Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas talks about Russia.

They are defining themselves through the empire, being the masters of that empire. And if people admire dictators, there is no obstacle in becoming one or submitting to one.
So how to tackle that cycle is that history matters. Our history books were rewritten after we regained our independence to reflect all the crimes that were committed. It was not the same for Russia. They are teaching and learning from the Soviet history books.
Accountability is of utmost importance for the crimes of aggression. (video, text)

Kaja Kallas is the European Union’s next Foreign Affairs.
(Hat-tip to Justpassinby)

Posted by: Passerby | Jul 4 2024 13:55 utc | 4

How long until the North Korean troops mutiny and march on Moscow?

Posted by: Noam A. Larkey | Jul 4 2024 13:56 utc | 6

RF now needs to decapitate all the oil and transportation infrastructure………….
All oil tank farms, and compressor stations need to be destroyed. No oil no movement of logistics to the front
All railroad bridges and locomotive storage and repair shops need to be destroyed. No rail movement, no supplies moving to the front. Rail lines can be easily repaired, not so rail bridges and locomotives.
Continue to knock out all electrical generation station turbines. No power no movement of supplies and no operation of essential services either. Transformers can be easily replaced, not so generation turbines.
Reduce Odessa’s port facilities and the RN naval base there in detail. All docks and cranes and rail heads need to be destroyed. Make the import and export of goods and ammo supplies impossible.
These actions will weaken all fronts and advance the general collapse of the Nazi army and its logistical train. Get it done, hasten the end to the NATO war.

Posted by: Tobias Cole | Jul 4 2024 14:08 utc | 8

Dead or destroyed, reported by MoD passes 2000. Will we see 3000? Good Grief.
I would think Azov/Kraken are the only thing preventing collapse, surrender, just running away. And there’s no resolution to Ukr. debts, coming next month.

Posted by: Eighthman | Jul 4 2024 14:19 utc | 10

What North Korean troops?
Posted by: h | Jul 4 2024 14:15 utc | 9
New narrative DOA.

Posted by: TJandTheBear | Jul 4 2024 14:26 utc | 12

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 4 2024 14:22 utc | 11
########
Especially our friend Vargas.
His need for love is obvious to me.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jul 4 2024 14:28 utc | 14

“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Abolish US Imperialism!

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 4 2024 14:37 utc | 16

The Yanks and the Brits have stopped sending unmanned drones over the Black sea to spy on Russia, it would appear the reason for this is that the drones end up crashing as Russian military planes have found a way to down them without actually firing on them even with their transponders in the off position.
Now instead of sending unmanned drones they Yanks/Brits are sending manned reconnaissance aircraft and not just one but two or three at a time.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jul 4 2024 14:52 utc | 18

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the 2022 Istanbul agreements remain “on the table” and can serve as a foundation for peace negotiations with Ukraine.

https://www.anews.com.tr/world/2024/07/04/putin-invites-ukraine-to-resume-peace-talks-based-on-2022-istanbul-agreements
Multiple news sites report this (and no further details).
Kind of surprises me: The Istanbul agreements stipulated that Donetsk and Lugansk regions should have referenda on whether to be part of Ukraine or Russia. How is this compatible with the current state of affairs, i.e. the formal accession of four regions to the Russian Federation?

Posted by: smuks | Jul 4 2024 15:06 utc | 20

@ smuks | Jul 4 2024 15:06 utc | 20
I’m not sure that “based on” means much of anything; and even if it did, what would be the risk of letting Donetsk and Lugansk vote again? Only in the most drug-fueled fantasies would they vote for reunion with 404.

