Russia invades Ukraine XV

[Tidewater]

That's a pretty big undertaking in the middle of a war...

Mr. Self was correct again.
Zaporizhzhia Military Administration retracts fake report about Russians building railway from Rostov to Crimea
It would have been a significant undertaking.

 

[Tidewater]

Read this today.
Russia Continues to Forcibly Recruit Prisoners and Migrant Workers for War in Ukraine (Part Two)

So, Russia is conscripting convicts, debtors, migrants, giving them guns, sending to Ukraine for a year, then returning them home. What could go wrong?

 

[crimsonaudio]

Read this today.
Russia Continues to Forcibly Recruit Prisoners and Migrant Workers for War in Ukraine (Part Two)

So, Russia is conscripting convicts, debtors, migrants, giving them guns, sending to Ukraine for a year, then returning them home. What could go wrong?

Well, many of them are gonna return home in a box (or multiple boxes).

 

[CrimsonJazz]

MSN

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby on Wednesday told reporters that the United States has gone through 96 percent of its funds allocated for Ukraine.

"Of the total funds that have been provided to Ukraine since the beginning of the war, which is an excess of $60 billion—and that's not just security assistance; that's economic, financialand humanitarian assistance—we've gone through about 96 percent of what's left," Kirby said during a press conference.

 

[Tidewater]

I read this today and found it interesting.

On November 4, 2023, on Unity Day, or the day of the “Russian March,” (the Russian March was a rising of the people on November 4, 1612 which expelled the Polish-Lithuanian occupiers of Moscow).

The "celebrations" were not large, but what they said was significant. Amidst a lot of boilerplate anti-immigrant and anti-moslem slogans were these surprising ones:
“Be proud of your ancestors - fight for the life and freedom of your descendants,” “Russians deserve better than genocide on their own land,” “Without Russians.” - no Russia”, “Peace to the Slavs. War against the Kremlin”, “Glory to Russia”, “Freedom for Russia”, “Freedom for Russians!”, “Russian power for Russians”, “Down with the power of the security officers” («Долой власть чекистов»), “Down with the Tsar”(«Долой царя»), and “Putin = war + poverty.”

Surprisingly, few of these guys were arrested.

 

[crimsonaudio]

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Read this today.
Russia Continues to Forcibly Recruit Prisoners and Migrant Workers for War in Ukraine (Part Two)

So, Russia is conscripting convicts, debtors, migrants, giving them guns, sending to Ukraine for a year, then returning them home. What could go wrong?

What indeed?

 

[Tidewater]

This is a little off-topic, but this documentary explores how the wheels fell off the Russian republic in 1917.

The disintegration started back home in St. Petersburg, and the sickness spread to the army. My guess is that the RosGvardiya's mission is to make sure the sickness of disintegration does not start in Moscow (or St. Petersburg).

 

[crimsonaudio]

Support for Ukraine seems to be waning while russia is ramping up:

 

[2003TIDE]

Support for Ukraine seems to be waning while russia is ramping up:

That's the glass half empty version. The glass half full is Russia is pulling lots from storage because they are losing lots.

The Russians Are Losing 14 Vehicles For Every One Ukrainian Loss (forbes.com)

 

[crimsonaudio]

That's the glass half empty version. The glass half full is Russia is pulling lots from storage because they are losing lots.

Did you miss the chart?

People who track delivery of materiale have noted this - even if russia isn't ramping up (threy are), there's been less heavy equipment delivered in much of 2023.

 

[Tidewater]

This came up today.
Nikolai Patrushev is the former FSB guy who now heads the Russian National Security Council. Putin's friend and a real America-hating hawk.
Media: Patrushev Gave 'Funeral' Speech About Putin
I do not know. It sounds like a mash-up of the movies Dave and Weekend at Bernie's.
Gennady Gudkov's twitter said, "Ну и что это было? Патрушев в черном произносит речь о «великом товарище путине» в прошедшем времени: был, стал, вел, вдохновлял... Неужели сбылись предсказания Валерия Соловья?" (So what was it? Patrushev in black makes a speech about "the great comrade Putin" in the past tense: was, became, led, inspired... Did Valery Solovey's predictions come true?)

 

[crimsonaudio]

Ukraine says it now has a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River near Kherson city

A top Ukrainian official says its troops have established a beachhead on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River near Kherson, an important advance in overcoming one of Russia’s most significant strategic barriers in the war.

apnews.com

 

[crimsonaudio]

I suspect @Tidewater can expound upon this if he wishes.

 

[Tidewater]

I could see that. Ukraine is very much a transitional zone between Russia and Poland. I'm sure there have been lots of infiltration of Polish vocabulary and pronunciation into the language spoken in Ukraine. In fact, the primary "at home" language shades from mostly Russian in Donetsk through increasing levels of Ukrainian, until Kyiv and then you start seeing increasing levels of Polish until you get to the Polish-Ukrainian border. Lviv was Lvov, Poland during the interwar years and I would wager the Polish pushed Polish language pretty hard, so once the area was ceded to Ukraine in 1946, the CPSU had some work to do de-polifying the inhabitants.

Polish to me sounds like Russian spoken with a mouthful of gravel.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I could see that. Ukraine is very much a transitional zone between Russia and Poland. I'm sure there have been lots of infiltration of Polish vocabulary and pronunciation into the language spoken in Ukraine. In fact, the primary "at home" language shades from mostly Russian in Donetsk through increasing levels of Ukrainian, until Kyiv and then you start seeing increasing levels of Polish until you get to the Polish-Ukrainian border. Lviv was Lvov, Poland during the interwar years and I would wager the Polish pushed Polish language pretty hard, so once the area was ceded to Ukraine in 1946, the CPSU had some work to do de-polifying the inhabitants.

Polish to me sounds like Russian spoken with a mouthful of gravel.

Well, Russian only shares 62% of vocabulary with Ukrainian, whereas Ukrainian and Polish share 70%+ and 84% with Belarusian. Both share more than 70% with Slovak. These 4 countries were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for over four hundred years, while Russian developed independently. The Russian pervasion into Ukrainian (and Belarusian) is owing to very recent history. There are words in Ukrainian which cannot be pronounced by most Russians, which the Ukrainians use, particularly in the present conflict. The Russian position that Ukrainian and Belarusian (they used to claim Polish and Slovakian also) are dialects of Russian is just more propaganda...

 

[TIDE-HSV]

More minutiae from Don Hill...

Hill I

Hill II

Hill III

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Another Hill series, with a brief introduction by Cooper. It seems that we/they are falling behind in the drone arms race...

Hill I

Hill II

Hill III

 

[Go Bama]

Another Hill series, with a brief introduction by Cooper. It seems that we/they are falling behind in the drone arms race...

Hill I

Hill II

Hill III

I continue to be amazed at how important a roll drones are playing in this war.

Detection and destruction of enemy EW equipment is also an ongoing effort as it is difficult to replace. Ukraine has destroyed quite a few EW systems in the last couple of months. EW impacts planes, missiles, drones, and communications between ground units. If Ukraine can gain electronic superiority through attrition, innovation and production, it will make it much easier to gain air superiority with their drones. Ukraine doesn’t need conventional air superiority with planes. If they deny the skies to Russian drones, they will blind the Russian army and ground some of their most dangerous weapons.

 

[Tidewater]

Another Hill series, with a brief introduction by Cooper. It seems that we/they are falling behind in the drone arms race...

Hill I

Hill II

Hill III

The Pentagon is like the Queen Mary, when it comes to agility. If the Pentagon decides it wants a drone, it will take fifteen years and cost fifty times what commercial product would cost, but, on the other hand it will not work as well as the commercial product.