LongLeftFlank

My source for that item is passed away, sorry (yeah, how convenient. Comes of being an inquisitive lad drinking in seedy bars with old guys. Now, I am that old guy). ...I gather it was not unknown though for SOFs on both teams to send recon units onto the tundra in the 1950s-60s, but the practice had waned by the detente era. This raid was a throwback, but then so was Reagan. Those little games definitely included Canada -- the DEW line and all that stuff -- so you may have better sources than I at this point. ....'Sibelius' may be verifiable separately, via Norwegians (or Finns). He was the spetsnaz 'ski troops' guru for years and years; it was his trademark. I also dimly recall, separately, mention of a GRU 'Mozart', but I think the source is Suvorov/Razun, so.... extra salt with that one.

It appears to be a longstanding pattern for GRU-OON muckity mucks to give themselves hifallutin' classical callsigns, and not just Russian. So the Nazi reference of Wagner (actually it was his sister who was really the hardcore antisemite) may be incidental. 1. I am informed by someone who drank with him that the GRU lead in Beirut in the chaotic early 80s went by 'Pushkin' (took some serious chutzpah for a Russian to claim that particular name...). He was the guy who grabbed the daughters of the militia leader who ran the neighborhood where militants had taken the Soviet Embassy doctor hostage. He sent a video of them, naked and trembling, with the message: nothing has happened to them, yet..... All exchanged within 12 hours. 2. Also, the guy who ran the spetsnaz incursion into the Alaska North Slope in Feb 1981 to test whether Reagan's tough guy rhetoric was in earnest (the team was detected by Innuit hunters and Alaska Air Guard napalmed them: message received / message sent!) went by 'Sibelius'. FWIW.

The town-then-forest fights in the Seviersky Donetz valley are taking a toll. There's clearly a reason the UA didn't simply retreat to the river line. BREAKING: unconfirmed but widely reported... Occupied Stakhanov (Kadiivka), Luhansk region. the dead Russians at the Pobeda stadium - while there is different information about the number. Conversations go from 150 to 300 That's a heavy blow, if true. A BTG of Russia's best soldiers, poof!

1. Mine warfare is freeking ugly. 2. Bonus question: gee whiz PopMech journalism aside, is anyone using infantry grenade launchers to knock down the smaller hover drones? I know there have been 40mm airburst rounds since the 1970s (don't know about Bloc 30mm). ...And I mean, ordinary GLs, from thump guns and M203s to AGLs, not some fiddly hi-tech toy that could cost as much as a MANPADS. https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/05/grenade-launchers-might-be-the-ultimate-weapon-they-can-fire-drones/ Curious what people may know about this....

слышу голос от параши

Sevierodonetsk. In spite of widely reported statements from Zelenskyy of 'fierce street battles', it looks like in 4 days, the Russians have mainly continued to lob huge volumes of shells into a shattered city the UA has already largely given up (for a second time), while meanwhile conducting operations to push UA rearguards out of the towns east and south, reaching the airport. None of this is terribly decisive in terms of either reducing or isolating the key UA fortress in the chemical works. The Russians have lost another week, in essence and it is diverting their ebbing combat power from fronts where they might be more likely to achieve a meaningful breakthrough. Devastation. Pano views of the city, posted by the regional leader. Bit of a curious statement by Zelenskyy, not seemingly supported by the actual military situation... but of course he needs to beat the drums for urgent foreign assistance.

Wow, very interesting thanks for clarifying! Aside from the 'deniability' aspect, duplication of functions with parallel chains of command is a hallmark of authoritarian systems. A source of checks and balances in case of attempted coup, or simply an artifact of bureaucratic turf wars. Not just authoritarian states either, for example the location and manning of US defence and security establishments around Washington DC is quite interesting (we got a brief glimpse of that structure after 6 Jan 2021) **** Also, re the ongoing European 'Axis of Weasels', this from Arestovych, via Dmitri: https://wartranslated.com/day-105-june-8-summary-of-arestovych-and-feygin-daily-broadcast/ European Commission stands with , , Baltics, , , supports in defeating , removing its ability to threaten neighbours. Old Europe is split into Euro-Atlantists, for unity of all countries surrounding Atlantic Ocean. Continentalists want to balance and anglo-saxon influence. They have fallen for Putin’s fake reality, as it matches their political tasks and goals. Saying that Putin has made a mistake (rather than admitting a crime). army will not allow to play games with .

