Ukraine

[Phil1111 1,149]

1 hour ago, ryoder said:

Looks like some clueless Russian officers still have not figured out that drones exist.

Jump to 2:55

 

Another report of the same incident: "Russian sources claimed that the division waited two hours in one location while waiting for 20th Combined Arms Army Commander Major General Sukhrab Akhmedov to arrive and deliver a speech before the division conducted offensive operations.[8] One milblogger suggested that the reported Ukrainian HIMARS strike killed around 100 Russian personnel and wounded another 100,"

One milblogger even called for the responsible commanders to be shot in front of their formations, whether they are colonel or generals

At least they weren't captured by Ukrainian Nazis and used as zombies in slave labor camps.

Edited June 15, 2023 by Phil1111

[jakee 1,561]

6 hours ago, Phil1111 said:

One milblogger even called for the responsible commanders to be shot in front of their formations, whether they are colonel or generals

So.... um... they want to gather everyone who's left for another big parade? Sounds good to me.

[Phil1111 1,149]

27 minutes ago, jakee said:

So.... um... they want to gather everyone who's left for another big parade? Sounds good to me.

Especially if the most irresponsible one is in the front row.

[johnhking1 97]

18 hours ago, jakee said:

One milblogger even called for the responsible commanders to be shot in front of their formations, whether they are colonel or generals

You could throw them a party in the penthouse of a high rise with lots of windows,

[riggerrob 643]

On 6/15/2023 at 5:16 AM, ryoder said:

Looks like some clueless Russian officers still have not figured out that drones exist.

Jump to 2:55

 

Some day, some one is going to explain to me the logic behind parades. When in uniform, I stood thousands of hours on parade, but no one ever explained tome why?????????

I was even among the honor guard when Prince Charles and Lady Diana visited Halifax.

Why parade????????????

[JoeWeber 2,820]

25 minutes ago, riggerrob said:

Some day, some one is going to explain to me the logic behind parades. When in uniform, I stood thousands of hours on parade, but no one ever explained tome why?????????

I was even among the honor guard when Prince Charles and Lady Diana visited Halifax.

Why parade????????????

Because everyone loves a parade?

[billvon 3,067]

11 minutes ago, JoeWeber said:

Because everyone loves a parade?

General Scheisskopf does an excellent job of explaining why they are so important in Chapter 37 of Catch-22.

[ryoder 1,590]

40 minutes ago, riggerrob said:

Some day, some one is going to explain to me the logic behind parades. When in uniform, I stood thousands of hours on parade, but no one ever explained tome why?????????

I was even among the honor guard when Prince Charles and Lady Diana visited Halifax.

Why parade????????????

I have a friend who was in the Air Force back in the early 90's, stationed in Europe, doing IT support for the intel guys. He said he was glad when there were actual operations under way, because all the idiotic busy-work done purely for show, would get shit-canned in favor of focusing on the real operations at hand.

[JerryBaumchen 1,433]

46 minutes ago, ryoder said:

I have a friend who was in the Air Force back in the early 90's, stationed in Europe, doing IT support for the intel guys. He said he was glad when there were actual operations under way, because all the idiotic busy-work done purely for show, would get shit-canned in favor of focusing on the real operations at hand.

Hi Robert,

During my time in the USAF, about 25% of my waking hours were spent on this.

Some things never change.

'Let's have a parade, it will do the men good.'

Jerry Baumchen

[gowlerk 2,249]

17 minutes ago, JerryBaumchen said:

Hi Robert,

During my time in the USAF, about 25% of my waking hours were spent on this.

Some things never change.

'Let's have a parade, it will do the men good.'

Jerry Baumchen

Roman Legions had parades too. And probably for the same reasons.

[normiss 848]

43 minutes ago, JerryBaumchen said:

Hi Robert,

During my time in the USAF, about 25% of my waking hours were spent on this.

Some things never change.

'Let's have a parade, it will do the men good.'

