What's going on in Ukraine?

[Sandstorm]

This is just hilarious.
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/7DmtBwS9Y0

Half expected him to blow a kiss at the end there.

None of the N Koreans taking notes. Heads will roll….

[Hellraiser]

A Russian soldier finishes off his comrade with an assault rifle shot to the head after he was wounded by FPV drone

https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/18 ... VSk8g&s=19

Fuck.....

Injured soldier asks for it...

Nothing new. I've seen far worse. But it's been becoming increasingly common; in the last two months drones have recorded almost 70 instances of Russian troops committing suicide in the field by either shooting or fragging themselves. In at least one instance a Russian just climbed out of a trench and waited to be picked off.

[Hellraiser]

Well worth a read. Run through Google Translate, with a little bit of editing by myself to make certain meanings clearer, e.g. in Ukrainian the word "module" is used for a "charge". A little bit is basically untranslatable as it's slang or military jargon/acronyms, but the gist is clear enough.

Interview with Andrii Kobzar - an experienced gunner and commander of the Panzerhaubitze 2000 calculation.

Publication date: 4 days. ago
Reading time: 12 minutes to read

The story of the hero of today's interview Andriy Kobzar has been a member of the UNSO since the 1990s, served in 1997-1998. in the 820th MSP of the 128th MSD (now - 128 OGSHBr) - on the 2S1 self-propelled guns.

In September 2014, the 44th separate artillery brigade was formed, and Andriy was working on the 2A65 "Msta-B" howitzer at that time. Battles were fought according to n.p. Shchastia, Crimea, the battles were on the Bakhmutivskaya highway, the Horlivskyi direction... In September 2015, he was demobilized.

On the first day of the full-scale invasion, together with his brother, they gathered a group of artillerymen in the morning and insisted on sending them to the nearest artillery station immediately. Such a unit was the 43rd OABr. The calculation (I presume in this context it means Fire Direction Officer (FDO)) worked with the 2S7 Pion self-propelled guns. Battles near Brovary, then near Berezany, then - Izyum, Lyman and Bakhmut directions. In mid-July 2022, part of the unit was sent to Germany to learn Panzerhaubitze 2000 at the artillery school in Idar-Oberstein. (Die Artillerieschule in Idar-Oberstein) - the central training center for artillerymen of the Bundeswehr.

Thus, Andriy Kobzar became Geschutzenfuhrer - gun commander. The training lasted a month and a half in total. As early as November 2023, calculations on German howitzers went to Bakhmut.


Chevron of one of the artillery batteries of the 43rd OABr with the image of a PzH-2000

Then - Svativsky direction, then work near Siversk, then again Svativsky direction, then Soledar. On May 16, 2023, Andriy was seriously injured and concussed. Unfortunately, the driver mechanic, who was one and a half meters away from Andriy, died, the cause of death was a KOBE 3B30 cumulative submunition hit. The rest of the crew and the howitzer were not injured.

Discussion on the topic...

PzH-2000 is a tracked self-propelled gun. Tracked chassis - to a greater extent an advantage, a disadvantage or a necessity in the conditions of Ukraine?

Both wheeled and tracked chassis have their advantages and disadvantages. But, during operation, an unobvious advantage of the tracked chassis was revealed - it allows you to reserve the self-propelled guns, reliably reserve them. An example of this is the PzH-2000.

The wheeled chassis is not capable of carrying such a load. Caesar is an excellent artillery installation. But the war changed, FPV drones, Lancets appeared. Now its advantage in lightness and maneuverability is not so significant, but the threat to the crew working from outside the machine is very great. When it "flys" into the car, it flies in all directions, people die. And that's it, you waste the crew. You can't install a closed combat compartment with a tower there.

The wheeled chassis obviously also has its advantages, but not without such nuances.

There are, of course, self-propelled guns such as Dana, Dita, Zuzana, which have a tower, and the protection of the crew is better there. From kamikaze UAVs, such reservation will not help much, but from their classic counter-battery link - Orlan UAVs and BM-27 Uragan rocket launchers with cluster rockets, it helps.

