Ukrainian infrastructure once again bravely intercepted the Russian missiles

Posted by: leaf | Dec 29 2022 12:30 utc | 3

I am dazed and confused. Were there 120 missiles or 69? How did missiles that had been shot down deprive 40% of Kyiv residents of their electricity? What is this place called ‘Kyiv’ anyway? Is the Ukraine still winning or not?
Zanon, where are you when we need you? Always one step behind! Please get in touch as soon as the power comes back on.

Posted by: B. Wildered | Dec 29 2022 12:38 utc | 5

Translated from Russian FYI:
ПЕРЕХВАТ (Z) (Intercept (Z)) (Open/Public TG link)
(Ukraine Situ map re strikes here)(JPG)

🇺🇺🇦💡 Massive missile strike by the Russian Armed Forces on infrastructure facilities in Ukraine on December 29 – what is known by 12.00
The Russian Armed Forces carried out another massive missile strike on facilities throughout the territory of Ukraine.
This time the targets were not only energy facilities, but also, apparently, Ukrainian air defense position areas. Like the last time, to identify the air defense position areas, they first launched decoy missiles and then fired on them.
Immediately after the air alert was declared, at least in the Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa regions, the power supply was cut off in order to try to hide the damage to infrastructure.
▪️In Kiev, at least four arrivals are known. An industrial enterprise in the Goloseevsky district, an unidentified facility in the Darnitsky district and a S-300 SAM of the Ukrainian air defense system were hit. In the city the subway is not working, the light is partially lost.
▪️ At least 5 strikes were counted in the Odessa region. One of them hit an air defense position near Aleksandrovka. The 160th anti-aircraft missile brigade of the AFU is located relatively nearby in Radostne.
A hit was recorded at the Usatovo 330 kV substation. Judging by the photo, the target was again the 330/110 autotransformer. Explosions were also heard in the village of im. Kotovsky settlement.
▪️At least five blasts hit Kharkov. Electric transport, including the subway, completely stopped in the city, and heating, hot and cold water was lost in some areas.
One of the targets was most likely the CHP-3 near the Turboatom plant in the Nemyshlyanskiy district.
It is quite possible that the Turboatom shops were hit. Local residents reported four incursions in that area. Last week we reported that the plant was operating.
▪️In Lviv, locals reported at least 3 arrivals, after which the city has almost completely lost power and transportation is not functioning.
The sounds of flying missiles could be heard over Ternovitsa, near where the Yavoriv training ground, where foreign mercenaries undergo training, is located.
▪️At least two strikes hit the Ternopil region. Ternopil 330kV substation and a repair plant are located in the region.
▪️Local sources reported explosions at an unnamed facility in Nikolaev.
At the same time, Russian troops launched MLRS strikes against Ochakov from the territory of Kherson region.
▪️Local residents heard explosions near Mirgorod in the Poltava region, where the Ukrainian Air Force military airfield and the 330 kV power substation of the same name are located.
▪️One strike struck a facility in the Chernihiv region.
▪️There were no arrivals in the Dnipropetrovsk region, but the authorities themselves cut off electricity shortly before the massive attack by the Russian Armed Forces.
▪️There is no exact information about the explosions in Zhytomyr and Chernihiv oblasts, as well as in Ivano-Frankivsk.
▪️ In Vinnitsa, Sumy and Khmelnitsky regions, air defense equipment went off.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 29 2022 12:46 utc | 7

Continuing from the previous thread:

Russia will stop at Poland’s border – at least until Poland tries something. It’s that simple. Russia does not want to start a kinetic war with NATO until NATO starts it. That’s simple, too.
Giving Galicia to Poland achieves absolutely nothing for Russian security interests. It just bring NATO closer, albeit insignificantly.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Dec 29 2022 2:51 utc | 155

Good points.
But this line of thinking has to be expanded.
The Baltic Sea has now become another huge problem for Russia — it has Kaliningrad isolated way out there on its own, another narrow outlet on the Gulf of Finland, and that’s it. Everything else is NATO.
It hasn’t been this bad of a situation since Peter The Great. Geographically it was of course worse between WWI and WWII, but the other countries in the region at the time were not all in the same openly hostile towards Russia alliance.
That situation was eventually resolved, though only briefly, in 1939-1940 with the expansion of the area of control north of Leningrad and with the recovery of the Baltic republics.
Same kind of problem needs to be solved now too.
But how do you do it without starting a nuclear war?

