NPR

Hellraiser wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2023 7:37 pm Kriegsforscher (@OSINTua) said earlier that one Leopard 2, variant unnamed, took 4 ATGM and one 125mm hits and still managed to retreat under its own power.

Illustrates how fucked things are when the Orcs are getting sent into the meat grinder in T-55s, when even if they get to make a point blank shot, they might mess up the paintwork of the Ukrainian MBT, while there's no point in putting a full load of ammo in their tank, because it'll just make the volcano bigger, when they brew up.

Nigel Farage's bank has closed his accounts after it was disclosed in parliament that he received £550k from RT in 2018.

EnergiseR2 wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2023 8:56 pm

Hellraiser wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2023 8:16 pm Nigel Farage's bank has closed his accounts after it was disclosed in parliament that he received £550k from RT in 2018.

The Brits should be utterly embarrassed that they were hoodwinked by that prick. It wasn't even that subtle either.

Shocking discrimination from the liberal banking blob !!!!!!!

Why are they treating him differently from the disgraced former PM who has taken millions from any cunt who'd give him them, including a KGB agent !

Doesn't Dominic Cummings have Russian connections as well?

Hellraiser wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2023 12:11 am

Thanks for sharing that. Having grown up on MASH, it's fascinating to see the real thing and consider with footage and emotions so raw how it really goes down. Amazing hearing that the one doctor has just seen his family once in a year and couldn't spare more than 30 minutes for a chat needing to get back to work.

Hellraiser wrote: Sat Jul 01, 2023 9:19 am https://time.com/6291642/putin-cannibal ... n-economy/

Good article.

Something not mentioned about oil is it's not easy to turn production on and off in the cold permafrost regions (my research on this is a bit mixed, some say this is overstated, but it's not like turning a light switch on and off). Once all the oil storage is full (tankers, depots, refineries, etc) and there's no one buying it. Then production needs to be turned off, in conditions that reach -50C, which means everything freezes, which means welds in the pipelines break, and wells freeze and need to be re-drilled. This takes Russian oil from cold regions out of production for at least a decade (about 20% of Russian production), and to get it back they'll need the Western oil service companies and their technical skill, because that's who opened up that production. In other words once turned off there's a good chance a lot of Russian oil production isn't coming back for a generation.

I've done less research on Russian gas, but a much larger percentage of that (majority?) comes from cold regions.

Russia is a producer of primary resources, it is like a very large semi-developed African country. No one actually needs "Russian oil" or "Russian gas" or "Russian wood", anymore than anyone needs "Nigerian oil" or "Nigerian gas" or "Nigerian wood". As soon as it is made difficult to get primary goods from one supplier, an alternate supplier of that resource will step in, or substitute resources will be found to replace the resource is short supply. Nearly all Russia's export infrastructure goes west into Europe. Russia has decided to make it more difficult for Europeans to import energy from Russia, so Europeans will find alternate suppliers or substitute energy sources (renewables, nuclear, coal). Most of the advanced Soviet engineering and industry was to the west of Russia (Ukraine having a lot of aerospace), Russia itself has the Lada. If they lose their main export market for primary resources, then Russia doesn't have an economy anymore. Their economy isn't that advanced, there's nothing else they have which anyone wants, no one wants a Lada.

Putin is going hole the Russian economy below the waterline for a generation if he continues this war for another year or two. It looks like it's going another year at least to me. Russia will end up looking down the barrel of an imploding economy and a state collapse worse than it experienced at the end of the Cold War, civil war is far more likely than many people realise.

Since Twitter is bollixed for many/all, let's try a test news post from Mastodon

https://mastodon.social/@SocraticEthics ... 0977194640

OK well no embed, so here's the link to the Youtube video

Zelensky stated earlier that PMC Wagner alone suffered at least 21k KIA and 80k WIA since February last year.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65955365

Slight divergence - WW2 Hurricanes found outside of Kyiv.

