Russia launches a massive drone attack on Odesa. There are many fires in the city, including in a shopping center, local media report. There are power outages in several parts of the city.
Russia Invades Ukraine XVIII
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Russia launches a massive drone attack on Odesa. There are many fires in the city, including in a shopping center, local media report. There are power outages in several parts of the city.
Weird story from Lithuania.
NATO chief says 4 GIs are dead.
US Army Europe says, "Not so fast. We don't know that."
Weird for the NATO SECGEN to get ahead of a member state's PA folks.
For the record, the troops were missing in a live fire and the range was 10 clicks (6 miles) from Belarus, which is Russian-controlled these days.
Not to jump to conclusions, but in 2014, the Russians crossed the border with Estonia and grabbed a Kaitsepolitsei officer Eston Kohver, and dragged him across the Rusian border where they put him on trial for espionage "inside Russia," and later they exchanged Kohver for Alexei Dressen, an Estonian citizen of Russian exctraction who was working for the Estonian Intelligence Service. IN 2012, they caught Dressen boarding a plane for Russia with a stash of classification info. Dressen was arrested, tried, convicted, and then exchanged for Kohver in 2015.
The GIs could be dead, or maybe they are in a jail in Belarus, or just lost. Hopefully the latter.
Update: these guys were in an M88 Hercules Recovery vehicle, which has been found in a body of water. Not looking good.
NATO chief says 4 GIs are dead.
US Army Europe says, "Not so fast. We don't know that."
For the record, the troops were missing in a live fire and the range was 10 clicks (6 miles) from Belarus, which is Russian-controlled these days.
Not to jump to conclusions, but in 2014, the Russians crossed the border with Estonia and grabbed a Kaitsepolitsei officer Eston Kohver, and dragged him across the Rusian border where they put him on trial for espionage "inside Russia," and later they exchanged Kohver for Alexei Dressen, an Estonian citizen of Russian exctraction who was working for the Estonian Intelligence Service. IN 2012, they caught Dressen boarding a plane for Russia with a stash of classification info. Dressen was arrested, tried, convicted, and then exchanged for Kohver in 2015.
The GIs could be dead, or maybe they are in a jail in Belarus, or just lost. Hopefully the latter.
Update: these guys were in an M88 Hercules Recovery vehicle, which has been found in a body of water. Not looking good.
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The way I see it, there were three options: lost soldiers waiting for someone to find them, dead, or kidnapped. Option one now seem to have been eliminated. It is March and this is Lithuania, 54° 41'N. That is the same latitude as southern Hudson's Bay Canada. Pretty cold. low temp 34 degrees F.
Surviving for long outside with a vehicle is tough.
So we are probably left with dead or kidnapped.
Another key detail: peat bog. The M88 is a heavy vehicle. Drive it into a peat bog and it will sink.
4 Fort Stewart soldiers missing in Lithuania: The latest
If the GIs had their hatches closed (due to cold), and the water enclosed the top of the vehicle, they would not be able to open the hatches until the pressure equalized (because water had filled the vehicle). Hard to hold your breath that long.
Here is a photo of where the M88 sank.
4 Fort Stewart soldiers missing in Lithuania: The latest
If the GIs had their hatches closed (due to cold), and the water enclosed the top of the vehicle, they would not be able to open the hatches until the pressure equalized (because water had filled the vehicle). Hard to hold your breath that long.
Here is a photo of where the M88 sank.
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Secret History of US Involvement in Ukraine War
This is a pretty long read. If this information is true, it's unfortunate how Ukraine has not fully embraced the US intelligence or war strategies.
The winning combination was General Donahue and General Zalynsky. Their quick move quick strike tactics in 2022-2023 had Russia in a state of disarray and the Republicans in a panic that Ukraine may actually win while Biden was in office.
The US was right that Ukraine could not win a grinding war with Russia. General Syriski wanted to go right into the teeth of Russia. President Zelensky didn't want anyone to challenge his presidency.
