danfrodo

And I will pitch in by supporting France in this effort by buying from our local french bakery this week, where I have shown unwavering support for our very grumpy very French pastry chef. (Pastries in this town are all garbage except for this one shining light) I wonder what he's sending? More Caesars? Some armored vehicles? Ammo? Once again, Putin tries to flip the chess board but the table won't budge -- but the allies don't waver, they announce more support! He's got a few pawns & his king left and he knows he'll lose if the game keeps going this way. Desperation time. I wonder where he'll escalate next?

they advanced to within ~75 meters of a tank and didn't see it, that's amazing. We're seeing video of a LOT of close combat in this war. Scary as hell.

And let's remember that moving convicts from cells into coffins would be considered a societal win for Putin, especially if they could take some UKR troops with them. I am guessing Wagner is paid by the warm body, not skill level. And lots of the dead won't be written off right away so Wagner can get paid for them for another month. This actually fits very well into the corrupt system we've seen so far. Maybe Putin believes this offensive is tying up lots of UKR resources so why not continue it for free from manpower standpoint? -- meaning a dead criminal is a fine outcome. He makes lots of other bad calculations. On the helicopter sabotage, wouldn't it be funny if we find out it was one of the crew who figured his survival chances were better doing this rather than flying more missions.

RU degrading its forces in pointless offensive while trying to hold critical sectors w drunk uncles. As has been quoted here many times, never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake. Imagine if there's a breakthrough N & S of Svatove that totally unhinges that defense line. RU units trying to retreat on the few east-west roads (due to mud) w/o proper coordination or delaying actions, getting pummeled by arty & SOF/mobile teams setting up ATGM ambushes. It's just wishful thinking right now, but it could happen and could happen fast. UKR seems to be applying pressure in multiple areas trying to cause local collapse.

This shows how messed up things are for RU. They are putting cannon fodder in critical sector, where collapse could lead to bigger collapse. If RU was competent and not desperately short of manpower, the chmobiks would be rear area jobs & in quiet sectors. Hopefully this is the first of many such reports coming our way

doesn't sound like a big deal to me. Zelensky is right to push, and to push hard for aid. Politicians are trying to keep public opinion on the side of support and also trying to not escalate too much at once. So US et al were not just boiling the frog on Putin, they were boiling the frog of their own people. Every RU atrocity and bit of UKR resistance allowed US et al to turn up the temperature a little more. I of course wanted more more more faster faster faster also but calculations of politicians chose lesser-slower. I am sure that everyone here is aware that Roosevelt did what he could relative to US opinion until that opinion changed (sadly, took belligerent countries forcing us into it).

once again, thanks Haiduk for all your posts. And may you and your family be safe (and your city and your country). Good to see a well armed mech platoon like this. I notice two things: high morale (smiles) and it looks really wet. Just how muddy is it now? And what do you expect by end of November? Does the ground usually freeze by then? edit: I just googled climate in Kherson and Kharkiv and it seems that Kherson is ~3C warmer than Kharkiv, so will freeze later. And by end of November it looks like daytime highs a little above freezing and nighttime lows a little below, on average.

Good heavens, how did I miss this super informative documentary on Russian mobilization?

This could also be attempt to influence US election: "Look, Biden is endangering the world w his war of choice" -- that is basically what the 'citizens for sanity' ads are saying. I wish I lived in a country where Putin would look at our main parties and say "either way I'm F-ed!". Having said that, I still think that both parties will support UKR going forward and Putin's hopes will be dashed -- but it's no certain thing.

I wonder if NATO will provide air cover to these vessels? At some point Putin's holding the world's food supply hostage needs to be confronted. What if these vessels are attacked via mines, where Putin says the mines were UKR? Or of course the usual culprit, the Brits. I am still confident that the Biden admin won't do anything to freak out the US public until after the Nov 8 elections.

Great posts folks, thanks much. 1. Putin & delusion. I'll pile on by saying that the reason so many dictators fall into the same 'delusional' space is that they live in a world without accountability for years on end. They can act with impunity. The lack of consequences means they don't ever have to question themselves or be questioned by others. It leads to this kind of behavior. Imagine you can completely wreck your country for a full generation or more, getting dozens of thousands killed and many times that wounded, and still be in power. All by your choices alone. That is impunity on an insane scale. 2. I saw post somewhere else where UKR reporting that RU is moving artillery out of Kherson, across the river. I am still confused about just how much transport is available for them across the river. I hate seeing RU assets get out of the kessel. 3. What a difference in where we are today, with UKR getting artillery superiority. RU wasted it's shells & tubes leveling places that won't change the overall war outcome -- more super genius at work. I am betting Putin has spent much of this war in full Hitler mode -- "the enemy is nearly exhausted and will collapse soon!" 4. RU blowing bridges south of Svatove -- you don't do that unless you are losing ground. There's blackout on info but that fact seems to say a lot on that front. Meanwhile Bakhmut taking a real pounding it seems -- not that it matters in the big picture, but it sure matters to the poor sods holding RU back. Kherson kessel getting weaker it looks like. 5. Hello MUD. Loved mud in March/April, not loving it now.