Jerry Baumchen

Stationed at a research facility and running battle simulations to test teh systems, I hated when they went wrong or flat out failed. Some angry Captain or Admiral would scream about yelling for everyone to assemble for inspection. Dammit man, we've been here all night working hard to put this simulation together and we never prepared for an inspection! 

We were once "hit" for being "dusty". WTF does that even mean???

Thanks for serving Jerry!

[Phil1111 1,149]

It appears as though President Biden has approved ATACMS for Ukraine. Its like HIMARS but with a 190 mile range. Which would put all of Russian occupied Ukraine within range of present Ukrainian positions. So Putin's bridge, the Black sea fleet still left in Sevastopol and all kinds of parade grounds for Russian generals.

[JoeWeber 2,820]

1 minute ago, Phil1111 said:

It appears as though President Biden has approved ATACMS for Ukraine. Its like HIMARS but with a 190 mile range. Which would put all of Russian occupied Ukraine within range of present Ukrainian positions. So Putin's bridge, the Black sea fleet still left in Sevastopol and all kinds of parade grounds for Russian generals.

Interesting. Putin just announced he would be hopping mad if Ukraine used US or UK weapons in Crimea. Must be why.

[kallend 2,106]

Rats fighting each other:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/24/briefing/russia-wagner-prigozhin.html

[JerryBaumchen 1,433]

1 hour ago, kallend said:

Rats fighting each other:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/24/briefing/russia-wagner-prigozhin.html

Hi John,

And this:  shelling in Voronezh, some 500 kilometers south of Moscow, could not immediately be verified, but the governor, Alexander Gusev, confirmed fighting there.

Wagner rebels career toward showdown with Putin as they push to Moscow – POLITICO

This could get real nasty.

Jerry Baumchen

[jakee 1,561]

This is just incredible. Wagner taking over the major military HQ for the Ukraine invasion in Rostov. The bulk of Wagner’s forces racing north on the motorway to Moscow hoping to take the Kremlin before the Army can get organised. Videos out there of Russian Army helicopters blowing up their own fuel depots on the route, and of Wagner forces firing manpads at other Russian helicopters. The FSB raiding Wagner HQ in St Petersburg and taking $50M cash from their vault. 
 

Prygozhin is an evil son of a bitch, absolutely mental and I have no idea what he thinks his endgame is but damn he’s doing Zelensky the mother of all favours right now.

[Phil1111 1,149]

Infighting between capos of a crime family who knows what is really going on. Prigozhin generates billions, yeah billions in income in his various African military scams and propping up governments. Billions in price fixing Russian military contracts.

"Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) published its latest investigative work on Friday, revealing what it says is a cartel of businesses owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin and contracted by the Defense Ministry. Widely known as “Vladimir Putin’s favorite chef,” Prigozhin is a billionaire restaurateur'

"Wagner Group’s operations in recent years have expanded in Africa, especially into Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Libya, where it protects investments of Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Last year, the US accused Wagner mercenaries of exploiting natural resources in CAR, Mali, Sudan and elsewhere in the continent.

Over the last year of Russia’s war with Ukraine, the Wagner Group has further expanded its network in CAR, where its mining profits reportedly reached $1 billion.

In 2020, the group sent soldiers to CAR to take control of an artisanal gold mine and turn it into an industrial complex.

The same year, CAR’s Ministry of Mines cancelled the license of a Canadian company at Ndassima, according to a report, and gave a 25-year concession to a Madagascar-registered company called Midas Resources, a Russian entity owned by Prigozhin."

Is it nothing but a scam/pretext to overthrow  Belarus? Presumably Prigozhin is going to Belarus as a part of a deal worked out by Lukashenko. Is Lukashenko going to fall out a window in the next week or so? Is Wagner going to have nuclear weapons of its own in Belarus to act as a fall back state for Putin? Who the hell knows?

According to the latest twists and turns of this story. Putin swallowed his pride and backed down in order to get a ex hot dog vendor not to invade Moscow!

