Russia fired 22 KH55/101, 6 Kalibr and 2 Iskander-K cruise missiles last night, 29 out of the 30 cruise missiles where intercepted by the Ukrainian air defenses.
Also 2 Shahed 136/131 strike drones and 2 reconnaissance drones where downed.
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
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Russia fired 22 KH55/101, 6 Kalibr and 2 Iskander-K cruise missiles last night, 29 out of the 30 cruise missiles where intercepted by the Ukrainian air defenses.
Also 2 Shahed 136/131 strike drones and 2 reconnaissance drones where downed.
It's the third missile night in a row. Russia's desperation is reaching new hights. Meanwhile they've lost 32 artillery systems yesterday.
"Japan military hospital to treat injured Ukrainian soldiers"
https://www.reuters.com/world/japan...jured-ukrainian-soldiers-lawmaker-2023-05-18/
I've seen the news and it's a part of a bigger trend where scientists get accused of treason but I wasn't aware that they are Kinzhal developers. I can't say that this is one of the bigger stories.
Pretty Stalinist treatment.
Wagner's map of Ukrainian terrain gains around Bakhmut in the last couple of days:
The idea of a frozen conflict at this point is kind of Orwellian and deeply unsettling, especially considering that two of the other main probable causes for WWIII are precisely frozen conflicts (the aforementioned Korean war, and China-Taiwan conflict). I can't imagine a scenario where this is desirable.
I suppose this qualifies as cannon fodder
It won't be frozen since the Ukrainians will keep fighting to win. The Russians will have no choice in the matter since this won't be like 2014.
Looking forward to a bit more progress. At some point there will be a tipping point moment where the entire Russian side collapses.
The fact that Ukrainian tanks can drive so close to a trench because there are no anti tank weapons, is another embarrassment for the Russian army.
This war has been so not by the book.
Norway will donate 3 ARTHUR counter battery radars and 8 M270 MLRS. The donations are being made in close collaboration with the UK.
https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktue...angtrekkjande-artilleri-og-radarar/id2977717/
https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktue...angtrekkjande-artilleri-og-radarar/id2977717/
Wouldn't a frozen conflict give Russia much of what they want in terms of territory control as well as stopping Ukraine from joining NATO and possibly the EU?
Would it stop Ukraine from joining? That seems to be the big question about this to me.
Frozen conflict would be fitting, Russia is a lot like North Korea already, except with plenty natural resources.
I can perfectly imagine Russia in 20 years still rambling on about "unification of our people" and all that.
I can perfectly imagine Russia in 20 years still rambling on about "unification of our people" and all that.
Yes, which is why the article is BS. The author interviewed a few people off the record who gave them their opinion, one of which said “We are planning for the long term, whether it looks frozen or thawed,” which resulted in the misleading headline and its subsequent retweeting.
Hard to believe the Ukrainians and Moldovans haven't teamed up to boot the Russians out of Transnistria as well.
It wouldn't help imo, since Ukraine joining NATO with Russian troops on internationally recognized NATO land would immediately cause an article 5 problem.
At least for the EU there already exists a similar issue: Northern Cyprus, which is occupied by a Turkish-supported regime, quite similar to the "Donetsk/Luhansk People's Republics". So joining the EU while being in a frozen war might at least be possible. NATO might be more difficult.
As with everything Biden admin has been absolutely useless in estimating how long would it take for Ukrainians to get accustomed to the western kit and delaying it needlessly.
You didn't read the article and the report right? Especially the part where it's mentionned that it would require 12 months to train 12-14 pilots?
It’s deliberate. They make a song and dance about giving them elite weapons to seem reluctant and placate certain sections of both the domestic and international audiences. They’re now sending Abrams this year, having claimed it’ll be 2024 due to logistics and training. They’ll also send long range missiles at some point too - the US definitely coordinated the delivery of storm shadow, as they purposefully sent those decoy missiles to work alongside them back in December.
If they’re even having a conversation about certain weapon systems I just assume it’s a done deal and will definitely be delivered at some point. Everything in between is to buy time to sort the actual logistics out (notice how when something is finally announced Ukraine has it delivered next day like it’s been bought with Amazon Prime) and smooth over any political ramifications.
The weapons that are officially delivered to Ukraine are delivered long before they’re made public
CNN reporting US won’t block the transfer of F16s to Ukraine.
I agree that things could have been done faster and the training should have started earlier but it's good to keep in mind that training the pilots is just one piece of the puzzle and getting F-16's to Ukraine is big fecking puzzle. There are still many other pieces that needs to be put in place before we'll see F-16's over Ukraine.
Not to mention there's no guarantee that any weapon will be a game changer. It will be a collective effort of all weapons and a desire to win that will move the needle on the battlefield.
There should be a law allowing such people to be deported to Russia. They like Russia so much, go and live there. This law alone would probably suffice to stop this behaviour, because they don't want to actually live there of course. They just love being controversial and to annoy people.