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December 10, 2023
Ukraine Open Thread 2023-299
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https://t.me/ZandVchannel/91487
❗️🇬🇧 Boris Johnson may return as UK PM in astonishing plan being hatched by disgruntled Conservative MPs, Daily Mail reported, citing Tory MPs.
Tory MPs opposed to PM Rishi Sunak are reportedly trying to destabilise the Prime Minister following his sacking of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary and the resignation of Robert Jenrick, the UK’s deputy immigration chief, over disagreements on immigration policy.
“Boris Johnson could return as Prime Minister under astonishing plans being hatched by Tory MPs – with a ‘dream ticket’ leadership tie-up with Nigel Farage even being considered,” the publication
Posted by: anon2020 | Dec 10 2023 13:32 utc | 1
They did not learn anything from history and want to prepare for total war again.
“Change of Mentality
Two experts from the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) recently called for such a massive arms build-up. According to them, NATO and Germany need “a strategy geared toward the earliest possible deterrence” and being able to rely on highly equipped armed forces in just a few years.[2] Thus Germany needs to take a “quantum leap.” “Within the shortest time possible,” the government must “build up the Bundeswehr in terms of personnel, expand its arms production,” and particularly “improve resilience.” This will only be possible if there is a change of mentality in society,” according to the DGAP Policy Brief. The change of mentality, will only be induced “if overall defense becomes a part of everyday life in politics, the economy, and civil society.” This would require getting the population involved in the process, “through competitions, education, training camps, and many other interactive formats.” To gain experience “in areas relevant to total defense” a “mandatory internship for all people aged 18 to 65 living in Germany” could be conceivable. The call for a change of mentality corresponds to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’ desire to see German society “prepared for war,” explicitly underlined by the new defense policy guidelines.”
https://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/news/detail/9416
Posted by: p3t3r | Dec 10 2023 13:37 utc | 2
Jens Stoltenberg admitting that the war with Russia started in 2014, thus admitting it was NATO behind Maidan and the following Maidan killing and coup, as well as intend of assassination of legitimate president of Ukraine Yanukovich….
https://t.me/politblogme/455
As the world slides dangerously towards the “unruled world order”, it seems that there is no need to represent a facade any more….
Or it is that NATO, looking for renewing its lost prestrige with regard achievements in operations, have decided to brag about that so that to try to show that they mean business…
Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Dec 10 2023 13:48 utc | 3
Posted by: p3t3r | Dec 10 2023 13:37 utc
Remind me,again. Where did that German stratagem have an airing? and how did it end? /s
Posted by: jamesh | Dec 10 2023 13:54 utc | 4
Posted by: p3t3r | Dec 10 2023 13:37 utc | 2
I don’t get this part.
What is the point of a NATO conventional military build up in Europe? That was isn’t going to be conventional and it will last only hours to days.
Unless they plan to then slug it out with tanks and artillery over the radioactive ruins…
Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Dec 10 2023 14:30 utc | 5
Posted by: jamesh | Dec 10 2023 13:54 utc | 4
Perhaps the Ukrainian fiasco has made the Germans realise how utterly defenceless they are now, in every sector. Social-liberal policies, centred round first-world problems, are only possible if all the basic governmental responsibilities are all in order, first of those is the protection of the state and the people who reside there. The last two years have shown that that ‘reality’ was a carefully cultivated illusion that could not survive any contact with real politic.
Posted by: Milites | Dec 10 2023 14:31 utc | 6
What is the point of a NATO conventional military build up in Europe?
___
Increased profits for the overwhelmingly American MIC, of course, and manufacturing European consent for same.
Posted by: malenkov | Dec 10 2023 14:33 utc | 7
Interesting account from the front. Said another way, the worthwhile niche for warm bodies on the front is gradually shrinking, a successful FPV or drone grenade strike can accomplish much the same effect as a sniper, a mortar crew or an infantry assault.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/78462
Alexander Karchenko:
The battles near Kremennaya (in terms of the intensity of passions) are not much different from the Great Patriotic War. The same infantry in the trenches, daily attacks turning into hand-to-hand combat and tanks crushing the enemy with their tracks.
Of course, the sky is now swarming with drones. Drones fly at any time and in any weather. Going to the front line now turns into an extremely dangerous quest. We leave the transport several kilometers away, and then carefully make our way along inconspicuous paths. As soon as a “bird” appears in the sky, we immediately hide. As a result, it can take several hours to walk a couple of kilometers.
The huge number of drones has significantly complicated the rotation and delivery of everything necessary to the front line. Some experts even rushed to call the current situation a positional deadlock. They say that there are so many weapons of destruction now that the parties simply cannot move forward.
But that’s not true. Recently, near Kremennaya, ours were able to advance 1.5 km. So far, neither side has gained total superiority over the enemy in UAVs. And that means it’s hard on both sides of the front. It is difficult for attackers to concentrate forces for an attack, but defenders cannot bring up reserves in time.
No matter how strange it may sound, the development of means of destruction only reduces losses. Because of drones, the number of fighters in the trenches is becoming smaller. If earlier the opornik was held by 30 people, now 10 soldiers are already considered a large number. 30-50 people go for the assault. A successful reset can decide the outcome of the battle. One FOG can disable 3-4 defenders and others will simply run away.
Yes, it’s hard at the front now. But we are gradually moving forward. In a few months we may gain superiority in UAVs and the enemy will flee. You need to go to the goal with clenched teeth, and not give up everything halfway because of the appearance of a new type of weapon at the front.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/78463
The number of published episodes of the use of FPV drones in the SMO zone has exceeded 2,500!
According to statistics from the LostArmour resource, as of the morning of December 10, 2023, at least 2,508 episodes of the use of FPV drones in the SMO zone were published, with almost 4/5 of the total (1,931 episodes) published over the past four months. November set a new monthly record with 657 episodes published.
…
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/78451
⚡️ The Russian defense industry is gaining momentum, the work is getting smarter and smarter, Putin said
“They [Ukraine] do not have their own base. When there is no own base of ideology, industry and money, then there is no future. And we have it,” said the President of the Russian Federation in an interview with Pavel Zarubin about the actions of the armed forces during the Northern Military District and about the work of the defense industry.
Posted by: anon2020 | Dec 10 2023 14:35 utc | 8
German industry is collapsing due to loss of Russian energy. Oaf Shultze is now claiming it was Russia that turned off supplies on NS1 (remember the turbines repaired in Canada) therefore Germany had to resort to US LNG at x4-5 the price of RF.
1. Industry is looking at relocating abroad
2. Jobless citizens will increase
3. Inflation will get worse
4. National debt will increase
5. Social programs will collapse
6. National healthcare will decline
7. Drug and alcohol use will increase
8. Crime will increase
Looks a lot like there will be new meat here that may go into the NATO armed forces. Lots of meatloaf raw material to go against the Evil Russians.
This looks like an excellent plan for Nuland the warrior queen.
Posted by: Angelo | Dec 10 2023 14:44 utc | 9
Posted by: anon2020 | Dec 10 2023 14:35 utc | 8
While drones are important, at least equally or more important are EW and friend-or-foe systems to deny enemy drones. That requires powerful power sources and EM radiators to continuously create such interference.
Posted by: unimperator | Dec 10 2023 14:44 utc | 10
B claims that Biden “messed up” the Ukraine funding request, calling it “a huge policy failure.”
But you missed the point that Biden knows that the Ukraine war was lost long ago and he laid the foundation to both provide an exit strategy and blame there Republicans, prior to the ’24 elections.
The funding request was DESIGNED to fail and thereby allow Biden to BLAME THE REPUBLICANS and for the MIC and Zelenski to have a cover story for their failures. I’ve been predicting exactly this for months here.
Posted by: bill wolfe | Dec 10 2023 14:48 utc | 11
Perhaps the Ukrainian fiasco has made the Germans realise how utterly defenceless they are now, in every sector. Social-liberal policies, centred round first-world problems, are only possible if all the basic governmental responsibilities are all in order, first of those is the protection of the state and the people who reside there. The last two years have shown that that ‘reality’ was a carefully cultivated illusion that could not survive any contact with real politic.
Posted by: Milites | Dec 10 2023 14:31 utc | 6
Nope, it didn’t at all.
25% don’t even vote because they can’t find a representative for their interests.
