sburke

One small problem with Putin's declarations. The ... err SMO has been expanded... to Belgorod.

Following the exposure in New Zealand, it seems Russian disinformation is facing additional challenges. Large-scale disinformation campaign about Russia’s war in Ukraine exposed in France (yahoo.com) Fake internet pages impersonating media and government sites, as well as hundreds of fake URLs on social networks are spreading Russian war propaganda, says a report by France’s Service for Surveillance and Protection Against Foreign Digital Interference (VIGINUM). There were 355 active web domains publishing pro-Russian content or masquerading as publications from Europe, the USA, and the Middle East, from June 2022 to May 2023. In France, 58 fake articles were discovered in four media, including the influential newspapers Le Monde and Figaro. In one case, a site resembling the French Foreign Ministry wrote about a fake “security tax” to help Ukraine.

it is all relative. For Russia this is big. When you have little to celebrate you make the most of what you've got.

The US is sending depleted-uranium ammo to Ukraine capable of piercing Russian tank armour, report says (yahoo.com) The US is set to approve depleted-uranium tank shells for Ukraine, the WSJ said. The shells are capable of blowing up Russian tank armor. There were doubts over providing the shells for environmental and health reasons. The US is sending depleted-uranium shells to Ukraine that are capable of penetrating Russian tank armor, the Wall Street Journal reported. For several months the Biden administration has been debating whether to provide the shells to Ukraine following concerns over their environmental and health impacts, the outlet reported. But an administration official said that there were now no major obstacles to providing the ammunition.

Russia comes up with new ways to cover up its losses in Ukraine (yahoo.com) Upon a request from the Russian Defence Ministry, the government of the Republic of Khakassia, a federal subject of the Russian Federation, has ceased publishing obituaries concerning soldiers killed in Ukraine to diminish the Russian army’s death count. Source: Sibir.Realii (Siberia Reality), a Radio Liberty project, citing sources in the Khakassian government Details: A source told journalists that the Khakassian government’s press service no longer publishes information about soldiers and Wagner Group mercenaries killed in Ukraine because independent Russia media are using this information to establish the Russian army’s death count. On 26 April 2023, the Khakassian government published the last obituary for a soldier killed in Ukraine – Dmitry Ivanov, a Supreme Council representative who fought with the Wagner Group near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. There is a large discrepancy between open-source data and the information provided by the Russian Defence Ministry, which has not disclosed Russia’s total losses since September 2022. At the time, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu claimed that only 5,937 Russian soldiers had been killed in Ukraine. Meanwhile, BBC Russia and Mediazona journalists reported, based on open-source data, that over 25,000 Russian soldiers had been killed. Journalists believe that the most conservative estimates of Russia’s losses in Ukraine indicate 50,000 soldiers had been killed, while the total number of military personnel who can no longer fight due to injury or who have been killed is at least 225,000.

lol c'mon guys, start a new thread on what rounds size is best and stopping power. The UA isn't using those.

i dunno, seems offense and defense could get quite blurred.

Or just give them a set of GPS coordinates. Identifying a target shouldn't be any different on "offense" versus "defense" Essentially you are just saying "deploy minefield at these coordinates. So now a major artery for the enemy is getting interdicted.

couldn't you just as well us them on offense? Have all your AI gopher/pig rooting UAV mines slip into enemy territory and just wreck the backfield?

then we'll have AI controlled units that are designated to keep a road section clear so they go hunting the mines. I think I'll not be overly excited at CM:Watch the Ai do all the stuff while you play minecraft or something

Funny cause given the same situation the RA has been unable to do as much in 8 months as the UA has done in a week. I'd slow down and catch a breath. You'll be needing to make a lot more excuses for Russian failure over the next weeks and months, no sense in wearing yourself out now. Another possible reason for the lack of fires. Russia bans use of large quantities of ammunition due to self-detonation – General Staff (yahoo.com)

oooh yeah One of my favorite scenarios is Circle the Wagons. It isn't the "slow game of recon, suppress, and advance that is MOUT" but rather a wild bare knuckle fight.

Kadyrov mercenaries sign contract that Prigozhin refused to sign with Russian Defence Ministry on camera (yahoo.com)

Send Budlight! Putin will freak out if all his troops turn gay!

well well, been a while since we've added one to the list.

Yeah it is still early but I think I am distinctly hearing creaking noises from that shoddily built Russian house. freakin months of Russian gains measured in inches per body and in a week we are starting a list of liberated settlements. My bet is Russian high command is studiously avoiding being near windows.

Public Radio Journalist Busted Adding Secret Pro-Putin Propaganda to Stories (yahoo.com) The head of New Zealand’s public radio station apologized on Monday after it was found that a journalist had been inserting “pro-Kremlin garbage” into news stories about Russia and Ukraine which were published on the broadcaster’s website. Paul Thompson, the chief executive of the publicly-funded Radio New Zealand (RNZ), said around 250 stories had already been forensically checked for Russian propaganda since they became aware of the issue on Friday and that 16 had been found that required corrections and editor’s notes. The digital reporter allegedly responsible for the embarrassing incident has been placed on leave, and Thompson said thousands more articles would need to be reviewed for problems.

yeah this is fairly old if the same story I posted a while back.