Frontline report: Ukrainian 47th Brigade breaches Russian defenses near Robotyne on southern front

The Ukrainian 47th Brigade’s assault unit strategically outmaneuvers Russian forces near Robotyne, employing a daring operation that leads to the capture of crucial positions in the Orikhiv direction of the southern front.

Day 493: 1 July

Today there is a lot of news from the Orikhiv direction. Here, Ukrainians finally confirmed that they breached the last line of defense in front of Robotyne and that Russian forces now only have the settlement itself to rely on. Today Ukrainian 47th Mechanized Brigade released combat footage that shows exactly how Ukrainians managed to push through despite immense Russian resistance.

Pro-Russian sources confirm that all attempts to dislodge the Ukrainian troops from the Antonovsky bridgehead failed.

They also admit that the situation is becoming a serious concern.

https://mastodon.social/@Tendar@newsie. ... 1738792683

Despite the encouraging statements by Russian officials, the Antonovsky Bridge foothold is causing a very palpable concern among the Russians. All day yesterday they discussed the footage of Russian soldiers ending up under a heavy barrage while attempting to moor on the Dnieper…

https://mastodon.social/@wartranslated@ ... 6908363535

Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Hanna Maliar spoke about the situation at the front:

— The enemy moved forward in the Swativ direction, fierce battles are taking place there;
— The Armed Forces of Ukraine are gradually advancing with heavy battles in the Berdiansk and Melitopol directions;

In the direction of Bakhmut:
- on the southern flank, Ukrainian troops are moving forward, with partial success;
- battles continue on the northern flank, the enemy transferred 2 amphibious assault regiments there.

Russian mobiks deployed to defend Bakhmut are forced into "suicidal" counter-attacks and punished for refusing to do so.

This is reported by a mobik from the 1428 Regiment who made a video appeal claiming the regiment command seized their weapons when their unit was defeated by Ukrainian artillery on the approaches to the "zero line".

The status change is done by forcing the mobiks to sign volunteer contracts meaning they could be sent into meat assaults. The mobiks refused to sign the contract.

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One of the Kadyrovites bought it somewhere

Yevgeny Pisarenko, commander of the Akhmat special forces detachment, died in Ukraine. Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat, announced this on his Telegram channel.

Pistorius has announced that dozens of Leopard 1A5s will be delivered to Ukraine in the next few weeks.

Been checking through Telegram and saw some pictures of a badly damaged Leopard 2A6. It was one of the ones lost a month ago near Mala Tokmachka, but photographed by Ukrainian forces in the last two or three days.

Bit of a discussion underneath about classifying something as damaged or destroyed and someone pointed out that Ukrainian officials have stated that they have only lost 2 Leopards in total so far, by which they meant the two undeniably destroyed tanks. All the other tanks damaged so far, even badly so, have been deemed repairable. Hull and turret integrity appear to be the most important factors.

Up to their familiar tricks of projection, guess they think they have some info about RU plans

Russian channels claim that tomorrow evening, Ukraine will launch a missile and drone attack on the Zaporizhzia Nuclear Power Plant. While simultaneously dropping munition from an aircraft filled with radioactive material. The backup plan is a Tochka-U filled with radiactive substances.



Clown much.

It appears that Leopard 1A5s are going to the Offensive Guard brigades. This is interesting as they were originally intended to be light infantry and are instead being turned into mechanized brigades.

Alternative link https://mastodon.social/@wartranslated@ ... 9489336796
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Alternative link: https://mastodon.social/@noelreports@ms ... 7371545844

Hellraiser wrote: Tue Jul 04, 2023 8:28 pm

Ukrainians using cope cages now too?

tabascoboy wrote: Tue Jul 04, 2023 7:59 pm

Alternative link https://mastodon.social/@wartranslated@ ... 9489336796

Your wartranslated link on mastodon doesn't work for me. The others do.

Uncle fester wrote: Tue Jul 04, 2023 9:11 pm

Hellraiser wrote: Tue Jul 04, 2023 8:28 pm

Ukrainians using cope cages now too?

It's not for ATGMs, it's for loitering munitions. Which this type of caging is effective against.