Panserjeger

Thanks for weighing in.
I would point out a couple of factual problems with your take.
First, economic warfare has a long and highly effective history of bringing countries to their knees...the previous iteration of the Russian empire (what we used to call "the Sovs" around here) being a very prominent example. It isn't fast, it isn't clean and it's hard to measure as it's happening but the results speak for themselves. Contra the claims of the occasional Putin fanboi around here, things are not going Moscow's way in this arena: https://fortune.com/europe/2024/08/19/an-economic-catastrophe-is-lurking-beneath-russias-gdp-growth-as-putin-throws-everything-into-the-fireplace/
Second, VPN usage and other work arounds are quite common in Russia. Russians, as has been pointed out earlier, are well aware of the world but what they are more attuned to is their feelings of ressentiment and that exact openness to the world is what makes clear the delta between Russian self image and the shabby state of their imperial pretensions. This war isn't happening because Russians are ignorant. It's happening because it is or was popular.  https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/europes-last-empire-putins-ukraine-war-exposes-russias-imperial-identity/
Third, I would strongly suggest that you search this forum for discussions of deterrence. There are some folks on here who have studied the issue in great depth for a very long time. Below is a good rundown of the process of deterrence during this war and well worth the time. Long story short, there are risks of escalation but there is obviously a highly robust US engagement in avoiding things going nuclear that has clearly worked...often to the irritation of Ukrainian officials who believe it handicaps their war efforts. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/nuclear-brinkmanship-in-putins-war-upping-the-ante/
Fourth, I would take great issue with the dismissal of this war as yet another casual misadventure caused at least in part by US involvement in the ME or elsewhere. The origin of and guilt for this war lies squarely in Moscow on the shoulders of Putin, Patrushev, Shoigu, etc. Moscow began this war because revanchism was a seemingly easy way to prop up their regime with a resentful populace and they perceived correctly that the United States was pulling out of other entanglements and reorienting towards peer conflict. When that decision was made, the United States then spent 10 months shoring up Ukrainian defenses, creating a diplomatic consensus to resist it and pressured Russia in every possible way to desist. In short, we screw up a lot but this one just ain't on us (nb: not Google translate).
 

Full moon? 
Honestly this thread is great, when it works. I have been watching it get slowly hijacked over time. Special interest, single issue and basically a bunch of old men flexing their opinions like they come from the word of God.
I get it. I am an old man too, and I definitely have opinions. But people are not even doing the basics of backing them up with facts. "Wot I think" is happening far too much. Worse it is hijacking every observation about this war.
"A thing happens"
- Tank nuts - "ah ha, see tanks."
- Angry Western shamers/bashers - "it is all the US/Europes/NATOs fault! Cowards!"
- Fanbois - "It is all a clever Ukrainian ploy. Ukraine is never wrong. Ukraine should be given nukes."
- Russian hating zealots - "See, this is why we need to exterminate all Russians!"
- Maga drivebys - "It is all Biden's fault!! Global elitists!"
- Contrarians - "Ukraine will never win this war...see!"
I am probably missing a few. I know my patience is getting lite. Maybe time for a break.
 

