Thread: Russia launches Ukraine invasion

Spoken like true armchair chickenhawk.

Originally Posted by sabang

Spoken like true armchair chickenhawk.

Russia is losing the war.

Originally Posted by bsnub

Russia is losing the war.

And sabang has read a new word on the internet. Which if the past is anything to go by, he'll be using in every post until people realise he's a bonehead

Time to give Ukraine more NASAMS ADA systems...

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - U.S.-provided NASAMS air defense systems have had a 100% success rate in Ukraine intercepting Russian missiles, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday, as NATO said an errant Ukrainian air defense interceptor was likely the cause of an explosion in Poland on Tuesday.

Austin, speaking at the start of a routine virtual meeting of dozens of defense ministers on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, said the United States would work with Poland to gather more information on the explosion, but he did not assign blame.

NASAMS air defense system have 100% success rate in Ukraine- Pentagon chief | Reuters

The Ukrainian army’s 92nd Mechanized Brigade is killing Russian draftees as fast as the Kremlin can shove the unhappy, unfit conscripts to the front near the Russian-occupied town of Svatove, 30 miles northwest of Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

“We are just fucking meat, just fucking meat,” one draftee said in an intercepted phone call that popular social-media account @wartranslated helpfully interpreted for English speakers.

The call, reportedly with a member of the 362nd Motorized Rifle Regiment, paints a bleak picture for Russian draftees. The 362nd and a sister motorized regiment, the 346th, are under orders to hold the line around Svatove in order to slow, if not halt, the Ukrainian 92nd Mechanized Brigade’s march toward Severodonetsk, which Russian forces captured in July after months of hard fighting.

But the Russian regiments, partially staffed by some of the 300,000 men the Kremlin rounded up and forced into military service back in September, hopelessly are outmatched. “We have nothing!” the caller exclaimed. “How can we fight against mortars and tanks?”

The mismatch should come as no surprise. The 92nd Mechanized Brigade is a volunteer unit with well-maintained T-64 tanks and BTR fighting vehicles. Since the start of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine in February, the brigade has fought, and won, a series of battles in and around Kharkiv Oblast just north of Svatove. Now it’s got Severodonetsk in its sights.

The 362nd by contrast is as much a penal colony as it is a fighting formation. Its officers issue impossible orders and threaten the draftees with severe punishment if they retreat. After that, the officers disappear to the relative safety of the regiment’s rear area, leaving the untrained draftees to fight, without leadership, what arguably is the world’s most experienced mechanized brigade.

Posting to Svatove is a veritable death sentence for Russian conscripts. “Our battalion commander was bullshitting that we need to hold for two weeks” before replacement troops would arrive, the caller explained. “How the fuck can we hold here for two weeks?” The regiment lost 2,500 killed—half its manpower—in just the previous 12 days, the caller claimed.

Now just 100 survivors are trying to hold positions that 2,500 men failed to hold earlier this month, he said. When they complained, their officers labeled them deserters and threatened them with prison sentences. And when 300 wounded men crawled away from the line of contact, the regiment’s officers declared them deserters, too.

“Put us in prison,” some of the draftees told their officers, according to the caller. Better prison than the grave.

The kicker, for the beleaguered Russians, is that their regular forces aren’t faring much better around Svatove. Yes, the regiments of lightly armed draftees are getting massacred. But so too are units operating modern T-72B3 tanks. Ukrainian troops captured three intacted T-72B3s from a muddy field outside Svatove on or before Wednesday.

A Russian Regiment Reportedly Lost 2,500 Draftees In Just Two Weeks Of Fighting

Since withdrawing from the right bank Kherson region on November 11, Russian positions on the opposite side of the river have come under increasingly frequent attack. As it did following Ukraine's successful strike on the Kerch Strait Bridge back in October, Russia has responded with a wave of missiles aimed at civilian infrastructure.

However, Moscow's dwindling stockpiles suggest that this wave, like the one that preceded it, is more symbol than substance. After advancing across large swathes of territory in the early weeks of its "special military operation," Russian forces in Ukraine are now clearly on the defensive.

