Offshoot

Ironically (and aptly), plastic fruit in a bowel would look more like real fruit than actual fruit by that stage, but would still stink nonetheless.

The article I linked to about the Ukrainian medical system was written by Ukrainians, based on interviews with Ukrainians, and published by a Ukrainian media outlet. We shouldn't confuse the Soviet civilian medical system with the military one. And we shouldn't assume that design and application are the same things. The main aspect of the article, however, isn't that the soldiers aren't getting treated but that they aren't getting discharged or paid due compensation as a result of bureaucracy, corruption, and inefficiency. It is easy for the system not to buckle under massive casualties when it denies those casualties exist in the first place. We have also heard plenty of first hand reports by Russian personnel about how they receive no treatment for wounds and are thrown back into the fight.

It seems Ukraine still struggles under legacy Soviet systems in some areas. This article on the failures of their military medical system is a hard dose of reality - 'Abandon all hope:' Ukraine’s wounded warriors compare military medical system to the Inferno

A few days to go to Putin's election and enemy tanks are prowling around inside Russia. Not sure I'd be curtain twitching with that thing outside though, but good on her for uploading it.

Six hours later and this twitter post has been deleted. From the link still showing (https://t.co/DmPZ389pGD) is this rebuttal

It looks like there was a smaller explosion at the waterline just before the big one - I wonder what that was about? And just before the guy turns away you can see what looks like the wake of maybe another drone (just above the orange rope), so this probably wasn't the end of the story.

Ukraine is claiming another couple of Russian aircraft down, bringing the total claimed to 15. This is obviously contentious without confirmation, but this news about no Russian aircraft in the east of Ukraine for 4 hours for the first time since the war started is interesting if true. UK MoD saying that the Russian A-50 fleet is likely grounded pending investigation into what led to a second loss.

This isn't the first mention I have see of war weariness in Russia, but I assume this guy moves in different circles to journalists ( https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/24/war-and-peace-russia-soldiers-ukraine )

Very likely they have not heard these stories. I'm guessing your average westerner also knows very little about the nitty gritty of what is going on. Given India's relationship with Russia and based anecdotally on comments by Indians I have seen on various social media, I think a lot of Indians will have a different perception of Russia to ours. A Canadian family with a youtube channel called Countryside Acres moved to Russia last year because they believe they are freer there to express their bigoted views but ran into some problems with banking rules. They posted a video complaining about this but rapidly deleted it and then issued a grovelling response saying they weren't really upset with Russia. Freedom!

What is so hard to believe? There is no shortage of stories of unscrupulous Indian "agents" scamming people by offering them lies about overseas positions. My country has deported victims of such scams, Russia puts them in front of missiles. It is a bit of a surprise that some of them managed to be discharged.

3rd brigade in Avdiivka

I have seen elsewhere that Ukraine has prepared fortified positions on the Novobakhmutivka-Novoselivka-Karlivka line so fighting in the villages to the east of that is probably to blunt Russian momentum. It just depends how much territory Ukraine is prepared to cede and at what cost.

If 10 is correct it is interesting that they weren't running with a full complement of specialists by the looks of it (only 5-6 instead of 10-11). I read somewhere that Ukraine had claimed Russia operates nine A50s in rotation around Ukraine, so it's possible they were already suffering personnel shortages, especially after losing an A50 in January. It can only be worse now.

This is the best article on the A-50 situation I saw (it was written after the mid-January downing of one) - https://breakingdefense.com/2024/01/after-historic-shoot-down-why-russia-will-struggle-to-replace-its-a-50-aewc-plane/ According to it, the loss of the specialist personnel could be as significant as the loss of the plane.

I do wonder how much impact the Ukrainian drone offensive on Russian soil has led to Russian AA jitteriness. How you could misidentify an A50 for a drone or missile though is anyone's guess, so what would these guys have thought they were actually firing at?

By order of Russian MoD, we are tired of not being believed when we say friendly fire downed our planes. Therefore, if you launch AA rockets at target you must video it and upload it to internet so we can prove to decadent and ineffectual west we shot ours down.

Yes, that one, where they link to Ukrainian Pravda, which says "on February 23, Ukrainian defense forces shot down a Russian A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft" - February 23, not a week or two ago.

How can he be a week or two late when the plane came down less than a day ago? You seem to be referring to the A50 that was shot down in mid-January (and an Il-22 damaged). This is a second one that has come down and rumors are still swirling. Talking about missing basic things...

English has ****headedness but although it can mean stupidity or being obnoxious, it doesn't really convey the idea of deliberately making decisions that are stupid. I had suggested cock up but a cock up could happen by accident rather than being a deliberate act of stupidity. There is another compound word that includes elements of the direct translation and according to the Urban Dictionary means "an extreme degree of nonsense, especially when coming from an authoritative figure" (so pretty bang on in the case of officers lining soldiers up near the front line) - s**tf**kery.

Chornobaivka - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Chornobaivka_attacks

In British English you might call it a "cock up" (ruin something as a result of incompetence or inefficiency) but it includes a dose of British understatement so perhaps doesn't capture the magnitude of the Russian word - "massive cock up" might rectify that.

With regard to being open about Russian methods, a series of billboards in Tallinn reminds people about Russkiy Mir in a dramatic, creative and in-your-face way. Gallery: Exhibition showing destroyed public space on display in Tallinn

Some analysis on the Battle of Irpin River (Feb-March 2022) by the British Army Review (54 page PDF). As well as the historical analysis it looks like it would be valuable for campaign designers. Battle of Irpin River I found it on Mick Ryan's twitter

Looking at my dictionary it is more like scourges (pests/nuisances).

He is apparently alive and back fighting. He commented in this reddit post ( https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/1aqo3gp/if_you_watched_the_combat_footage_from_chosen/