This is another topic related to my day job.
It can be hard to imagine the scale of these efforts if you do not work in the industry, but a significant amount of activity online is relatively easy to identify as coming from known criminal organizations, state actors and other shady sources.
When the average person thinks of divisive messengers in their lives they might think of a handful of annoying trolls or disagreeable characters on their favorite wargaming forum, but there are many orders of magnitude more accounts that seeded and amplified these messages across every corner of the internet in the first place. Even small-time platform operators are taking down thousands of these accounts every day, and unfortunately they're not always identified during signup or onboarding. Some sleeper accounts lie dormant for months or years, but more sophisticated actors can generate a normal amount of plausible-looking activity before activation. Once the attack is triggered, the anomalous behavior can often be correlated and the networks discovered, but by then it's too late to stop the propaganda they were planted to spread or the fraud they were designed to enable.
This tactic uses the capitalist system against itself, because in the context of both VC-funded startups and public companies, the metrics that drive increased valuations are monthly active users, daily active users etc, and so there is a disincentive for companies to kick off users, even if there is some degree of confidence that they are sketchy.
The Russian state in particular is notorious for engaging in this kind of warfare. Of course skeptics might respond "but America does it too!" which... yes but also no. I am sure sure the US has some of the best hackers in the world working in their intelligence agencies trying to cover up clandestine astroturfed propaganda efforts, but either those hackers are absolute wizards compared to the rest of the world's, or the US can achieve its goals by trying to manipulate global affairs in ways other than blasting a firehose of disinformation at anyone who has the misfortune of existing in a social circle influenced by these agents.
I don't want to say "you can't trust anything you read", but it really is worth thinking about who stands to gain from certain forms of sensationalistic, outrageous reporting. Online it's not enough to see a list of sources or the support of popular influencers to assume something is legit, not when certain state actors are well-known for funding grifters and maintaining vast networks of accounts in their attempts to shape public opinion.
Personally I don't think Russia is directly responsible for all of the facepalm moments we've seen in the west over the past ~10 years, but it is very clear that they are exploiting every weakness that presents itself.
It's depressing to me that people still deny this, or when presented with evidence respond with a shocked Pikachu face. "How could we ever have known?" Folks, we been knew.

I don’t really know about Musk but this is really warped logic on the “Reich Effect”.
1. With the glorious invention of weapons…anyone can “physically defend themselves”. The right keeps blaring “guns for all” which means that females and “low T” males are able to defend themselves as well as any muscle bound super dude.
2. Isn’t the whole point of democracy to build consensus? The entire thing is about removing decision making from the hands of a few (monarchies in the old days) and put it into the hands of the many? By this logic females and “low T males” would be the best performers in a democratic system in that they are apparently hard wired by nature to seek common ground and consensus building. High T males would logically be the worst leaders in such a system as they would all be trying to “impose their wills” in every direction. There is a very important distinction between “making decisions” and “making the right decision.”
3. What the hell is “brute force manufactured consensus” in the modern age? Every screen is not saying the same thing. In fact we have got too many screens saying everything, all at the same time. I am sure there is some weird theory that the left has no independent thought and suffered from group think, and frankly there is truth to this. But the right is just as guilty of this as any. The reality is that humans are prone to group think as safety mechanism, and it does not matter how beefy or hairy they are.
4. “Only alpha high T males and anuerotypical people are able to determine if new information is in fact ‘true.’” If this is true we are doomed. Because the only people able to really see truth are in fact the worse ones to have in charge of a larger population. The good news is that there is no evidence to support this theory. In fact “objective truth” is particularly challenging as humans in generally rely on subjective truths - it is how we are all built.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjectivity_and_objectivity_(philosophy)
The fact that Elon found this “interesting” definitely puts him in the subjectivity camp.
But I do have to say that this pairing of Autism and the Republican Party does win the “Weird F#cking Duck” award of the week.

God save our AD crews and Raytheon company for their Patriot. About dozen ballistic missiles were intercepted during 5 minutes on N and NE approaches to Kyiv. It was too loud and... oouuch. A fragment of missile already was found on the lake park zone near our house. 
Also more than dozen Kh-101 have  attacked the city from S and W. All were intercepted too. Taking to account type of used missiles, the damage is minor - fragments of missiles damaged several buildings (including the mosque), burned four cars, two citizens were slightly wounded
It could be a deadliest strike, since May 2023, when 5 Kinzhals were launched on Kyiv. If we had't Patriot PAC 3, we would be suffer like Kharkiv and Sumy. Alas, we still have only one or two PAC 3 batteries
PS. Air Force Command statistic for this night and morning:
Enemy has launched:
14 Kh-101 - 13 intercepted, one likely crashed
1 unknown type of missile
4 S-300/400 - no interceptions (hit Kharkiv and Kharkiv oblast)
16 Iskander-M/KN-23 - 9 intercepted (Kyiv), rest hit Kharkiv and Sumy
23 Shaheds - 20 shot down, 3 likely suppressed by EW 

Hello guys,
I've decided to finally register here on the forums. I came over here from BGG forums, where someone has put up a link to this monster of a thread and being the masochist I am, I started reading from the beginning. Currently around page 720 but oh boy, it's been a blast from the past- initial onslaught, Ukrainian tractors, sinking of Moskva, discoveries around Bucha, etc. Added to that plenty of additional insight from many of you guys made it an interesting experience, even with plenty of informations I haven't seen elsewhere - be it info directly from Ukraine, or people with military experience providing their POV. My only info about the wa...*ahem* "special military operation" was from one Czech Facebook page compiling the OSINT into daily reports.
 