Posted by: malenkov | Jul 4 2024 15:17 utc | 22

You can’t fool all of the people all of the time…
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 4 2024 14:34 utc | 15
But you don’t need to. Among other things, most people are expert at fooling themselves. They get a glimmer of light, and they invent an explanation for it. On a fundamental level, except for the Invisibles at the very apex of power, nobody knows the whole system. After a lifetime of study of these issues, it seems to me that ‘history’ and ‘politics’ are functionally indistinguishable from religion. They are comforting constructs behind which we know vasty and mysterious powers lurk, but there’s no saying which account of them is ‘true.’ Believing that you know is a dangerous condition.
In this environment, what are the chances that ‘organize against them and oust them completely’ can take place? I don’t believe that there is a single poster on this board, including myself, that understands precisely who ‘they’ are. The layers of power that we can observe are controlled from high above, through a variety of different mechanisms that often appear to work against each other, but end up driving the machinery in the same direction. Probably not a coincidence, but not certainly by design, either. There are, after all, objective realities beneath all the layers of deception that make themselves felt as well. I regard the belief that the objective reality supports one of the available utopian ideals more than another, let alone assures its eventual triumph, to be an article of faith rather than a fact. If anything, humans are likely doomed by the contradictions of our nature bequeathed to us by three and a half billion years of evolution.
So, by all means, fight the machine, fight the observable villains, of which there are many, but be carefuly who or what you’re fighting FOR. History shows us that it’s most likely a new face for the same old same old.

Posted by: Honzo | Jul 4 2024 15:34 utc | 24

@4
“They are defining themselves through the empire, being the masters of that empire. And if people admire dictators, there is no obstacle in becoming one or submitting to one.
So how to tackle that cycle is that history matters. Our history books were rewritten after we regained our independence to reflect all the crimes that were committed. It was not the same for Russia. They are teaching and learning from the Soviet history books.
Accountability is of utmost importance for the crimes of aggression.”
Indeed, the passage highlighted by Passerby regarding the rewriting of history is interesting, but the whole paragraph stands as an excellent example of the magical thinking of the west in general and of its new Girl-Friday heroine in particular. The Blob is pulling out all the stops to command fawning admiration of Kallas as some sort of national-treasure savant in exactly the way it framed Zelensky as The New Churchill.
I remember when the Republicans gasped that Barack Obama could not reasonably be considered for President of the USA because he had no political experience – well, here is Kallas with almost exactly the same breadth of experience, poised to run foreign policy for the whole of Europe. She was a corporate lawyer before that, for an even shorter period, something I would argue positions her no better for foreign-policy decision-making than anyone on this board and perhaps less than some. But NATO is grasping at straws now, looking for a magic solution, and the current thinking is either that if you put a woman in charge, all problems will be resolved quickly and efficiently, or that it makes a good distraction, as all the neoliberals boogie in giddy delight.
Exemplary is that stupid throwaway line that if people admire dictators, there is no obstacle to becoming one. Really? If people admired Elvis Presley, as they most certainly did and do, why has there never been another one? Although you could make an argument that admiration of the fabulously wealthy in western culture has enabled the rise of more of them, and in its own way that is as predatory as any dictator.
Authoritarian leadership becomes appealing when the lives of ordinary people compel the apprehension that there are no standards, and there is no regulation which is not subject to special-treatment activism. Where would you say that condition prevails now – in Russia, or in the west?
As far as accountability for crimes of aggression goes, I would recommend the west not look too closely into that, as real investigation would destroy the belief that Russia was responsible for either the destruction of MH-17 or for the grisly murders in Bucha. And that might in turn destroy what the west insists is a beautiful friendship with its latest democracy-and-freedom project.

Posted by: Mark | Jul 4 2024 15:53 utc | 26

So, by all means, fight the machine, fight the observable villains, of which there are many, but be carefuly who or what you’re fighting FOR. History shows us that it’s most likely a new face for the same old same old.
Posted by: Honzo | Jul 4 2024 15:34 utc | 24
I’d say a new stage in a process leading to greater freedom, equality and rationality. From slave states, to feudalism and then capitalism today. All have produced a more sublime form of class conflict, raising the freedom, education and quality of the general population, which is now a modern working class that produces everything in the world and has the social power to remove the dead hand of Imperialism and replace a moribund Capitalism with a higher form of socioeconomic organization rooted not in the national state, but in the global economic system and the interests of the majority of the world.
Some say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one, Honzo.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 4 2024 16:05 utc | 28