Cool, thanks! That was one of my favorite battles of all time. What a slugfest w combined arms.

Beleg85, you are saying that RU attacks on grain shipments will cause NATO to supply weapons that will have range to knock out the weapons that target the ships? Every other escalation of Putin's has backfired, so hopefully this one also. Unless you are "Citizens for Sanity" in the US, which thinks Putin taking Ukraine is just dandy, because he'll certainly stop there -- I've heard it's his last territorial demand.

So was test by Putin, just making sure he could do it when he wanted to? Was shot over the bow to some telegram groups? What do y'all think? This doesn't happen w/o a Putin-level purpose I would think.

Sorry to hear that, just went through that too. And on the sports front, this is not about sports but about what's being shown during sports. Some group called "citizens for sanity" put multiple ads up during world series game last night and again during college football today. Straight up attacks and fear mongering aimed at Ukraine aid (and Biden). It looked so much like something directly paid for by Putin. Generally this group does fear mongering about crime & immigration but now are attacking Ukraine aid, saying "world war III' w videos of nuke tests in the background. Ex white house punk Stephen Miller is on the board of this group, so is not as fringe as one might hope. And these are expensive ads so someone is funding this at a very high level.

Deserves more than a I like, spit out some water laughing when I saw that, thx

No no no. Do not get rid of your MREs! The N Korea EMP attack that will send us back to the stone age is imminent! It's interesting that folks won't prep for things like earthquakes & floods & hurricanes that happen all the time but tell then that a physically impossible event by some bogeyman will occur and a whole industry & fiction genre is launched.

Russian propaganda will spin this the other way: "A very valuable NATO M982 Excalibur precision-guided shell was destroyed by a Russian T-90MA MBT."

"Comrades! High command has sent us a brand new high tech tank to bolster our defenses! No way can the satanists drive us out now!". then boom! -- Talk about a kick in the plums to local morale!

Here's a summary w maps. One of them shows what Kinophile shared above. What is that smell? -- I smelled something similar recently... oh it's what it smells like just before a front collapses. UKR advancing in multiple spots along long front which hopefully will start to make more the line untenable or create panic in some sectors with the help of some clever UKR psyops. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/28/2131855/-Ukraine-update-Reports-of-advances-near-Svatove-vastly-undermanned-Russian-positions-in-Kherson

Yes, but on paper it looked great. It had multiple layers -- assassination/treason, SOF & brute force. I agree that in reality it was rolling sixes. But for Putin he thought the only way he'd lose was to roll sixes. He thought rolling 2-11 were victories.

There's going to be some folks w warrants from The Hague after this. And hopefully the majority will stay united in making the guilty pay before sanctions are removed. A nation in the modern age that is an organized child kidnapping syndicate -- who could've imagined this level of governmental depravity today???

I know is war is not fun, but that actually looks like fun. Sending RPGs 2km like some kind of modern version of Robin Hood archery contest. I'm assuming no mortars came down on these guys soon after. Which brings up the ongoing degradation of RU artillery resources that allow these guys to stand there & do this w/o response.

Dude, I totally respect you and your posts and we agree on things politically -- we're even in the same lovely state (I'm on the wet side, where are you?). I see that this is bugging you. Does it matter whether I put that or not? I actually think it's kinda funny, but I can see it's having an adverse affect for you. OK I'll not put it there next time -- but when I link to to that site w/o warning and someone gets mad about it I'll send them to you . I'll say "Sir, would you like to speak with a manager" Anyway, thanks for your posts on the forum, keep 'em comin'.

Good info, thanks. My optimistic view is that by attacking RU is helping UKR by losing lots of resources that would otherwise be dug in or a mobile reserve. But that is probably little comfort to those getting attacked near Pisky & Bakhmut. Kinda almost as if some dictator is ordering pointless attacks, but why would a super genius order stupid things, especially in an existential fight against the forces of Satan?