Anyways, here's my contribution to this thread:
I'm from Slovakia, so neighboring Ukraine, in fact I live about 10 kms (~6miles?) from UA border. In a country, where russian intelligence did a damn good job of polarising the public. We have plenty of people either believing the Russian narrative, actively pushing it (including several members of our Parliament) or even being on Kremlin's payroll (IIRC some German journalists provided a list of people payed by a Russian oligarch, which included one former MoP from a splinter of our  "we're not fascists, honestly" party). Heck, one of our "alternative media" "writers" got eavesdropped while meeting a Russian GRU (or FSB or whichever branch does this) agent who promised him 500€ for each new person he recruits.
It helped to sow a kind of war weariness in our population, which I see on my wife. She went from buying non-perishable food and giving stuff like old baby clothes, or baby carriage for the Ukrainian refugees to "those Ukrainians get this and that for free" over the time. It didn't turn her pro-Russian, just changed her perception of the situation.
 
In fact it has helped our former PM Róbert Fico back to power who rode the wave of pro-Russian sentiment to build a government. He is pretty much what you get when you order a crossbreed of Viktor Orbán and Silvio Berlusconi from Wish. Yes, he has pro-Russian and "pro-peace" rhetoric, but that's only because his opponents are for helping Ukraine.  If it was the other way around, he'd be selling everything including his underpants to help Ukraine. Hell, even on a meeting with Ukrainian government about two months ago he admitted that his pro-peace and pro-Russian rhetoric are just "for domestic audinece" and he didn't block any EU effort, in fact he contributed to it.
Alright, I won't bother you about inner politics of a meaningless little country anymore, back to reading. Those ~3k pages of discussion won't read themselves.  

you live in a fantasy world.  The right has gone bonkers, but you have moved so far right with it that it looks to you like the left has moved.  As if Biden & Obama & Kamala are some crazy constituion-killing radicals who tried to overthrow electionsa and destroy democracy and are trying to be dictators.  Look in the mirror. 
The left is a little more left on some things.  The right is flat out insane and has no idea where reality even begins.

Sorry to interrupt our 'For Some Strange New Definition of Civil Libertarian' debate here, but....
https://frontelligence.substack.com/p/what-the-fall-of-pokrovsk-could-mean
Pokrovsk, a town with a pre-war population of 60,000, is situated west of Avdiivka at a crucial crossroads of multiple railroad lines. It has become a key delivery and railroad distribution hub....
No matter how well-constructed or numerous the defenses are, if they are only staffed at 10-20% of the required capacity, it’s unsurprising that Russian forces are able to overrun them so quickly.
Tatarigami is no alarmist, but he is cautious.
1. Its fall could place all all UA positions east of there en prise, as far as the Sivirsky Donets. Their forced evacuation in turn would bring Russia once again to the gates of Kramatorsk and Liman (i.e. basically they'll have secured nearly all of prewar Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, which along with the land bridge could be used as the basis to claim a Putin victory, however hollow.)


2.  Or else (glass half full version) Sysrski is pulling back in good order to a new strongly fortified line based in solid built up areas. This will also allow the Russians be the ones to get butchered by drones now, while trying to sustain attacks across that largely open countryside they've just occupied. As opposed to up to now, where they have been fighting mainly within 25km of their Donetsk city railhead.

...In short, I am trying to grasp the lethal topography of the new warfare.

