Holien

Hmmm, says an American who has never lived under a Nazi occupation...
Look yes he is a politician but he is likely to lose votes for his current stance and is being attacked by the extreme right wing of French politics who are saying he will drag France into a war.
The French know what it is like to be invaded and occupied by a brutal right wing dictatorship.
With the current 80 year anniversary of the beginning of their freedom thoughts turn to another European country suffering the same.
France has wisely remained independent of American tech for both their air force and nuclear weapons.
So before taking cheap shots think a bit deeper...
 

Hmmm, says an American who has never lived under a Nazi occupation...
Look yes he is a politician but he is likely to lose votes for his current stance and is being attacked by the extreme right wing of French politics who are saying he will drag France into a war.
The French know what it is like to be invaded and occupied by a brutal right wing dictatorship.
With the current 80 year anniversary of the beginning of their freedom thoughts turn to another European country suffering the same.
France has wisely remained independent of American tech for both their air force and nuclear weapons.
So before taking cheap shots think a bit deeper...
 

Hmmm, says an American who has never lived under a Nazi occupation...
Look yes he is a politician but he is likely to lose votes for his current stance and is being attacked by the extreme right wing of French politics who are saying he will drag France into a war.
The French know what it is like to be invaded and occupied by a brutal right wing dictatorship.
With the current 80 year anniversary of the beginning of their freedom thoughts turn to another European country suffering the same.
France has wisely remained independent of American tech for both their air force and nuclear weapons.
So before taking cheap shots think a bit deeper...
 

Hmmm, says an American who has never lived under a Nazi occupation...
Look yes he is a politician but he is likely to lose votes for his current stance and is being attacked by the extreme right wing of French politics who are saying he will drag France into a war.
The French know what it is like to be invaded and occupied by a brutal right wing dictatorship.
With the current 80 year anniversary of the beginning of their freedom thoughts turn to another European country suffering the same.
France has wisely remained independent of American tech for both their air force and nuclear weapons.
So before taking cheap shots think a bit deeper...
 

Hmmm, says an American who has never lived under a Nazi occupation...
Look yes he is a politician but he is likely to lose votes for his current stance and is being attacked by the extreme right wing of French politics who are saying he will drag France into a war.
The French know what it is like to be invaded and occupied by a brutal right wing dictatorship.
With the current 80 year anniversary of the beginning of their freedom thoughts turn to another European country suffering the same.
France has wisely remained independent of American tech for both their air force and nuclear weapons.
So before taking cheap shots think a bit deeper...
 

Hmmm, says an American who has never lived under a Nazi occupation...
Look yes he is a politician but he is likely to lose votes for his current stance and is being attacked by the extreme right wing of French politics who are saying he will drag France into a war.
The French know what it is like to be invaded and occupied by a brutal right wing dictatorship.
With the current 80 year anniversary of the beginning of their freedom thoughts turn to another European country suffering the same.
France has wisely remained independent of American tech for both their air force and nuclear weapons.
So before taking cheap shots think a bit deeper...
 

Maybe not partisans... There are many rumors we have now long-range analog of Lancet. Russian milbloggers complain unknown UKR FPVs are now capable to strike positions and vehicles in distant rear. 
Previously we had our RAM II and limited number of Switchblade 600. Maybe now we have upgraded RAM II with longer range or completely new drone. Several days ago there was a video how UKR kamikadze drones damage newest radar Kasta-M on Russian territory

Despite Russians claimed they shot down all drones over N.Osetia, at least one drone reached Mozdok airfield and hit it.
 

https://www.hs.fi/suomi/art-2000010485351.html
"We are the largest producer of 155mm ammunition in Europe." (meaning Finland)
- Finnish militaries War Economy Manager(Sotatalouspäällikkö), Lieutenant General Mikko Heiskanen

Strategic drone strikes against the Russian petrol industry continue.
Edit:
And an airfield in North Ossetia, near Georgia:
 
 
 