Like, there is a Ukrainian self-propelled gun, working on orcs. They (the orcs) see it from Orlan and start sowing everything with "cassettes". And when SPG crew works from the outside, the consequences can be fatal. This is how the crew of a 2S7 Pion died in our country. Only the commander and the driver-mechanic survived, being injured. Because they were in the installation, not near it. But we all work in the car, behind the armor.

So I think both types of chassis have the right to life, but the tracked chassis allows for much better protection of the crew.

Regarding booking: what kind of hits can it take? What methods of protection against UAVs exist and how effective are they?

It all depends on the angle at which something hit the self-propelled gun and whether additional passive armor was installed at the point of impact.

As an example, recently we were not pierced with a lancet.

What is this armor block made of? This is a textolite block on a steel base. It is interesting that there is also a gap between the armor of the self-propelled guns and this additional reservation.

In addition to booking the SPG directly, strong trees can also help from the Lancets, if you stand somewhere under them. And if you stand in a "hut" made of chain-link netting, it's even better.

Not in our unit, but in another, in PzH-2000, 5 Lancets were launched one after the other. At first they pierced this chain-link net. As a result, they still managed to damage the self-propelled guns, but they did not destroy them uncritically. Without detonation and other things, although it was the most damaged self-propelled gun. It was then taken for repairs.

Therefore, to protect against UAVs, you need to look for trees with thick trunks, make a high-quality "hut", and the armor on the PzH, which is better than on any self-propelled guns, becomes an additional pleasant bonus.


A trace of a fragment of a 152-mm projectile that broke on a branch above the self-propelled gun. The PzH-2000 survived the hit, whether the conditional M109 or AHS Krab would have survived such a fragment is already a question.


"This is the last one. Our crew was running away from the lancets. He maneuvered from two - the speed is skillful, as they say in his training... and one still flew, rammed the driver mechanic hatch, the hatch was bolted in combat mode. As you can see, the additional anti-cumulative armor absorbed the blow, then demolished the edge above the triplex, demolished the triplex, nevertheless the armor was not penetrated. The armor is very good."

How do you rate the effectiveness and feasibility of using SMART and Bonus projectiles? All in all, I'm interested in your thoughts on rounds with smart submunitions for anti-tech.

Yes, indeed, we worked SMART. And it was my self-propelled gun that was chosen to use these shells.

We received them in sufficient quantity at the end of February 2023. We worked with them, figured out how to use them.

The weapon is very effective, nothing saves from it. Sensors installed in sub-munitions clearly identify and find enemy targets.

Our task is to get the projectile to the target and correctly program the blaster so that it opens the projectile correctly, approximately at the rear point.

After deployment, the submunitions fly out and begin to descend on their parachutes. Parachutes are attached not symmetrically, as if in a spiral.

In a radius of 200 meters, submunition detectors are activated: infrared, proximity. In short, let's not tell too much. They clearly and reliably identify targets, whether it is a mock-up or a fake. This is enough to know.



After that, the submunitions descend on the found targets, detonate and hit them with a special warhead made of niobium. The submunition is detonated at a height of 20 meters above the surface. This impact core is capable of hitting any existing enemy equipment in the upper hemisphere. Even "barbecue" will not become an obstacle for him.

Another advantage of this type of submunition projectile is that it cannot be jammed like GPS guided projectiles like the M982 Excalibur or Vulcan. Here, everything is brought to life and everyone is killed.

We spent about 30 shells to clearly understand how these shells work. In total, we used about 140 of them, 136 to be exact. Until they ran out. 36 for firing, that's 100 shells that we used in a month and a half of active use. During this period, under video recording, they hit 41 tanks and a certain amount of other equipment: BMP, trucks and towed guns.

By the way, beautiful thing, works great.



Is the information that the survivability of the barrels is much higher than stated is true?

Who declared? Who, what? I know, we were told in Germany that the survivability of barrels is 25 thousand modules. If we shot on average at the 5th charge, the resource of the barrel is approximately 5 thousand shots.

Of course, we shot the 6th charge, and the 4th, and even the 3rd. But the 3rd was rare, so the basis: 4, 5 and 6. On average, the 5th turns out.

It is clear that the resource of 5000 shots is much more than on Soviet guns. The 2A65 Msta-B and the 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled gun have a barrel life of 3,000 shots at full charge. If you use a long-range charge, the resource of the barrel will generally drop to 2,000 shots.