Dan, last week I've watched this documentary about a remarkable Russian historian and hero named Yuri Dimitriev who refuses to bend for the criminals. His 'crime'? Trying to find a give a name to the hundreds of thousands of Stalin's executed victims who now rest in mass graves in the endless forests of Karelia. 
They are now trying to break Yuri by accusing him of children porno and other nonsense. He's in jail, no doubt he will die there. I was very impressed by this documentary and it reminded me of the fact that there still are decent Russians. Yuri Dimitriev, one of Russia's silent heroes. Let's not forget this man.
Higly recommended: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27989206/
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/content/yuri-dmitriev-affair

The indiscriminate bombings are a particularly bad example to make your point. They were probably the number one obstacle for us to come to terms with Nazi crimes. Contrary to popular allied believe, the major part of that happened decades after the Nuremberg trials, when the next generation demanded to know what there parents did.
The indiscriminate bombings were something many Germans had experienced themselves and everyone could see the bombed out cities. On the other hand, the Eastern front had been far away and concentration camps easy to ignore if one didn't want to see them. The soldiers themselves didn't talk about what they had seen and done but everyone could see the effects of the bombing campaign.
And to this day they make for great whataboutism when talking about the Holocaust and German warcrimes: "But but but the Allies weren't any better, remember Dresden? And did anyone of them end up in Nuremberg?"

I do not dispute the RAs behaviour in this war has been abhorrent.  It is a stain on them as a military that will not wash off on our lifetimes.  
But…illegality in warfare is not a scoreboard or balance sheet.  Any UA alleged warcrime should be investigated and prosecuted by the Government of Ukrainian. If they are smart (and I think they are very smart), these will be transparent and public fair trials within their legal system.  It does not matter that “Russia has done worse”.  Reprisals have no place in determining the righteousness of any action.
As to Russia, a major reason we will be unable to renormalize with that country is the outstanding war criminality on display.  Without full prosecution…and it goes pretty high up the chain, we should not lift sanctions and put out warrants for known RA perpetrators.  Russia’s continual disregard for the law of armed conflict will be why they likely will remain boxed up as a nation and never allowed to rejoin Europe…or at least one would hope.

Easy now.  What we did not see was Allies rounding up civilians and executing them in retribution.  Further, and this is for everyone - just because you like CMBN and Band of Brothers, WW2 is the last historical citation anyone wants to use in the modern prosecution of warfare. In many ways it was as bad or worse than medieval warfare when it came to any laws of armed conflict.  WW2 is the reason we passed the modern laws of armed conflict and stood up an entire international legal mechanism to investigate and prosecute warcrimes.
Illegal "revenge" or "retribution" is not sanctioned under international law.  By this logic, Ukraine could have a few Buchas to "even the score".  This would be 1) illegal, 2) morally wrong and 3) harming to the larger Ukrainian cause.
Does this "tit-tat" stuff happen on the battlefield...definitely. Is it still illegal, yep. What civilians do not understand is that the hard part is not to get the guys to kill people, it is getting them to stop. (And before anyone pulls out Grossman and Marshall their conclusions are highly disputed, and from personal experience, simply do not add up to observations in the modern era.)  

This was REALLY interesting yesterday. A think tank guy who specializes in EW and comms had a fascinating suggestion. The way the Ukrainians completely bleeped Russian communications in Kursk was by sending special forces behind Russian lines to set up jammers BETWEEN the front line units and their commanders. That gave them the effective signal strength to cut off Russian frontline units more or less completely. He also made the point that the force density in Donestk makes things like tis more or less impossible.