Tbh I did not reply to you cause I figured Macron was acting purely rhetorically, but with the recent news of him pushing for western troops in Ukraine, it seems more appropriate to review.
Macron has been signaling his heel turn for a while, headlines in March and April that the West should cross red lines when dealing with Putin.  WSJ article from April 3: https://archive.ph/EO8HC Now, WSJ on the French initiative of trainers in Ukraine: https://archive.ph/khcMe
From April 3 link, Macron presented his desire to move to strategic ambiguity first in February, ending with a public move to pledge military options including western troops would not be ruled out. He quickly got publicly isolated by Biden and Scholz in Feb. as noted in the article, but despite that he gained some support, with statements from Polish and Lithuania noting it could be possible. Article goes into further detail about him presenting the proposal in Feb and getting isolated among NATO nations and then walking on stage and declaring it should not be ruled out.
In terms of "if Kiyv falls" Macron is worried about the fracturing of NATO not via Central Europe/Eastern Europe folding to Russia, but a scenario where U.S support in the event of a NATO vs Russia scenario is no longer ironclad meaning a Russian calculus of succeeding in conflict with NATO goes up.
In that sense, if Ukraine falls, this is Macron's thinking not me mind u, the risk of broader regional or global conflict is already heightened between Europe vs Russia.
My entire point mind you was to point out that striking dual use targets was not immediately nearing nuclear war escalation, to which you declared that Ukraine was not that important vs potential nuclear war via escalation mismanagement and that NATO would prefer to let Kiyv fall than risk that outcome.
I then pointed out to you NATO is not united in that outlook you framed as "Ukraine is not important enough" and that suggesting NATO should be afraid of nuclear war enough to risk Ukraine falling, would instead risk the NATO alliance where allowing Ukraine to fall would cause fractures in the alliance and increase the potential of further conflict including nuclear.
The current Macron stance represents that possibility pretty clear. France, a nuclear power and NATO country is actively pushing to involve Western troops into Ukraine, is gathering a coalition of countries to make the same commitments and doing so despite sustained opposition by major NATO allies precisely seemingly to ensure Ukraine's fall is out of the question, risking further escalation via the involvement of Western troops in harms way, finding that preferable to alternatives where Ukraine does fall.
 

Macron continues his course of rhetoric maintaining Ukraine is "existential". Way he's talking below sounds like he got burned away too many times offering off-ramps to Putin and got fed up of it.
 
Huh, Macron says he has several other NATO nations ready to return military trainers to Ukraine alongside France. Baltics? Finland? Poland? Maybe it's just me but this is a serious escalation potentially occurring. Fed up Macron indeed. How are we to square this with the fact Russia will be likely to target these legitimate military targets? Maybe it's just me but this strongly suggests Macron's rhetoric is paired with a warning to not escalate further and target Western Ukraine. There is also context on that Russia has been accused of varying undercover operations in France including sabotage that may be part of Macron's reasoning for pushing this.
 

Exactly. So let’s take that Ukrainian trench problem. That is a full scale battalion assault problem.  As per western doctrine we would assign a full battlegroup/TF to that job.  3x infantry Coys, Tanks, Engineers, close support.  That is roughly 50 F ech vehicles.  I do not think people appreciate how much real estate and road space that sort of force takes.  The there is the added logistics support behind it. We are talking about a force likely in and around 100 vehicles all up.
So in this environment 100 vehicles concentrating are going to get picked up maybe 20-30 kms out.  Nobody has vehicle parks closer than 100kms because they are prime targets for HIMARs.  So you pull 100 vehicles together to organize and mount this attack - that is a coupe major road moves.  Now the UA is supported by ISR from God.  AI support can pick out patterns. Space-based, strategic high flyers and operational stand off - all of this before the tac drones even kick in.  At best 100 vehicles are going to be spotted 10s of kms out and if you are really lucky won’t get hit by long range fires. But the UA knows you are coming and has plenty of time to swing resources to meet them.  
Once you cross the line of departure you can expect long range drones, loitering munitions, PGM artillery etc to hit you before you even get into DF range. You are a big force so the UA is going to muster a lot in your direction. Then you get within DF range and the tac FPVs and ATGMs kick in - hell, the UA might even send a sniper tank or two your way.
You have no surprise. Concentration has brought concentrated fires. Your logistical lines are vulnerable and being hit.  And the enemy can see you, down to the squad level the entire way,  air support is denied, except maybe for bomb lobbing from 50kms out. This is not that the Russians have somehow forgotten how to put a Bn into an attack. It is that to try and do so is suicidal.  So what do they do?  Penny packet, disperse and try smaller attacks on separate axis.  Of course then you simply do not have enough troops to do much even if you them through to an objective.  So what do you do?  Send in wave to try and exhaust the UA and take small bites.

At this point, I think it's pretty established that the brittle nature of the regime is its strongest support from a coup d'etat from within. Prigozhin's jaunt went further and faster than anyone expected which is why everyone who knew about it was happy to let him take his shot. What surprised them all I think (except perhaps for the national socialists like Girkin) were the clear signs that the Moscow population was going to be quite happy (at least initially) to see Putin tossed out and his boyars hung from the lamp posts. If your goal was to accrue power and set yourself up for the post Putin world, that is profoundly not what you were looking for. 
Where that leaves us today is that Putin remains the keystone in the span to power and nobody wants to remove any other bits (like the war) in case it drops them all into the abyss.
 