"Russia's military is broken," John Spencer, the author of Understanding Urban Warfare and a retired major in the U.S. Army, told Newsweek. "That doesn't mean that it's not dangerous. It can still engage in battles, but it is no longer capable of waging a large campaign."

Not even nine months after it sent its best troops into Ukraine expecting them to topple the Kyiv government in a matter of days, the purported second most powerful army in the world finds itself digging trenches along the roads leading into Crimea.

"The question now is, 'how much more territory will Russia have to give up before it can establish defensible lines with the minimal forces it has left?'" he asked. "Yes, Russia has announced mobilization, but combat power isn't just about the number of soldiers you throw onto the battlefield; it's about how effectively you combine infantry with a full complement of heavy armor, long range fires, counterbattery capabilities, etc."

"In that sense, Russia's combat power has been severely diminished over the past eight-plus months," Spencer added, "at the same time that Ukraine's has been enhanced thanks to assistance from its international partners."

After withdrawing from the areas around Kyiv in late April, Russia turned to a two-pronged strategy of expanding its control over the eastern Ukrainian Donbas region while simultaneously fighting to keep hold of its bridgehead around Kherson city. That bridgehead, located on the western bank of the Dnieper River, was valuable as a potential launching point for future offensive operations against Mykolaiv and Odesa, which lie further west.

The aim of Russia's Southern campaign was to cut off Kyiv's access to the Black Sea, thus creating a landlocked Ukrainian rump state unable to access its most important trade routes.

The Russian withdrawal from Kherson serves as an admission from Moscow that it no longer considers expansion along the Black Sea coast to be an achievable war aim. While certain circles expected Moscow to make an attempt to turn the city of Kherson into another Mariupol, the fact that Russian forces chose not to dig in did not come as a surprise to Spencer.

"Maybe if they had a full division of elite paratroopers prepared to die for the cause, Russia could have held out in Kherson city for long enough to leave it in ruins, but the urban terrain there simply doesn't offer many advantages," he said. "Kherson is flat, there are multiple routes in, and there isn't enough density on the outskirts to set up a non-suicidal defense."

"Yes, Russia could definitely still strike Kherson with artillery from across the river," he added. "But the lack of solidly defensible urban positions, combined with the lack of a truly motivated fighting force and the superior range of Ukrainian MLRS [Multiple Launch Rocket Systems] capabilities, meant that the Battle of Kherson was more likely to end in a withdrawal, as it did, than in a head-on collision."

That withdrawal came just under six weeks after a September 30 Kremlin ceremony in which Vladimir Putin personally claimed the Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk as members of the Russian Federation. Given the political circumstances, it appears as if the Russian decision to cede right bank Kherson was made sometime shortly after it promised that Russia and Kherson would be "together forever," as multiple billboards in the city advertised.

"If you know that you're preparing to pull out, then it wouldn't make any sense to go through with the annexation," Dmitry Gorenburg of the Center for Naval Analysis told Newsweek.
The decision signals a potential change in the Kremlin's decision-making protocol.

"Even before the so-called referendum, there were reports of Putin overruling his generals with regards to Kherson," Gorenburg said. "Now, though, it looks like we have a situation where the military has the freedom to do what it thinks is sensible, even if it goes against the political aims of the Kremlin."

Despite Russia's failure to execute anything approaching a successful offensive campaign in recent months, the events around Kherson demonstrate that the Russian military is still capable of organizing an orderly retreat.

"Even with Ukrainian HIMARS strikes making the bridges inaccessible, the Russians were able to remove most of their equipment, to evacuate the collaborators and any civilians who wanted to leave, and to save most of their troops," Gorenburg added. "And it was executed on a timeline that was fast enough to prevent the Ukrainians from pursuing."