Posted by: shadowbanned | Dec 29 2022 12:58 utc | 9

I seriously doubt Ukraine managed to shoot down 16/16 missiles over Kiev. 100% success is a stretch

Posted by: Zenith | Dec 29 2022 13:08 utc | 11

Some here might have missed Medvedev’s low key meeting with Xi Jinping some days ago, which was very unusual from a protocol point of view:

On December 21, 2022, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and President Xi Jinping met with Chairman of the United Russia Party of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, who visited China at the invitation of the CPC, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
Xi Jinping asked Medvedev to convey his cordial greetings and best wishes to President Vladimir Putin. Noting that the 20th CPC National Congress has laid out the central tasks of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and advancing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization, Xi pointed out that China has every confidence and courage to follow a Chinese path to modernization and provide more opportunities for world peace and prosperity.

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zxxx_662805/202212/t20221223_10994181.html
This, to me, signals the introduction of Medvedev as the successor to Putin in preparation for what is likely to be Putin’s final term.
For those in the West who have been screaming hysterically for Putin to vanish from the scene, they might get their wish, good and hard …

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 29 2022 13:18 utc | 13

“69 missiles” – no chance of any bawdy PR minds at work here.

Posted by: unimperator | Dec 29 2022 13:22 utc | 15

Always zealous, the “The Guardian” reports:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/dec/29/russia-ukraine-war-live-air-raid-alarms-sound-in-kyiv-and-kherson-bakhmut-reaching-stalemate-say-us-thinktank
“Russia-Ukraine war: Russia launches more than 120 missiles into Ukraine, with three people injured in Kyiv”
I guess they were conflicted between reporting “Russian orcs target and massacre heroic ukrainian civilians” and “Russian orcs incompetence and faulty weapons mean 120 missiles have no effect”, choosing a compromise.

Posted by: Blissex | Dec 29 2022 13:26 utc | 17

Bodies in a village near Bakhmut
Can anyone look at the image above and check whose bodies they belong to? I am not able to tell.
Wagner group/Russian army or Ukraine?
Looks like there are many and somebody is getting destroyed in Bakhmut. But who?
All I have is the above screenshot posted by someone on quora. I don’t think it will help, but this is where I got it from.

Posted by: FieryButMostPeaceful | Dec 29 2022 13:35 utc | 19

Posted by: Aslangeo | Dec 29 2022 13:27 utc | 18
That’s a very wide array of mish mash tanks and (mostly) IFVs. Some of it is Soviet hardware, some genuine Nato vehicles. I’d hazard a guess that the largest single problem is that most of the donated hardware isn’t followed up by maintenance and operating training or spare parts, which doesn’t help with standardizing those procedures. Which also makes the trip for those vehicles one way, with a short realized and assumed life span.
The Nato support of vehicles, with exception of T-72 and T-64/T-55 tanks, and pretty much everything else, is a drop in the ocean compared to what Ukraine originally had.

Posted by: unimperator | Dec 29 2022 13:40 utc | 21

Arch Bungle | Dec 29 2022 13:18 utc | 13
A lot occurring recently. Apparently Putin has just had video meeting with Xi as per a tweet from https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics. At the moment I cannot find the source for that as nothing at the Kremlin website and a quick scan of RT showed nothing.
Medvedev going to China, the many meetings and speeches of Putin recently – everything points towards Russia making another major move in the near future similar to the run-up to Russia recognizing the two republics and the announcement of the SMO. Russia and China have separate strategies but also coordinate their strategies.
It will be interesting to see what move Russia is intending to make. Strikes into the entity still known as Ukraine are still within the confines of SMO, but the ethnic Russian regions that are now Russian regions – I think that has to be looked at as war. Putin used the term war for the first time in a speech not long back.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 29 2022 13:45 utc | 23

Vague recollection that Armoured Vehicles have (very roughly ) a mean time between breakdown of 100km.
Does any Barfly have insight ?

Posted by: Exile | Dec 29 2022 14:06 utc | 25

@ Peter AU1 | Dec 29 2022 13:50 utc | 25
For the same reason abrogard links to psychopath Arestovichs bi-weekly video addresses ?
@ Exile | Dec 29 2022 14:06 utc | 27
How long is a piece of string ? 😉
Depends on type (MBT/IFV/APC), Light/Medium/Heavy, generation (50’s, 60, 70’s, 80’s, etc), actual date of manufacture, endurance/reliability/complexity of the design, miles on the clock, halt-daily-short-medium & long term maintenance/repair, how often road/offroad driven as opposed to truck transporter/rail re-location, competency, dedication & motivation of crews throughout lifetime.
Denmarks (or Netherlands ?) APC’s can hardly do 12Kms without breakdown during exercises, hence truck transported everywhere … even onto the exercise/training range.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 29 2022 14:20 utc | 27

Virtually all of the Russian missiles are destroyed by Ukrainian targets upon impact.