Most barflies would support China in a massive air and land invasion against breakaway republic Taiwan. Taiwan is an island, so the invasion would necessitate saturation bombing, before any amphibious landing.
Yet when Ukraine shells the breakaway republics in the east, it is a horrible war crime, provocation. We also see this logical inconstancy when we compare Russia’s grid-bombing of breakaway Chechnya with their moral handwringing over the shelling of Donbass.
It seems some nations are more real than others. Russia and China are expected, cheered on, to bomb the hell out of any breakaway regions, yet Ukraine is condemned. Ukraine is the untermensch of nation states to barflies, a designation, imagined and unreal.

Posted by: Napoleon | Jul 4 2024 16:13 utc | 30

My wife’s twin Sister from Russia is visiting, so back in May I bought cruise tickets for this month. Sanctions as of May “stated” residents of Russian controlled Lughansk, Donetsk, Deprowhatever, and Krim could not cruise on American ships or ships that start or stop at American ports, so Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Russians had to prove their residency was elsewhere.
Starting in June, but only finding out in the last week, this has been changed to “the above” plus all Belarusians and Russians are now sanctioned and can’t go cruising. This is the most stressful thing that has happened to me since Masha & Medved was cancelled. The horror.
I guess I’ll have to take that money and go shopping at Bugatti instead.

Posted by: Butte Bill | Jul 4 2024 16:26 utc | 32

Posted by: Napoleon | Jul 4 2024 16:13 utc | 30
############
The issue with Ukraine is the same issue with Israel. The West (America, Britain, France, et al) are built on colonization (theft) and racial supremacy.
Most thinking people find apartheid despicable. If more knew that Western Ukraine was shelling civilians (14,000 or so dead before the SMO) in the Eastern part of Ukraine, and had cut off water to Crimea after 2014, the Russian attempts to eradicate this infestation of evil would definitely seem noble.
These race supremacists are Untermensch because they are intellectually and morally devolving.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jul 4 2024 16:31 utc | 34

Kallas is obviously a stupid warmonger who has been promoted all along the way, kind of like Obama was…Woman power! When you see that you are ruled by women, you know that catastrophe is just around the corner….

Posted by: pyrrhus | Jul 4 2024 16:36 utc | 36

Even Vargas?
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 4 2024 14:22 utc | 11
Especially our friend Vargas. His need for love is obvious to me.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jul 4 2024 14:28 utc | 14
Posted by: Napoleon | Jul 4 2024 16:13 utc | 30
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jul 4 2024 16:31 utc | 34
———————————————-
My affection for these two and others like them is to respect their inner desires to be left in peace.

Posted by: Acco Hengst | Jul 4 2024 16:49 utc | 38

A Ukrainian attack on Kalingrad would seem a bridge too far for them. No military significance, simply a huge provocation and start of wwiii.

Posted by: the pessimist | Jul 4 2024 16:54 utc | 40

Posted by: Kaliningrad Watch | Jul 4 2024 16:47 utc | 37
Ukraine can’t attack Kaliningrad unless they cross Polish-Lithuanian border (attack came from Nato territory) or are launched from a Nato airbase, in which case it will constitute a Nato attack. I don’t know what your sources but whoever envisioned it must be suicidal.

Posted by: unimperator | Jul 4 2024 16:56 utc | 42

@ pyrrhus | Jul 4 2024 16:36 utc | 36
Kallas-trophe cometh, timed to Joe-mageddon.

Posted by: despondent | Jul 4 2024 17:13 utc | 44

Ceasefire or Escalation? It seems that NATO wants to resolve the issue now, before the American elections!

Posted by: Elber | Jul 4 2024 17:21 utc | 46

Posted by: Passerby | Jul 4 2024 17:19 utc | 45
Ironically enough, the shift of gas route to the east has also contributed to the strengthening of BRICS as that gas too is priced in non-western currencies, and the west has to play by someone else’s playbook.
There was some mention that EU had supposedly made a new gas contract with Gazprom. How that is supposed to work I have no idea.
Michael Hudson in his recent interview with Ania said trade with China and Russia was the basis of European wealth for decades, whereas forced trade with the US will be the basis of poverty for EU.