Also for @fireship4 @Jiggathebauce and other who also "feel uncomfortable"
Adding to completely right opinion of @Maciej Zwolinski about Wehrmacht meme like "best Vanya-killers"... Em... Many-many pages ago I already told about this war is also a war of memes and senses and about such feature of Ukrainians as frontier nation as tough mockering of the enemies - to make all their a...s burning like volcanos (read the letter of Zaporozhian cossacks to Turkish Sultan, for example). Russian propaganda long-time was describing "Maidan regime and it supporters" and  as nazi. Maybe rational westerners on our place would try to explain "no-no, we are not nazi! Here is agrgument1, 2,3..." But Ukrainians as Slavic nation more developed sensitive feeling than rational. We will just mock and troll Russians instead to dissuade them - "yes, we are mighty Ivan-killers, here our white/balkan crosses, Wehrmacht marches, German-made vehicles fight you again ha-ha! Fear us!"
Russians of course also attack our sensitive things, but... they can't do trolling so mockery as we are. Despite both our nations since Tsars and Soviet times understand some common signs, which formed our post-Soviet sense of humor, Russian humor is too elepantine and vulgar (if you watch modern Russian comedies - it's tasteless vulgarity on background of what comedies filmed in Soviet Union), when Ukrainain humor is more close to British, giving a tips of senses. Those, who understand context and have sense of humor similar to our - those will find this fun. Who not - well... then not.
Popularity of Wehrmacht memes and associations (not only in Ukriane) exists also because of they have attractive aestetic, evil, but attractive. German order, fun langauge very suitable for commanding :), stylish uniform, exellent technic, bravura marches, Annenerbe etc. I just ask you - what your first associations with Star Wars? I bet - symbols of "dark side" - Vader, Star Destroyer and Imperial March. And many people, parading on festivals in StormTroopers ammunition do not make them followers of the evil and tyranny. 
Maybe for many westerners it can be weird, but in post-Soviet countries, most of all suffering from WWII, along with commemoration of WWII almost always exists a humoristic side of attitude to this war, especially growing up since 90th. 
Just watch two fragments of Ukrainain "Masks-show", the gag-show, similar to Benny Hill, which in 90th-2000th had huge popularity on post-Soviet space. These fragments are from their large 4-series show "Masks in partisan unit". Maybe this help to understand, why we don't "feel uncomfortable" on this things. The video quality isn't good, but in good quality is only whole 1,5 hours show )
Drunken partisan, dismissed by his commander, saves failed attack on German strongpoint and captured it alone
Drunken partisans drive to German-held town and drink in German pub, bulling German soldiers, main hero courting to SS or Gestapo girl  
 

Apparently, Lukashenko thinks it time to put his "calm down guys, let's talk this out" hat on. That's an interesting turn.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/belarus-lukashenko-urges-russia-ukraine-end-war-kursk-incursion-continues-2024-08-15/

Ok, perhaps we should list some lessons we learned from Kharkiv and apply to this whole Kursk thing:
1.  Open source reporting from social media is often ahead of mainstream reporting, but it very often lacks objectivity and expertise.  What is actually happening on the ground is very likely very different than the chatter, particularly in the opening few days.
2.  We should avoid leaping to either the conclusions we want to see, or are afraid to see based on this initial reporting.  At Kharkiv we saw people drawing big red lines everywhere and talking about “envelopment”.  At Kursk we now have big blue lines everywhere and talk of Russian collapse and Ukraine seizing all sorts of stuff.
3.  We can conclusively say that conventional warfare and military works in areas where the enemy is not, initially. Both Kharkiv and Kursk are both hundreds of kms from the main combat zones.  Neither sector was heavily defended from either side.  I strongly suspect that each side had eyes on the problem but either failed to respond or simply could not due to resource constraints.  The thing we should be watching for is how fast this new front stabilizes and then freezes.  Kharkiv was what?  About a week?  Kursk has been in motion for 3-4 days now.  So what is importantly is how fast the entire Russian system can react to this eruption.  If it takes Russia a month, they are worse off than we thought or the UA have come up with some next level stuff to sustain freedom of maneuver.
4.  Surprise is dead, but human error is not. Once again it appears that good old human denial, misreads, miscommunication and @ss covering/blame shifting is at work. It is beginning to look like the UA pulled of some good deception but not clear on how they did it - my bet is that is was more low tech and old fashion.  Either way, they did create surprise in intent or at least obscured their intent enough so that the RA read what they wanted to see, not what was there.
5.  Your special interest is really not that important.  And I am as guilty of this as anyone, it is human nature.  Both at Kharkiv and now Kursk, everyone sees what they want to see.  Whatever special teddy bear they have been clinging onto gets thrust forward - “see!” So be you a cheerleader, pessimist, conservative or progressive - when something happens: your special teddy bear really does not matter, or help in trying to determine what is going on.  All it really does is set up for confirmation bias.
So what do we know?  Well based on ISWs latest, it looks like the UA are still making trouble but likely not as deep as initial reporting and chatter claimed:
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-august-9-2024
Further, it looks like Russia is going to accept risk and leave the push back to SOF and irregulars…but we really do not know if this is valid.  Further we really do not know the Ukrainian intent here but best guess for me is that this was a demonstration aimed to impress.  
It impresses Russia and may force them to take pressure off the southern fronts and culminate offensive operations earlier.  This may not be good news as we do not know if this is shaping or a desperate move to try and relieve pressure on UA forces.  As we have not seen another major push down south for the UA yet, we can only assume it is pressure relief.
Politically this was risky.  It does show Russian weakness, pretty boldly.  But ask yourself when has invading Russian homelands ever turned out well for an invader? Mongols, maybe?  This action could blowback and give Putin just cause for a number of political actions. If spun, and it will be spun, it could support a second mobilization.  On the other hand, this action clearly demonstrates to allies that Ukraine is still in the fight.  The theory here is that this will equal future support, and it is not a bad way to go.  Finally, there is a chance that Ukraine is grabbing a bargaining chip here with a view to end game negotiations. I am doubtful as the cost of holding  this chip is likely going to be high but it is a possibility. It would give Ukraine something to trade but as we know holding onto a foreign occupied territory is rife with risks.
Strategically, it is going to pull resources and attention away from other fronts…this is good.  What I want to see is if the UA are shaping.  Are they trying to pull the RA in other directions because they know that it is close to collapse?  Or are they doing it because they, the UA, are?  Essentially from a Strategic point of view we do not know if this was shaping offensively or defensively.
Operationally and tactically there are some lessons and new tactics and procedures we may see in all this. Those could be signals of shifts on the battlefield, or not. These may take the longest to sort out and I would suggest leaping to conclusions too quickly.
We have been watching for months as this grinding war really became routine.  The something happened, but I would try to keep it perspective.  