Posted by: ariadna | Dec 29 2022 14:22 utc | 29

Kievistanis are inveterate liars. But for all that they aren’t very good at it.

Posted by: Figleaf23 | Dec 29 2022 14:38 utc | 31

@ FieryButMostPeaceful | Dec 29 2022 13:35 utc | 19
Since they are abandoned rather than buried, they must be Ukronazi.

Posted by: Figleaf23 | Dec 29 2022 14:47 utc | 33

Anne B (20)
I believe it did. The whole broadcast was a massive psyop: as one would expect. It was gaslighting on a cosmic scale and was hysterically funny if listened to in the right way.

Posted by: jamesh | Dec 29 2022 14:50 utc | 35

Well, the Ukies fire at missiles with substations and utilities – and hit.

Posted by: aquadraht | Dec 29 2022 15:03 utc | 37

Re: Posted by: shadowbanned | Dec 29 2022 12:58 utc | 9
How do you solve this problem?
If you’re Russia, you do a land swap with Poland.
Poland gets Volyn, Rivne, Lviv, Ternopil & Ivano Frankivsk.
Russia/Kaliningrad gets the Suweilki Gap through to Belarus/Union State.
Poland has a fair claim to 5 Western Ukrainian oblasts.
Just check out a map.
https://kafkadesk.org/2019/06/22/lviv-a-slice-of-poland-in-ukraine/

Posted by: Julian | Dec 29 2022 15:22 utc | 39

@ inspector general | Dec 29 2022 15:15 utc | 44
Exactly !
Crews who for whatever reason, do not carry out proper basic minimal halt & daily servicing/maintenance, or in the case of Ukies are not familiar with, have nil experience with, & are not even trained to do so re foreign/ancient/worn-out vehs ? Let alone same for their rear area support techs/mechs with zero spares nor equipment, with an absence of high current voltage re tools & machinery ? An exercise in futility. Furthermore requirements are even more crucial under exercise/combat conditions re hard running/serial usage/abuse.
Cannot determine reliability or accuracy of, yet have seen footage of these AFVs delivered to Ukies patently … derelict.
Re Bulldozer … wheeled AFVs are complex heavier/overloaded offroad trucks, tracked AFVs are complex heavier/overloaded tracked tractors, in simplest terms. See: ‘Little Willie’, original tank concept prototype(failed), WWI.
Re previous, amendment: … how often & how far, over lifetime/between servicing, road/offroad driven as opposed to truck transporter/rail re-location …
@ Julian | Dec 29 2022 15:22 utc | 45
Intriguing …
@ HERMIUS | Dec 29 2022 15:27 utc | 46
Almost certainly the case, IMV. Hence the recent directive/decree for increased internal security efforts by all relevant agencies across entire RF. Internal saboteurs, agents & operatives.
@ Orwellian Language | Dec 29 2022 14:57 utc | All
Paragraphs?! Use ’em! Deliberately double spacing single sentences to spam & fill the thread. Puhlease ? A supposed learned guru swami should know better. Repeatedly posting to a non-response. Clean up on comments page 1 … B
Troll.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 29 2022 15:47 utc | 41

From one of the telegram channels seems the general has a sense of humor
Sergei Surovikin explained today’s missile strikes on Ukraine as a “New Year’s miracle.”
“Yesterday, the missiles ran out, I myself read in the news, and today they appeared again. This is a real New Year’s miracle!”

Posted by: ctiger | Dec 29 2022 15:52 utc | 43

@Opport Knocks 52
Certainly. As we all know, messenger posts burn megawatthours per message.

Posted by: aquadraht | Dec 29 2022 16:08 utc | 45

“This [meeting w Ji], to me, signals the introduction of Medvedev as the successor to Putin in preparation for what is likely to be Putin’s final term.
“For those in the West who have been screaming hysterically for Putin to vanish from the scene, they might get their wish, good and hard …”
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 29 2022 13:18 utc | 13
______
I’m sorta hoping for Maria Zakharova—softer than bad-cop Med, sharper wit, easier on the eyes, and harder for the woke west to demonize.

