sburke

worth a read Amazon.com: The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin eBook : Gessen, Masha: Kindle Store

gotta do your recon to get a good idea of enemy capabilities and reaction times. appetizers... they help make a good meal great.

seems like the Russians are stuck in a game of "whack-a-mole" in Belgorod where they don't actually get to really whack anything... other than their own towns.

Very mixed information/observations in article but some funny comments about Russian air defense capabilities. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/ukraine-waging-shadow-war-russia-050000960.html

they kind of are, via proxy.

Zelenskyy says Ukraine is ready for its counteroffensive but warns that 'a large number of soldiers will die' (yahoo.com)

Ukrainian drone operator dodges Russian TOR-2M missile, then catches up to it — incredible video (yahoo.com)

not surprising. Building a western style NCO force requires a lot. - Mindset, support from the military institution, training, more training, still more training and a lot of time.

The Russians on the receiving end will care.

a TurdPutin

or as we might say today Russia is a plague infected rat, wrapped in a used Depends, stuffed into the rotting corpse of a Russian soldier left on the fields of Bakhmut.

there comes a point where you are beating a dead horse. Who cares, he is president now during the war and doing a good job. Would I prefer a younger president, sure. Are the odds I'll get one this week high... nope. Dark Brandon is rocking the war effort and that is fine with me.

yeah there are a lot of folks involved and yeah a lot of support from congress. However the Biden admin is who made the call to release info to unmask Russia's preparations to invade so like it or not you have to give the man some credit. And I would rather trip than have this embarrassing moment...

it'll be a fun day when/if Putin shoves him out a window.

damn, now those poor spies may end up getting sent to the meat grinder.

Russian energy giant Gazprom's private security force was deployed to fight in Ukraine, report says (yahoo.com) Russia's state-owned energy company Gazprom now supplies more than just natural gas. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is actively helping provide manpower to the frontlines of Russia's war on Ukraine. First authorized by the Kremlin to do so in early February, the energy giant has spent recent months establishing private security companies and recruiting additional troops for Russia's war, often fighting under the directive of the Defense Ministry. Though the security firms were founded on the pretext of defending Russia's energy sector, recruits ended up in Ukraine weeks later, WSJ reported. Some in the group, made up of former soldiers and company security personnel, were forcibly recruited, adding they they were trained at a Russian base, and shipped off to Bakhmut, the area of eastern Ukraine that has seen the fiercest fighting in recent months. "I want to tell my colleagues at Gazprom: Don't go to Ukraine, stay at home," a former Gazprom security guard, who was sent to Ukraine and was injured, said in a video obtained by WSJ.

wow.. wake up.. login and.. wtf?! are we still talking about the 20,000 Ukrainian bomber raid on Moscow? Who started WW2, whether Graham is going to open his pie hole and say something incredibly stupid... again? I would ask if it was a slow day but @DesertFox post above is pretty intense. Now THAT is a drone strike.

@billbindc can testify to that graffiti appearing on a specific bridge on the capitol beltway.

Russia and Saudi Arabia are at odds after a flood of Russian oil supply pushed the commodity's price below a key break-even level needed to fund Saudi projects (yahoo.com) Russia's pumping of cheap oil into the market is helping put downward pressure on prices for the commodity, and Saudi Arabia isn't happy as oil prices stay below a key break-even level, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The report found that Saudi Arabia's efforts to curtail production and push oil prices higher earlier this year have been undermined by Moscow's flood of cheap oil supply, and that the oil-rich nation has expressed its anger at Russia for not following through on its pledge to throttle production, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. "Saudi officials have complained to senior Russian officials and asked them to respect the agreed cuts," the report said.

Dude, you almost owed me a monitor

didn't they already take those for the med kits?

nah, just get the phone guy to forward incoming calls from the SA gov't to the Russian MOD. We phone techs are ever so helpful.

Sabotage suspected by Russian media as fuel tanker cars derail near Ulyanovsk in Russia (yahoo.com) Russian media report that the derailment of the cars, which were carrying gas and gasoline, could have been an act of sabotage. Traces of damage to the railroad tracks were found at the scene. No official comments have been made available yet. In total, two railroad cars derailed, one of which overturned on its side.

flat out going off as if this was the London terror bombing reborn is a mite bit premature as well.

yeah no. Actually, making a different point. The psychological effect on Moscow is reflected in your reaction. Ergo for Ukraine - mission accomplished. This wasn't a terror bombing. The residential buildings weren't "attacked" rather the drones collided with them. The explosives didn't detonate. Whatever the target was, it wasn't civilians. So unless you are saying Ukraine has no legitimate reason to target locations in Moscow, I don't get your point other than. "Oh my god the Ukrainians did... whatever ... " the freakout is now.