Those who have always voted CDU will vote CDU again.
Those who have always voted SPD will vote SPD again.
…
It’s like football. You don’t change clubs as a fan.
Then there is the preliminary stage of non-voters, the protest voters.
They then give their votes to the parties that are currently in “opposition”.
German think tanks are more or less bullshit artists who use elegant phrases to prove that Einstein was absolutely right about the universe and the stupidity of mankind.
And what’s more, it’s also commissioned work from the USA.
Germany is not sovereign, you don’t need to look at US military bases and Nordstream 2 to see that.
Ergo, GERMANY itself has no strategy, it only makes a certain “sense” from the point of view of the USA (If a shark is attacking you, you need a “friend” between).
The German “experts” claim that the whole of Germany can be turned into a vengeful, war-mongering country if only the appropriate “workshops” are carried out. The fact that Germany has a population of 80 million should motivate Biden and co. in this respect.
However, Germans have been inculcated with feelings of guilt and pacifism since the end of the Second World War (see Hollywood).
But if you’re an author duo oriented towards the Ukraine situation, it makes sense.
If you only have shit to offer, but someone wants to pay for it, why shouldn’t you produce it?
Christian Mölling, Torben Schütz -> Phalanx Row 1 First Place!
Posted by: 600w | Dec 10 2023 14:57 utc | 12
As the world slides dangerously towards the “unruled world order”, it seems that there is no need to represent a facade any more….
Or it is that NATO, looking for renewing its lost prestrige with regard achievements in operations, have decided to brag about that so that to try to show that they mean business…
Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Dec 10 2023 13:48 utc | 3
When collective memory has the half life of a gnat, the need to maintain the facade goes away after awhile. The war lines drawn become the new normal, as if it was always the norm. The same thing happened in Iraq, when the WMD’s trope was exposed as a lie, a new narrative was adopted, that we were bringing democracy to the oppressed Iraqis. Russia is now the mortal enemy, and HOW Russia became the enemy is not something to ponder. Western (US) foreign policy boils down to 1) claiming that a country is a threat 2) taking actions that pose a threat to that country but calling those actions ‘defensive’ 3) when that country reacts to our provocations, claim that its ‘aggression’ must be countered by the West. The US creates its enemies where none existed, then claims it is its moral obligation to right such a terrible wrong. If the US was a person it would be a clinical psychopath. The fact that Europe goes right along with this psychotic behavior reveals a lot about Europe. Old habits never die.
Posted by: Mike R | Dec 10 2023 15:11 utc | 13
While drones are important, at least equally or more important are EW and friend-or-foe systems to deny enemy drones. That requires powerful power sources and EM radiators to continuously create such interference.
Posted by: unimperator | Dec 10 2023 14:44 utc | 10
From what I’ve been able to gather you’re basically correct but I see EW jamming being greatly reduced in effectiveness by sensible integration of existing technology.
At present the simpler attack drones can be stopped by jamming their control link or navigation signals, they can also be “fried” with powerful microwaves that induce strong voltages in the internal electronics, but drones with a bit more targeting autonomy could pilot themselves onto a human-selected target without constant control inputs, and shielding against microwaves isn’t that difficult. Another problem with EW jammers is that they stand out as targets themselves.
Passive detection of enemy drones (plus FoF checks) followed by laser / radio blinding or dazzling of the drone’s onboard sensors to force it off target, burning with high power laser or microwaves, blasting with explosives / projectiles, or intercepting with other drones, will all have to be developed and deployed to a much greater extent as EW jamming becomes less effective.
A jam-proof option for drone control over shorter ranges is a lightweight disposable optic fibre that the drone spools out behind it, which is already a thing:
https://www.sedi-ati.com/deployable-fiber-optic-spools-for-airborne-drones/
Posted by: anon2020 | Dec 10 2023 15:16 utc | 14
@ anon2020 | Dec 10 2023 15:16 utc | 14
Tethered drones are going to make tethered aerostats a thing of the past.
Posted by: too scents | Dec 10 2023 15:25 utc | 15
If birds everywhere, then you need bird guns: automatic computer controlled shotguns mounted on small all terrain vehicles driven by electric motors to reduce noise and infrared signatures. On a 2000km front, you’d need one every 10m plus backups, so maybe a million of these. China can provide the ATVs and shotguns, Russia can put the two together and add the software, so China not exportinh weapons.
Problem with using flying drones is limited flight time. Infinitely more expensive in terms of power consumption to keep a shotgun flying in the air versus passively waiting on the ground. Ground based system could go months before needing to recharge batteries.
It’s a technology and manufacturing capacity arms race. USA+Europe+Japan +SouthKorea has enormous technology and manufacturibg potential (just think of the auto industry), so important for Russia and China not to spook the alliance into getting off their asses and going full wartime economy before Russia and China have a good headstart.
Posted by: anonposter | Dec 10 2023 15:48 utc | 16
Tethering might be helpful in urban environments, but out over the trenches where one needs to fly 5 or 6 or more km it’s not a viable solution. Innovations in all aspects of drone warfare are being deployed and experimented with. Swarms using AI are being tested along with better encryption and communication technologies. To counter systems like HIMARS – long range, accurate, shoot and scoot artillery – one needs real time surveillance over a large area coupled with a fire system that can respond within minutes. Brave new world.
Posted by: the pessimist | Dec 10 2023 15:48 utc | 17
Electronic warfare against attack drones will soon be a thing of the past, because they are going autonomous very soon. It’s actually a trivial problem in theory to recognize a human: we give off infrared signatures, we move and make noise every time we breathe to speak nothing of moving to stretch muscles, eat, drink, urinate, etc, we are large (compared to insects, for example). Of course, turning theory into practice is a messy engineering and systems integration problem, but we are already seeing autonomous kamikaze attack drones and soon all the attack drones will be autonomous. Only the surveillance drones will need to use radio to communicate and thus be vulnerable to EW.
Posted by: anonposter | Dec 10 2023 15:57 utc | 18
anonposter@18
Then the next step is drone v drone warfare.
Posted by: the pessimist | Dec 10 2023 16:16 utc | 19
Reading over this past week’s MOD briefing, close to 5500 dead wounded Ukies. Colossal loss of life for nothing, regardless.
Cheers M
I see Tucker Carlson was talking to Gonzalo’a father, rumor I’ll believe when I hear it, has Elon Musk lending his name to the cause…..take your friends where you find them.
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 10 2023 16:27 utc | 20
Someone here, host or commenter, referenced an article in which Dugin set out his thoughts about longer-term prospects for the SMO. (Typical pessimistic Dugin, though some interesting views.)
I am sure the piece is staring me in the face but I can locate it again neither here nor in my history. I would appreciate a pointer from somebody.
Posted by: petra | Dec 10 2023 16:31 utc | 21
Like I wrote, air drone versus air drone is too power intensive to cope with for small low flying drones. For bomber aircraft, another story, though surface to air rockets probably better than slair to air for taking out high flying bombers and other large aircraft. But self correcting guided rocket is itself a drone plus if you consider ground based automatic shotguns to be drones then yes, it’s drones versus drones. Note that air drones will then be developed to attack the hypothetical ground based shotgun drones.
As that article excerpt suggested , humans near the line of contact will become increasingly rare.
Posted by: anonposter | Dec 10 2023 16:34 utc | 22
1. Industry is looking at relocating abroad
2. Jobless citizens will increase
3. Inflation will get worse
4. National debt will increase
5. Social programs will collapse
6. National healthcare will decline
7. Drug and alcohol use will increase
8. Crime will increase
Looks a lot like there will be new meat here that may go into the NATO armed forces. Lots of meatloaf raw material to go against the Evil Russians.
This looks like an excellent plan for Nuland the warrior queen.
Posted by: Angelo | Dec 10 2023 14:44 utc | 9
In other words, Germany will look more like the US, which was surely the idea all along.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Dec 10 2023 16:44 utc | 23
History Channel’s new video on Bakhmut and Avdeevka.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beecnWKAOrI
Posted by: unimperator | Dec 10 2023 16:48 utc | 24
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Dec 10 2023 16:44 utc | 23
###################
There seems to be a compulsion with mentally ill and traumatized people, they tend to bring others to their level.
