Kinophile

I'm surprised Boris Johnson isn't in any of those crowd photos...

I've noted before my intimation that the full reform of the Ukrainian military is where its true strategic victory lies - and not into the standard Western /NATO model but true reform that keeps what works from the old, Soviet model combined and transformed into a unique hybrid. I suspect that a military which reflects the the nature of and enables the latent power of the transformed society it springs from will be finally secure from Russia. As an inveterate autocracy, with the particular geography it contains, Russia will only ever have the type of military it's ever had - mass and power. Ukraine, being a society that is something more and different, has a generational opportunity to create a unique defence force.

To be clear, Im not in the Russia Is Now Unbeatable camp. Just need that to be understood up front. I'm saying their strike capability has improved, slowly and patchily, but they have improved. They have had a string of strike successes in the last six months and while It's abysmal compared to what they should have, it's still improving. Critically, there's no counter-pressure on that. The success rate will trend inevitably up as experience is gained, systems improved and tactics honed. Often in this war whatever Rus starts to improve on, UKR finds a counter to, either organically with what they have or ekse provided by allies. But as a data point on a slowly improving line that's curving steadily up, not down, the concerted, concentrated and rapid destruction of a large city's electrical network is not small. Its repeatable and Improvable.

But certainly improved. Taking out Kharkivs city wide network was pretty efficiently done. The trend is shifting up for them and very unlikely to stop doing so.

Weeeeeeeee!

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-23-2024 Interesting note from Bahkmut: JFC.

Ship hit also?

Fixed that fer ye

Major terrorist attack (gunmen) underway in Moscow. Not posting footage, it's horrible. 4 x Gunmen, don't look Ukrainian, darker skins, so not a false flag op. Those US/UK embassy warnings weren't kidding. Almost two hours later, Spec Forces still not on scene. Building is fully on fire.

Aaannnd...

Yup. I hope it's "not good" for you in the most totally "not good" way possible.

OT, but I know one of the DPs from the new version. It's done a really good job. He spoke very highly of the creative process.

Interesting.

The width of that trench is the aspect in that video. But It's not a bad idea...

I'm not sure about this - FPVs are certainly doing a lot of damage, but it was artillery & glide bombs that were the drivers for UKR to get out of Avdiivka. Shelling still happens constantly and a bunker that can resist shelling can resist an FPV. The entrance is the weakpoint, which could be countered by layer physical and EW aspects - eg, a right angle in the entrance hallway, some very short range but powerful jammer at the entrance and decent door?

"Final Destination" 2024

Very interesting, thank you.

Are they done in panels, or complete sections? I've seen videos of formed concrete being placed into deep construction trenches - they landed onto concrete slab floors but the sides and roof were all one piece, with thickened wall corners and ceiling joints.

Seems a bit far away for a HMG to be accurate enough to catch a missile going at least 200 m/s... ninja'd by panzermartin