Seedorf81

A little bit of somewhat positive news:
230 Ukrainian prisoners of war coming home, in exchange for 248 Russians.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67872417

When you divide what this thing cost by the three hours it lasted in actual use the cost per hour must be spectacular.

The Russians on the receiving end of this must have annoyed someone.
!!!!!
Does anybody have feel for the credibility of this data? It is priceless information if it is real, and they keep updating it.
Read Dmitri every day!

Those comics are NOT manuals. EVERYTHING the military does has an associated manual for it. Those "comics" merely contained hints on how to use the system better. My Army units would receive a box of them every few months, but we NEVER used them for training or maintenance. We would use the associated Technical or Field Manual.
 

A little bit of somewhat positive news:
230 Ukrainian prisoners of war coming home, in exchange for 248 Russians.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67872417

A little bit of somewhat positive news:
230 Ukrainian prisoners of war coming home, in exchange for 248 Russians.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67872417

sanctions can be effective IF properly applied.
WW2 is not a good example, increased German production was a bit of an illusion. As Tooze pointed out, it was achieved in part by a reallocation of production, i.e. fighter AC and AFVs at the expense of other stuff and general lowering of quality, i.e. partly completed ACs booked as produced and general shoddiness. Speer "cooked the books" to make it appear as though production was increasing much faster than it actually was.
The current problem is that the sanctions against Russia are also a bit of an illusion. EU, US, Canada and a few other countries have sanctions in place, but most of the world, including major economies like China and India have no sanctions in place, so even though in theory U.S. technology cannot be supplied to Russia, there are many ways it can get there indirectly/illegally, no matter what parties are saying. For example, China has officially said it would "respect" U.S. sanctions, but you have increasing anecdotal evidence that Chinese made parts are appearing in Russian weapons.

Brian Berletic / Tony Carlucci is a well-known propagandist and conspiracy theorist who has been blogging about geopolitics for years.
On X he closes shoulders with some of the most vile Moscowite "journos" thst bring the truth about the "Western world conspiracy" etc. 
His coverage of Syria was especially vile, blaming the civilian victims of Russian and Syrian warcrimes on the USA.
Completely ignorable individual.

Just to show how stunningly horrible the numbers of deaths in Israel-Gaza conflict are, I calculated what those numbers would be for the USA with their 340 million population. Israel has 9 million, Gaza 2 million.
 
7 october Hamas-attack killed 1200 Israeli's, so that would be 45.300 Americans. (FIFTEEN times all deaths from 9/11/2001).
Gaza Palestinian deaths so far 12.000, so that would be (340:2x12.000=) 2.040.000 American dead.
 
 

Looking back at history, I don't think he really has to worry much about that. Stalin killed untold millions without anyone able to stand up to him, Hitler kept feeding Germans into the grinder until the enemy was knocking on the door of his bunker, and then there was also WW1 where there was a bit of a protest brewing in the trenches at one point, but then that was cracked down on and the war continued.
When it comes to Putin's war, I think many of the guys in the meat waves don't even realise just how suicidal it is until it is too late. They probably know it's going to be dangerous, but they still have some kind of idea that they are regular soldiers fighting in a regular war, where you go to attack positions and have at least some chance of surviving. But when they see what it's really like, it's too late - they don't get back to tell the tale, and then the next wave is formed up behind them using fresh meat. So morale is kept going and there's never any substantial buildup of disgruntled troops in Russian lines.

think I posted this before but I think it is worth re-posting for this conversation. In the West we think of Chechnya when we think of a candidate to break away from Russia, because we remember the events that ironically enough helped Putin take power.
Another area to watch is Bashkortostan. I doubt most people in Europe or North America have even heard of this area. GTBT did an informative video covering this topic recently.
 

Ukrainian soldiers began to receive Tsukorok (sugar) drone detectors. This detector scans the radio air and, based on the characteristic frequency at which a certain type of drone is controlled, determines that there is a drone nearby and you need to hide.
Allegedly, this device is inexpensive, and its effectiveness has already been tested by soldiers on the front line.

Pushing five times as hard just gets you five times the casualties.

On question number two:
Any plane that wants to drop paratroopers gets blown out of the sky before they even reach dropzones.