Any potential Ukrainian effort to kill or capture Russian troops on their way out was also complicated by the nature of the terrain around Kherson city itself. In the weeks leading up to November 11, Ukrainian troops were reported to be taking heavy losses in their efforts to liberate frontline villages still under Russian occupation. Even as Russian forces withdrew from these positions, the threat of rear-guard actions remained.

https://www.newsweek.com/retreat-khe...llapse-1760058

Sadly puffy the coward wasn't there and his sock puppet was probably off having a bypass.

BANGKOK - The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) issued a joint ministerial statement on Friday with a paragraph that condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine, creating a breakthrough in a year which saw many multilateral forums deadlocked over their description of the war.
“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy – constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity, and elevating financial stability risks,” the 21-member bloc said.

Apec achieves breakthrough statement as most members condemn Russian invasion of Ukraine | The Straits Times

Hundreds were detained or went missing in Ukraine's Kherson: US Report

Researchers from Yale University have found in a report sponsored by the US State Department that hundreds of people were jailed or went missing in the Kherson region of Ukraine this year while it was under Russian control and that many may have been tortured, as reported by Reuters.

Despite its disgusting and desperate methods, Russia "must halt these operations and withdraw its forces to end a needless war that it cannot and will not win – no matter how despicable and desperate its tactics," the State Department stated in a statement regarding the findings.


The study details the detentions and disappearances of 226 persons in Kherson between March and October, of whom a quarter are said to have been tortured and five of whom passed away while being held or shortly after.


Kherson, the sole regional capital it has taken since the invasion in February, was located in an enclave on the west bank of the Dnipro River in Ukraine when Russia last week withdrew its forces from there.

The Conflict Observatory, a State Department-funded initiative that was started in May to gather and examine proof of war crimes and other potential atrocities committed by Russia in Ukraine, is a partnership between the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, which produced the report, and other organisations.


Russia denies that its soldiers have carried out atrocities or targeted people.


Hundreds were detained or went missing in Ukraine'''s Kherson: US Report - World News

A Russian spy has reportedly defected to Estonia and is now seeking asylum in the NATO country over his opposition to Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.

The spy, identified as Artem Zinchenko, spoke to Yahoo News in early October for an article published Thursday about the "awful situation" triggered by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine that started in late February.

"It is the worst scenario that could even be imagined in my mind, and it was not only because my relatives live there, but because of the huge number of innocent victims," Zinchenko said.

Zinchenko's defection to Estonia was actually a return for the Russian spy after he was arrested by the country in 2017 and traded back to Russia in a swap a year later, Yahoo News reported.

Zinchenko said that when he arrived home in 2018, "everything had changed dramatically" and described Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime as having "all the aspects of totalitarianism."

"You know, before and during my process, I saw that the law works much better here than in Russia," Zinchenko told Yahoo News. "During my situation, the Estonians told me they were not out to destroy my life or my business. This was a competition between intelligence services, they explained, and I was caught up in the middle of it."

The loss of Zinchenko to Estonia could be the newest embarrassment for Putin as he faces numerous military defeats and opposition from civilians and officials in his own country. Recently leaked emails from a whistleblower at Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) that were shared with Newsweek detailed inner turmoil and conflict within the Kremlin and said Russia will soon "descend into the abyss of terror" while war fatigue grows.

On the ground in Ukraine, Putin recently saw what experts believed was a major political blow for the Russian president when the Kremlin announced its withdrawal from the city of Kherson. Kherson was the only regional capital Russia had managed to capture in the Ukraine war, and Putin's loss of the city is especially significant because it is located in one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia declared would be annexed in late September.

The Russian army's woes in the war are likely to only worsen during winter. Sean Spoonts, a U.S. Navy veteran and editor-in-chief of Special Operations Forces Report (SOFREP), told Newsweek that the issues Russian soldiers in Ukraine could experience include exposure-related deaths, keeping warm in the colder months and ensuring adequate supplies for troops who have already reportedly been facing equipment shortages.