Well, my self-propelled gun fired 6,500 shots during my tenure and after my injury. And after that, she was taken to replace the barrel. We took good care of the self-propelled guns, everything worked, but the resource of the barrel is the resource of the barrel.

But we still don't know how intensively they were exploited by 26 OABr and the Germans before that.

Such serious wear, of course, affected the accuracy of the self-propelled guns, but the guys still hit.



Are calculations protected from FPV drones? I have heard that there are portable "Candy" type analyzers that are used to detect UAVs. And are there any other complexes used, perhaps electronic devices?

Well, at that time (even before the injury) FPVs had not yet reached us, only Lancets.

And in general, everything that exists to counter UAVs must be used. And camouflage, and UAV detection means and countermeasures.

Specifically, we didn't have Tsukoroku then.

But there was a certain REB, there was Nota, when we were still working on the Pion. Then it was noticeable that UAVs were flying, but they couldn't do anything to us.

Recently, they also took a spectrum analyzer and REEs for the boys.

Well, before we actually did not provide protection against UAVs ourselves. We agreed with those who were standing next to us, we once worked with Bukovel.

Another working scheme is to put 2-3 people on the rise near the firing position so that they "look" for enemy UAVs. The same Lancet is clearly visible, it has characteristic X-shaped wings that sparkle in the sun. And they just told you: "Lancet!". Bach, stopped, crawled into his shelter. The entrance to the "hole" was made diagonally so that the Lancet could not fly into the thicket after the self-propelled gun. After that, it flies into a branch at a speed of 160-170 km/h and breaks there.

Therefore, even observation is already very good.

Questions from the editors:

- Where did the 2S7 Pion maintenance team go to work when the crews retrained on the PzH-2000?

- Transferred to the infantry.

About BC for 2S7 Pion self-propelled guns, which are known to be still in use:

Currently, the 2S7 Pion calculations are firing American 203-mm shells, while using Soviet cartridge-type charges, because the Americans did not provide charges. But the devil is in the details - American shells are howitzers, not cannons. Soviet projectiles are designed for much higher pressure of powder gases. Accordingly, they are thin-walled, and when fired with a full charge, there is a high probability that the projectile will simply explode in the barrel of the gun. That is why American 203-mm shells are fired with reduced charges at short distances.

In the end - do you see a prospect for the PzH-2000 as the main self-propelled gun of the Armed Forces, or do the specifics of the database indicate that it is better to choose another installation?

Well, I'll tell you this: I didn't climb into the AS-90, I didn't climb into the M109 during the DB, but these are simpler machines. That's what I climbed into from cars of a similar class - it's in the AHS Krab. I saw it, and I want to tell you right away: it is an unfinished, ill-conceived and very crude car. The Poles "finished" it for 20 years and never completed it. It has a chaotically spread BC, thin armor. This is a failure.

There is nothing better than the PZH-2000, which is excellently protected, with significant upgrade potential, and AUTOMATIC PROJECTILE FEED. If you have straight hands, and you sufficiently maintain all the necessary mechanisms, then you touch the shells only when you load BC into the self-propelled gun. After that, you can shoot as you like, but you will not have to touch the projectile. And there is no such thing in Krab, there you have to pull everything with the handles, what can we say about simpler machines.

And if there is a desire to compare Krab and PzH-2000 in general, then go to Oryx and compare losses. The loss of 28 Crabs was verified, and there were 80 of them. We lost a third, a third! And if you look at the photo of the affected vehicles, then the detonation of self-propelled guns, together with the crew, is a very frequent phenomenon.

But there are 27 Panzerhaubitze, how many of them were destroyed? There are none. I know about the damaged ones, but their number can be counted on the fingers of one hand. And such that the BC detonated or one of the crew members died - never. Here is already a question of the literacy of the layout of the self-propelled guns.


Another fragment of a 152-mm projectile passed through a protective element of the IGEL type (hedgehog).



That's all. Initially, it was planned to make the interview much longer, but due to technical problems it is as it is now. There is still a small addition to this longread on the channel.

On behalf of the entire Vodogray SPJ team, I would like to thank Andriy Kobzar for the opportunity to talk and for the materials.

