Russia

[Blue Dawg]

Some have labeled the destruction of a dam in Ukraine at the hands of their enemy, Russia, as a terrorist act. I’ve never heard anyone call the Royal Air Force (Great Britain) “terrorists” for their skillful and strategic WW2 raid in which they took out 2 dams in Germany.

I guess it’s incorrect to say Zelenskyy is a “common” criminal. He certainly isn’t common to have persuaded the Biden Administration and a large portion of the US government to provide a seemingly unending supply of weapons at the US Taxpayers expense.

Perhaps when the last Ukraine soldier has been killed and there’s no one left to fire the weopons, the supply of weopons may stop. And what will have been accomplished? Yes, there’s really not much that’s common about Zelenskyy. Only Hitler and a few others have gone down in history as completely destroying their own country and decimating their country’s society to the degree Zelenskyy seems determined to reach.

Given his willingness last year to reach a peaceful resolution (even if it meant giving up the Donbas) I would put the disregard for Ukrainian lives more on the US than on him. What is accomplished is 1) high levels of money laundering 2) protection of child trafficking rackets 3) bleeding out Russia's energy as the great enemy. I'm sure our leaders would love nothing more than for Russia to be occupied in the Donbas for the next 30 years, even if it meant every drop of Ukrainian blood spilled.

Ukraine is already set for a demographic catastrophe in the next few decades. Most of the young men have been killed or maimed, and the rest have fled the country to avoid conscription. I'm sure there will conveniently be scores of NGOs ready to flood the country with 3rd world immigrants. The grift never stops for these people.

It is darkly humorous that both sides constantly appeal to the "international community" for the other side's "terrorist acts." After watching 70 years of Washington, they should know by now that "terrorist act" just means "something the loser did." When the eventual winner does it, it's a clever strategic maneuver.

[dawg80]

The Ukrans have taken the operation of drones from a science to an art! A British military think tank representative marvels at what the Ukrans have cleverly being doing with drones, operating them beyond the manufacturer's own guidelines and stated capabilities. This Brit has declared the Ukrans as the #1 smartest/best drone operators in the world.

Russian targets are being routinely struck in Donbas, Crimea, and in Russia. Recently an oil storage facility was attacked in Krasnobar, Russia, which is about 120 miles inside of the Russian border. The Russian propagandists dismissed it as a "terrorist" attack and besides there were no air defenses at the facility otherwise the drones would have been shot down, they claim. In their excuse-mongering the Putin-apologists casually mentioned a Russian army storage facility which is another 100+ miles further east (inside Russia). Taking this as a challenge, the Ukrans decided to target it. Well, this morning, bam! two Ukran drones hit this facility, which is over 200+ miles inside of Russia. The damage is light because the drones could only carry small bombs given the extra fuel they had to carry to complete the 400+ mile roundtrip. But, strike it they did! The Ukrans released video of a drone command center showing the two drone operators at their computer screens and when the bombs hit, they all jumped up and were high-fiving each other. They also released video showing both drones returning to base, landing safely.

Good job Ukran patriots! The righteous world supports your valiant efforts to eject the evil thug invaders.

[dawg80]

According to Putin propagandists, and echoed by at least one conservative YouTuber, Dr. Steve Turley, and a British military pundit, Conrad Franz, the Russians are waiting to spring a big surprise. Yes, we are to believe Putin has been hiding 400,000 elite, crack troops and their real modern equipment, fighter jets and tanks, just ready to pounce when Putin's second-stringers have grind down the Ukrans enough. Hmmm....

Meanwhile, in the real world, the Ukrans have moved into southwestern parts of Bakhmut, the Russians pushed out and they retreated back across the canal that runs north-south, east of the city. That is a lot of ground for the Russians to have surrendered. Latest report is the Ukrans have not, yet, pushed all the way to the canal, so there is a no-man's land separating the opposing forces. North of Bakhmut the Ukrans have yet to seize the high ground, a ridge that towers over the surrounding area. The Russians, supported by at least one company of the Wagners, are holding the ridge.