"All the problems that Russia had in the beginning of this war in February–they're going to have those problems again. And they're not prepared for it," Spoonts said. "They weren't prepared to equip a summer army. A winter army is even harder."

https://www.newsweek.com/russian-spy...-1760740?amp=1

Ukraine, Russia Trade Blame Over Nuclear Plant Shelling

Kyiv and Moscow on Sunday traded accusations of shelling on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that Russia controls in southern Ukraine.


The UN atomic watchdog that has a team of experts at the plant — the biggest nuclear facility in Europe — said "powerful explosions" had occurred on Saturday and Sunday.


Kyiv "does not stop its provocations aiming at creating the threat of a man-made catastrophe at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant," the Russian army said in a statement on Sunday.


Despite the shelling, radiation levels "remain normal," the army added.


It said missiles exploded around a power line that feeds the plant, the fourth and fifth power units and "special building number 2."


Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom, told state-run agency TASS that the "special building" contained nuclear fuel.


Ukrainian nuclear energy agency Energoatom said shortly after that Russia was behind the explosions.


"This morning on Nov. 20, 2022, as a result of numerous Russian shelling, at least 12 hits were recorded on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant," Energoatom said.


It accused Russia of "once again... putting the whole world at risk."


"The news... is extremely disturbing. Explosions occurred at the site of this major nuclear power plant, which is completely unacceptable," UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said in a statement.


He added that the damage to buildings, systems and equipment recorded so far was not "critical."


The explosions were "abruptly ending a period of relative calm at the facility and further underlining the urgent need for measures to help prevent a nuclear accident there," the statement read.


Moscow and Kyiv have traded blame for months over shelling near the Russian-held facility, sparking fears of a nuclear disaster and spurring calls to de-militarize areas around atomic facilities in Ukraine.

Ukraine, Russia Trade Blame Over Nuclear Plant Shelling - The Moscow Times

The best way forward for these Russian conscripts is to surrender as soon as possible. Many of those conscripts that were more willing than others to go and defend mother Russia have rapidly found Mothers' milk has somewhat soured.

Originally Posted by Hugh Cow

The best way forward for these Russian conscripts is to surrender as soon as possible.

According to some reports it isn't easy for the conscripts to surrender because the Russians keep a line of regular troops behind them to shoot them if they attempt either to retreat or to surrender. It's just brutal.

The landfill site on the edge of Kherson offers some visible hints here and there, among the piles of rubbish, to what locals and workers say happened in its recent past. Russian flags, uniforms and helmets emerge from the putrid mud, while hundreds of seagulls and dozens of stray dogs scavenge around.

As the Russian occupation of the region was on its last legs over the summer, the site, once a mundane place where residents disposed of their rubbish, became a no-go area, according to Kherson’s inhabitants, fiercely sealed off by the invading forces from presumed prying eyes.

The reason for the jittery secrecy, several residents and workers at the site told the Guardian, was that the occupying forces had a gruesome new purpose there: dumping the bodies of their fallen brethren, and then burning them.

The residents report seeing Russian open trucks arriving to the site carrying black bags that were then set on fire, filling the air with a large cloud of smoke and a terrifying stench of burning flesh.

They believe the Russians were disposing of the bodies of its soldiers killed during the heavy fighting of those summer days.

“Every time our army shelled the Russians there, they moved the remains to the landfill and burned them,” says Iryna, 40, a Kherson resident.

Ukraine’s attempts to gain momentum and retake the southern city began at the end of June when long-awaited US-made Himars long-range rockets finally reached one the frontlines there.

Kyiv was making good use of them to badly damage bridges across the Dnipro, destroy Russian ammunition dumps and strike enemy artillery and forces.

It was around this time, the residents said, that they first started to fear a new use for the site.

It is not possible to independently verify the claims, and Ukrainian authorities said they could not comment on whether the allegations were being investigated. The Guardian visited the landfill, located on the north-western outskirts of the town, five days after Kherson’s liberation and spoke to employees of the site as well as several more of the town’s residents, who backed up the claims made by others in the summer.