This wonderful young soldier isn't noticeably different from a kid. God keep him well! "There are only two of us here, on the front line." OP. **** UA commanders frankly endorse the view of their troops: being shelled for days wrecks forces, even where it does not kill then.

Back on the 'Collapse: How Soon?' topic, astute Chinese OSINT analyst Suyi had a few more observations in the 'scraping the barrel' category: Yanking forces from Kaliningrad, as well as the Far East. And he has grasped the true nature of the attrition battle, as we have here. Westerners though just can't give up the 'Russia has endless manpower' meme....

Russian sources are claiming a crossing east of the Sviaty Hory massif, at Tetyanivka. Rumours of a pontoon appear unfounded, so it's likely infantry. But they need to be ejected asap. fwiw... The Ukes have also had weeks to mine the hell out of this stretch of riverbank, which they've known would eventually become a front.

Wagner PMC spetsnaz-for-hire also operating up here. https://mobile.twitter.com/AggregateOsint/status/1534771959220797441 Interestingly, all through human history, mercenaries tend *not* to be usable in high intensity / high casualty infantry combat situations like MOUT or forest combat, for the very reason that you can't spend your money if you're dead. ...If you enlist in a foreign legion type unit, a la Gurkhas or Étranger, that's different, you're a foreign enlistee in a regular armed unit, usually under local officers. And when mercs do accept high risk taskings, these are usually one-offs requiring specialised skills (sappers, frogman, mountaineering, etc.). And special operators tend to plan such ops so that it's other folks who do the bulk of the dying. As my SEAL buddy once said, if you're still in active contact after the second clip, you've just become a Marine.

Meanwhile, the stage continues to be set for the Russian Monte Cassino. It took Ivan 10 days and reinforcements from 90th GTD to secure the (flatter) woodlands on the north bank, and now they get to sit under nonstop fire from the Cave Monastery and its massif on the south bank. Even in the drone era, these kinds of vantage points matter. The UA OPs are doubtless up on the hilltops, but I'm sure that won't stop the orcs blasting these beautiful monasteries to rubble. They withdrew, that was baked in when Yarova fell. I doubt a single Ukrainian soldier was left behind. And 'city' is a bit of a generous description. This district is mainly a bunch of woodland resorts in a national park, very scenic but not much economic or logistical significance. If RU can somehow take the massif, that could well unhinge the Sloviansk defences at long last, and give credible form to a 'northern pincer' against Donbas. But that requires a contested river crossing overwatched by high ground, a mountain assault (did I mention the caves part?), or else a breakthough via that 'Sherwood Forest' place into Bohorodychne. And once more, the Ukrainians are forcing the Russians to attack straight into the worst, least tank-friendly terrain they can find, at the end of tenuous supply routes. Sun Tzu is smiling. And whatever are this war's version of the Black Tulips continue to go home.... And here we were (I was, anyway) thinking the summer war on the 'steppes' of Southern Ukraine would be largely like Kursk, mainly grasslands or sunflower fields and undulating hills, perfect tank country....

Having been stymied since April by the stubborn 'cork in the bottle' at Dovhenke, 35 CAA continues to seek a 'way around' the long contested Izium-Sloviansk route. [DefMon3] In the same area units from 3rd Motor Rifle Division together with possibly 5th Guards Tank Division, Special forces, 11th Army Corps and some units from 106th GAD are trying to advance on the Dibrovne-Bohorodychne line with the help of heavy artillery. 'Sherwood Forest'! ...This last point is why DefMon is concerned about the Russian bridge building north of Oskil. If they can't supply this latest push, it fizzles too. Well, maybe it fizzles anyway, but don't depend on that.... **** I think when we start doing CM:Slava Ukraine! scenarios postwar, there's going to be room for a whole Apr-June campaign in this sector south of Izyum, between the UA partisan rearguard actions around Oskil dam, their stubborn redoubt at Dovhenke, the failed 'end runs' around Sulihyvka, and now perhaps this latest sinkhole for Russian men and matériel....

Yes, Ilia Ponomarenko's Twitter feed is also worth checking from time to time., ....Speaking of Opsec, the anti-DSS security layers on the Kyiv Independent website are pretty stringent, for obvious reasons.

No, but thanks for your efforts. Something more like this, although it isn't the image I was looking for (and the book isn't with me here in Asia).