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Dec 29 2022 16:30 utc | 47

@ Julian [45]
Poland has a fair claim to 5 Western Ukrainian oblasts.
Poland lost its “fair claim” by their own government’s actions to make sure WW2 would happen. Both the Polish government and the vast majority of their citizens were adamantly opposed to any security agreement with France and the USSR. The memoirs of French General Doumenc are unequivocal. August 1939, two weeks before WW2 started, he was on a mission to Moscow to get an agreement. The sticking point was Polish refusal. He sent Captain Beaufre to Warsaw to get the Poles to change their mind. His proposal to allow Soviet armies into Poland under very tight conditions, if Germany ever attacked, were rebuffed in such strong terms that the French and British diplomats stationed in Warsaw refused to ask the Polish government a second time. Obviously, the fact that a minor nation (i.e. Poland) would be allowed to dictate French and British policy shows that these two major powers also did not want any security agreement with the USSR. Doumenc clearly discussed British intransigence in his memoirs, and you can indirectly read French intransigence as well. By Doumenc’s account, it was only on August 19 at 10 pm, that Doumenc says the Soviets turned away from the French-UK mission and agreed to allow the German delegation to come to Moscow. So the Polish government formally refused the only security agreement that would have prevented WW2 and saved Poland. That government went out of existence when the Nazis defeated it, a week before Soviet troops entered what had been Eastern Poland. It was a BS fiction of the British to have an “exile government” in London. In 1944, it was another British BS fiction to have an early uprising in Warsaw which cost the lives of thousands of Polish patriots, merely in order to do damage to the Soviet Army and its reputation. After WW2, the USSR did not want a repeat of the Polish hyenas of the 1920’s and 1930’s. If “hyenas” seems too harsh, that was Churchill’s word, when the Nazis seized Czechoslovakia and Poland tore off a piece for herself, Těšín and the region around this town in 1938. The Soviets paid a large economic price with its occupation of Poland, in order to create good will with the Polish people. Obviously this did not succeed. Even President Lech Wałęsa, who had a significant role in the demise of the Soviet Union, regretted what his nation had become after the USSR collapsed. after he became President, retired, and rough men, probably puppets of the West, replaced him. I never followed Polish politics, but I suppose the Vatican and the CIA steered the Polish people into what is nearly a suicidal and entirely an immoral hatred of Russia.
So Poland does not deserve those territories even though 250,000 Poles were massacred there, because these victims were murdered by the same Banderas that Poland officially supports today.
Galicia needs to become a sort of Alcatraz, isolated for the criminals living there. It needs the sort of treatment that Hans Morgenthau, the American Jewish banker, wanted for postwar Germany: purely agrarian and totally de-fanged.

Posted by: JessDTruth | Dec 29 2022 16:54 utc | 49

thanks b…
thanks outraged….
strange math at work here..

Posted by: james | Dec 29 2022 16:58 utc | 51

Today, Lavrov was interviewed by Rossiya Segodnya. As Lavrov interviews go, this one is very short, yet it does cover two important points: whether Russia will remain in OSCE and is there anyone in Ukraine capable of conducting negotiations. The two other questions don’t pertain to Ukraine or related events.

Question: Given the state of affairs in the OSCE, does Moscow consider it necessary to maintain its representation at the Organisation? Could there be a question of suspending our membership in it?
Sergey Lavrov: Let me be clear: things are not going well in the OSCE. The organization was created as a platform for equal dialogue and cooperation, but over the past few years it has been in a deep crisis.
The West perceives the OSCE as a tool to promote its collective interests and has turned it into an arena for propaganda battles. In 2022, the current chairman of the Organization was Poland with its openly anti-Russian attitudes. According to our assessment, the Poles succeeded in only one thing – they reduced the effectiveness of the OSCE’s work to zero.
This did not come as a surprise to us. After all, in general, Western countries – and they, for the most part, are both OSCE participants and NATO members – have long and purposefully trampled on the principles of the Vienna organization’s activities, the spirit and letter of the basic documents adopted in it – including at the highest level – in the field of European security. For example, NATO’s expansion and the approximation of its military infrastructure to Russia’s borders flagrantly violates the commitment not to strengthen one’s own security at the expense of the security of others. We are now reaping the benefits of the selfish, short-sighted policies of our former partners, whose credibility has been thoroughly undermined. And one of the lessons is that if and when we return to working together, it will have to be done on new principles, because the old approaches no longer work.
Question: Do you think there is a political force or politician in Ukraine now with whom Moscow would be ready to negotiate, and can such a figure appear in the foreseeable future?
Sergey Lavrov: The current clip [clique] of Ukrainian politicians is well known to everyone for its inability to negotiate. Most of them are outspoken Russophobes.
Let me remind you that immediately after the start of the special military operation, Zelensky took the initiative to sit down at the negotiating table. We did not reject it and agreed to meet with his representatives.
Several rounds of talks have shown that mutually acceptable agreements can be found. However, the negotiation process that began in February demonstrated the complete lack of independence of V.Zelensky in making important decisions. Already in April, at the behest of the Anglo-Saxons, interested in continuing hostilities, he quickly stopped negotiations and sharply hardened his position.
It is obvious that Kiev is not ready for dialogue. Putting forward various ideas and “formulas for peace”, V. Zelensky cherishes the illusion of achieving with the help of the West the withdrawal of our troops from the Russian territory of Donbass, Crimea, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, the payment of reparations by Russia, the appearance “with guilt in international tribunals”, etc.
Of course, we will not talk to anyone on such terms. It is difficult to say whether adequate politicians remain in the territories controlled by the Kiev regime, especially given the widespread practice of suppressing dissent and summary executions of dissenters. Could some sane political figure appear in Kiev later? We’ll have to wait and see. [My Emphasis]