In the absence of a natural cohort, they must create one. It’s no fun being degenerate unless you have someone else to share the filth with.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 10 2023 16:50 utc | 25
@ 2
The average age of native Germans is 50+, their military is a tiny cadre and their economy is stagnant & declining.
That’s not even getting into the polical problems, and the fact that virtue signaling and fincincing/half-ass equipping others to fight the Russians is much easier than getting their own rather soft, flabby population to do it.
This verbal flatulance about turning themselves into a Euro-North-Korea-by way-of-Deuchland. Is pathetic and almost sad.
Posted by: Urban Fox | Dec 10 2023 16:58 utc | 26
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Dec 10 2023 16:44 utc | 23
the american dream becoming a living nightmare. what’s not to love about it.
regarding ‘war readiness’ here: lol. liberalism as an ideology makes people pin a flag to their social media handle or car.
the truly frightening thing is that the average person here in the west is absolutely and utterly unprepared for what is to come and that basically any social institution to organize around was destroyed.
however the inherent contradiction here is that in the end you do not mobilize the masses for total war when you atomized the masses to a point where they basically cease to reproduce as a reaction to a system they deep down know isn’t worth perpetuating as it is their enemy.
interesting times…
Posted by: kspr | Dec 10 2023 17:11 utc | 27
@13 Mike
“Old habits never die”
True but the people holding them do. That’s how new ideas take hold younger people with different experiences and habits simply inherit power and change things.
Just think of how young hippies from the 60s and 70s have radically changed America. The future holds changes we can’t imagine, based on what young people experience now.
Well that’s not entirely true. I can imagine it, to some extent.
Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Dec 10 2023 17:17 utc | 28
Bhadrakumar on”Russia readies for a brave new world.
An interesting coincidence is the way in which Brzezinzki’s policies, which the US has been pushing on Ukraine, to wreck Russia by removing the vital organ of Ukraine, is doing to the US what his support of the Mujahideen did to Russia in the eighties-turning it into the political and military quicksands.
“…Sergey Naryshkin, chief of Russia’s foreign intelligence service wrote last week in the agency’s journal Razvedchik (The Intelligence Operative) that “there is a high probability that further support for the Kiev junta, especially given the increasing ‘toxicity’ of the Ukrainian theme for transatlantic unity and Western society as a whole, will accelerate the decline of the international authority of the West.
“Ukraine itself will turn into a ‘black hole’ absorbing material and human resources the further it goes,” he continued. “In the end, the US risks creating ‘another Vietnam,’ which every new US administration will have to deal with until some sensible person who has the courage and determination to break this vicious circle takes over in Washington.”
“Ukraine will remain a priority issue for Russia and that is one main reason why the Russian elite and the nation at large want Putin to remain in power until 2030….”
https://www.indianpunchline.com/russia-readies-for-a-brave-new-world/
It is becoming increasingly clear that Russia’s long flirtation with Ukrainian nationalism (Lenin, Stalin, Krushchev all contributed to it) has been the root cause of the current bloody conflict.
Far from being another country much of Ukraine, including Kiev and Odessa are as much a part of Russia as Somerset is of England. In fact few regions of Russia are more important, historically and economically, than the Donbas and the Black earth regions.
Any lasting settlement of the conflict is going to annex-through the benign mechanism of plebiscite (try that in Kossovo!)- the Ukrainian heartland. Anything less is going to nourish the nutty nationalism currently being practised because only by defying reality, language, culture, religion, political heritage and geography can a construct like the current ‘Ukraine’be sustained.
The Nazi-nationalists didn’t come to power by chance: they were the only alternative, they had to be promoted. Which is why, holding their noses, Ukraine’s Jewish oligarchs embraced, armed and promoted the ancient enemies of their people, the Galician rooted Bandera-ites. They had no other choice.
Only the Bandera supporters could supervise the destruction of centuries of monuments and icons shared with other Russians and celebrate Russia’s defeats rather than its victories. It was an affront to nature, hence the fanaticism with which Russian was banned and the entire culture reduced to a combination of the folklore of Ruthenians with the Disney world of Hollywood.
Posted by: bevin | Dec 10 2023 17:23 utc | 29
https://t.me/antinatocoalition/14069
Very callous phone conversation between trench survivors and command
Sit there to the end. There’s no evacuation bitch.
Ukie cannon fodder being used up.
Posted by: Hankster | Dec 10 2023 17:35 utc | 30
Posted by: bevin | Dec 10 2023 17:23 utc | 29
###################
I have believed for some time that after negotiations broke down, Putin had to adapt to the changed circumstances, and that has been to bleed out the West economically and militarily while pounding them into the ground diplomatically via SCO and BRICS.
Lay people are worried about the next move, while the Russians seem focused on setting up an ideal endgame.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 10 2023 17:38 utc | 31
Just another aspect on the US aid to Ukraine.
Alexander Mercouris says that the next time they could discuss it is somewhere around mid-January. By that time, it’s possible or likely that Russia has made more gains in Ukraine. It will make Ukraine obviously a completely lost cause.
Another reason could be US could be focusing shipments on its new Nato vassals, who are actually “paying” customers, unlike Ukraine. US is losing revenues at this point by aiding Ukraine and merely delaying the Nato build-up. That is why they might not give a lot of stuff any more.
Posted by: unimperator | Dec 10 2023 17:46 utc | 32
https://youtu.be/huDriv7IAa0?t=1723
John Mearsheimer has a talk about the mistakes leading up to the Ukraine War. He thinks there was never any intention to keep Russia weak after the Cold War. It was just a series of mistakes by liberals who didn’t know what they were doing. I think he might be faking this and probably thinks along the lines of Douglas McGregor who says the people who pushed for NATO expansion after the Cold War had ancestors who were hurt by Russia in the distant past.
Who are the people in the pro-NATO expansion camp over 30 years after the Cold War? I can start with three names. Richard Holbrooke, Daniel Fried, and Victoria Nuland. All three were (are) leaders in US foreign policy, Jewish, and had grandparents during the late Russian Empire. It was a time of pogroms like in 1905.
The relationship between Jews in high level foreign policy positions and the media and the leadup to the Ukraine War needs to be explored. Do Jews with ancestors who were hurt during the Russian Empire want revenge against Russia? As a very cohesive group, Jews have long memories. It’s a mindset conducive to wanting revenge for the crimes against their kin. Jews in important roles worked hard and persistently to change the course of events and it resulted in the Ukraine War.
Posted by: manybeers | Dec 10 2023 17:46 utc | 33
Nachrichten und Kommentare des Imperiums für die Provinz Deutschland:
FAZ 10.12.2023
KRIEG GEGEN DIE UKRAINE:
Gegen Putins Weltordnung der Gewalt
VON ANNALENA BAERBOCK
Wladimir Putin kämpft nicht nur gegen die Ukraine. Er kämpft auch für eine Weltordnung, in der internationales Recht nichts gilt. Dagegen müssen wir uns wehren. Ein Gastbeitrag.
Es ist kalt auf dem U-Bahnsteig der Linie 2 in Charkiw. Doch dort, im Nordosten der Ukraine, etliche Meter unter der Erde und fernab vom Tageslicht, verbringen Schülerinnen und Schüler fast ihren gesamten Tag. Denn der U-Bahnsteig ist der sicherste Ort in einer Stadt, wo russische Raketen und Drohnen weiter zum Alltag gehören, weil keine Luftverteidigung sie aufgrund der unmittelbaren Nähe zur russischen Grenze abfangen kann. Es ist der sicherste Ort für Englischunterricht.
Sorge und Kälte beherrschen die Schultage dieser Kinder, seit fast 22 Monaten. Auch in diesen Tagen, in denen in Europa immer öfter von „Ermüdung“ die Rede ist, …
Empire news and comments for the province of Germany:
FAZ December 10, 2023
WAR AGAINST UKRAINE:
Against Putin’s world order of violence
BY ANNALENA BAERBOCK
Vladimir Putin is not just fighting against Ukraine. He is also fighting for a world order in which international law applies. We have to defend ourselves against this. A guest post.
It’s cold on the subway platform of line 2 in Kharkiv. But there, in the northeast of Ukraine, several meters underground and far from daylight, students spend almost their entire day. Because the subway platform is the safest place in a city where Russian missiles and drones continue to be part of everyday life because no air defense can intercept them due to the close proximity to the Russian border. It is the safest place for English lessons.