Other than a failed push by the Chechens, the Russians have not tried any offensive movement since the Wagners took Bakhmut. The Ukrans have been capturing ground, but it's a slow crawl.

But, soon Putin's 1st Team will be unleashed! Taking bets on this...

[dawg80]

More spin jobs from both sides, that's been about it the past 36 hours.

The Russians claim to have sunk Ukraine's last remaining navy vessel, a landing ship which can carry and deploy two vehicles, like tanks, and about 80 soldiers. It has a very shallow draft so it can operate along shorelines and in rivers. It was attacked and hit by a jet-launched rocket but sustained only minor damage. Not only did the Ukrans show live video of it, to prove it has not been sunk, but they also revealed two "new" gunboats just commissioned into service. Get this, the boats themselves, the hull and super-structure are actually former German-built WWI torpedo attack boats. Yes, World War 1 crafts. They have been in a military museum since they were decommissioned by Ukraine in the early 1970's. The engines have been completely overhauled, rebuilt, and the boats now sport modern 76mm rapid-fire cannon, 20mm anti-aircraft guns, two twin-barrels, and anti-aircraft rockets and service to service rockets. The boats have a speed of 45 knots...which means they can get out of trouble just as fast as they got into it.

There ya go!

The Ukrans have had to be inventive and resourceful. Saw a video of two Ukran howitzers firing at the Russkies when a Mercedes SUV, a bright royal blue, a late model, very nice vehicle, drives up, guy opens the hatchback and starts handing shells to the gun crews. Yikes! delivering artillery ammo in a civilian SUV. Whatever it takes, eh.

Also, the Ukrans cleverly invented a rapid moving anti-tank attack vehicle...they took a motorcycle and a sidecar, welded a steel platform between them and mounted an anti-tank rocket launcher to it. Had video of this contrived vehicle speeding down a highway, two soldiers, one on the bike, one in the sidecar, turned into a field. They stopped, jumped to the rocket launcher, fired at a Russian tank, and before even the vapor trail from the rocket could clear, they were mounted and gone. They stopped next to some other Ukran soldiers and about 15 seconds later an artillery shell exploded where they had just been. They laughed at the futility of the enemy gunners.

Just think what the Ukrans will do if/when they have modern military equipment, as promised by NATO.

LOL! Putin wiped out his own troops! Ya gotta love it!

The west side of the Dnipro River is higher elevation, that's where the Ukrans are. The east side is part of the natural flood plain for the river and that is where Putin's thugs were. Early reports from drone video say hundreds of Russian soldiers have drowned in the flood, the rest barely able to escape but they left behind all their vehicles, equipment, heavy weapons, now all under water. Hah hah!

Latest reports...about 50 Russian soldiers are confirmed dead in the flood, and many more rescued having been stranded in trees and on rooftops. On this rescue matter, Russian helicopters and small boats have been picking up stranded Russian soldiers. Last night a Russian boat, with several rescued soldiers, came upon and fired on a Ukran boat which was also rescuing not only Ukran civilians, but Russian soldiers, and taking them prisoner. Nearby, sitting in the darkness, was one of the Ukrainian WWI gunboats. It moved in and returned fire at the Russian boat which was still firing with a machinegun. Reports are the Russian boat was sunk and there were no survivors. Now the Russians are crying foul saying the Ukrans should not have attacked, and sunk, a rescue craft. Well, as they always do, the Ukrans videoed the whole encounter, the quality is poor as it occurred in the dark, but it shows the Russian boat shooting at the Ukran rescue boat, the gun using tracers, and the Ukran boat withdrawing. Then the Ukran gunboat appears and from its and the other Ukran craft's video shows the brief fight that took place.