I can only imagine the look on Xi’s face on hearing that.

US Congress introduces resolution demanding provision of ATACMS to Ukraine (yahoo.com) On Friday, members of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs representing the Democratic and Republican parties announced a resolution calling on President Joe Biden's administration to hand over ATACMS long-range missiles to Ukraine. Source: European Pravda. According to Republican Michael McCall, the co-author of the Resolution, and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, if the United States does not provide Ukraine with all the necessary weapons, it will help prolong the war. "The success of the Ukrainian counteroffensive is directly related to the military assistance provided by the United States and our allies. Therefore, it is extremely disappointing that the administration is delaying billions of dollars of military funding, which could be immediately transferred to Ukraine and in turn help its Armed Forces significantly change the situation on the battlefield," he said. In the document, the decisions of the governments of the UK and France to transfer Storm Shadow and SCALP-EG long-range missiles, respectively, both with a range of 250 kilometres, are mentioned. "The United States and its allies jointly own thousands of ATACMS missiles that could be transferred to Ukraine," the draft resolution said, stating that Russia's current dominance in long-range weapons "forces Ukrainian forces to fight at a much greater disadvantage". If passed, the House of Representatives will call on the United States to "immediately transfer to Ukraine a sufficient number of ATACMS to accelerate Ukraine's victory in Russia's unprovoked aggressive war, while maintaining the combat readiness of the US military".

Russian army conscripts increasingly disobeying orders: offenders sent to assault Ukrainian positions (yahoo.com) somehow this made me think of this Kim Jong Un orders North Koreans to stop killing themselves after number of suicides skyrocketed (yahoo.com)

and the long term damage to Russia's economy continues Russia's central bank sounds alarms on the economy as the falling ruble and record labor shortage add inflationary pressures (yahoo.com)

Zelenskyy says 'counteroffensive, defensive actions' taking place in Ukraine (yahoo.com) KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that counteroffensive and defensive actions are underway against Russian forces, asserting that his top commanders are in a “positive” mindset as their troops engaged in intense fighting along the front line. The Ukrainian leader, at a Kyiv news conference alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, responded to a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin's comment a day earlier that Ukraine's counteroffensive had started — and Ukrainian forces were taking “significant losses.” Zelenskyy said that “counteroffensive, defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine. I will not speak about which stage or phase they are in.” Top Ukrainian authorities have stopped short of announcing a full-blown counteroffensive was underway, though some Western analysts have said fiercer fighting and reported use of reserve troops suggests it was. “I am in touch with our commanders of different directions every day,” he added, citing the names of five of Ukraine’s top military leaders. “Everyone is positive. Pass this on to Putin.” ... Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Friday that the epicenter of the fighting has been in the east, particularly in the Donetsk region, and cited “heavy battles” in Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka. Valerii Shershen, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s armed forces in Zaporizhzhia, told Radio Liberty that they were searching for weaknesses in Russia’s defense in that region, to the west. Ukraine's nuclear energy agency Energoatom said the last operating reactor at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, had been placed in “cold shutdown” mode. That's a process in which all control rods are inserted into the reactor core to stop the nuclear fission reaction and generation of heat and pressure. The plant's other five reactors already were in cold shutdown amid concerns about the plant's exposure to the fighting. Energoatom said in a statement late Friday that there was “no direct threat” to the Zaporizhzhia plant because of the breach of the Kakhovka dam further down the Dnieper River, which has forced thousands of people to flee flooding and also sharply reduced water levels in a reservoir used to help cool the facility. Water levels in the Kakhovka reservoir, which feed the Zaporizhzhia plant, remained stable on Saturday, Energoatom said.

or just rank stupidity. I'm kind of past the point of wondering about Russian motivations. They have done so many things beyond the pale of what is considered decent human behavior that I just don't think I can attribute what I'd consider rational behavior to their thought process.

Putin has postponed his annual marathon phone-in as Ukraine starts re-taking territory in its counteroffensive: report (yahoo.com) Vladimir Putin's annual phone-in has been postponed, Kommersant reported. The "Direct Line" dial-in sessions are meant to allow Russians to directly question the president. A Kremlin source told the outlet the cancellation was linked to the Ukraine war. Russian President Vladimir Putin has postponed his annual marathon phone-in after Ukraine launched its counteroffensive to reclaim territory, Russian media reported. The "Direct Line" phone-in usually runs for hours and involves Putin fielding questions from ordinary Russian citizens about a range of social and policy issues. It has been going since 2001, with Putin missing the event last year for the first time in 18 years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine began to suffer setbacks. He also missed the event in 2004. A Kremlin source told Russian daily Kommersant that the 2023 event would likely be postponed until November or December, and linked the decision to the situation in Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have launched a counteroffensive to drive back the Russian invasion. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media agency Tass that no date had been set for the event. If held in December, the phone-in would be timed for just before the likely launch of Putin's 2024 presidential campaign.