As you read, the Poles are held in contempt–Again. But they are acting no different than most of the other NATO/OSCE members. For those who missed Lavrov’s previous two lengthy and very important interviews, The one with TASS is here, while the one with Channel One‘s program The Great Game is here.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 17:15 utc | 53

inspector general | Dec 29 2022 15:15 utc | 44
Western militaries have gone the way of the west in general. Replace mechanics with so called technicians. If a computer does not show them what is wrong they have no clue. Error codes and so forth are great in the era of computerized machinery but diagnosing of simple mechanical problems has been discarded. Have had a similar experience to what you describe with a mates machine that he leased to the local coal mine.
The Komatsu ex-spurts had already charged my friend 4.5 grand for services rendered and next step was 20 for replacement of high pressure fuel pump. It had been an ongoing saga and at that point I intervened. I questioned my mate then looked at the machine with the Komatsu ‘technician’ and questioned him. It became obvious it was a simple problem somewhere before the lift pump. Turned out the problem was a broken plastic $2 fuel level float that drifted around in the fuel tank and occasionally blocked the fuel supply. My mate saves 20 grand plus whatever would have been charged when the 20 grand didn’t work, I get a packet of peanuts and all is good.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 29 2022 17:25 utc | 55

karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 16:57 utc | 50
Surface shipping in the Baltic is completely at the mercy of Russian hypersonics. The submarine world balance of power is somewhat murkier. Not much discussed apart from Martyanov. Currently, from everything I have read, submarines are the unknown.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 29 2022 17:40 utc | 57

Poles are still running from mobilization to other countries. Local media writes that 70k men escaped and the number is growing quickly, they expect hundreds of thousands by March. So in 3-6 months we can expect Duda to invade Ukr. If Baldie will still be in his medieval artillery duels in Donbass, they will go straight to Odessa with 100-200k out of the 300k mobilized.

Posted by: rk | Dec 29 2022 17:45 utc | 59

Maria Zakharova opened her final briefing for the year on an optimistic note:

I’ll tell you what you know. This is our final briefing. What can I say? We all understand that the year has been incredible. At the same time, it became very important, because it is a turning point. In many ways, he has placed completely new accents and priorities in foreign policy, in the world economy, in the life of each of us. Of course, not everything he brought with him was marked by positivity. Mildly. In doing so, he laid bare the most important thing. He gave everyone the opportunity to show their true colors.
The day and hours counted until the New Year. To what didn’t exist yet, to our future. Whoever celebrates this New Year with whom and how, given these difficult circumstances, we now know that we are together. And that’s very important. Together we can undergo various tests, including such. Perhaps this is also one of the achievements of this year.
I sincerely wish all of us warmth, hope and faith during these frosty, snowy days. Durability and light. We don’t know what next year will be like. But it is in our power to make sure that it is really filled with light. Sincerely, from the heart to perform their functional duties, to work, to believe, to support each other, to sympathize and empathize.
Of course, we will be together. Every month, every week and every day. The Department of Information and Press of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is always with you!
You might be surprised. Such things are usually said at the end of a briefing or a speech. But this is no coincidence, because this is not the end. This is just the beginning.

The first item: “On the main foreign policy results of 2022:
“The results of the foreign policy year will be summed up in a material that we will publish on the Foreign Ministry’s website. There you can get acquainted with our assessments of the international situation at the end of the outgoing year.”
The Report is well organized and worthy of review.
There is one Q&A I want to highlight because of what it reveals:

