first?
The Operation has already begun. We now see a very different tactical leadership than in the first six weeks of the war. The Ukrainian positions to be attacked only after a massive artillery and multiple rocket launchers insert (v. a. BM 30 BM – 21 launchers). The Russians in front of the back then slowly (1.5 km/h) and to be careful. This is actually happening, and four Digits of the forming possible boiler. Only in the case of a breakthrough in the depth of the enclosure is to expect a sustained massive Russian approach of forces.
In the meantime, be led other forces, mainly from Belgorod approach. The overall coordination is done by General Dvornikov. He performs this since at least ten days. He led the Operation in this space that is so familiar with the position in more Detail. The result of his use of management, the successful perimeter of Ukrainian forces in Izjum and the outbreak of the Close in the direction of the South was already. A by-run, tank battle, the Russian counter-Ukrainian tanks in Kamina were able to decide the Russians for themselves. Despite the Ukrainian forces, to organize and to form a stable defense line. This testifies to the extremely high morale of the Ukrainian forces.
(the translation at the twitter link is better)
One aspect of the Ukraine regular military that I did not expect was their willingness to use civilians as human shields along with the nationalist groups. Eight years of pysops I guess.
It also looks as though most Ukie forces will move to the Donbas front with light weapons to be fed into the grinder which will save having to chase them all across Ukraine.
It is starting to look like the main thing Russia has to watch out for now is behind the lines covert ops and sabotage. US trained, US planned and US intel. Essentially US covert operations.
re the ship – it was shadowed by a US drone, so a fire and explosion on board, be it accident or sabotage can instantly be relayed to Ukraine to claim as a propaganda victory.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 14 2022 22:54 utc | 162

In response to Boo@123,
I’m willing to believe that they overlooked the possibility of cross-border strikes by chopper, at least the first time around. I don’t believe they were, or at least should have been surprised, by the Ukrainians striking non-military targets — 8 years should be enough for anyone to get the hint.
karlofi@128,
I understand and agree that there are objective factors making it difficult to intercept this threat. I’ve heard arguments relating to the inability of ground radar and heavy AA systems of picking up and dealing with these choppers, and speculations that US intel sharing is providing Ukraine with gaps in Russian air reconnaissance coverage.
Nevertheless, one has to admit that this is a situation which has uncovered a weakness in Russian territorial defense. Although it’s still doubtful whether the same tactic could be employed to strike at high value targets inside Russia, the absence of such strikes won’t do much to comfort the general public if choppers continue ravaging the Russian countryside and, what’s especially significant, getting away with it.
And I’m talking about the individuals carrying out these attacks. Retaliation on command centers is considered by the general public as something of a surrealist threat, since it suggests Russia has been intentionally sparing the lives of the people who’ve been giving orders to commit acts of terrorism on a massive scale to the detriment of its own fighting forces — I don’t believe this warning was received with much enthusiasm by the Russian public. The perception is that if these operations do rely on some command & control centers, these will be located out of reach, meaning in areas where strikes would lead to escalation disproportional to the rather limited loss of life and property so far incurred, and even issuing these warnings is seen as a tacit confirmation of Russian inability to detect and down these helos on approach. In short, it’s not a good look.
If there’s a lesson learned from these events on how to improve defenses for future skirmishes, there is valuable information being traded for inconsequential targets. But, for every strike carried out successfully, there’s going to be an increasing penalty in public morale and confidence. Russia is, after all, a democratic country and not some dictator’s plaything the way Western propaganda likes to portray it, and strategically poor decisions do occur as the result of, however well meaning, public pressure.

Posted by: Skiffer | Apr 14 2022 23:06 utc | 164

When Russia warns about taking out command and control centers is it possible they are talking about US/NATO targets?
Because I thought they took out Ukrainian command and control on the first day.
It’s possible that Russia was trying to avoid a larger war by not killing non-Ukie commanders, but is now ready to do so.

Posted by: wagelaborer | Apr 14 2022 23:30 utc | 166

RT: Ukrainian officials claimed their forces had struck the vessel with anti-ship missiles. The Pentagon said it could not confirm the claim. A US drone circled above the cruiser on Thursday, monitoring its progress towards Sevastopol.
The most likely cause of the loss is an accident on the ship. A fire. In a storm something inflammable could have been spilled over a hot surface and burned into flames.
Anyway, the ship was old and with some technical problems in its recent history. Very very old. The oldest cruiser in US Navy is from 1986 and the US plans to decommission all of their fleet in the following 3-4 years. They wanted to do that earlier but the Congress did not approve it. The Ticonderoga-class.

Posted by: GeMC | Apr 14 2022 23:43 utc | 168

It’s very odd, that the whole infrastructure in western Ukraine is untouched.
It would certainly be possible the cripple much of the transport, and so stop worrying of Nato/ USA arms shipments.
For example, the only bridges blown up in Ukraine, as far I know, are the ones destroyed by Ukraine itself.
The dragging of the war, and the lack of power in it, is now encouraging Finland to join Nato, so doubling the length of Russia-Nato border.
New Nato members, not removing the old ones; exact contrary, what Russia is demanding!