Thanks to everyone who helped in the preparation of the materials, special thanks to my friend Mykolka for asking a lot of questions. If you want to help us financially (for which we will be very grateful), here is a link to the bank.

https://drukarnia.com.ua/articles/inter ... 2000-OULoB

[Uncle fester]

This is just hilarious.
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/7DmtBwS9Y0

Half expected him to blow a kiss at the end there.

He looked like he was going to do the heart emoji at one stage.

[geordie_6]

A Russian soldier finishes off his comrade with an assault rifle shot to the head after he was wounded by FPV drone

https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/18 ... VSk8g&s=19

Fuck.....

Injured soldier asks for it...

Nothing new. I've seen far worse. But it's been becoming increasingly common; in the last two months drones have recorded almost 70 instances of Russian troops committing suicide in the field by either shooting or fragging themselves. In at least one instance a Russian just climbed out of a trench and waited to be picked off.

Given the Russian disregard for life and piss poor casualty collection setup, a quick bullet to the head is probably preferable to waiting for another fpv drone that may not do the job.

[Uncle fester]

Anniversary of Wagner uprising has passed off without incident.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4nn1p81q59o

[Hellraiser]

Anniversary of Wagner uprising has passed off without incident.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4nn1p81q59o

I wouldn't call an Islamist insurrection in Dagestan without incident tbf.

[Uncle fester]

Anniversary of Wagner uprising has passed off without incident.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4nn1p81q59o

I wouldn't call an Islamist insurrection in Dagestan without incident tbf.

Not really related to Wagner though?

[Hellraiser]

Anniversary of Wagner uprising has passed off without incident.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4nn1p81q59o

I wouldn't call an Islamist insurrection in Dagestan without incident tbf.

Not really related to Wagner though?

You could argue that, like the Wagner revolt, it's a symptom of the fundamental destabilisation of Russia in the last two years.

[Hellraiser]

It's taken too bloody long but at least it has now finally happened; the EU has banned European political parties, foundations, institutions, media and NGOs from accepting funding, directly or indirectly, from the Russian state and its proxies.

[Hellraiser]

So the beach incident in Crimea appears to have been another Russian AD fuck-up. Some pictures of debris appeared on Telegram before being quickly scrubbed; what was shown was not remnants of an ATACMS but rather a 9M330 missile from a Tor air defence system. It would look like it failed to intercept an incoming ballistic missile and the self-destruct programme kicked-in and it detonated over the beach.

[Uncle fester]

I wouldn't call an Islamist insurrection in Dagestan without incident tbf.

Not really related to Wagner though?

You could argue that, like the Wagner revolt, it's a symptom of the fundamental destabilisation of Russia in the last two years.

Need more of it.

[Hellraiser]

Rutte confirmed as next NATO SecGen. Kallas getting the HR/VP job must have been the compromise to get it over the line.

[Niegs]

My only concern about the US election is what a potential Pres Trump would do to Ukraine… maybe the military industrial complex benefitting via sales keeps them armed. He needs to be reminded of horrors like this…

https://texty.org.ua/articles/112816/ru ... prisoners/

[Hellraiser]

OSINT researcher HighMarsed has published his estimates of the number of Russian T-80B/BV. These types of tanks, according to the researcher, were in many ways key for the occupiers. He points out that before the war there were only 120 T-80BVs in the Russian Armed Forces. However, after huge losses in the first month of a full-scale war, the Russians began to massively reactivate their stocks of T-80B and T-80BV, since they were in the best condition at the storage bases. This allowed them to compensate for the resulting shortfall and continue operations.

The number of T-80B/BV losses, according to Oryx, is at least 618. Also, some of the tanks were sent by the Russians for modernization to the T-80BVM level, according to HighMarsed estimates - about 150 units. Thus, about 800 units (if rounded) were retired due to losses or upgraded to another type. The number of reactivated T-80B/BVs is not known exactly - it could be in the region of 925 to 1700, depending on how many of them were stored in closed hangars and were inaccessible to satellite counts. Thus, the Russian Armed Forces may now have from 250 to 1020 tanks of this type. HighMarsed believes the most likely number is 500-800. Also, 280 tanks are still stored in the Russian Federation - they are probably being saved for modernization to the T-80BVM level.