Only for a portion of time. Because he is turning in his grave.

RU started to dispute that UKR advanced that far. They claim it is just UKR recon sabotage groups and main UKR force did not advance that far. Accordingly I marked all settlements that RU more or less do not dispute as Blue. This is can be considered as conservative RU point of view.
Second, one RU Nat reminded as that we can use Yandex Maps (RU main analog to Google Maps) to watch were RU traffic disappears. It is obviously not a very reliable tool but it is useful. I marked it with black lines.

 

This is classic Athenian vision of democracy- very idealistic and almost non-existent nowadays due to practical considerations governing multi-milion states. Another issue is that Montesquieu (who basically created modern taxonomy) in turn did a lot of bad work categorizing different forms of government, like opposing republics with kingdoms  and shrinking Res Publica to basically technical term; while in reality it is much more complicated. I personally think in XXI cent. West we fetishize democracy and its iterations way too much and are not paying enough attention to Republican form in public discourse (except maybe France)*; current governments can be more or less democratic, it's rather fleeting state. But republics and autocraties persist as systems sometimes for centuries in given cultures. Idiots, populists and even tyrants can capture power for some time, but republic as political ideal survives them.
Cicero provided best description what Republic is: a living political entity of shared values, where citizens gather to deal with politics and trust each other. This issue of eroding trust is valid for both Western world but especially for Russia-  citizenship and trust are core byproducts of matured republican states.
Now look at political history of Muscovy: it had some very brief moments of more-or-less democracy, but never had actual, "antropological" practice of Republic; this form of polity is basically empty slogan there, introduced as novelty by western-oriented zapadniks barely at the start of XX century and later applied to purely administrative units (USSR).  So no societal trust, no functional citizenship at levels deeper than purely formal. Effects we see on our own eyes.
*That's one of reasons that shrinking of classical, Mediterranean heritage in Western public spaces and at universities that we witness nowadays is concerning. We risk loosing our reference points.

General Staff claims as result of the strike on Sevastopol and it vicinity three days ago were seriously damaged four S-400 launchers and B-237 "Rostov-on-Don" submarine was sunk.
This submarine was badly damaged by Storm Shadow strike on 13th Sep 2023, but Russians managed to repair it during the year and the submarine has even passed first tests. Now if true, Russia will be forced either to begin repair form zero, spending new funds or just to utilize this junk.