Second ship was old training ship UTS-150, Russian media reported it is partially flooded, which I take to mean the masts are sticking out of the water.
https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/strike-on-feodosia-media-identified-another-1703632350.html
 

Dutch ministry of defence:
18 f-16's will be delivered to Ukraine as soon as export-permits, and logistical situation in Ukraine for their use, are dealt with.
More are likely to follow.
(Zelesky confirmed the deal after call with Dutch prime-minister.)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/22/russia-ukraine-war-latest-news-updates?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-658599678f08abff3716b7ef

Dutch ministry of defence:
18 f-16's will be delivered to Ukraine as soon as export-permits, and logistical situation in Ukraine for their use, are dealt with.
More are likely to follow.
(Zelesky confirmed the deal after call with Dutch prime-minister.)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/22/russia-ukraine-war-latest-news-updates?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-658599678f08abff3716b7ef

Dutch ministry of defence:
18 f-16's will be delivered to Ukraine as soon as export-permits, and logistical situation in Ukraine for their use, are dealt with.
More are likely to follow.
(Zelesky confirmed the deal after call with Dutch prime-minister.)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/22/russia-ukraine-war-latest-news-updates?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-658599678f08abff3716b7ef

Dutch ministry of defence:
18 f-16's will be delivered to Ukraine as soon as export-permits, and logistical situation in Ukraine for their use, are dealt with.
More are likely to follow.
(Zelesky confirmed the deal after call with Dutch prime-minister.)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/22/russia-ukraine-war-latest-news-updates?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-658599678f08abff3716b7ef

Dutch ministry of defence:
18 f-16's will be delivered to Ukraine as soon as export-permits, and logistical situation in Ukraine for their use, are dealt with.
More are likely to follow.
(Zelesky confirmed the deal after call with Dutch prime-minister.)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/22/russia-ukraine-war-latest-news-updates?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-658599678f08abff3716b7ef

Dutch ministry of defence:
18 f-16's will be delivered to Ukraine as soon as export-permits, and logistical situation in Ukraine for their use, are dealt with.
More are likely to follow.
(Zelesky confirmed the deal after call with Dutch prime-minister.)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/22/russia-ukraine-war-latest-news-updates?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-658599678f08abff3716b7ef

It seems to me that most people forget how humanly normal it is for the Ukrainians to be war-weary and somber, and to even question a positive outcome. But it is almost certainly TEMPORARY!
It is not only the longevity of the war, and the corresponding fear and stress that goes along with it, that creates this grim atmosphere. In my experience hope that doesn't get materialized tends to weigh heavier on most people's morale, than physical pain, fear, disappointment and other adversities.
And in this war the average hope before the summer offensive was very high, perhaps - in retrospect of course, unrealisticly high. The unexpected defeat of the Russian invasion, the sinking of the Moskva and the further humiliation of the Black Sea Fleet, the Wagner-uprising, the endless amount of video's and reports of exploding Russian vehicles and dead and dying Russian soldiers, and the large number of countries that gave material and/or financial support (Which in hindsight gave a false impression of the usefull amount of support. Ten countries donating 10 -20 tanks each sounds nice, but creates unrealistic hope.), all contributed to an understandable belief in succes.
In my opinion a sudden realisation that thing aren't nearly as rosy as expected, weighs people down. Mostly because rational thinking cannot cope very well with accepting the fact that our expectations were too high.
It just takes time. Whether the situation on the frontline stays as it is, or even when there are going to be more setbacks for the Ukrainians, this current "depression" will subside. The Ukrainian tenacity and unwielding fighting spirit just have a little understandable setback.
And to parafrase Schwarzenegger's famous quote: "They will be back".   

Also according to Salikov: the real purpose for wanting to shoot down a plane was to make Girkin more popular and to get more funding.
There's a bit more info on Salikov. He's 60 years old, and got help by his "very difficult" escape out of Russia from human rights activist Vladimir Osechskin.
Osechskin stated that most of colonel Salikov's statements have been verified, even up to the point that as a result of those statements places of executions, and graves of murdered Ukrainian civilians and POW's, have been found.
So he seems legit, and Ukrainian lawyers are already having conversations with him.
Order from Putin to try and kill Salikov must have been issued already, I suspect..
 
 
 
 
 

Also according to Salikov: the real purpose for wanting to shoot down a plane was to make Girkin more popular and to get more funding.
There's a bit more info on Salikov. He's 60 years old, and got help by his "very difficult" escape out of Russia from human rights activist Vladimir Osechskin.
Osechskin stated that most of colonel Salikov's statements have been verified, even up to the point that as a result of those statements places of executions, and graves of murdered Ukrainian civilians and POW's, have been found.
So he seems legit, and Ukrainian lawyers are already having conversations with him.
Order from Putin to try and kill Salikov must have been issued already, I suspect..
 
 
 
 
 

Dmitri for the win, Again.