HighMarsed believes that judging by the rate of losses, the number of T-80B and T-80BV will be depleted to 380-580 units by the end of this year. At the same time, the possibilities of replenishing their number are vague. The Russian leadership has announced plans to resume production of the T-80, but whether they will succeed is still unclear. The researcher suggests that we may be talking about restoring bare T-80 hulls left at bases, as well as increasing the volume of repairs to those damaged on the battlefield, rather than about production from scratch. Thus, the most likely scenario is a further reduction in the number of T-80B and T-80BV in the Russian Armed Forces - although the researcher believes that we are unlikely to see this on the graphs, since the total number of Russian tanks of all types will be proportionally reduced.

@yigal_levin

[Hellraiser]

My only concern about the US election is what a potential Pres Trump would do to Ukraine… maybe the military industrial complex benefitting via sales keeps them armed. He needs to be reminded of horrors like this…

https://texty.org.ua/articles/112816/ru ... prisoners/

Reliance on the US is greatly reduced if the South Koreans actively start supplying the Ukrainians. Notwithstanding that the Yanks will continue to sell gear to any friendly country that has the money, regardless of who is in the White House.

[Hellraiser]

A growing number of German businesses are moving into military equipment and services as they break a widespread taboo to supply the arms industry in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Engine maker Deutz last week saw its shares jump more than 20 per cent after it said it was looking to build tank engines alongside its motorcycle operations. The engineering group is among those Mittelstand manufacturing and engineering companies reconsidering or ending their ban on defence contracts.

Swaths of German business have long shunned association with the defence sector because of the legacy of industrial co-operation with the Nazi regime. But since February 2022, some key players in the country’s engineering supply chain, such as laser maker Trumpf and components firm Hawe Hydraulik, have placed military contracts in their sights.

Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, political scientist and former director of the German Council on Foreign Relations, said long-held attitudes around the defence sector were changing rapidly.
“After three years of war on the European continent, with searing economic losses, Germany seems poised to be making a historic shift,” she said.

The change in attitudes has followed Olaf Scholz’s announcement soon after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine of a €100bn fund to boost Germany’s defence and modernise its armed forces. It is planning to send an armoured brigade to Lithuania — its first permanent foreign deployment in the country’s modern history — and is reintroducing a limited form of national service.

Parts of German society are also reconsidering this postwar aversion. A poll by PwC Germany this year showed that almost 70 per cent of those surveyed supported an increase in defence spending.

“Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine definitely has increased awareness in our society that freedom needs to be defended by military means if necessary,” said Daimler Truck, which last month announced a new contract to ship 1,500 trucks to the Canadian military.

Karl Haeusgen, chair of engineering company Hawe Hydraulik, which ended its ban on defence orders in 2022, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent push for Europe to increase its military spending had reduced the stigma around the defence sector.

“A big part of the defence supply chain has a completely different image than it did three or four years ago,” he said in an interview.

The company used to have a rule of not supplying the defence sector, but now its board-level committee assesses orders for its valves and pumps, which can be used in military equipment including vehicles and ships.

The shift also comes as German industry struggles to recover from weaker demand from China. In sharp contrast to the booming defence sector, the country’s auto industry has had to announce swingeing job cuts amid a difficult transition to electric vehicles.

Germany was facing the reverse situation of Europe immediately after the cold war, when companies faced the need to convert military production operations to civilian manufacturing, said Christian Mölling at the German Council of Foreign Relations.

“You are rethinking how you can use [civilian] production capacity, technology and procedures to become more efficient in the military world,” he said.

Continental, one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers with 200,000 employees which has announced large job cuts, recently launched a scheme to transfer hundreds of its employees to German defence contractor Rheinmetall.
Peter Sebastian Krause, an executive at Rheinmetall, said at the time that the Continental employees would bring “highly valuable” skills to the company.

Laser maker Trumpf, whose customers include the semiconductor industry including chipmaking equipment group ASML, is another company considering lifting its blanket ban on supplying the defence sector.

The company’s lasers are subject to export restrictions, including to China, because the German government considers them “dual use”, with both civilian and military applications.

Defence companies have shown interest in military uses for the company’s lasers, such as for shooting down drones, said Hagen Zimer, head of the company’s laser operations.