In the attrition game, if tubes/rails (wear parts) are the firehose nozzles and ammo production is the water, then the road and rail LOCs are the hoses. Which point ought to be being aggressively cut or squeezed off, by Gray Eagles or SOF action? Take all the time you need.... Or, in the immortal words of Oddball: It's still up! ..... No it ain't. P.S. I think the Ukrainian Army is cribbing Oddball's wardrobe. Гав гав вай! P.P.S. One of my very favourite books as a geeky kid (yeah, you can all relate) was Gene Gurney's "the War in the Air" large format photojournal. I would check it out from the library for months at a time. (And to my eternal joy, I finally acquired a copy in 2015 from an antiquarian in Naples, of all places! my daughter was even interested iin the photos). Anyhoo, there was this one great drawing -- infographic we'd call it now -- I think reproduced from a newspaper, showing the concept of air interdiction in northern France. Victory Through Air Power! all that. Alas, it doesn't seem to live on the Interwebz.

Welcome back, brother @Haiduk ! We are glad to see you posting again, we hope all is well.

These are the truly dangerous ones. Like a certain Austrian corporal, and a Corsican before him, he has an idée fixe of his civilisation or zeitgeist or Great Soul or wevs. And openings for such dangerous people tend to arise in a vacuum when the existing elites who would otherwise mock and marginalize these clown(s), or else put them down like mad dogs, is widely discredited or overthrown. Which frankly, could be happening in Russia soon. (There may be a few of those minds in this community too, but unlike Girkin, they largely confine their energies to gaming, LARPing and sh*tposting instead of trying to actualise it in RL). ...And while no reality will ever measure up to that mythical invincibility, Girkin is sure as hell gonna die chasing the dream. And he will try to take his compatriots along for the ride, assuming they're (a) insecure and resentful enough not to realise they have better options (b) the ancien régime is discredited, exiled or headless (1790s).... And while on the face of it, he seems like a extraordinarily intelligent man, and likely is on many dimensions, when his basic intellectual wiring is so wrong, he makes an extremely dangerous kind of fanatic. To quote @JasonC, again..... Effective intelligence equals cleverness minus self-importance, and Hitler's was negative because the second term was infinity. But at least half of the 35+ million European dead had to perish before that became evident. **** Galeev, my other instapundit of choice, discusses the Tsushima parallels (btw, he also declared Russia would lose hugely from Day One). This post dates 2 March.

Ok, this article is worth it for gems like this: Antiauthoritarian platoon is combined with anarchists of different backgrounds, antifascists and football hooligans. It is not a secret that relations between different constituents of this body were not always easy. https://www.militantwire.com/p/defensive-war-as-an-act-of-popular?s=w ...I'll be deeply disappointed if they don't have moustachios and fling round bombs Splitters!

Redeployment of combat capable forces.... [Thread] 61st Naval infantry brigade appears to have moved up from Avdiivka to Popasna, heading west. Can also spot 76th GAAD in the video heading east. [Thread] 61 Naval Bde had some casualities at the begining of the war, but was re-deployed to Avdiivka. It seems they are sending more units in this front (or possibly replacing other Naval Bdes losses). More....

As I think you know, this guy has been pretty much discredited by now as a fabulist and fantasist, driving traffic to himself cuz social media. It doesn't make everything he breathlessly retweets wrong of course, but when I see his stuff, I generally seek confirmation.

Imagine you are already crucified. Do not move.

Different Gerasimov? It's Mordvichev whom I think was declared fatally wounded in Mariupol, but was then subsequently seen sucking up to the TikTok Imam on one of his photo op visits. ....Wait, this is all in that BBC piece @Kinophile posted just above.

From the pro-RU side of the hill, with love. Not. Thermobaric rockets at short range. Hmm, like Azovstal was some kind of brilliant Russian victory, sport? I think that's the general plan, actually (hostages, yeah ok, sure), whenever the Ivans get around to being able to attack it. And if you should get through that, there's the refinery complex at Novodruzhesk, with more bunkers and tunnels.... But wait, that's not all! Or else a few thousand sappers could bleed whatever's left of the Russian infantry white in these various Rust Belt steel mazes for freeking months. It's not like they haven't had time to prep this entire zone or anything. Why would the UA yield this zone at all? Fear of a 'cauldron?' So they can simply get shelled by Grads out in the open country in front of Siviersk?

By the fourth month of the war, the boots had worn out... ....the Made In China boots? Maybe this is a new Trent Telenko area 2. 22 minute Ukrainian doco in link (mostly in English) with Foreign Legion fighters. The interview with the unit CO early on has the most military substance, including some remarks that a number of Americans bailed because they couldn't adjust to being on the outgunned side. It's mainly human interest after that.