Worry and cold have dominated these children’s school days for almost 22 months. Even these days, when people are talking more and more about “fatigue” in Europe…
(Google Translate)
Posted by: Oliver Krug | Dec 10 2023 17:47 utc | 34
Ukraine Weekly Update 8th Dec – may be useful to some: https://robcampbell.substack.com/p/ukraine-weekly-update-aee
Posted by: Robert Hamilton Camp | Dec 10 2023 17:50 utc | 35
Posted by: 600w | Dec 10 2023 14:57 utc | 12
What about the AfD as a response mechanism?
Posted by: Milites | Dec 10 2023 17:53 utc | 36
This is the exact part of the interview with McGregor from an interview 3 months ago. https://youtu.be/iMUAaWK79Vc?t=1079
He says people whose ancestors experienced unhappiness in a place like Russia shouldn’t be the ones shaping foreign policy when they have a permanent axe to grind with the Russians.
Posted by: manybeers | Dec 10 2023 17:56 utc | 37
Posted by: Milites | Dec 10 2023 17:53 utc | 36
####################
When in the history of the world has voting ever corrected a political problem? 😂
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 10 2023 17:57 utc | 38
@ Oliver Krug | Dec 10 2023 17:47 utc | 34
FAZ December 10, 2023
WAR AGAINST UKRAINE:
Against Putin’s world order of violence
BY ANNALENA BAERBOCK
Vladimir Putin is not just fighting against Ukraine. He is also fighting for a world order in which international law applies. We have to defend ourselves against this. A guest post.
TRANSLATION ERROR!
CORRECT TRANSLATION:
Vladimir Putin is not only fighting against the Ukraine. He is also fighting for a world order in which international law counts for nothing. We must defend ourselves against this. A guest article.
Posted by: Moscow Exile | Dec 10 2023 18:21 utc | 39
Moscow Exile @39
The mistranslation was closer to reality, though.
After all, who has been violating international law consistently now?
Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 10 2023 18:27 utc | 40
I wonder when, if ever, Baerbock last visited a metro station in Kharkov and who has told her that schoolchildren spend almost their entire day there and have done so for almost 22 months?
Posted by: Moscow Exile | Dec 10 2023 18:34 utc | 41
by Oliver Krug | Dec 10 2023 17:47 utc | 34
Yes. Annalena is intellectually below the secretary level in her vision, writing, ideas, and basically everything. (apologies to many professional secretaries, you are all better than great!)
She should make coffee, cakes and learn to walk a little bit more feminine, and smile sheepishly.
That is what she probably did to get where she is now.
No wonder that FAZ called Germany a Province.
Posted by: whirlX | Dec 10 2023 18:35 utc | 42
Well Baerbock must certainly know what she’s talking about when it comes to international law. She has, after all, a masters degree in international law, which she gained after a mere 1 year’s study at LSE London, allegedly.
Posted by: Moscow Exile | Dec 10 2023 18:38 utc | 43
Baerbock’s definitely a former German schoolgirl trampoline champion, no bullshit!
Posted by: Moscow Exile | Dec 10 2023 18:45 utc | 44
by Moscow Exile | Dec 10 2023 18:45 utc | 44
Heh. That resulted in this image.
Posted by: whirlX | Dec 10 2023 19:04 utc | 45
Annalea is the greatest 360 degree executer in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA2Q2Rese7I&t=41s
Posted by: Angelo | Dec 10 2023 19:23 utc | 46
The Nazi-nationalists didn’t come to power by chance: they were the only alternative, they had to be promoted. Which is why, holding their noses, Ukraine’s Jewish oligarchs embraced, armed and promoted the ancient enemies of their people, the Galician rooted Bandera-ites. They had no other choice.
Posted by: bevin | Dec 10 2023 17:23 utc | 29
There is no non-Nazi non-Banderite Ukrainian identity. And after what has happened the last two years, there can never be one in the future — whatever flicker of possibility for separating those things that previously existed was completely extinguished.
The monstrous corollary is that Russia (and really, the world) faces the choice of either putting an end to Ukraine as a concept once and for all, or there will be a thoroughly Nazi state in the middle of Europe, possibly quite large too. That is the choice.
Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Dec 10 2023 19:28 utc | 47
Posted by: 600w | Dec 10 2023 14:57 utc | 12
What about the AfD as a response mechanism?
Posted by: Milites | Dec 10 2023 17:53 utc | 36
For me, the AFD is not really different from the other parties.
A party that wants to change something in Germany would have to declare the following as its goal:
(on achieving a majority in the Bundestag and Bundesrat)
*Abolition of legal immunity for elected representatives, including the government
>Why would this be necessary? They are acting on behalf of the people, aren’t they?
*Elections of representatives are replaced by drawing lots for the posts among all eligible voters.
*Enable the electorate to vote for representatives and the government
*force the withdrawal of all foreign troops from German territory
*withdrawal from the EU, NATO …
*Re-nationalisation of common goods such as rail transport, post, communication, water, energy … and switch from profit to cost recovery
*Reintroduction of compulsory military service for defence/civil protection with a ban on foreign deployment and dissolution of the professional army
…
What can really be expected from the AFD remains speculation.
So far there is no government practice to judge. However, the ability to judge can also be derived from statements made by party representatives.
The current government is currently trying to finally fulfil its election promise – the legalisation of cannabis.
So far, this has failed due to the “legal” situation and the impending consequences, in contrast to the weapons for Ukraine, etc.
What does the AFD think about this?
”
Martin Sichert, health policy spokesperson for the AfD parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, said:
“By legalising cannabis, the state is promoting the transition to harder drugs – young people in particular will be introduced to the gateway drug cannabis in the future.
”
Aha, the “gateway drug”, just like breast milk.
Well then, cheers!
However, before the last election I didn’t realise that people like Anna-Lena Baerbock existed. Of course you have to protect them, just as she does for us as foreign minister.
Posted by: 600w | Dec 10 2023 19:58 utc | 48
Sorry, please replace
*Enable the electorate to vote for representatives and the government
With
*give voters the opportunity to vote out their representatives and the government
Posted by: 600w | Dec 10 2023 20:02 utc | 49
600w: But the Americans have made it clear in recent months: Even right-wing governments like Meloni cannot continue the Silk Road with China – we don’t know what will happen if they try, but they prefer not to try. And our Olaf, the most embarrassing of all, has not yet publicly noticed that the pipeline is broken. In other words, the United States will prevent any attempt by Russia and China to gain a foothold in Europe as long as it has the power to do so. Everything else will be settled by war.
Posted by: Oliver Krug | Dec 10 2023 20:24 utc | 50
Apparently the Ukrainian defences are buckling under a relentless series of Russian advances, and given the footage of Himars being detected , followed and attacked, I’m wondering if NATO have scaled back on their IRS support, contributing to this quite rapid collapse of the Ukrainian MLR.
Posted by: Milites | Dec 10 2023 20:48 utc | 51
Posted by: Moscow Exile | Dec 10 2023 18:38 utc | 43
Always remember that the states within the Eurozone are no longer sovereign countries but colonial property of the ECB. International Law is politics in a horse hair wig. There is absolutely no law without enforcement and that generally means those with the largest and best army and Navy and the most nuclear missles.
Get three barristers in a room and you’ll have ten different opinions. The simple rule of International Law is that there is no law without enforcement and the worst the EU can do is refuse to sell you their stuff.
Which with deflation on the horizon, millions unemployed and a currency heading to the stratosphere would not be a smart move.
The UK can clarify how any agreement applies in UK law via Parliament, and that is the end of the matter. Why globalisation and neoliberalism has done everything it can to stop that simple fact. Thank God it has failed and why Brexit happened. The crux of the issue.
The AFD in Germany are just another long list of ” fake ” right wing populists. Read their economic policies it is no different to ” trickle down “. The reason the world currently sits on the precipice. They’ll apply some lipstick to it and call it laffer curve economics but it amounts to the same thing. Complete bullshit that trickles up not down.
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Dec 10 2023 21:01 utc | 52
German industry is collapsing due to loss of Russian energy.