“The Russians drove a Kamaz full of rubbish and corpses all together and unloaded,” said a rubbish collector from Kherson who asked not to be named. “Do you think someone was gonna bury them? They dumped them and then dumped the trash over them, and that’s it.”

He said he did not see if bodies belonged to soldiers or civilians. “I didn’t see. I’ve said enough. I’m not scared, I’ve been fighting this war since 2014. Been to Donbas.

“But the less you know, the better you sleep,” he added, citing a Ukrainian saying. Fear is still alive among the residents who lived for eight months under a police state, in which the Russian authorities did not tolerate the slightest hint of dissent. The price was arrest, or worse: death.

Svitlana Viktorivna, 45, who together with her husband, Oleksandr, has been bringing waste to the landfill for years in their truck, said a Russian checkpoint had been set up at its entrance.

“We were not allowed anywhere near the area of the landfill where they were burning the bodies,” she says. “So let me tell you how it was: they came here, they left some of their soldier-guards, and unloaded and burned. One day my husband and I arrived at the wrong time. We came here while they were doing their ‘business’ and they gave my husband a hard blow in the face with a club.”

“I didn’t see the remains,” she adds. “They buried whatever was left.”

Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has said that nearly 6,000 soldiers have died in Ukraine, but the Pentagon in late summer estimated that about 80,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or injured.

The workers at the landfill said the Russians had chosen an area on the most isolated side of the landfill. For security reasons, it is not possible to visit. A truck driver working in the landfill said he did not rule out that the Russians may have mined the area or left unexploded devices.

“I heard the story, but I didn’t go that far with my truck to unload rubbish. But I can guarantee you that, whatever they were doing, it smelled so bad, like [rotten] meat” says the truck driver. “And the smoke … the smoke was thick.”

Residents of a large Soviet-era apartment block facing the landfill said that when the Russians had started burning, a large cloud of smoke had risen up filling the air with an unbearable smell of decay, to the point that it had felt impossible to breathe.

“I felt nauseous when I smelled that smoke,” says Olesia Kokorina, 60, who lives on the eighth floor. “And it was scary, too, because it smelled like burnt hair, and you know, it also smelled like at the dentist’s when they drill your tooth before placing a filling. And the smoke was so thick, you couldn’t see the building next door.”

“It just never smelled like this before,” says Natalia, 65. “There were lots of dump trucks and they were all covered with bags. I don’t know what was in them, but the stench from the smoke in the landfill was so bad we couldn’t even open the balcony door. There were days when you couldn’t breathe because of the smell.”

Some believe that burning bodies of their own soldiers was the easiest way to get rid of the corpses as bridges over the Dnipro River when Russians were virtually cut off on its western bank were too fragile to hold trucks.

Dozens of other Kherson residents corroborated the reports of their neighbours, but Ukrainian authorities have not so far spoken. A local official who requested anonymity said: “We are not interested in the burial sites of the enemy. What interests us is to find the bodies of Ukrainians, tortured, killed and buried in mass graves here in the Kherson region.”

Ukraine’s security service believe the bodies of thousands of dead Russian soldiers are being informally disposed of as the Kremlin is logging them as “missing in action” in an attempt to cover up its losses in the war in Ukraine.

An intercepted phone call from a Russian soldier in May said that his comrades had been buried in “a dump the height of a man” just outside occupied Donetsk. “There’s so much Cargo 200 [military code for dead soldiers] that the mountains of corpses are 2 metres high,” he said in the call. “It’s not a morgue, it’s a dump. It’s massive.”