Posted by: unimperator | Jul 4 2024 17:28 utc | 48

@ Elber | Jul 4 2024 17:21 utc | 46 with the thought that empire is in control of timing in Ukraine.
I think you are wrong. I believe they are facing a narrowing chute of options and hope they love their children.
Humanity is in a civilization war about public/private finance and this is a proxy of that war. Taiwan and Occupied Palestine are part of that civilization war we are in.
Stalemate is not an option in this war so your ceasefire thought is also not going to work this time.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 4 2024 17:28 utc | 50

NAFOpoleon @30: “Yet when Ukraine shells the breakaway republics in the east, it is a horrible war crime…”
The Ukrainian Nazis you so adore have since the beginning of the conflict back in 2014 been deliberately targeting civilians and non-combatants. That is why the Russians launched the SMO in the first place. The Russians, on the other hand, have gone to extreme lengths to avoid civilian casualties. Even now, after more than two years of active Russian involvement and half a million dead Ukrainian Nazi combatants, it is still newsworthy on the rare occasion when Ukrainian civilians get caught up in a Russian strike. Even with the Russians’ supposedly inferior weapons, you never see the Russians hit a park or a beach full of Ukrainian civilians; not even accidentally. That never happens, while Ukrainian Nazis, using super-accurate American wunderwaffen, are consistently killing civilians on a daily basis.
It really is astonishing that you NAFO types cannot see the difference.
As for China and Taiwan, the Chinese are not going to carpet bomb the province. They will use precision munition to neutralize strictly military targets. That conflict will end with few civilians on the island even knowing that it had started beyond hearing some rumbling like a distant thunderstorm.
I realize it is inconceivable to you NAFO types, but the Russians and Chinese both are more civilized and humane than you and the society you hail from.

Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 4 2024 17:40 utc | 52

TJand the Bear@1355
Right On! You get it.

Posted by: aristodemos | Jul 4 2024 17:45 utc | 54

Thank you, Ahenobarbus, @ 16 and 17, for focusing on the U.S. Declaration of Independence on our 4th of July holiday. It lists REASONS that coincide with the reasons Donbass and Crimean residents voted to leave Ukraine in 2014, especially the Ukrainian government’s allowing private mercenaries to kill and terrorize the people without law enforcement, without consequences, without justice.
This is for me the essential disagreement I have with fellow Americans who think Ukrainians had no right to leave Ukraine. They assert we didn’t allow South Carolina to leave the United States. But they forget that we left Great Britain, and that the essential fact in both matters was justice.

http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
… He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
… For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
… He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation…

Posted by: Linda Wood | Jul 4 2024 17:54 utc | 56

“Scholz does not want peace in country 404 nor in Europe. A dangerous man who needs to go.”
AI (1).
Its pretty obvious that Scholz is an Atlanticist, it these Europeans (mainly politicians) that are Atlanticists, they are the main problem for ordinary Europeans as a whole. They put (US) interests above those of the citizens of Europe.
Also many European governments have been deeply influenced by the Zionists/Israelis their interests are also put ahead of the people of Europe, this has been greatly highlighted by the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jul 4 2024 17:57 utc | 58

malenkov@1517
If one reads between the lines, when the R.U. cites the Istanbul precedent, what they may actually be saying is that Russia is willing to negotiate; but as the Donetsk, Luhansk and the two additional oblast voter majorities elected to become part of the R.U.; that any consideration of the national entity to dismember itself is totally off the table

Posted by: aristodemos | Jul 4 2024 18:02 utc | 60

Honzo@1534
So who the hell is actually running things? Granted, that there are many layers to the onion. That said, have a look at the ass-end of the $1 “Fed” note…”all DEBTS public and private”. Ever notice that 32 layer cake pyramid…AND the all-seeing Eye of Horus, separate from the fixture, rather hovering ABOVE it.
Significance of the above is the FACT that the so-named “Federal” Reserve Bank is a wholly privately-owned control mechanism, signifying THEIR Golden-Rule: “Them that gots the gold make the rules”. Ever catch on to the admitted meaning of “Rules Based Order”.
A total of EIGHT crime clans OWN the “Fed”. Only American clan is the Rottenfellers. The other self-chosen elite Bank$ters are residents of various major European cities…primary of them being the politically independent entity known as City of London, aka “the Square Mile”.
Them’s the facts, Jack. See, it’s not so complicated after all.