Question: The question is that this is not a revelation [Mozart Group Leader’s revelation rant] to the Western world. Why, after such “discoveries”, do they continue to support Kiev?
Answer: They built this neo-Ukrainian “state”. That’s what they wanted to mold. The Western world was not going to make a new democratic strong state. They were going to use the collapse of Ukraine to use it as a weapon against our country. All. If it were necessary to make Ukraine a strong state, there were opportunities for this. No one would oppose it. Russia would pump its resources through Ukraine, which would go to Europe, would receive income. The Russian-speaking population, remaining citizens of Ukraine, would have the opportunity to speak their own language, communicate with relatives and friends, and trade would move forward. The development of Ukraine would go to Western investments. There would be no problem. Everyone was not against such a scheme. For thirty years, no one raised the issue of Crimea and would never have raised it further. An agreement on the status and conditions of stay of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine was concluded. Until what year? And we paid for it.
We always paid in good faith and in a timely manner for everything that was promised to Kiev. The West did not need any welfare of Ukraine. The well-being of Ukraine is stability in the region. Who in the West needs stability there?
The Americans have been saying for years that Europe needs to give up Russian energy resources, and if they do not give up on their own and Russia does not agree to all the conditions, then they will destroy these projects. This was stated by the United States. If even within their “Western” world they are not interested in stability, what kind of stability can it be in a space to which they do not historically belong? [My Emphasis]
In her review of the Ukrainian Crisis, Maria provides the following useful information before her further description of events there:

Tomorrow is a very memorable day in our common history. Exactly one hundred years ago, on December 30, 1922, at the First All-Union Congress of Soviets, representatives of the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the BSSR and the Transcaucasian Federation signed the Declaration on the Formation of the USSR and the Union Treaty.
As part of a single Soviet state, the Ukrainian SSR turned into one of the most developed and prosperous republics. It had a powerful scientific, industrial and energy potential, developed agriculture. However, later Kiev, which made a lot of efforts, including for the collapse of the USSR and the proclamation of independence, could not only multiply, but also preserve the Soviet legacy it inherited.
Are these our estimates? No, it’s not only and not so much our estimates. In this case, I quote directly the “figures” who have been in charge of Ukraine in recent years.
The second President of Ukraine L.D. Kuchma, reflecting on the price of Ukrainian sovereignty, noted that “the largest amount is paid by ordinary people, because they believe the promises … To some extent, we deceived people when we said that Ukraine feeds all of Russia… After all, we used to get oil and gas at prices that are less tea, less plain water.”
Today, Ukraine under the Kiev regime, with its fertile lands and natural resources, through the efforts of the current authorities, who pursue a nationalist Russophobic policy, has acquired a dubious status as one of the poorest countries in Europe and is turning into a new colony of the “collective West”. Who is the main beneficiary of what is happening? Of course, the United States, which considers Ukraine and Ukrainians exclusively as “expendable material” in the confrontation with Russia. Tool. But, it seems to me, it is more correct to say “expendable”. [My Emphasis]

At the end of the above recap of Ukraine, Maria concludes thusly:
“The behavior of Kiev and Western countries, which we regularly talk about, testifies to the unconditional need to fulfill the tasks set for denazification and demilitarization, which the Russian leadership has repeatedly said.”
Left unsaid is the need to do the same to NATO and its leader The Outlaw US Empire for it/they are the cause of it all.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 17:55 utc | 61

@nothing but the trut | Dec 29 2022 17:42 utc | 58
the west has not been defeated strategically for a very long time and it won’t accept it.
I guess you’re not familiar with: Somalia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran. . .now Ukraine. . .the list goes on.
The West hasn’t won a war in . . .how many years? Where? Japan, I guess.. . . They’ve accepted every loss since.No choice.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 29 2022 18:05 utc | 63

@ my 63
afterthought:The US hasn’t fought these wars to win them, for the corporations, but to make money. War is a racket.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 29 2022 18:08 utc | 65

Paco75@35. For the record, the visible trail of flying machines are called ‘con-trails’, not ‘com-trails’ or ‘chemtrails’. This is short for ‘condensation trails’ because the phenomena is caused by water vapor in the air condensing on particles in the engine exhaust. During the Vietnam war, the US spent big bucks trying to eliminate the formation of contrails of the bombers striking North Vietnam. Anti-aircraft gunners used the visible trails to help target the bombers. Some of this research was done by Cornell Aeronautical Lab near Buffalo, NY which was owned and operated by Cornell University.

Posted by: Mjh | Dec 29 2022 18:21 utc | 67

For Exile @ 25, Many moons ago our US M60 tanks required 4 hours of maintenance for every 1 hour of operation. And still we broke down too much. Seems like we had a problem with our transmissions. And our heaters seldom worked, so we froze.

Posted by: Leroy | Dec 29 2022 18:27 utc | 69

New attack on Engels today: Fragments of a downed UAV damaged the fence of a private house and a garage this morning, there were no casualties – Governor of the Saratov Region

Posted by: rk | Dec 29 2022 18:31 utc | 71

I surmise Russia can’t afford NATO nukes or biolabs based a few hundred miles from Moscow. Therefore, it’s an existential fight for Russia.
Is the war in any way good for Russia’s economy? I’m curious, because nobody ever talks about it. Maybe a war economy means more jobs for Russian citizens? I don’t know. I’m sure the real answer is nuanced and not black-and-white.