“They just toss them there,” a Russian soldier said in another intercepted call. “And then later it’s easier to make it as if they disappeared without a trace. It’s easier for them to pretend they are just missing, and that’s it.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...erson-landfill

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, November 22
Nov 22, 2022 - Press ISW


The Kremlin appears to be setting information conditions for a false-flag attack in Belgorod Oblast, Russia, likely in an effort to regain public support for the war in Ukraine. Kremlin propagandists have begun hypothesizing that Ukrainian forces seek to invade Belgorod Oblast, and other Russian sources noted that Russian forces need to regain control over Kupyansk, Kharkiv Oblast, to minimize the threat of a Ukrainian attack. These claims have long circulated within the milblogger community, which had criticized the Russian military command for abandoning buffer positions in Vovchansk in northeastern Kharkiv Oblast following the Russian withdrawal from the region in September. Russian milbloggers have also intensified their calls for Russia to regain liberated territories in Kharkiv Oblast on November 22, stating that such preemptive measures will stop Ukrainians from carrying out assault operations in the Kupyansk and Vovchansk directions. Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov also published footage showcasing the construction of the Zasechnaya Line fortifications on the Ukraine-Belgorod Oblast border. Wagner Group financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin clarified that Wagner is building the Zasechnaya Line after having changed its name from Wagner Line because “many people in [Russia] do not like the activity of private military company Wagner.” Private military companies are illegal in Russia.

Institute for the Study of War

Even the Pope thinks Puffy the war criminal is like Stalin.

Pope Francis compares Russia’s war against Ukraine to a devastating Stalin-era famine.

The comparison to Stalin’s decision to let millions in Ukraine starve represents one of the pope’s strongest condemnations yet of the Russian invasion.

nytimes.com

SOUTHERN ENGLAND—After a string of Russian defeats in the war, U.K. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is urging Ukraine to “keep up the pressure, keep up the momentum” and continue their rapid-fire attacks on Vladimir Putin’s forces through the winter months.

“Given the advantage the Ukrainians have in equipment training and quality of their personnel against the demoralized, poorly trained, poorly equipped Russians, it would be in the Ukraine’s interest to maintain momentum through the winter,” Wallace said. “They have 300,000 pieces of arctic warfare kit, from the international community”—a crucial requirement for any winter offensive.

Wallace told The Daily Beast that this was the advice he would give to his Ukrainian counterparts, who he speaks to “almost weekly.” He praised the Ukrainians for shocking the world by showcasing their own courage and skills, as well as the huge deficiencies in the Russian armed forces.

The intervention comes at a time when senior American officials have tried to nudge Ukraine away from the battlefield and towards the negotiating table.

Two weeks ago, General Mark Milley, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that, because Ukraine may not reach a full victory on the battlefield, it should use the expected slowdown in military operations over the winter as a “window” for discussions with the Russians.But President Volodymyr Zelensky has declared that he will not negotiate with Russia while Putin remains in power, and has said that any settlement must end with Ukraine in control of all its post-independence territories, including the Donbas and Crimea.

In an exclusive interview at a British army base in the south of England, Wallace instead suggested this was the time for Ukraine to press its advantage, pointing to the dire quality of the Russian armed forces.

“A Russian unit was recently deployed with no food and no socks, and not many guns. That is catastrophic for a person going in the field... The Russians have scale, but are not very good. Well, most of the good ones are dead,” he said. “They are a meat grinder—they shove them in the meat grinder—and use massive quantities of artillery. Only a nation that does not care for its own people could send 100,000 of its own people to be either dead, injured, or deserted.”

As we spoke last week, the crack and whistle of rifle bullets rang out behind him, from a practice range where a team of trainers from the British and New Zealand militaries were instructing Ukrainian forces. Around 5,000 Ukrainian troops have already been through a grueling three-to-five-week training program designed to give them a crash course in the basics of modern combat.

The program is run by the U.K., with trainers being sent from countries including Canada, New Zealand, and Norway. They are taught stripped-down infantry tactics with a focus on “survivability and lethality,” as one trainer put it. Many are sent straight to the front lines upon finishing. Overhead, you could hear the whir of the rotor blades from a British military helicopter as it descended to collect Wallace and his New Zealand counterpart.

In his interview with The Daily Beast, Wallace also slammed successive U.K. and European governments for decades of neglect of their armed forces.

When asked what he had learned from his experiences visiting and working with his Ukrainian counterparts, he said: “I can speak for my own and some others in Europe, it looks good at the front—but under the bonnet, ammunition stocks, maintenance, availability, reliability of our equipment, and the readiness of our soldiers to go anywhere has been hollowed out for decades.”