Perhaps the next turn is Prigozhin handing Belarus to Putin after clearing out all the Nazis. Putin rewarding Prigozhin with the Hero of the Russian Federation medal. Putin withdraws from Ukraine and calls it a good week.

 

Edited June 24, 2023 by Phil1111

[ryoder 1,590]

So what is the over-under on how many hours until Prigozhin falls out a window?

[wmw999 2,532]

It might be tough to push him out when he has better-trained and more ruthless guards. Personally, I don’t think he wants to be in charge of Russia, he just wants to be in charge of his force, but his current employer (Putin) won’t let him. So, he’ll fuck things up until either Putin gives in or is gone. Imagine the Vietnam War if we really had gone in there and thrown everything at them, or the Middle East if we really had done the glass parking lot thing. We fucked them both up, but slowly.

The thing is, once you do it that thoroughly, you kind of have the responsibility of running things, and I doubt Prighozin has any interest in that  

Wendy P. 

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

14 hours ago, ryoder said:

So what is the over-under on how many hours until Prigozhin falls out a window?

I don't see it happening any time soon.

As was pointed out, he has LOTS of well trained and well armed bodyguards.

I don't think anyone with 'evil intent' can get anywhere near him.

I wonder if 'exiling' him to Belarus is part of having him take over from Lushenko.

Lukashenko ended up in the hospital, seriously ill. There's been a fair amount of speculation he was poisoned.

Perhaps Putin has decided it's time for a change there?

Edited June 25, 2023 by wolfriverjoe

[Phil1111 1,149]

There are unconfirmed reports coming out of Russia that a purge of Prigozhin allies within the Russian armed forces is underway. Gen. Sergei Surovikin, head of the Russian Air Farce is reported to have been arrested.

He was originally reported missing on Saturday.

It seems as if the Matryoshka dolls, the nesting Russian dolls is being redefined. It doesn't mean fertility instead layer after layer of corruption.

Edited June 28, 2023 by Phil1111

[ryoder 1,590]

So Wagner did Ukraine a favor:

Forbes: Wagner Mercenaries Did What Ukrainian Troops Couldn’t Do: Shoot Down A Priceless Russian Command Plane

[ryoder 1,590]

The Guardian: ‘Yevgeny Prigozhin will never be discussed again’: Russian media to erase all traces of mutinous warlord

On Friday, Russia blocked the websites of the Ria Fan, Politics Today, Economy Today, Neva News and People’s News online media outlets, part of a constellation of online sites that pushed out fake news in support of Prigozhin’s agenda.

The St Petersburg-based outlet Rotunda also reported that Prigozhin’s Internet Research Agency, a troll factory where low-paid interns would try to sow anger and distrust by writing aggressive comments under news and social media posts, had also been closed down.

 

Won't someone think of the poor unemployed trolls?

[jakee 1,561]

23 hours ago, ryoder said:

So Wagner did Ukraine a favor:

Forbes: Wagner Mercenaries Did What Ukrainian Troops Couldn’t Do: Shoot Down A Priceless Russian Command Plane

That’s the really tough one for Putin to spin. They shot down 5 or so helicopters, possibly another transport plane and one of these long range comms aircraft that the top heavy Russian tactical doctrine absolutely relies on. Putin has publicly paid tribute to the numerous ‘hero’ pilots and aircrew that were killed by these (from a Russian perspective) treasonous mutineers…. while letting them all go free. 
 

That’s surely going to be a bitter pill to swallow for many across Russian society, as well as those serving in the military and Ministry of Defence.

Edited July 2, 2023 by jakee

[jakee 1,561]

Well, this is fun…

Russia has planted suspected explosives on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant roofs, says Zelenskiy

 

Ukraine has been increasingly warning that Russia is planning to blow up parts of the Zaporizhzhia plant, and have been evacuating most remaining workers. It now seems like they’re making physical preparations for a false flag attack to make it look like Ukrainian shelling. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/05/russia-has-planted-suspected-explosives-on-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-roofs-says-zelenskiy