Also, Russian propagandists are claiming the Ukran counter-offensive has begun and the "heroic" Russians repelled it. Well, the Ukrans are denying the offensive has begun. What did happen, last night, is a unit of Ukran soldiers and a few tanks, were relocating along the flooded area and ran into a Russian unit doing the same thing. The fight was inconclusive and both sides withdrew. But today the Russians want to claim the whole offensive was stopped.

[Blue Dawg]

Good analysis of the dam situation here, at least for those interested in actual analysis. The blogger is unapologetically Russian and so writes from that perspective, but I've found his comments to be mostly balanced despite that. (His series on war history is also worth reading.) His conclusion is that Ukraine attempted to nullify Russia's control of the dam with a limited breach (again, something they have not only openly talked about but actually practiced) which led to a cascading failure of the entire structure. It's less plausible to me now that they intended this level of destruction, but I guess if you're desperate enough, any action seems reasonable.

The counter-offensive sure got downgraded quickly from "advancing on Moscow" to "it was just a probing exercise!" pretty quickly. Soon it won't have had happened at all.

[dawg80]

Just saw a report that there is heighten offensive activity in southern Ukraine which, by all appearances, is an offensive. A Ukran Leopard 2 tank was destroyed by Russian artillery fire. It was part of a long convoy of tanks and US-built M113 APCs. It was the only vehicle in that convoy that was hit.

Side note: it will be interesting to see how, overall, the Leopards perform and how the British Challenger and US Abrams tanks fair, should the latter two see combat in Ukraine. I mentioned a while back that the Russian T-90, thought to be a very good tank, has been utterly helpless and many of them have been knocked out. Could be the tank is going the way of the battleship in WWII and time/technology/weaponary has simply passed them by.

BTW the official word out of Kyiv is the counter-offensive has not yet begun. Maybe not, officially, but if Ukran units are maneuvering into jumping off points for the actual offensive to begin...and there has been a bunch of movement by Ukran forces... and there has been fighting as result of it, and there has been, then for all intents and purposes, it has begun. All of this is occurring in the southern theatre of the combat zone, thus far.

If the offensive has indeed begun, then news will be pouring out of Ukraine very soon. So we will all know for sure. And if so, may God bless the heroic Ukran patriots and bring them victory.

[dawg80]

Report that Putin was rushed to the hospital with some kind of medical emergency...hmmm, a gunshot wound?....anyway, this will be the second such emergency Putin has suffered in the past 6 weeks. His health is not very good, ya know. Just think just a few years ago he was horseback riding shirtless and boasting how virile he was.

[dawg80]

Latest...after a full day of offensive action by the Ukrans, we have a clearer picture of what is happening.

First, the Leopard tank reported as destroyed was not. It was damaged by a Russian mine which knocked a track off it. Then Russian artillery made it too hot for the crew to remain, so they abandoned the tank to seek cover. But the Ukran offensive in that area has pushed the Russian lines back over 2 miles, along a 10-mile front. During the night the Ukrans sent a tank-retrieval vehicle, and the Leopard tank is being repaired and will be sent back to the front soon. Four M113 APCs were hit by Russian artillery in that same area, part of that same operation. One of the M113s has been declared too damaged, not worth repairing, but the other 3 have been repaired and already back in the fight.

The Russians have had many months to prepare their defenses. They have set out minefields, with narrow passages through them. That is designed to funnel Ukran attacks into those passages where Russian artillery is zeroed-in. This is what happened to the Leopard tank and the damaged M113s. But, the Ukrans have already accurately pinpointed the minefields and the passages, and are using US-built rockets(M-58) which hit the ground and then deploy a long line of explosives, looks like a hose unrolling, the explosives then detonate the mines, clearing the fields. The Ukrans also have the US-built mine layers, artillery shells which burst scattering up to 20 mines each. The Ukrans are using these to mine Russian lines of movements up to 20 miles behind the front.