Posted by: Ramsey Glissadevil | Dec 29 2022 18:48 utc | 73

@ karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 18:32 utc | 72
Thank you. Zakharova is one of a kind. The real deal & all class.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 29 2022 18:59 utc | 75

Posted by: Vikichka | Dec 29 2022 18:56 utc | 74
There’s little doubt US will install new bioweapon labs and nukes into Poland, Baltic states and Finland just in the effort to get another war going.
And no, war is never good for anyone unless you’re the cabal controlling the US.

Posted by: unimperator | Dec 29 2022 19:09 utc | 77

Karlofl, FYI, when you post a link to a post on your blog I can read it, but when I go to your blog by clicking on your name, VK wants me to sign in to see it.
So I do appreciate your posting particular links, as well as your posting quotes directly here on MoA.
Thank you for all you do.

Posted by: wagelaborer | Dec 29 2022 19:26 utc | 79

Here is the “interview” to which RT refers this morning.
WaPoo”>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/29/ukraine-offensive-kharkiv-kherson-donetsk/”>WaPoo | Inside the Ukrainian counteroffensive that shocked Putin and reshaped the war (29 Dec), a romantic quest, inspired by Jake Sullivan, to liberate K*v, Khark*v, and Kherson…temporarily.
Wherein Gen. Kovalchuk proudly reveals that RF did not damage the Kakhovka dam, the UAF did. Also, the RF (evacuation, deportation, retreat) from Kherson city with civilians was an kind of unintended consequence of the UAF experiment to blow the dam.

Kovalchuk set out to bisect the Russian-occupied area on the west side of the Dnieper and trap the Russian forces. “My task was not only to liberate the territory,” he said. “My task from the start was to occlude and destroy the force. That is, to not let them leave or exist.”
[…]
Russian troops in that portion of Kherson, separated by the broad river from their supplies, had been placed in a highly exposed position. If enough military pressure was applied, Moscow would have no choice but to retreat, Kovalchuk said.
[…]
The two bridges were targeted with U.S.-supplied M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — or HIMARS launchers, which have a range of 50 miles — and were quickly rendered impassable. Kovalchuk considered flooding the river. The Ukrainians, he said, even conducted a test strike with a HIMARS launcher on one of the floodgates at the Nova Kakhovka dam, making three holes in the metal to see if the Dnieper’s water could be raised enough to stymie Russian crossings but not flood nearby villages. The test was a success, Kovalchuk said, but the step remained a last resort. He held off.
[…]
Back in Kyiv, impatience was growing. Kovalchuk was insisting it was just a matter of time before the Russians retreated — the leaves were about to fall off the trees, the river would freeze in winter, the Russian forces were running low on supplies. But for Kyiv, Kovalchuk wasn’t moving fast enough. He was replaced by Brig. Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavsky, a deputy of Syrsky’s during the Kharkiv operation.
[…]
The pressure from Ukrainian troops forced the retreat, but they didn’t manage to run down or destroy the fleeing Russians. Mines, in some cases laid a meter apart and three rows deep or tucked into thin strips on the roads, prevented the Ukrainians from giving chase.
[…]
Tarnavsky stood beside Zelensk* on Kherson’s central square. “I was amazed at the people I saw,” Tarnavsky said. “All of their faces, there was just joy on them.” Zelensk* raised the flag over a liberated city for the second time in two months and described the moment as the “beginning of the end of the war.” Ignatenko, the regional politician and Kherson shipping magnate serving in the 59th Brigade, sent a drone up over the river and found one of his barges half-submerged near the Antonovsky Bridge, but others were missing.
[…]

Posted by: sln2002 | Dec 29 2022 19:29 utc | 81

Posted by: james | Dec 29 2022 17:17 utc | 54
Thank you, james! Lots more reading to do! This one:
https://awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/
2022/12/25/ukraine-war-day-305-land-road-to-crimea/
And speaking of roadwork and awful avalanches — La Bajada, I-25 between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, was pridefully attempted to be widened further than the previously widened four lane divided highway recently. (We travel up and down it to shop.) The outer edge is quite literally an outer edge, and places you have a lovely view down to our little road stretching across to the Jemez mountains… way,way down below.
BUT … that outer lane did not want to be widened!
It sank. Big problemo. Better fortune, Russians!

Posted by: juliania | Dec 29 2022 19:37 utc | 83

#13
Point is rather:
Is Medved good or bad for Russia?
I remember reading threads here labeling Medved as an 5D Column liberal western camelion.