Posted by: aristodemos | Jul 4 2024 18:12 utc | 62

Most barflies would support China in a massive air and land invasion against breakaway republic Taiwan.
Posted by: Napoleon | Jul 4 2024 16:13 utc | 30
______
I probably speak for most barflies, and all of the decent ones, when I express my admiration for China in that she sees an air/land invasion of Taiwan as a last-resort measure. She could’ve conquered Taiwan by force long ago, but keeps on not doing so.
Just as Russia tried every other approach before using force to liberate the Russian parts of Ukronazistan.

Posted by: malenkov | Jul 4 2024 18:25 utc | 64

Passerby@45
Only talking about potential viability of the pipelines, not what they might be used for.

Posted by: the pessimist | Jul 4 2024 18:32 utc | 66

pyrrhus@1636
Slight disagreement here. Yes, those dumb young cunts, of the deeply programmed variety are utterly unfit for high orfices. However, the accelerating wisdom of post-menopausal women is a marvel to contemplate.
Before the JudieChristieMagickMindfuck was imposed upon the Western world by the machinations of the Roman Emperor, Constantine; the role of wise elder women was very high indeed. To my reckoning, mostly via research along with personal observation…more so than men…women tend to become more infused with wisdom than their male counterparts. There is no way I can fully comprehend this phenomenon…but it gives every indication of being real.
Yes, younger women with “designs” of a personal nature, can readily be manipulated by those who advance them in their careerist ideals as life goals. However, when it comes to those females who have transcended youthful ambitions and have been “through the mill.” so to speak…are, in concert far more capable than a similar group of men to come to mutual realizations and cooperative patternings.
Grandmas and Spinsters rule.

Posted by: aristodemos | Jul 4 2024 18:42 utc | 68

Kaliningrad Watch@1637
Have you actually done the research on Kaliningrad’s defensive capabilities? It’s not unlikely that the R.U. has learned from observation of the underground (literal) warfare developments of the NVA against the American invaders and more recently of the stupendous checkmate potential of Hamas.
My surmise is that the Russians in Kaliningrad are thoroughly dug-in. Now to the other side of the equation. The terminally stoopid rulers of Poland are all hot and bothered to take over that slice of the former Ost-Preussen. The nefarious entities which rule the Collective Wa$te likely view that bit of land as the initial objective of warring on Russia. What they do not consider is that NATO is a complete farce…toothless old hag, militarily…particularly as Erdogan is nowise gonna join in on the fun…and that U$$A supplies and reinforcements are numerous Russian submarines away from bolstering NATO war-efforts on the ground.
Granted: The ruling Bank$ters are in existential apprehension about losing their long-developing total world rulership game. They may do something terminally stoopid. Perhaps Russia and China could make them a deal they shouldn’t refuse…such as being bequeathed the Malvinas Islands as a protected realm for themselves and perhaps as much as a tenth of their ill-gotten gains.

Posted by: aristodemos | Jul 4 2024 18:52 utc | 70

The decision on full membership of the Republic of Belarus in the SCO has been made.
“>https://t.me/myLordBebo/36284

I don’t see the Russians asking for help to the SCO but I can see Belarus sending up a Bat Signal. Not around the corner, but the big searchlight has been placed on the rooftop of Lukashenko HQ.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Jul 4 2024 19:00 utc | 72

Putin should have invited me to his palace for advice, before stumbling into this ill-conceived quagmire. He would have had nothing to feel insecure about; after all, I am even shorter than he is:
“Strategy is the art of making use of time and space. I am less concerned about the later than the former. Space we can recover, lost time never.”
Napoleon Bonaparte

Posted by: Napoleon | Jul 4 2024 19:05 utc | 74

Posted by: Napoleon | Jul 4 2024 19:05 utc | 74
Why would putin humour you? Napoleon lost bigly after all.