Russians on the first line of defense panicked during the night and many were killed/wounded by their own mines as they tried to flee. A Russian general complained the Ukrans have an advantage using US-made night vision which is far superior to anything the Russians have. Also, their front-line troops, thought to be expendable, have not been issued any kind of night vision and are helpless against the Ukrans during the night.

The Putin propagandists, which includes several so-called "conservative" commentators, who have been against the US/west supporting Pres. Z and Ukraine from the beginning, are trying their best to highlight Ukran losses, cheering on the Russians, hoping that they, the commentators, will eventually be proven right, and that would be a Putin victory whereby these commentators can then say, see! we told you it was a waste of money to support Ukraine. (we have a couple here too). Standing up to an international bully, like Putin, and also standing up to Xi and the Chicoms, is the RIGHT THING TO DO, period! The cost in terms of dollars is irrelevant. We, the USA and our western allies, either DO THE RIGHT THING, or just STFU! I choose doing the right thing.

Back to the main point...it is expected that the Ukrans will suffer losses conducting this offensive. The defending side always has an advantage. The US/allies suffered enormous losses during WWII defeating Germany and Japan. In the latter case, the Japs were dug in on all those islands, defenses prepared, and our marines (and army units) had to hit the beaches under a murderous fire. Of course, the same thing happened in Normandy on D-Day. So, will the Ukrans suffer losses? Will some of the NATO-provided equipment be knocked out? Ah...yeah.

[dawg80]

Members of a advisory council (7 members), Russian Parliament, discussing current events. It is composed of a slight majority of Putin-supporters, similar to what such a Senate committee might look like, 4 Dems, 3 Repubs. The opposition members have been very out-spoken as the Putinites usually hang their heads in shame or attempt weak counterarguments. Saw a clip on the destruction of the dam. Point was made that the Russians held the dam, that the security cameras show no in-coming projectile(s), and the engineers say that NO WAY, short a nuke or something, could a projectile have done that much damage causing such a quick collapse of the dam. Nope! it had to be an inside job, where expert demolition engineers knew where to place the charges at the dam's vulnerable points and the charges were set off INSIDE of the dam structure. Now...the fellows making this case are anti-Putin politicians, so we know their motivation. But, it is hard to argue against their point.

BTW, one of those fellows compared it to the Nord Stream pipeline destruction, to which he attached blame to Biden for that. Interestingly, he did not blame the "US" or "Americans," he mentioned Biden by name.

[dawg80]

Putin is a madman, but Medvedev is a stark, raving lunatic! That dude advocated nuking Great Britain because they dared supply weapons to Ukraine. And now, this week, he is saying Russia should invade Alaska and take back its rightful territory. He dismisses the fact Russia sold Alaska to the US in 1867 for $7.2 million, which was a lot back then. It was a legal sale, endorsed by both governments at the time. And, Medvedev says that Russia could easily seize Alaska with just three brigades, after all, he says, "there are just a few Eskimos living there." This is Russia's leadership....and we think we have it bad with Sleepy Joe. Well, we do, but I suppose the US is still the US because our opposition has even stupider leaders.

[dawg80]

Looks like the Ukrans are trying to reach Mariupol on the coast. It is serving as a main supply base and a home to some of the Russian navy. If they can capture it, and then hold it, this will cut the Russian occupation force in two. The Ukrans have made good progress in just 72 hours, liberating 7 towns along the axis of their advance, straight at Mariupol. Further west, north of the Kerson region, the Ukrans have seized an important crossroads town at Lovek, or something like that. They are pushing forward on four fronts, these two, plus one south of Bakhmut, and one up near the Russian border north of Karviv.