Posted by: Ćevapčići | Dec 29 2022 19:41 utc | 85

#40
So the huge heavy monster drone attacked Engels has been launched by sabotage groups inside Russia?
Yeah right dream on ))))))

Posted by: Ćevapčići | Dec 29 2022 19:43 utc | 87

https://t.me/rt_russian/141773
press conference Kadyrov (translated with app)
Stop throwing pearls in front of pigs “or about the overripe need to stop playing war
As part of today’s press conference, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, touched on an important topic: it’s time to stop behaving well with those who, in principle, do not deserve it.
This truth will be voiced to you by any soldier who is at the forefront. Their comrades-in-arms are tortured to death, their positions are hit with ammunition prohibited by all conventions, attempts at negotiations turn into blows on the sly.
The civilians, sitting in the deep rear, will try to prove that this is inhumane, that it is impossible to stoop to the level of the enemy.
Let’s put it this way: now the Ukrainians have been supplied with up to 2,000 attack drones similar to our Geraniums. Throughout December, the enemy space group filmed Russian airfields and energy facilities. In the largest cities of Russia, they are preparing for a massive strike at the New Year holidays.
Question: if on New Year’s Eve he arrives at peaceful and civilian facilities, how appropriate would such thoughts about “nobility” be?
And what if terrorist attacks continue not only in the liberated territories, but also in the centers of Russian cities? If the car of some official takes off into the air next to you, hooking your loved ones?
They will do it without thinking.
The inhabitants of Kherson, Melitopol, Energodar, Donetsk, Lugansk, Stakhanov, Gorlovka have long heard all these common truths. But in our country, with broad popular support, they continue to play humanism.
Kadyrov is right when he says: we need to stop playing games. Any act of terror by Ukraine must be retaliated against.
We need to stop fidgeting. It is necessary to write in the media that “as part of the response to the criminal shelling of Donetsk, which resulted in the death of civilians, a blow was struck on the administration of conditional Vinnitsa or Ternopil.”
It’s just enough to save the lives of Ukrainians at the expense of the lives of our fellow citizens – we’ve been talking about this almost since the beginning of the special operation.
We must not stoop to their level, that is a fact. But if a rabid dog bites you, then it must be shot.
Finally stop throwing pearls in front of pigs: they will not appreciate it.

Posted by: Ćevapčići | Dec 29 2022 19:48 utc | 89

Posted by: inspector general | Dec 29 2022 15:15 utc | 38
Ex US Military John Deere 850 bulldozer
“(the) new owners determined that the entire failure was due to rust plugging the fuel outlet in the main fuel tank. This had led to destruction of the fuel pump, etc etc. One can imagine similar scenarios for AFV’s.”
Aside from the fact that if you gave me a running JD 850, I wouldn’t take it. Sherlocking the real problem with operating machinery always comes down to sorting out the symptoms of the problem from the real problem.
Dust, rust, plugged filters or the real nuisance today of sensors can delay repair of mobile equipment. The problem is the time it takes for you to sort it out in the field is more than the time for the vehicle to be located and blown to pieces.

Posted by: kupkee | Dec 29 2022 19:54 utc | 91

wagelaborer @79–
Thanks for your reply and the info provided. Since I’m constantly signed-in, I can’t recreate the circumstances you face. Tell me please, when you open a directly linked article, can you navigate beyond it or must you sign in? I know many of those asking to become friends have just joined VK likely just to be able to do what you can’t, although I’m making an assumption here, but that’s what the numbers suggest. Occasionally, I’m told by a new friend that they came from MoA, but they’re a rather small percentage. I see substack sites can be accessed without being a member, so perhaps I’ll look into that as several have suggested.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 20:01 utc | 93

Posted by: James C | Dec 29 2022 19:13 utc | 78
> Hello, so I got in a fight with my dad last night when we were talking about European people;
> Slavs (we are half > Slavic blood) and Galician people etc.
Wow you covered it all, from Lisbon to Vladivostok then!
But yeah, it is a historical fact that Galician people lived under the rule of fascist dictatorship of general Franco for several decades, I do not doubt that there were (and perhaps still are) fascists among Galicians.
So you are right, your dad is wrong, you won!

Posted by: hopehely | Dec 29 2022 20:08 utc | 95

Does anyone get this sort of thing happening on their feed or is it something peculiar to mine?
Here in #27 he refers to Peter @ #25 but #25 was Exile.
He quotes Exile as #27 but his own is #27.

Posted by: abrogard | Dec 29 2022 20:12 utc | 97

Posted by: abrogard | Dec 29 2022 20:12 utc | 97
It’s simply b deleting shit posting and the numbers getting moved.
Not rocket science. Just requires a little critical thinking.
You must be new around here

Posted by: JoeDontSurf | Dec 29 2022 20:26 utc | 99