The laser can be a powerful defence tool, he told the FT, adding that without the technology, “it is simply not possible . . . to defend against a multipronged attack of 200 drones in war zones”.

Lufthansa Technik, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the airline group which has contracts to service about a fifth of the active global fleet, last year formally launched a military aircraft servicing division. The unit has become a fast growing business line, and is set to help maintain Germany’s Chinook helicopters and F-35 fighter jets.

“In 2019 we decided to make a bigger step into defence, based on our relationship with the German government,” said Lufthansa Technik executive Michael von Puttkamer, adding that the €100bn fund “was an opportunity to step into the industry more”.

“We think stepping into defence is not only a great business opportunity but also to support our German armed forces to be capable of defending our country,” he said.

Susanne Wiegand, chief executive of tank parts manufacturer Renk, said growing “synergies” between civil and defence manufacturing sectors in Germany could benefit both sides.

“It’s a great way of developing technology further. Innovations are coming from the military world and find their way to civilian applications and vice versa.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Reuse this content (opens in new window)(opens a new window) CommentsJump to comments section

https://www.ft.com/content/b19ea5ae-38a ... 694b06b5b1

[Niegs]

Just one small reminder of why we have to help defeat Putin.

[Enzedder]

Words fail me

On the frontlines, Ukrainian soldiers use a graphic term to describe the Russian tactics they face daily.
They call them "meat assaults": waves of Russian soldiers coming at their defensive positions, sometimes nearly a dozen times in a day.
Lt Col Anton Bayev of the Khartia Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard says wave after wave can arrive in just a few hours at front-line positions north of Kharkiv.
“The Russians use these units in most cases purely to see where our firing equipment is located, and to constantly exhaust our units,” he said.
“Our guys stand in positions and fight, and when four or five waves of the enemy come at you in a day, which you have to destroy without end, it is very difficult - not only physically, but also psychologically.”
This tactic has led to staggering Russian casualties since Moscow launched its latest offensive two months ago. Around 1,200 Russian soldiers were being killed or wounded every day in May and June, the highest rate since the beginning of the war, according to Western officials.
Those attacking are normally quickly spotted by drones above and the Russians leave their dead and wounded on the battlefield, Lt Col Bayev says. “Their main task is simply meat assaults and our total exhaustion.”
The tactic is a sign that Russia is seeking to make the most of its key advantage - numbers.
Khartia 13th Brigade of Ukraine's National Guard The Khartia Brigade of Ukraine's National GuardKhartia 13th Brigade of Ukraine's National Guard
The Khartia Brigade of Ukraine's National Guard faces wave after wave of "meat assaults" at the front near Kharkiv
In Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, Captain Ivan Sekach from Ukraine’s 110th Brigade compares what he sees to a conveyor belt bringing Russians to be killed, although still allowing them to push forward slowly.
Russia benefits from a significantly larger population than Ukraine. Some of those in the assaults are former prisoners, but Russia is also able to recruit through making one-off payments, sometimes thousands of dollars.
And there have been complaints from the Russian side about “crippled regiments”, in which wounded soldiers are forced back into fighting. One video shows dozens of men, some on crutches, appealing to their commanders because they say they are wounded and require hospital treatment, but instead are being sent back into combat.
All of this, Western officials say, means Moscow can keep throwing soldiers, even if poorly trained, straight on to the front lines at the same rate they are being killed or wounded.
Ukraine could not match the Russian tactics even if it had the numbers, partly due to a different attitude towards casualties. A senior general was removed in recent weeks after complaints he was using what are often called Soviet tactics - throwing people at the front lines.
“There are a lot of criticisms because we have lost a lot of our guys because of Soviet-type mindset and strategy,” says Ivan Stupak, a former Security Service officer. “We are limited with manpower. We have no other options than thinking of our people.”
Ivan Stupak
Ivan Stupak says Ukraine cares about casualties more than the Russian invaders
In the area around Kharkiv, Russian advances have been stopped. But in the east, Russia’s attritional approach is making slow but steady advances.
“Unfortunately there are a lot of Russians. And they are trying to conduct this rolling operation centimetre by centimetre, inch by inch, 100m per day, 200m per day. And unfortunately, it's successful for them,” says Stupak.
There is frustration in Kyiv about the pace of Western support. One senior official complains they are receiving enough help to ensure they do not lose but not enough to make sure they win.
Western officials acknowledge 2024 has been a tough year for Ukraine, with delays in the arrival of US military aid creating a major strain on defences which has cost territory and lives.
“It seems like a so-called incremental approach,” Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of Ukraine’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee, told the BBC.
“We receive little by little, and I get the impression that our Western allies give a little bit of weaponry, and they see what happens next, as if they're afraid of what they refer to as escalation.”
The lifting of restrictions on using US weapons over the border into Russia has made a difference and helped stall Moscow’s assault on Kharkiv.
“If we have to fight with our hands tied behind our back, you know we'll be only bleeding to death,” says Mr Merezhko. “That's why it's crucially important to be allowed to use long range missiles in the territory of Russia, and we already have results.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c80xjne8ryxo for a formatted read