The rest of the "news" appears to be just noise, both sides spinning happenings to suit their audiences. Even the truth gets tugged in opposite directions. For instance, Putin ordered a division to move into the Belgorod region, obviously to try to contain the growing revolt that is occurring there. This division has a reported strength of 25,000 soldiers, down from its original 32,000 when it first deployed. The division has been in the thick of combat for 10 months...mostly losing. The Russian propagandists hailed it as a brilliant move by Putin, sending a crack, veteran unit to squash the anti-Putin forces in Belgorod. The Ukrainian spinmeisters proclaimed the war to be over, the Russian army is in full retreat. They had drone video showing the division withdrawing toward Russia. So, it must be true. The war is not over...yet, and the Putinites had better contain their enthusiasm because this is hardly a "crack" division. It is a shot-up, demoralized bunch who just want to go home. Elements of the division are in Belgorod as of today, but they are setting up camp and trying to get organized. We shall see how well they perform.

Some of the spinning has gotten so bad I don't watch or read much of it anymore. There are only a few Ukrainian/Russian sources I trust not to spin away. The best reporting is done by international media, including Aljazeera, which I find has been accurate in their reporting.

[dawg80]

Ukraine is getting NATO equipment, including modern tanks, but to support the massive offensive, on four fronts, they have to deploy some older equipment as well. I mentioned the Polish upgraded T-72s Ukraine has now, but they have also received and deployed the even older T-55(built originally in 1948). These tanks, 28 of them, were donated by Slovenia, by way of Israel. Now designated the M55-S, the tanks have been modernized to now have a British built 105mm rifled gun, rebuilt diesel engines allowing speeds up to 50mph, on good roads, and have been decked out with the "bricks" to upgrade the armor protection. The Israelis also provided modern radios and some other electronic upgrades such as a modern targeting system making the gun more accurate. Even with the improvements the M55-S is not capable of standing toe-to-toe with newer, better tanks. It can, however, serve as a very good infantry support weapons' platform, acting as mobile artillery. Used properly this tank can serve a useful purpose.

This also shows how all the blustering about Ukraine getting all that NATO/US equipment is more blustery than truth. The British Challenger and the US Abrams tanks are nowhere to be found, so far. Well, there are 4 Challengers in Ukraine being used for training purposes. Instead the gallant Ukrans have been standing up to a large bully using resourcefulness and pure guts...and God bless 'em.

[dawg80]

This should settle who blew up the dam at Kerson. The Russians just blew another one to flood the countryside north of Mariupol to deter the Ukrainian advance. Of course, unlike some others, I never had any doubt who blew the Kerson dam and the reason for it. Well, here you go, in case you are truly delusional, the Russians have done it again and for the same reason.

Being reported that 16 US-built "armored vehicles" have been destroyed in the Ukranian offensive. Of course, the Putin propagandists are delighted by this news, proves Russian technology is superior to American equipment. Ah, no. From the best sources I can find, 14 of those vehicles are Humvees and most of those have been damaged, not "destroyed." The other two vehicles appear to be Bradley Fighting Machines and the extent of the damage to them is unconfirmed. This is not to say we cannot expect no US equipment to be lost. This is a war, after all, and this is Ukrainian soldiers operating the equipment, not highly-trained US personnel.

On that note, the Putinites are claiming they have destroyed two Leopard tanks. It is confirmed that two Leopards were heavily engaged in a fire-fight with Russian forces, but there are no verified reports of the condition of the two tanks.

[dawg80]

Russians in an RV-looking vehicle, attacked by a drone. Tell me this doesn't look like the Urban Assault Vehicle from the movie "Stripes." Guess Putin thought it was a real US military vehicle and he wanted one too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_X-cR1ajeg

[dawg80]

Putin/Russkies admit they have lost another 54 tanks this past week during the Ukrainian offensive. Which means they have probably lost 75-80 tanks. Another report said the Russians had spent $billion building extensive defensive lines, including miles of "dragon's teeth" but the Ukrans simply went around them, not attempted to go through them. The Russian defenses are a series of semi-circle lines positioned on main roads and covering open ground where tanks can operate easily. But the Ukrans have managed to get through swamps, low ground, and have neutralized minefields using the US technology, those rockets that hit and then deploy "rope explosives," which detonate the mines clearing a path.

Putin is losing.