He noted that a variety of global crises, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the COVID pandemic, and the rise of China has meant that “the world is more anxious” and aware of “the need for resilience... and the military can do resilience, that is our middle name.”

The U.K. has often taken a more upbeat view of Ukraine’s prospects than some of its other partners, including the United States. One senior Ukrainian military official who works on liaising with foreign militaries said that British commitment went “well above” that of most other countries.

Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military details, he noted that officials at the U.K’s Ministry of Defence were “extraordinarily committed,” often working regular overtime and weekends at key points of the military campaign.

If our armed forces need a particular vehicle or piece of weaponry, the Brits will search through the military catalogs of different countries, and find what we need,” he added, citing the Australian Bushmaster as an example.

The Ukrainian military official also mentioned former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s early and regular trips to Kyiv to meet with Zelensky as an important factor in boosting Ukrainian morale and demonstrating international support. While Johnson is mostly disgraced in his home country, he remains a folk hero in Ukraine, appearing on murals, T-shirts, coffee mugs, and beer cans.

Wallace would speak to who was responsible for last week’s deadly missile incident in Poland, but noted that the “missiles were flying around that part of the world because Russia fired 80 missiles into civilian infrastructure. It is against the Geneva Convention, but that does not stop Mr. Putin.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/uk-def...=world&via=rss

Another opinion piece, not News. Here is another one.


Worries increase as Russia-Ukraine conflict enters stalemate


US urged to stop fueling flames as more people suffer colder winter: analysts

Exactly nine months since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out on February 24, it is now not only Russia and Ukraine that have been severely impacted in the crisis, Europe and the US that stand behind it have also been deeply mired. As the conflict continues to further drag in a stalemate, it has been triggering more worries from the international community especially after the latest airstrikes on Ukraine cities, knocking out power and water service, and according to media reports, this is the largest strike that Russia has launched against infrastructure in Ukraine since November 15.

Ukraine's capital Kiev, the western city of Lviv and the southern city of Mykolaiv were among multiple areas reporting missile strikes.

The UN Security Council called an emergency meeting on Ukraine on Wednesday, during which Chinese Ambassador Geng Shuang said the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has led to constant attacks on civilian facilities and the steady rise of civilian casualties and displaced persons, which is a very worrying development. There is no winner in conflicts and wars.

Geng noted that the international community should work together to support all efforts for the peaceful resolution of the crisis in Ukraine and avoid escalation of the conflict and prevent the emergence of a nuclear crisis.

Chinese military expert Song Zhongping said that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is currently at a stalemate while tensions have been built since 2014. Russia's airstrikes against strategic targets in Ukraine aim to further impair Ukraine's military potential, push it to take a realistic position at talks and gain itself more leverages in negotiations with the US, an expert on international security who asked for anonymity, told the Global Times.

No tipping point insight

The UN meeting on Wednesday had also become another battlefield as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to the UN via video link to take action to stop Russian airstrikes. US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of "weaponizing winter" while Russian diplomat Vasily Nebenzya told the UN meeting that remarks from Zelensky and his allies cannot be interpreted as "readiness for peace but is rather a language of reckless threats and ultimatums."

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is still far from reaching its tipping point because neither the US nor the EU, or Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, have made any significant policy changes, the anonymous expert said, instead, the US continues to fan the flames, and the EU is being forced to swallow the bitter pill without being able to change anything. He noted that it is also not easy to promote talks between Russia and Ukraine as the Biden administration sees the current situation as an achievement and attempts to prolong the situation to win more political capital.

On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced $400 million in additional military aid for Ukraine. Among the arms being shipped are 150 heavy machine guns with special thermal-imagery sights to help shoot down self-destructing drones as well as ammunition for an air defense system, US media said citing Pentagon officials.