[Hellraiser]

[Hellraiser]

[Enzedder]

If this were a boxing match, we would be asking the ref to stop the fight now.

Strangely though, we thought the opposite a year ago when Ukraine were sinking ships and blowing up bridges and tanks.

[Hellraiser]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambl ... -are-they/

[Hellraiser]

[Hellraiser]

[Hellraiser]

38th Marine Brigade artillery crew on the Right Bank in Kherson. The SPH is an Italian M109L. One of the crew makes an interesting point that they are outside the range of all Russian artillery bar the Msta, which means the range of the L39 155 mm is another case of Western understatement of maximum ranges.

Edit: 33km range is mentioned, which is 3km longer than even RAP let alone standard munitions. Only Excalibur has a longer official range out of that gun.

[tabascoboy]

[geordie_6]

UK govt have announced a new aid package for Ukraine:

250,000 rounds of 12.7 mm ammunition
90 Brimstone missiles
50 small military boats for river and coastal operations
40 demining vehicles
10 AS-90 artillery systems
Support for previously provided AS-90s, including 32 new barrels and other spare parts
61 bulldozers to assist in the creation of defensive positions

https://mil.in.ua/en/news/britain-to-pr ... o-ukraine/

[Niegs]

Not that anything has changed since the beginning, but a reminder at what cunts the Russians are:

[Flockwitt]

UK govt have announced a new aid package for Ukraine:

250,000 rounds of 12.7 mm ammunition
90 Brimstone missiles
50 small military boats for river and coastal operations
40 demining vehicles
10 AS-90 artillery systems
Support for previously provided AS-90s, including 32 new barrels and other spare parts
61 bulldozers to assist in the creation of defensive positions

https://mil.in.ua/en/news/britain-to-pr ... o-ukraine/

That's heading in the right direction. 40 demining vehicles instead of 1 or 2.

[Marylandolorian]

My only concern about the US election is what a potential Pres Trump would do to Ukraine… maybe the military industrial complex benefitting via sales keeps them armed. He needs to be reminded of horrors like this…

https://texty.org.ua/articles/112816/ru ... prisoners/

Reliance on the US is greatly reduced if the South Koreans actively start supplying the Ukrainians. Notwithstanding that the Yanks will continue to sell gear to any friendly country that has the money, regardless of who is in the White House.

I’ve seen this guy in few articles about drones, this might interest you.

https://www.npr.org/2024/07/09/nx-s1-49 ... mer-luckey

[Niegs]

Thinks Trump is a good businessman though?

[Marylandolorian]

Thinks Trump is a good businessman though?

He’s a staunch republican and loves him, was part of an anti Hilary group, his brother in law is matt farking gaetz, Ukraine is not a big deal for him as he got contracts worth $billions with the Pentagon.

[tabascoboy]

In a normal world this shouldn't be believable, but now? If true, how far up the Russian chain of command does greenlighting these black ops go?

The plot was one of a series of Russian plans to assassinate defense industry executives across Europe who are supporting Ukraine’s war effort, officials said But the plan to kill Armin Papperger was the most advanced. When the US learned of the effort, they informed Germany,

[tabascoboy]

[Hellraiser]

The Russians claim a lot of things.

[tabascoboy]

The Russians claim a lot of things.

Indeed, they'll be claiming to have shot them all down before they are even proven to have been delivered!

[Hellraiser]

[Hellraiser]

[Hellraiser]