1. Industry is looking at relocating abroad
2. Jobless citizens will increase
3. Inflation will get worse
4. National debt will increase
5. Social programs will collapse
6. National healthcare will decline
7. Drug and alcohol use will increase
8. Crime will increase
Posted by: Angelo | Dec 10 2023 14:44 utc | 9
10. Tax revenues from both companies and individuals will drop
11. Social payments will increase
12. Debt interest payments have increased unplanned over the past two years.
Those three last items are fundamental to the future of Germany. It will have to slash its budget expenses. Germany is the largest contributor to the EU. Will it be able to maintain those payments given that budget pressure? If not the EU is going to also have to slash its budgets to survive.
Forget the US, if Ukraine thinks that the EU will be able to give it much more it is delusional.
Posted by: JohninMK | Dec 10 2023 21:12 utc | 53
Posted by: Moscow Exile | Dec 10 2023 18:38 utc | 43
Even in EFTA you have to stand in front of an EFTA/ neoliberal judge in an EFTA/ neoliberal court. All Backed up by the European court of justice. Just to implement some fiscal policies you want to do. God forbid you go against their state aid rules.
At every turn they want to take your sovereignty away. The loop hole was WTA – the world trade organisation.
But take a look, they know that is their weakness and have started to change the language within it. WTA sounds more like the European court of justice every year.
Yet, there is no law without enforcement and the WTA is toothless, so it remains the best place to be. To avoid your sovereignty from being stripped away from you.
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Dec 10 2023 21:15 utc | 54
Milites @ 51
Freezing, wet trenches, wet clothes and boots, low on food, and fuel to keep warm, long delayed rotations, all must be having an effect. I’ve noticed a whole lot of infrared drone vids on TG lately, that might actually be a wunderwaffen, no more night-time rotations, and besides cold, wet, add in no sleep. I’ve also noticed most copter drones carry 3-4 bomblets now and they are dropping even two on one guy, or on the wounded, guessing trying to get those playing possum, but it shows they have drones to spare. As it gets logically difficult for the Ukrainians it also gets uglier.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Dec 10 2023 21:19 utc | 55
Posted by: JohninMK | Dec 10 2023 21:12 utc | 53
10 and 11 are known as the automatic stabilisers and happen automatically. They are built into the system. Will increase The deficit.
The problem is the ideologue and the idiot think that
1. Buy slashing spending it decreases the debt – it doesn’t. As more saving happens and less spending happens at the same time due to the uncertainty of economic conditions.
2. They think Germany is just like Japan, US, UK, Canada and Russia, Australia and New Zealand. Yes, taxes fund things in Germany as they were stupid enough to become a colony of the ECB. Taxes do not fund things in any of the other countries. They serve a whole different purpose altogether. The ideologue and idiot just lump them altogether without any thought.
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Dec 10 2023 21:31 utc | 56
Well well well
“Prominent world leaders past and present attended Sunday’s inauguration including Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who opened his arms for a hug, and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Members of a U.S. delegation were also present.”
Milei has previously said “there is no money” …perhaps Z although someone payed for his flight and hotel….is studying how to get by when “there is no money”….and the entire history of the Argentinian economy currently 143% inflation…..
Posted by: Jo | Dec 10 2023 21:34 utc | 57
Since Fall 2022 the SMO has been like the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, now it’s more like Ravel’s Bolero.
Seems the Russians have been biding their time, slowing building up men, machines, and tech till they felt confident going forward. No risky salients either they are methodically moving the entire front north of Zaporizhzhia forward. All indications is the Sumy areas will be next, waiting for the right moment to stretch the Ukrainians to breaking. Total contrast to the ad hoc Pentagon/UK/Kiev shit show of repeated probes and bridgeheads straight to hell.
A lot of things, including tech gadgets, are being put into play in what seems a very methodical and systematic way, strategic more than tactical. From what I know of Russian fighting history seems very Russian, from what little I know of Gerasimov seems very much like him too.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Dec 10 2023 21:36 utc | 58
“Another reason could be US could be focusing shipments on its new Nato vassals, who are actually “paying” customers, unlike Ukraine. US is losing revenues at this point by aiding Ukraine and merely delaying the Nato build-up. That is why they might not give a lot of stuff any more.”
Posted by: unimperator | Dec 10 2023 17:46 utc | 32
You hit the nail on the head with that idea.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Dec 10 2023 21:19 utc | 55
Agree, there are a whole range of factors contributing to the collapse, but a removal, or scaling back, of the extensive NATO ISR support would make the Ukrainians vulnerable to rapid Russian strategic redeployments and large scale feints and deceptions. Notice also hardly any coordinated strikes on the Crimean mainland, no recent ALCM’s strikes and FPV drones as substitutes for CLPGM’s, again suggesting a NATO withdrawal of support.
Posted by: Milites | Dec 10 2023 21:44 utc | 60
by Milites | Dec 10 2023 21:44 utc | 60
Well, yes. No. ISR continues, but with a lot less intensity. Only to prevent the Black Sea fleet storming the Snake Island or Odesa.
Yesterday FORTE 11 Global Hawk flew very close to Crimea and along East-West route for 5 hours around starting at 22:30 CET.
Posted by: whirlX | Dec 10 2023 22:05 utc | 62
Well well well
“Prominent world leaders past and present attended Sunday’s inauguration including Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who opened his arms for a hug, and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Members of a U.S. delegation were also present.”
Milei has previously said “there is no money” …perhaps Z although someone payed for his flight and hotel….is studying how to get by when “there is no money”….and the entire history of the Argentinian economy currently 143% inflation…..
Posted by: Jo | Dec 10 2023 21:34 utc | 57
Serves them right thinking hiking rates fights inflation when hiking rates fuels it. The inflation rate will continue to track the interest rate.
Look what happened the last time Argentina 🇦🇷 experimented with a $-backed currency
https://twitter.com/DEhnts/status/1648291678115987458
A job guarentee was the only thing that saved Argentina. Then the next ideologue got rid of it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fRahq9EIslc
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Dec 10 2023 22:06 utc | 63
petra | Dec 10 2023 16:31 utc | 21
Could this be the article you were looking for?
“https://www.thepostil.com/political-magic-and-the-image-of-victory/“
Posted by: auximenes | Dec 10 2023 22:11 utc | 64
Milites @60
“FPV drones as substitutes for CLPGM’s”
“CLPGM” had me stumped, had to resort to a web search. Turns out it stands for ‘Cannon Launched Precision Guided Munition’.
What’s your opinion on the new US solid fuel ramjet artillery shell? The Soviets used a similar approach to design a road-mobile ICBM in the early ’60s, as do contemporary long range air-to-air missiles. These are ducted solid rockets however, so a ramjet that uses atmospheric oxygen as an oxidizer should be even more efficient.
Is this an approach that Russia and China might follow, or just a MIC boondoggle? Our old friend c1ue argued the latter over at Simplicius’ site.
Posted by: S.P. Korolev | Dec 10 2023 23:09 utc | 65
Posted by: whirlX | Dec 10 2023 22:05 utc | 62
I’m thinking more of the extensive programme to protect platforms like the HIMARS from counter battery missions, which is resource intensive as is the real-time surveillance of the front, using Medusa and other systems.
Posted by: Milites | Dec 10 2023 23:28 utc | 66
Posted by: S.P. Korolev | Dec 10 2023 23:09 utc | 65
Well Rocket assisted projectiles (RAPS) and Base-bleed projectiles (BP’s) have been around for decades and heavily favoured by the Soviets to extend their artillery ranges (on average, due to shorter barrel lengths and less efficient propellants, equivalent ranges were less than NATO guns). This simple solution though made the projectiles Circular Error of Probability (CEP, 50% of projectiles land within the CEP) larger, so there was the usual trade off. Now, you can have both, so a ramjet artillery shell makes perfect sense, given drones and ISR and the ever-quickening kill-chains mean tube artillery has to in essence become a mini-ballistic missile (as regards range). The modern battlefield is becoming less dense, in both frontage and depth, so the longer you shoot from the longer you live, the more platforms you shoot from the more likely you are to beat the rapidly improving anti-missile/projectile systems (we’ve come a long way from Seawolf hitting a 4.5 inch shell in mid-flight).
As for the feasibility of the specific munition I’m not sure, ramjet technology was pre-war IIRC, but component miniaturisation in both propulsion and guidance systems could make it feasible. Either way, conventional artillery firing unconventional munitions is the way of the future. How long before we have CLUAV’s and CDM’s cluster drone munitions?