I agree that the regime is more fragile than it seems to casual observation but those weren't oligarchs who were standing aside and letting Prigozhin make his run. They were power brokers amongst the siloviki who tacitly supported the challenge for their own purposes but were also not prepared to see someone like Prigozhin take the reins. He was a catspaw to force a renegotiation of terms between the upper edge of middle management and the CEO's office and nothing more.  
Those who were simply industrialists and/or money men have been eclipsed by those who have a foot in the intelligence world and also have broad experience running sectors of the government and/or economy. The next generation of the Patrushevs, Dyumin, etc are prime examples. Ironically, the greatest buttress of Putin's position at the moment is that they are all terrified of a proper collapse. Wagner entering Moscow could have quite easily triggered an actual popular explosion and in the end, that is the last thing any of them want. Control is all.

Grozny Vs Gaza is again not a fair comparison. Yes similar square Km but totally different building density and the approach by the IDF has been methodical destroying any cover before taking an area over.
They have incrementally destroyed an area before moving on to the next area.
Russia just sucked at its approach in Grozny until they realised they needed to level the place.
As for the extensive tunnels it depends on how they have been designed. The Vietcong design was more harmful to the Americans. The Gaza tunnels don't seem to have been designed in a similar manner.
So imo it is not an example that holds weight for tanks being effective in urban combat.
Sure if you can kettle an area and build a wall around it before attacking, blockading for years before you attack.

Wow you really don't have a clue as to what Hamas has available to them. Want to cite any sources as to how well equipped Hamas are with modern AT weapon systems?
Home grown? Yep Hamas has a fantastic R&D section...
The IDF have a pretty good ring around the area and what's left is a small barrel which is slowly being destroyed bit by bit.
Apples and space monkey comparisons....
Not even in the same planet the two forces...

(evidently, this too is a UL)
Steve @Battlefront.com can you special flag that post somehow so folks don't miss it?

Wow you really don't have a clue as to what Hamas has available to them. Want to cite any sources as to how well equipped Hamas are with modern AT weapon systems?
Home grown? Yep Hamas has a fantastic R&D section...
The IDF have a pretty good ring around the area and what's left is a small barrel which is slowly being destroyed bit by bit.
Apples and space monkey comparisons....
Not even in the same planet the two forces...

Animarchy making a fantastic point about the survivability of MaxxPros, or at least keeping their people alive inside. 

Russians managed to lose a significant part of another S-300/400 battery from a GMLRS strike recently. More complacency about western weapons hitting valuable assets again. Why the hell are they not relocating such valuable assets the moment they knew HIMARS could hit them?
 
 

Who is predicting military victory?  And your counter-offer is to somehow suggest the elimination of national leader...oh yes that is far more reasonable.
First rule of war is to understand the war you are in.  She in not convincing the Russian of Sweet FA by framing this thing as a "policy" issue.  My point is that this entire narrative is what is wrong within the western world right now. This is not some unfortunate divergence on a policy point, it is a war...we are in it.  It is a limited war.  It is a proxy war. But right now if Russia went "whoops, sorry" and magically pulled all its troops out deluded western politicians thinking along these lines would convince themselves it is ok to normalize with Russia the next weekend.
It is narrative that reinforces the idea that once this "unpleasantness" is over we can go back to a status quo.  A status quo that has sailed away into the history books and does no one any favours by trying to cling onto it.  We are currently negotiating a new status quo, violently.

Russia attacked Ukraine and after the debactaculer showing it has made so far must win decisively and outright at this point to come somewhere within shouting distance of the strategic goals Putin was set on achieving. Ukraine must simply survive as an independent state to achieve its own. 
How exactly has the Kharkiv offensive furthered Russia's strategic goals? How has giving up some low single digit percentage of turf in exchange for ruinous losses to the attacker significantly endangered Ukraine's? 
We both know the answers which is why it's obvious you are simply trolling.

In previous year they hit mostly power distributive sites and transformer sites of power plants. But turned out Ukrianian power specialists and State Emergency Service  managed to reapir damages very quickly and substitute destroyed transformers and other equipment - we got alot of this stuff from differnet countries. 
So likely Russian generals decided previous startegy turned out ineffective and dicided to hit objects of generation. This is an indicator Russia has no illusions more that they can grab Ukriane and use our power resourses, but on other hand power units are too vulnerable and can be repaired - after the war we have to rebuild most of thermal power plants. But this is also good sign - less coal and oil fuel generation - it a plus to ecology and opportunity to small nuclear power plants and solar/wind plants. 
But now becvause we lost most of our "maneuver generation" and forced to import electricity, our government has rised cost of electricity almost in 2 times, now we will pay 0,108 $ for kilowatt. 
Concerning today' strike here it statistic:
35 Kh-101/555 - 30 shot down
10 "Kalibr" - 4 shot down
1 "Iskander-K" - 1 shot down
3 Kh-59/69 - no intrceptions
4 "Iskander-M" - no interceptions
47 "Shahed" - 46 shot down
Total 35 missiles from 53 and 46 UAVs from 47