Just a bunch of missed opportunities for Ukraine and the West. But if Ukraine would have relied faithfully on US direction, Ukraine would be a more secure country and Trump might not be President right now.
This is a pretty long read. If this information is true, it's unfortunate how Ukraine has not fully embraced the US intelligence or war strategies.
The winning combination was General Donahue and General Zalynsky. Their quick move quick strike tactics in 2022-2023 had Russia in a state of disarray and the Republicans in a panic that Ukraine may actually win while Biden was in office.
The US was right that Ukraine could not win a grinding war with Russia. General Syriski wanted to go right into the teeth of Russia. President Zelensky didn't want anyone to challenge his presidency.
Just a bunch of missed opportunities for Ukraine and the West. But if Ukraine would have relied faithfully on US direction, Ukraine would be a more secure country and Trump might not be President right now.
I'm curious how this all plays out.
At this point, I do not think Putin can agree to stopping the fighting for domestic political reasons (the loss ot wartime armaments production would kill the Russian economy and Putin can afford to lose a few hundred soldiers a day probably indefinitely..
I'm not sure Zelensky can either for domestic political reasons.
I guess this drags on until either (a) Putin dies or (b) the Ukrainian army collapses (or some portion of the front does, enabling a giant Russian lunge forward).
Is there a chance that Ukraine drafts 18y olds reinvest in US intelligence to revive its momentum? Or has that opportunity closed because of Trump and he just let's Ukraine die on the vine? Can UK, Germany, and France fill the intelligence role vacated by the US?
Personal opinion here, but intel is not the answer.
A country of 40 million is fighting a war of attrition against a country of 140 million. I'm not even sure conscripting 18-25 year olds will solve the problem (although it would probably help a little).
It is just math now. Russia seems to have calibrated ("We can take X amount of terrain daily for Y casualties, and we can absorb Y daily casualties indefinitely.")
Maybe Putin will suddenly fall ill (God willing).
Well, apparently the M88 Hercules is out of the bog, but somehow the fate of the four-man crew is still undetermined.
US armored vehicle missing in Lithuania pulled from swamp but fate of 4 soldiers is still unknown
I suspect that the Army knows exactly where the soldiers are (inside the vehicle) but needed to confirm and then notify next of kin before they made the facts public.
The proximity to the Belarus border was what caused me to wonder if there was some cross-border clash going on there.
Me, too. But I guess Occam's razor, in all its grizzliness applies here. Poor guys ran into a swamp and did not bail out fast enough, so they went down with their vehicle and probably smothered inside.
Well, it appears that three of the four have been found dead.
Reporter: Have you had any updates on the us soldiers missing in Lithuania?
Trump: So three are no longer with us and one is unfortunately probably in the same category, but they haven't declared that yet. It was a very heavy truck, like a toy, but I mean really heavy. That lifted the heaviest equipment. And it would seem that the bank of a lake collapsed. You know, the weight is so big.
M88 Hercules weighs 63 tons. A lot of PSI for boggy ground.
It is an inherently dangerous business, the military. Even driving a tracked recovery vehicle can get you killed.
RIP, guys.
It is an inherently dangerous business, the military. Even driving a tracked recovery vehicle can get you killed.
RIP, guys.
Message from the Finnish President: “calm down, take a nice bath, take a sauna, take a deep breath†and “engage rather than disengageâ€Â.
Finland’s president: ‘I just met Donald Trump. Russia is running out of time’
I really like this guy. Maybe because I have a very good opinion of Finns generally.
Finland’s president: ‘I just met Donald Trump. Russia is running out of time’
I really like this guy. Maybe because I have a very good opinion of Finns generally.
This story was interesting.
How this special operations leader ended up shuttering a US embassy and destroying sensitive materials just before Russia invaded Ukraine
Here is a photo of Col. Van Antwerp, probably at the 10th Special Forces Group headquarters.
How this special operations leader ended up shuttering a US embassy and destroying sensitive materials just before Russia invaded Ukraine
Here is a photo of Col. Van Antwerp, probably at the 10th Special Forces Group headquarters.
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