Posted by: Justpassinby | Jul 4 2024 19:16 utc | 76

Some say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one, Honzo.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 4 2024 16:05 utc | 28
Well, who do you dream will oust the top visible layer of the PTB (the banksters)? How does this ousting occur? I’m not saying it can’t happen, but I don’t really see anyone with a viable plan in the public eye. If we accept the proposition that most, if not all, institutions in the world are at the very least heavily influenced by the small clique of banksters, and that their struggles against each other are either kayfabe or self-interested faction fights, how do the masses go about ‘organizing’ to overthrow them? Sure, Niger can kick out the French, and even the US, for the moment, and perhaps BRICS gives them a way to develop in a less exploitative way, for the time being, but I think what we see in the history of the modern world is that wealth is a powerful corrupting force. It’s no accident that it is Gaza, Hezbollah and Yemen who are confronting the Zionists and the Hegemon. Do you see an analogue for those forces in the west? In the US? I don’t. People are too attached to their remaining comforts, too fearful, too ignorant, and too obedient to authority for such a struggle. There may be some local successes, but not the kind of thing that ‘ousts’ the banksters for good and all.
A total of EIGHT crime clans OWN the “Fed”.
Them’s the facts, Jack. See, it’s not so complicated after all.
Posted by: aristodemos | Jul 4 2024 18:12 utc | 62
They own a lot more than that. I used to believe that they were the top of the pyramid, but I no longer do. I think that every time people at the lower levels get a glimpse of the real powers, what is seen becomes another facade for the real powers. Invisibility is one of their greatest strengths.
While acknowledging that history has its ups and downs and that the rulers of the world never had and never will have complete ‘control’ over events, it seems to me now that what can see, looking backward, is a kind of Darwinian evolution of power, in which all current powers are descendants of the most ancient ones. Many such descendants bite the dust along the way, and the survivors adapt to new conditions, but the survivors are exactly that- the legacy of the First Ancestor. They share more DNA than not, no matter how different their appearances may be.
There may be a useful distinction between the East and West in this regard. Perhaps China descends from a different original than everything from the Euphrates westward, but everything in the west has a common ancestor. If the posters who continually resort to the Bible and Ancient Rome have some positive value, it’s that they remind us of these connections.

Posted by: Honzo | Jul 4 2024 19:36 utc | 78

In Vorokhta, Ivano-Frankivsk region, mobilization officers were beaten, according to a video published by local channels. In published video, one of the officers got a beating when a crowd of locals dragged him out of the car.
In a statement from the Western Operational Command, it is said that they “do not understand what the locals are protesting against. The locals are acting against their own state and protecting draft dodgers.”

So much winning it’s hard to know where to even start. Between the blocking nazi battalions shooting those who retreat and borders mined to prevent civilians from escaping, the impending bills coming due from private investors, wet fart of a failed bullshit ‘peace’ summit, F16 hangar queen bluffs ignored, even mocked…the only people believing in Ukraine anymore in the West are the die hard idjits who believe demented Genocide Joe Biden is the savior of democracy. They also believe in Maerican military superiority, delusion in an era when Yemen of all states humbles the boastful US Navy (next time skipper check you have the scope on your rifle the right way around) and thats even BEFORE they get Russian Federation hypersonics.
Maybe the West should get some better strategists. These ones are broken.

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Jul 4 2024 19:58 utc | 80

They have always had the means. What they have found is the will.
Posted by: too scents | Jul 4 2024 15:19 utc | 23

The Putin is weak narrative is so fucking stupid. They didn’t find the will they decided it was worth exposing their new electronic warfare toys to down the overpriced surveillance drones now instead of keeping it a surprise. This means they calculated that NATO intervention likelihood is dropping. Feel me?