Posted by: Milites | Dec 10 2023 23:56 utc | 67
Notice also hardly any coordinated strikes on the Crimean mainland, no recent ALCM’s strikes and FPV drones as substitutes for CLPGM’s, again suggesting a NATO withdrawal of support.
Posted by: Milites | Dec 10 2023 21:44 utc | 60
Notice also the recent articles calling for intensified strikes on Crimea and for long-range strikes on pre-war Russian territory.
And if the history of this war is any guide, once such talk starts from those sources, eventually it gets done.
The magnitude of investment into Ukraine is such that they are not going to just meekly raise the white flag and surrender. Plus, they vitally need to defeat Russia.
The usual reminder of what this is about:
— Western oligarchy must placate its local population with high levels of consumption in order to remain in power
— High Western consumption rests on resource extraction and cheap labor from other countries, “paid for” by money printing and deeply unequal exchanges (in reality, backed by the power of the Pentagon)
— But resources are getting scarce while the former cheap labor is no longer so cheap and wants to consume too (China primarily).
— So you need to subjugate Russia and steal its resources and then do the same to China and force them back into working in the sweatshops while riding bikes and eating only rice
— Otherwise you will collapse (of course, in the long run everyone will due to climate change and resource depletion, but this is about buying a few more decades)
Given what is at stake, how do we imagine they will just let it end with a whimper like this?
Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Dec 11 2023 0:06 utc | 68
the-war-zone has an article up on the state of western short range air defense capabilities (or lack there of) that was posted Jul 2020.
“Russia in particular has taken the SHORAD mission far more seriously than the US, namely because it has not had the luxury of nearly guaranteed air supremacy—or at least it never believed in that idea in the first place. Today, multiple Russian-built mobile point air defense systems are in production. Namely these include the Tunguska, Tor and especially the highly formidable Pantsir-S1.”
The Pantsir just got another (post the stormshadow one which was implemented already) upgrade as a matter of fact.
“The coming swarm
Still, none of this confronts what is an inevitable evolution of the small drone threat—drone swarms. The enemy, either operating from the air or from the ground, will eventually be able to unleash dozens or even hundreds of small drones armed with explosive charges to fly downrange short distances and attack ground units and their material like bees. The Pentagon is already testing such a capability, and a simpler version of it could likely be realized by adapting off the shelf systems.
Being networked together, and being autonomous in nature after being loaded with a target area location, along with other mission parameters, these swarms will be extremely hard to defend against using even the best SHORAD systems in development today. It’s the saturation nature of the attack, the size of the attackers, and the fact that they work as a coordinated swarm, employing dynamic tactics to see as many in their company survive long enough to make their suicidal attack, that make them so deadly. They could even drop micro-munitions and be reused for a later attack. Just the knowledge that such an attack is possible would be psychologically stressful and demoralizing for troops on the ground.
Similar swarming strikes could be unleashed behind the front lines as well, with hugely expensive and low density/high demand combat aircraft being especially vulnerable to this sort of tactic—something General James Holmes alluded to inadvertently while speaking to the Air Force Association, stating:
“Imagine a world where somebody flies a couple hundred of those and flies one down the intake of my F-22s with just a small weapon on it.”
Actually, it would be even easier to just strike the jets as they sit idle and vulnerable on the flight line. One swarm could see a whole squadron of tightly packed fighters destroyed without even having a chance to fight back. “
3 years on the technology battle is ongoing and heated.
Posted by: the pessimist | Dec 11 2023 0:13 utc | 69
anon2020 | Dec 10 2023 13:32 utc | 1 (quoting Daily Mail)…
*** “Boris Johnson could return as Prime Minister under astonishing plans being hatched by Tory MPs – with a ‘dream ticket’ leadership tie-up with Nigel Farage even being considered,” the publication***
A proposed return of warmongering coke-filled compulsive liar Boris who is loyal to Nazi-Ukraine, Israel and the US-neocon empire — but not to Britain or the native British people.
Which would also mean the restoration to power of his exceedingly horrible wife, a fanatical “green” wokist who was a main ideological influence during his thoroughly corrupt (and for thousands of innocent people, Pfizer-Moderna pandemic fatal) period as Prime Minister.
A Boris return would hardly be an improvement on the truly abysmal Truss, Sunak (or Starmer — btw, has he got his Israeli passport yet?).
All such squads plus their PM figureheads being label-of-convenience franchises of the UK Political Establishment — and differentiated only by an exceedingly thin veneer of media-facilitated cosmetic deceptions and semantics.
Just re-wrappings of the war-criminal administrations of Blair and Cameron.
None of them representing the general public at all (so much for alleged “democracy”).
And into that stinking cesspit comes Farage. Who had already sold out to the Boris Tories — thereby betraying his own supporters — in 2019. After which, Farage trotted off to the USA where he certainly wasn’t a noticeable opponent of its rotten system, ideology and agenda.
Then he returned … presumably having been issued with an updated set of instructions.
What a sick charade……
Posted by: Cynic | Dec 11 2023 0:15 utc | 70
Posted by: p3t3r | Dec 10 2023 13:37 utc | 2
*** The change of mentality, will only be induced “if overall defense becomes a part of everyday life in politics, the economy, and civil society.” This would require getting the population involved in the process, “through competitions, education, training camps, and many other interactive formats.” To gain experience “in areas relevant to total defense” a “mandatory internship for all people aged 18 to 65 living in Germany” could be conceivable. The call for a change of mentality corresponds to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’ desire to see German society “prepared for war,” explicitly underlined by the new defense policy guidelines.”
https://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/news/detail/9416 ***
Heil Yankland!
Posted by: Cynic | Dec 11 2023 0:19 utc | 71
Clearly the reason Zelensky went to Argentina was for a chance to meet some of the guests who attended. He was photographed talking briefly with V Orban for instance – lobbying for additional EU money no doubt.
Posted by: the pessimist | Dec 11 2023 0:23 utc | 72
Moscow Exile | Dec 10 2023 18:45 utc | 44
***Baerbock’s definitely a former German schoolgirl trampoline champion, no bullshit!***
Too many landings on her head?
Posted by: Cynic | Dec 11 2023 1:06 utc | 73
“It has been clear to realistic observers for many weeks (that Russia is advancing everywhere),” says Jihadi Julian, who for those same weeks, until only a fortnight ago, had been saying Ukranazistan was steadily winning.
https://x.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1733918998847271015?s=20
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Dec 11 2023 1:12 utc | 74
shаdοwbanned | Dec 10 2023 19:28 utc | 47
*** The monstrous corollary is that Russia (and really, the world) faces the choice of either putting an end to Ukraine as a concept once and for all, or there will be a thoroughly Nazi state in the middle of Europe, possibly quite large too. That is the choice.***
A militarist Germany as is wanted by the German CFR and “defence” minister
could probably be … inspired … by such a Ukraine.
Posted by: Cynic | Dec 11 2023 1:15 utc | 75
Milites @67
Fascinating, thanks! I would have guessed the Soviets favored MRLS over the rocket assisted shells, although the tube launched stuff would be more accurate (?).
Russia shouldn’t have any trouble fielding a solid fuel ramjet shell, they’ve been continuously refining the liquid fuel versions for their antiship missiles while the US pretty much abandoned the technology in the early 60s. They’re already building a solid fuel ramjet for the Indian airforce.
Posted by: S.P. Korolev | Dec 11 2023 1:17 utc | 76
Scott Pelley of CBS News and 60 Minutes just aired a total Ukrainian war propaganda piece…..timed perfectly for Volo’s visit to DC to meet with Speaker Johnson in the hopes of freeing up the $100 B in US aid now deadlocked in Congress……
Expect the big push this week to get the billions released in a desperate attempt to save the now collapsing fascist regime in Kieve…………
Speaker Johnson needs to refuse to meet with Volo and fascist aides de camp……..
Posted by: Tobias Cole | Dec 11 2023 1:23 utc | 77
Posted by: the pessimist | Dec 11 2023 0:13 utc | 69
>“Imagine a world where somebody flies a couple hundred of those and flies one down the intake of my F-22s with just a small weapon on it.”