Posted by: ka | Apr 14 2022 23:50 utc | 170

Posted by: RJ | Apr 14 2022 23:51 utc | 169
I’m very much inclined to believe similarly.

Posted by: ka | Apr 15 2022 0:00 utc | 172

@167
The guys who make the most memorable videos are the clowns. But there are also ones actually holding together some of these quickly built up armies that are found in proxy wars. Which this war surely is. Even tho UA started with a formidable army, the experienced+motivated core gets consumed faster than how long it took to train them. They’ll need help to cement subsequent rounds of reserves into a passable force. Besides even now they’ll need guys to interface with all the US tech infrastructure they’re getting plugged into, guys who know how to use the Western NATO gear they just got gifted. The fig-leaf formality for all that is “private enterprise”. And as far as that goes, the men playing the part aren’t dumb, they expect to get a fair price.

Posted by: ptb | Apr 15 2022 0:12 utc | 174

ISIS-tactics by the same masters!
The Pentagon instructed the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to withdraw all the remaining artillery to the cities on the eastern front – Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, where they can fire behind civilians. Restraining the offensive of the Russian troops is prescribed by small mobile groups armed with mortars and anti-tank systems, moving across the steppe in civilian vehicles. There is nothing surprising in the fact that the Americans impose terrorist tactics on their pets, in which their people are taken hostage. But the fact that Ukrainian resources write about this quite openly, and treat such methods with understanding, and as the only correct one, cannot but amaze.
@WarDonbass
23:28

Posted by: ka | Apr 15 2022 0:20 utc | 176

@172 I’m sure there are some highly paid ‘trainers’ but they probably aren’t on the front lines. I was thinking more of adventurous types like young Aidan Eslin. He looked very apologetic in his recent interview. But no doubt if he ever gets home he’ll say he was forced to talk like that.

Posted by: dh | Apr 15 2022 0:38 utc | 178

Western Ukraine –> Eastern Ukraine.

Posted by: blues | Apr 15 2022 0:48 utc | 180

psychohistorian | Apr 15 2022 0:53 utc | 179
Gonzalo Lira
@realGonzaloLira
·
1h
Tonight is very busy in Ukraine:
▪️Kiev: Massive explosions in center from 1am, some parts going dark. Many say Calibre strikes, no confirmation yet.
▪️Kharkov: I heard massive shelling starting at 1am.
▪️Ivano-Frankivsk: The last oil refinery in Ukraine has been destroyed.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 15 2022 0:56 utc | 182

Another set of helicopter strikes by Ukraine on Russia proper, 7 people horrifically injured, including a pregnant woman and a 2 year old girl, 1 fatality so far. The only rational explanation for why the border isn’t being guarded against this recurring threat of low flying helicopters is that they are, for some reason, unable to do so.
Posted by: Skiffer | Apr 14 2022 20:37 utc | 122
So Ukraine is purposely going after civilians. Isn’t that a war crime?

Posted by: Quiet Rebel | Apr 15 2022 1:15 utc | 184

Two super corrupt oligarch states fighting against each other, with the bigger one naturally trying to swallow and digest the smaller one, in the manner of an anaconda, though the smaller weaker one seems to have gotten stuck, perhaps even quite dangerously, in the gullet of the giant predator. Why so? Well, because it was being used as bait with very dangerous hooks concealed within by a hunter of giant slow-witted opportunistic predators called NATO. All this should of course have been obvious to the Russians who are, needless to say, in reality quite sentient and intelligent, and yet they did it all same. Really the act, the immediate voracious intent, seems almost suicidal for Russia. It vaguely brings to mind the case of the Argentine junta and its war against the UK for control of the Malvinas/Falklands, a war that should have been strategically indefensible for the UK, but which it nevertheless won, and which resulted in the sinking of the Argentine battleship cruiser ARA General Belgrano, with the loss of several hundred hands. In any case, it was a surreal war in that defense of the Falklands should have been unsustainable for the UK, but Argentina basically lost the will to fight after the sinking of Belgrano and Thatcher, whose future prime ministerial future was in the doldrums, experienced a quite positive reversal of fortune and lead her party to renewed political victory against Labour. If Argentina had actually conspired against itself to aid the conservative political side in UK they would hardly have been able to do better. Since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression I’ve had the bizarre feeling that Russia is playing against itself and thereby against its future, and in a sense that is not at all just figurative or parabolic.

Posted by: Ludovic | Apr 15 2022 1:24 utc | 186

As for what did in the Moskva, of course it could have been an “accident” except for the timing. IMHO, we may be looking at something exotic here – thinking outside the box, a switchblade 600 has 80km range (!) and perhaps the particular munitions on the Moskva that were hit are in a particularly vulnerable spot.
In any case, the Russian Admiralty does not (now or in recent history) inspire much confidence, and in general I think the Russian Military are spending way too much time reading Andrei Martynov and healthiest approach for them is to run a bit scared and not pansy around – that is the surest route to defeat. You really CANNOT have guns and butter at the same time and the Russians really need to get down to business unless they want to lose.