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Jul 4 2024 20:04 utc | 82

Thanks to all of you who spoke so prudently and wisely and laid down less combative and more humanist and intellectual arguments clarifying. 52, 64, 65 many others. OK enough posting. Good night and good luck.

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Jul 4 2024 20:15 utc | 84

@18, @47.
Thank you for link to report on RC-135, and P-8 activities in the Black Sea.
One point regarding Boeing P-8A it has AN/APY 10 (RTX used to be Raytheon))radar on board with air to ground surveillance (AGS) and ground moving target indicators (GMTI) both ashore and maritime modes. P-8A in Black Sea may or may not be effective at target discrimination as it is modestly updated older technology. IOW P-8A maybe be doing an E-8C ground surveillance mission. lighter and in the cheap.
Conjecture: UK RC-135 may be teamed with P-8 because P-8 may not be able to guide the inflight Storm Shadow and so would message data to RC….. The RC may not have ground surveillance radar, being an ELINT/EW platform. And P-8 may not have antenna and data set capability to communicate/effect the in flight “kill chain”.
Boeing has for years been trying to get US to pay them to put an AGS radar on B737’s! Why with the trouble Boeing has with putting refueling plumbing on a B767 (KC-46)?

Posted by: paddy | Jul 4 2024 20:37 utc | 86

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Jul 4 2024 20:15 utc | 84
You are one of my favorite commentator! Thanks!

Posted by: Naive | Jul 4 2024 20:48 utc | 88

80km is a lot for FAB-500 UMPC. This could possibly be UMPB D-30SN (250kg) or a bigger version of it with a single-use propulsion unit. Great if it’s improved performance of FAB-500 UMPC because that’s almost certainly cheaper.
https://t.me/vysokygovorit/16383

Ukrainian channels today are sobbing en masse about the increase in the range of use of FAB-500 bombs with UMPC. If these statements are to be believed, the release range has increased to 80 km.
In addition to the obvious advantages of saving ammunition and increasing the efficiency of their use, this has a number of other positive aspects. I talk about them in my column in the channel “Especially for RT”.

Posted by: anon2020 | Jul 4 2024 20:56 utc | 90

Exit polls for UK election:
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2024/7/4/97e10729-346a-446b-9c51-bca46d246b33.png

Posted by: Apollyon | Jul 4 2024 21:03 utc | 92

‘elensky claims “We now have 14 brigades in reserve.” Yeah, right, all they need is another tranche of NATO weapons and $$$$$ and they will be good to go.
Suppose that is true and they have 14 brigades of cannon fodder in reserve. They lost 2,225 casualties yesterday. Those 14 brigades would be gone in a fortnight. Pure delusional fantasy and grifter hokum.

Posted by: Drifter | Jul 4 2024 21:07 utc | 94

Posted by: Naive | Jul 4 2024 21:06 utc | 93
Then find another place to have fun? Maybe an fun / troll thread? But why do you need to have fun by talking about Taiwan on the Ukraine thread? Anyway, quite a few people stay away from commenting because of this crap… why do you think these trolls are doing that? Every couple weeks there’s a new one bringing up the exact same shit, rehashing it for the bazillions times… anyway, just proves my point.

Posted by: Zet | Jul 4 2024 21:11 utc | 96

“Putin should have invited me to his palace for advice, before stumbling into this ill-conceived quagmire. He would have had nothing to feel insecure about; after all, I am even shorter than he is:
“Strategy is the art of making use of time and space. I am less concerned about the later than the former. Space we can recover, lost time never.”
Napoleon Bonaparte”
Posted by: Napoleon | Jul 4 2024 19:05 utc | 74
Hey military genius, it’s ,’latter’, not, ‘later.’

Posted by: canuck | Jul 4 2024 21:24 utc | 98

“A second Tony Blair is not an improvement.”
I don’t expect much from Starmer. But even Darth Vader would be better than the Tories.

Posted by: Apollyon | Jul 4 2024 21:47 utc | 100