>Actually, it would be even easier to just strike the jets as they sit idle and vulnerable on the flight line. One swarm could see a whole squadron of tightly packed fighters destroyed without even having a chance to fight back. ”
Big aircraft still have a role, because big aircraft can carry a lot of fuel to outrun a smaller aircraft or rocket, and also carry a big load of bombs or air launched missiles or big load of ISR electronics, but big aircraft will have to be drones because of the inherent limitations of biology: humans can’t tolerate high g-forces, meaning limit on using sharp turns to outrace missiles and other big aircraft.
F-22 and other big aircraft can easily outrun small drones while flying. On the ground, yes, need to keep those small drones at bay with masses of automated shotguns, gatling guns, anti-aircraft guns or whatever you want to call them. You need lots of such guns to take on a big swarm. Shotguns and shotgun shells are cheaper than drones, so you win the war of attrition, especially if the airfield is way behind front line, requiring expensive drones to reach it.
Posted by: anonposter | Dec 11 2023 1:24 utc | 78
Jo | Dec 10 2023 21:34 utc | 57
*** Milei has previously said “there is no money” …perhaps Z although someone payed for his flight and hotel….is studying how to get by when “there is no money”….and the entire history of the Argentinian economy currently 143% inflation….. ***
No problem — him and Zelensky will both sell the entire country over which they are President to foreign Zionist related interests.
Then they will have lots more money. Plus whatever weapons are wanted.
But of course the public in these countries will not.
Which does not matter to anyone important.
Posted by: Cynic | Dec 11 2023 1:29 utc | 79
Some videos for today.
Russian Msta-B howitzer pounds enemy position in Kleshcheevka (south of the DPR’s Artemovsk):
https://rutube.ru/video/2a1b8b2d41dcafb97d82aa417b711bb1/
Russian self-propelled howitzer fires on enemy position near Kleshcheevka:
https://rutube.ru/video/e1829b62be7e457f333ff3070358e905/
Russian howitzer opens fire on enemy position near Kupyansk:
https://rutube.ru/video/3ed096a53ee0e7367cf54b221b7a488e/
Russian tank fires on enemy position near Seversk:
https://rutube.ru/video/4b22caa60b67131d25a3714c35c624b1/
Anti-drone crew guards Russian Grad launcher in action:
https://rutube.ru/video/c0210b4010c9b2f44776393131bf179d/
Posted by: Nate | Dec 11 2023 1:37 utc | 80
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned the notorious short range of shotguns as defense against FPVs. An armored umbrella would be more practical. I’ve seen a few vids where drones attack other drones, mainly by ramming, which is an excellent ploy when the drone impacting the target is 4-5x more massive.
⚡️🇷🇺🇺🇦⚔️ Front #Summary for 10 Dec 2023 by 20:26⚡️
🔹In #Kherson Direction, the AFU are still in #Krynki and at the bridges, and ours are trying to knock them out. The enemy suffers losses from our artillery and FABs, but maintains the presence. They manage to replenish reserves and supply the group. In the area of the #Kinburn Spit, the AFU have increased the shelling of our positions.
🔹In #Zaporozhye Direction, artillery shelling of positions from both sides continues. There are no changes in the frontline.
🔹In #SouthDonetsk Direction, the our forces continue their attacks towards #Staromayorskoye and #Urozhaynoye. They are not moving fast, but it is important that they do not give up the initiative.
▪️ In #Maryinka fierce fighting continues. As for #Avdeyevka, the AFU will hold on to the last man. The reasons are the same. There are practically no facilities behind the location that can be used as a defence line. To the north of #Maryinka there is a system of reservoirs, with no place to defend. Plus it is unclear what human resources will be available, given that all reserves are going to #Avdeyevka.
▪️ Another important factor is the advance of the our army towards #Novomikhaylovka. Most likely, the AFU will be forced to take positions along the #Novomikhaylovka – #Konstantinovka – #Uspenovka line. And this will be a good goal for our forces. The fact is that the area is located in the lowlands, it is conducive to an attack from above.
🔹In #Donetsk Direction, our army is more active on the northern #Avdeyevka flank than on the southern. After a serious advance along the railway line towards #Ocheretino, our forces are consolidating their positions. Active attacks continue closer to #Novokalinovo. Our army is trying to push back the enemy from the landings near #Stepovoye. This will facilitate our further advance both inside the village and towards #Berdychi. Heavy fighting is taking place on the northern outskirts of the Coke Plant. Significant efforts are still aimed at fire suppression of the AFU on the territory of the plant. On the southern flank without tangible advances.
🔹In #Bakhmut Direktion, our military gained a foothold on the northeastern outskirts of #Bogdanovka. Our army is noted to be advancing towards #Grigorovka, which is already closer to Chasov Yar. On the northwestern outskirts of the city, ours took control of the fortified area between the Valyanovsky Nursery and #Khromovo. On the southern flank, our forces attack at #Krasnoye. Thus, it is planned to cut off the supply routes to the AFU in #Kleshcheevka. There are successes. Ours pushed the enemy back from several positions. At #Kleshcheyevka, our soldiers are moving along the heights.
🔹In #Svatovo Direction, the weather conditions have sharply deteriorated. So, artillery is working less. Our Aerospace Forces continue to work powerfully. Local battles continue, and the initiative remains with our army. The AFU do not stop to counterattack. Unsuccessfully, but they are trying. However, ours have not been able to achieve success on #Ivanovka. At #Sinkovka, despite the strongest pressure from our units, it has not yet been possible to break through the Ukrainian defence.
Posted by: Down South | Dec 11 2023 5:00 utc | 82
Ukraine fears a “domino effect” after the failed attempt by the US Congress to allocate a new aid package to Kyiv
The population of Ukraine is alarmed that after the cessation of support from the United States, other allies may also turn away from the country, France 24 reports. Kyiv will simply stop receiving money and military equipment. This will lead to the inability to continue to hold the defense.
After all, no one talks about the success of the counteroffensive anymore. That is why President Zelensky tries to avoid this uncomfortable topic in his video messages.
The reaction of Ukrainians to what is happening can be described as “a kind of denial and real shock that this is really happening.”
They are dissatisfied with the actions of their government and the policies of the United States, which, like other partners, “provided weapons and expected an incredibly successful counter-offensive from Ukraine, when in fact the weapons they provided were far less than required.”
https://t.me/rezident_ua/20764
Posted by: Down South | Dec 11 2023 5:09 utc | 83
They threatened women with machine guns: details of the visit of TCC employees to the Kosino recreational complex in Transcarpathia have emerged.
It is alleged that the police were in league with the military registration and enlistment office employees and supported the chaos that occurred on the territory of the complex.
Also, after the director asked to show documents, physical force was used against him.
At the front, many brigades will envy the military commissars with their weapons and physical fitness, maybe they are needed for Avdeevka?
All this looks like deliberate intimidation of hotel/gym owners and businesses so that they pay into the cash register.
There is a demand in society for fair mobilization, not cheap show masks.
https://t.me/rezident_ua/20767
According to our information, gyms and hotels received a scheme from the TCC, according to which they are not noticed and are not raided.
The kickback amount ranges from 20 to 50 thousand dollars per month, which makes the business not profitable at all, but there is no alternative, pay or there will be raids every other day.
https://t.me/rezident_ua/20765
Posted by: Down South | Dec 11 2023 5:12 utc | 84
It’s no longer worth talking about Bankova’s erroneous attempt to force the left bank of the Dnieper with the seizure of territory in the Kherson region. In fact, all sent infantry are 90% doomed to death.
Evacuation from there is impossible.
This whole illusion of an offensive was only needed for show off in front of our partners, to play along with Ze and his messages that the Ukrainian Armed Forces were continuing to advance. We wrote about this.
It was easier and more profitable to admit failure and save the lives and reserves of the army in order to be able to defend well.
Colleagues, the problem is that for the sake of PR operations, the best elite units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are sent to death, but everyone is silent. At what cost do we get the senseless formation of the Dnieper?
All for the sake of a story in the media and the evening statement by the President?
https://t.me/rezident_ua/20769
Posted by: Down South | Dec 11 2023 5:16 utc | 85
Our source in the OP said that Andrey Ermak flew to the USA to meet with the management of BlackRock, to whom he offered a full package of opportunities in Ukraine; we are ready to give up all strategic enterprises and land if the corporation helps to obtain a new package of military and financial assistance.
https://t.me/rezident_ua/20773
Posted by: Down South | Dec 11 2023 5:19 utc | 86
The answer to drone warfare is to attack not the point of the spear, not the shaft but the source. And I do not mean the physical plant where the drone is made. I mean the psychology of the producers.