I got curios about RU Nats UAV doctrinal thoughts and dug a little. While recent publications are difficult to obtain, the 2023 discussion [pre-FPV) are available. But first, a brief remark. Ru Nats are leaders in RU UAV applications. Whatever they do, the RU army will ultimately copy it.
The concept
Basically their idea is that they (RU Nation) cannot fight heinous West the old "meat" way (they know about RU demographics). Fully copying West Doctrines will not work either due to obvious disparities in capabilities. RU nation need dissimilar method to fight future war. And this method is Droneization of warfare and shifting focus from human focused classical formations to drone focused ones. 
Subjectively, I interpret it like they are trying to work around RU military main issue - low quality of troops and vehicles *** well as shortage of assault infantry due to high losses. It does not matter if Mother Russia can field only low quality infantry/tanks who die quickly. We can field copious amounts of drones and drone adjusted artillery, mass them at point of our choosing, annihilate enemy there and do whatever we want including forcing breakthrough.
UAV company
The basic building block of Drone formation is UAV company (lecture was give before FPV introduction):
There is another advantage of UAV company for RU army. Quote of prominent RU Nat from volunteer support network
UAV brigade
The next step is UAV brigade (concept developed during RU Nats discussions by former Moto Rifle brigade commander with SMO experience). I adjusted for better readability:
The is UAV brigade solves several RU army problem - manpower and artillery shortages as well as logistical issues due to lack of wheeled transport as well as driver and low mechanization. Also this Brigade is significantly less vulnerable to CB (Achilles heel of RU artillery). 
I skipped large portions of offence and defense application as it is too big for me to translate now. But here is interesting part regarding fighting NATO artillery
UAV division
And the final step is UAV division that should serve as RU main offensive hammer. Unfortunately, there is very little information on it (seems details are deliberately withhold from public sources). We only know that it was presented to Belousov (whether he accepted it or not we do not know).

Reportedly was eliminated 13th assault detachment of "African corps". For this time claimed 80 KIA and at least 15 captured. Most of them were veterans of Soledar/Bakhmut battle. Also reportedly 10 Malian troops were killed. One Wagner's Mi-24 was shot down. Russian milbloggers already search "Ukrainian trail" it this ambush and some bloggers closed to Wagner believed Taureg rebels were trained by GUR instructors (because usual "flip-floppers" just incapable to organize so proper ambush) and threaten to "catch and crusify khokol instructors"
In the network is sharing a tweet of Taureg combat group, where they expressed admiration for Ukrainan fighting with Russia and claim they ready to give captured Wagners to Ukranian side. There are no confirmation is this real Taureg post or just a fake.
PS. Reportedly except Grey Zone admin, the commander of Wagner troops Anton Yelizarov ("Lotos") was killed
And of course a meme - Freemen have defeated Kharkonens %)
 

https://abcnews.go.com/International/france-train-lines-hit-arson-attacks-hours-2024/story?id=112296820
In case anyone missed news- coordinated arsonist attacks on French railways took place today in several places at once. Fresh news is that incendiary devices were found.
At first glance ekoterrorist could be blamed, but their modus operandi is very different, they have no interest in targeting public transport and there aren't that many of them. Last Generation weirdos in turn usually take their responsibility and do it openly. Islamists on their part prefer direct slaugther, not disruption.
Now let us cautiously point toward possible suspect...perhaps a country that: publically lamented they cannot take part in olympics and openly promised "dire consequences" for organizer (topic was in a time very present in state TV with a lot of "Umph, omph!" revenge taunting), that have interest in "punishing" French military support and is already proved to be behind various arsonists attacks in EU countries?

Abnormal heat have been striking Ukraine a week so far and next week will be the same. Even in Kyiv temperature is +36...37 (up to 99 F), and up to +40 (104 F) on the south. 
Here is a level of exceeding of currrent temperature over monthly normal in Europe. Ukraine and Balkans are in the center of anomaly. I can't imagine how it to sit inside the armor in this hell.