Posted by: Simplicius | Apr 15 2022 1:37 utc | 188

Practically the first thing Russia did upon invading Ukraine was to occupy Chernobyl. They were obviously worried about dirty bombs.

Posted by: Lysias | Apr 15 2022 1:42 utc | 190

On the naval aspect of the war in the Black Sea
The loss of Moskva to a missile (assuming that is indeed what happened) appears on the surface to be a grievous loss, but is actually less than it seems. The 40-year-old ship obviously had seen better days and was somewhat obsolete. Back in the Cold War, Khrushchev derided the American aircraft carriers as floating coffins for their crews and completely useless, precisely because they are vulnerable to missile attacks. The navies of the world continue to love big ships for the admirals to parade around in, but they are all white elephants, because now all strength is in missiles. So, apart from nuclear missile submarines that can hide underwater, theoretically, and are an important part of the nuclear arsenals of the various powers, large surface ships are merely vulnerable targets. The only exception is when the Empire’s vile task forces are abusing the weak who cannot fight back, which is why the US still has many large surface ships, even though they are still mostly just parading boondoggles.
Historically, the uselessness of larger ships was illustrated when the Israeli destroyer Eilat was sunk by an Egyptian missile boat around 1970; Israel immediately got rid of its larger surface ships after that. It was demonstrated again in the Falklands War, when first the Argentine air force sank four British surface ships with Exocet missiles, Argentina’s only notable success in the war, and then the British sank the largest Argentine warship, the old cruiser General Belgrano, killing a lot of Argentine naval cadets in those cold waters in doing so. The General Belgrano was the former USS Phoenix which had been at Pearl Harbor. Commissioned in 1938, it was 44 years old when sunk, quite similar to the Moskva.
Today, when not abusing weak countries without modern weapons in the way the US Navy does, surface fleets only need small missile boats, as these can sink all the big ships. Also, in a confined sea like the Black Sea, naval forces aren’t that important, because missiles can easily and almost instantly reach any surface ships from land. If it was Russia against Turkey or vice versa, as those countries do not touch, then, yes, one might want an ability to cross the water, but Ukraine is contiguous with Russia, so that is unnecessary. Were Russia to desire to completely blockade Ukraine’s coast, including Odessa, land-based missiles would actually suffice. These can be supplemented by small missile-armed boats, which also could actually stop ships to check for contraband or whatever.

Posted by: Cabe | Apr 15 2022 2:01 utc | 192

I do voiceovers for SouthFront’s video reports. I also write extensively on propaganda, military strategy — and Biden’s War — under various names.
I don’t always agree with SouthFront’s analyses which depend on various correspondents but generally they are pretty accurate and at least point you in the right direction.
I know that some people don’t regard them highly–but they are volunteers (like me) who try to make a difference. Last night’s report covered the Moskva. SF reported that while the details weren’t known exactly, the ship had probably been hit by Neptune missiles and may have sunk due to “inclement weather”. Their report was ahead of the MoD announcement later that this was the case. SF feels that a.) there is a failure in the Russian command structure – a lack of unity — which leads to mistakes and losses b.) that the RF does not regard this as a real “war” c.) more Russian forces have to be applied, rather than the minimal force available now. These are all reasonable arguments. about and set up the strategy to win the first Gulf War. Boyd often used Israeli military tactics to illustrate how this system worked in practice when used properly. Look here for a more complete explanation: https://charliepinto.com/post/auftragstaktik-in-one-simple-diagram.

Posted by: The Orakle | Apr 15 2022 2:10 utc | 194

WWIII is shaped by the limits imposed on warfare by nuclear weapons. When both sides have these weapons and delivery systems, the war cannot get physical so it devolves to economic warfare, subversion and proxy attacks. If Saddam had had WMD, he would have been safe. Just as North Korea is . Putin is smart and a student of history, not to mention an orientalist, with martial arts interests: he cannot fail to understand this war is being fought in various arenas, and it will not be over with the fall of Zelensky’s government. He must win economically by undermining the dollar and also morally by wisely eschewing the Propaganda War and sticking to principle. So, the “war” against Ukraine is characterized as an “operation”, and conducted under completely different rules than would be the case with the “West”– preserving life and property, rather than “shock & awe” destruction.

Posted by: The Orakle | Apr 15 2022 2:11 utc | 196

Posted by: Ludovic | Apr 15 2022 1:24 utc | 184
Thanks for recycling The Gruaniad’s lead story for us here at MoA.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2022 2:14 utc | 198

South front is full of shit. They push emotional hysteria over fact based analysis. Avoid their click bait bullshit.

Posted by: Nook | Apr 15 2022 2:24 utc | 200