A US billionaire just announced a new twin turbojet drone. If you kill the billionaire, the CEO, CFO, COO, the chief engineer and research scientist you have made a dent in drone production. Do it again, targeting the top ownership, top leaders and specialty experts and people will start to deploy their own capital to non military production.
The number of high skills or high wealth people, the 20% that get 80% of the work done,are not going to risk life and limb for some nebulous social good. Of course the government could just use government money, but is their any tactic more likely to fail? As for the human talent, you can’t draft genius, you have to convince.
Now ask yourself, how safe are we as a nation against internal attack and disruption?
Posted by: Trumpeter | Dec 11 2023 5:58 utc | 87
Posted by: Trumpeter | Dec 11 2023 5:58 utc | 87
Sounds like the plot of a James Bond Movie, not like a viable military strategy.
Posted by: kspr | Dec 11 2023 7:47 utc | 88
Posted by: Trumpeter | Dec 11 2023 5:58 utc | 87
Uhmm, how about no. You just posted the very definition of terrorism.
Posted by: alek_a | Dec 11 2023 7:49 utc | 89
zorge | Dec 11 2023 7:51 utc | 90
A troll complimenting a fool… I guess the fool is now basking in the sunshine of your approval.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 11 2023 8:09 utc | 91
karlof1 | Dec 11 2023 3:48 utc | 81
You mention the short range of shotguns but there is also this. Clay target and game bird shooting is a simple matter of gauging lead. From the videos I have seen of flying drone bombs targeting personnel, they can dodge and weave if somebody is trying to shoot at them. Even with a shotgun, they would be a very difficult target.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 11 2023 8:26 utc | 92
Posted by: Trumpeter | Dec 11 2023 5:58 utc | 87
Uhmm, how about no. You just posted the very definition of terrorism.
Posted by: alek_a | Dec 11 2023 7:49 utc | 89
Required disclaimer: I don’t support terrorism.
@alek_a : I have to disagree with your categorizing the suggestion as terrorism. Terrorism is “instilling terror in a population through RANDOM acts of violence,” or something like that. It being assumed that the population in question is not DIRECTLY involved in the grievance of the parties which are applying terrorist actions.
By my reading, Trumpeter is suggesting the precise targeting of those individuals directly involved in the production and development of munitions (drones). I find it hard to ascribe any degree of innocence to these individuals. The Pavlovian object-lesson seems fairly straightforward.
Have not the US and IS specifically targeted Iranian Nuclear scientists for assassination? (oh wait, they’re the Rules-Based-Order team. They’re allowed.)
I don’t condone it, but the logic is unassailable.
Posted by: retroflecks | Dec 11 2023 8:49 utc | 93
Things are moving fast on the diplomatic front: President Putin flew to the UAE for an imperial welcome and then onto Saudi Arabia. Then the Iranian president flew to Moscow. Reaction: Netanyahu phones Putin for almost an hour. Obviously the Israeli PM noticed the potential for a major event following Putin’s visit to the Emirates and MBS. Not to be outdone, Zelensky flew to Buenos Aires for a hug from Bolsonaro while his army is being chewed up on the eastern front. Please note that the western corporate media has downplayed Putin’s visit and replaced it with outraged Ukrainian fencers who denounce Russia’s participation in the Olympics. (What about the Israelis?) Now Zelensky is flying to Washington for a meeting with the Speaker – but as Mercouris points out (and many others as well) even if it is voted, the aid won’t get there until February or thereabouts.
Posted by: Stierlitz | Dec 11 2023 9:35 utc | 94
By my reading, Trumpeter is suggesting the precise targeting of those individuals directly involved in the production and development of munitions (drones). I find it hard to ascribe any degree of innocence to these individuals. The Pavlovian object-lesson seems fairly straightforward.
Posted by: retroflecks | Dec 11 2023 8:49 utc | 93
The day the US (and we know it is the US doing it as they control the launchers and the targeting) first turned the brains of Donetsk civilians waiting at a bus stop into swiss cheese with a precise deliberately targeted HIMARS M30A1 strike should have been followed by a Zircon or a Kh-BD strike on Lockheed-Martin’s HQ during a board meeting.
You have to hit them where it hurts, and right now there is zero cost or danger imposed on those responsible for it.
But Putin is a cuck.
P.S. Notice how we don’t even hear about “decision making centers” anymore. The bluff was called.
Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Dec 11 2023 9:53 utc | 95
Have to agree with Shadowbanned on this one, war against Russia has been planned since 1997 if not 1991, plan B if capitalist corruption, treacherous one dimensional oligarch greed, and woke brain washing of the post Soviet generations, failed to bring Russia down.
I don’t think NATO is winding things down and pulling out or even putting Ukraine on the back burner to simmer and stew, I think they are doing the obvious, building their own Surovikin line to hold the Russians back for another year while they rebuild and rearm the AFU and more importantly open other fronts against Russia, the Baltic Sea (hence the urgency to get Finland and Sweden into NATO) the arctic, the Black Sea and Caucasus, and my guess first on the list, Syria.
Whether NATO plans go off the rail and the AFU and Kiev implode on their accord due to accumulated military and political disasters is another story, but criminal states are easy to re-jigger, hard to overthrow, Empire’s have been managing this stuff for the last 78ys, you really need an October Revolution or Long March, or Cuba with guerillas in the mountains, to drive the gangsters out, I don’t see anything like that internally in Ukraine.
So, AFU goes into a holding pattern while NATO/USA prepare to attack Syria and push the Russians out. Israel neck deep in Gaza and the West bank seems hell bent on opening another front in the north against Lebanon and Hezbollah, for a small country you’d think one thing at a time, small bites, chew and swallow first. IMO there’s a deal btwn the USA and Israel, Israel provides the provocations and pretext to attack Syria, and hence the Russians, and USA will carte blanche a greater Israel and the necessary wall to wall genocide.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Dec 11 2023 10:03 utc | 96
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned the notorious short range of shotguns as defense against FPVs. An armored umbrella would be more practical. I’ve seen a few vids where drones attack other drones, mainly by ramming, which is an excellent ploy when the drone impacting the target is 4-5x more massive.
Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 11 2023 3:48 utc | 81
The Soviets started developing and tested just when the USSR was falling apart the Mozyr system for defending ICBM silos and other key objects against incoming ICBMs. The idea is to shoot a cloud of shrapnel pellets at very high speed and thus shred the incoming projectiles.
The incoming projectile is itself coming at hypersonic speed so you don’t need all that much to destroy it, and by launching a cloud of stuff at it, you obviate the need for precise interception targeting.
Supposedly it was resurrected in the 2010s but not much has been heard about it since then.
Something like that might work against a drone swarm — the range of the Mozyr was reported to be around 6,000 m. Problem is drones are slow and small, so some may sneak through. And releasing clouds of shrapnel in a densely populated area is generally not a good idea.
Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Dec 11 2023 10:07 utc | 97
The answer to drone warfare is to attack not the point of the spear, not the shaft but the source. And I do not mean the physical plant where the drone is made. I mean the psychology of the producers.
Posted by: Trumpeter | Dec 11 2023 5:58 utc | 87
This is the correct line of thinking — the answer to weapons that cannot be countered is deterrence. It’s why nobody has ever launched ICBMs at anyone.
But it does get tricky with drone swarms because they are small and conventional (though they need not be, and one day probably won’t be), so it’s not the same clear cut distinction.
Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Dec 11 2023 10:08 utc | 98
Worthy sentiment.
https://t.me/NovichokRossiya/42820
The most important conclusion can be drawn from the words of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
Negotiations remain in the dreams of the West, and perhaps of Ukrainian performers. Russia will not negotiate. This is not said directly. But it’s still readable, everything is clear.
Very, very good news. It’s also very important what Putin said in a personal conversation to Artem Joga:
“We don’t need reports. We need to take care of the guys.”
Posted by: anon2020 | Dec 11 2023 11:18 utc | 99
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Dec 11 2023 10:03 utc | 96
Another great post.
Posted by: anon2020 | Dec 11 2023 11:21 utc | 100