Song, the military expert, told the Global Times that currently, the military equipment the US and some Western countries have sent to Ukraine are mostly light and medium weapons, with the heaviest ones being the likes of armored vehicles, M142 HIMARS and the M777 howitzers. Large and heavy weapons and equipment are not being provided.

The military battles would likely become more intense if the US and NATO send additional mercenary forces equipped with heavy weaponry to back Ukraine - this would be the focus to observe in the future clashes in Ukraine and will also mean more tragedies for Europe, Song said.

By inciting the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US has made great fortune by supplying energy to the EU, realizing its goal of containing Russia and strengthening trans-Atlantic partnership, while Russia has greatly consumed its national strength and exposed some domestic problems and Ukraine, who has been staying at the core of the battlefield, have undermined its economy, social stability, and the well-being of the people, Cui Heng, an assistant research fellow from the Center for Russian Studies of East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Europe's losses are no less than Russia's as Europe continues to suffer from high inflation and pays a huge price for its energy security, said Cui.

On Tuesday, Ukraine also received a new 2.5 billion euros tranche of financial support from the EU, Reuters reported. Following the European Council meeting in October 2022, the EU Commission had also proposed an unprecedented support package for Ukraine of up to 18 billion euros for 2023, according to a release from the commission.

However, voices advocating spending more money to solve issues closely related to people's livelihoods are getting louder within the bloc as European countries are facing probably one of the most difficult winters with soaring energy prices and severe inflation, analysts said.

The heavy price for the Russia-Ukraine conflicts have been put on the people and they will suffer more if the conflicts continue or deteriorate and the governments in related countries should take concrete actions to protect their own people and their national interests instead of only serving US' geopolitical interests, analysts said.

Cui also noted that the tension between Russia and Ukraine has reached such a level that needs some other countries to stand out for mediation and promoting dialogues, for example, China, Turkey and India.

More countries are also calling related parties in the Ukraine crisis to remain restraint given the humanitarian problems caused by the conflicts and its spillover effect to the global economy and stability. On Wednesday, Chinese Ambassador Geng said at the UN meeting that the humanitarian situation in Ukraine under conflict is dire and the cold weather will significantly aggravate the plight of the people. He called on all parties concerned to act with prudence, ensure the safety of nuclear facilities and avoid causing man-made nuclear accidents.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202211/1280401.shtml

^ actually its not, it was what Wallace said.

Originally Posted by bsnub

SOUTHERN ENGLAND


In an exclusive interview at a British army base in the south of England, Wallace instead suggested this was the time for Ukraine to press its advantage, pointing to the dire quality of the Russian armed forces.

“A Russian unit was recently deployed with no food and no socks, and not many guns. That is catastrophic for a person going in the field... The Russians have scale, but are not very good. Well, most of the good ones are dead,” he said. “They are a meat grinder—they shove them in the meat grinder—and use massive quantities of artillery. Only a nation that does not care for its own people could send 100,000 of its own people to be either dead, injured, or deserted.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/uk-def...=world&via=rss

Ouch.

Although I believe the approved TD term is zing!

^^ OK. The above is what a Chinese spokesperson said.

^ what is your view on Putin taking out Ukr Civilian Infra and his threat to mobilise another 1 Mil of cannon fodder?

The systematic taking out of the electricity grid is a fairly recent development whish seems to me to bespeak increasing desperation on Russia's part. When this war (or phase of the war) started, Russia was absolutely not taking a 'shock and awe' approach. Militarily, it is quite sound. If Putin & his Generals thought this war was going to be a walkover, they were quite wrong.

More reserves, potentially? Just a signal of Russian resolve, whether true or not. They certainly have them available.

Originally Posted by sabang

More reserves, potentially? Just a signal of Russian resolve, whether true or not. They certainly have them available.

the last 100k of cannon fodder he pressganged barely had a gun between every 10 men, what are the next 300k going to fight with?

Originally Posted by malmomike77

the last 100k of cannon fodder he pressganged barely had a gun between every 10 men

Hmm

I don't think you really believe that

Trying to make a point ?

^ i didn't need to, the evidence was the on retreat