"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (3 Viewers)

[Thumpalumpacus]

Sorry mate, just the first time I've seen someone taken to task for calling someone creative.

In the context, six "creatives" without a reply (until this one, of course) looks really sketchy.

If you want a conversation, maybe write some words about what you think is so "creative" and we can discuss? I mean, that's what I'm here for, how about you?

 

[at6]

U.S. intelligence is helping Ukraine kill Russian generals, officials say.

WASHINGTON — The United States has provided intelligence about Russian units that has allowed Ukrainians to target and kill many of the Russian generals who have died in action in the Ukraine war, according to senior American officials.

Ukrainian officials said they have killed approximately 12 generals on the front lines, a number that has astonished military analysts.

The targeting help is part of a classified effort by the Biden administration to provide real-time battlefield intelligence to Ukraine. That intelligence also includes anticipated Russian troop movements gleaned from recent American assessments of Moscow's secret battle plan for the fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, the officials said. Officials declined to specify how many generals had been killed as a result of U.S. assistance.
The United States has focused on providing the location and other details about the Russian military's mobile headquarters, which relocate frequently. Ukrainian officials have combined that geographic information with their own intelligence — including intercepted communications that alert the Ukrainian military to the presence of senior Russian officers — to conduct artillery strikes and other attacks that have killed Russian officers.
The intelligence sharing is part of a stepped-up flow in U.S. assistance that includes heavier weapons and tens of billions in aid, demonstrating how quickly the early American restraints on support for Ukraine have shifted as the war enters a new stage that could play out over months.
U.S. intelligence support to the Ukrainians has had a decisive effect on the battlefield, confirming targets identified by the Ukrainian military and pointing it to new targets. The flow of actionable intelligence on the movement of Russian troops that America has given Ukraine has few precedents.
Since failing to advance on Kyiv, the capital, in the early part of the war, Russia has tried to regroup, with a more concentrated push in eastern Ukraine that so far has moved slowly and unevenly.
Officials interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the classified intelligence being shared with Ukraine.
The administration has sought to keep much of the battlefield intelligence secret, out of fear it will be seen as an escalation and provoke President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia into a wider war. American officials would not describe how they have acquired information on Russian troop headquarters, for fear of endangering their methods of collection. But throughout the war, the U.S. intelligence agencies have used a variety of sources, including classified and commercial satellites, to trace Russian troop movements.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III went so far as to say last month that "we want to see Russia weakened to the degree it cannot do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine."
Asked about the intelligence being provided to the Ukrainians, John F. Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said that "we will not speak to the details of that information." But he acknowledged that the United States provides "Ukraine with information and intelligence that they can use to defend themselves."
After this article published, Adrienne Watson, a National Security Council spokeswoman, said in a statement that the battlefield intelligence was not provided to the Ukrainians "with the intent to kill Russian generals."
Not all the strikes have been carried out with American intelligence. A strike over the weekend at a location in eastern Ukraine where Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia's highest-ranking uniformed officer, had visited was not aided by American intelligence, according to multiple U.S. officials. The United States prohibits itself from providing intelligence about the most senior Russian leaders, officials said.
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President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia's highest-ranking uniformed officer. Ukrainians struck a location where Gen. Gerasimov had visited, acting on their intelligence.Credit...Sergei Guneyev/Sputnik, via Agence France-Presse
But American intelligence was critical in the deaths of other generals, officials acknowledged.
The United States routinely provides information about the movement of Russian troops and equipment, and helps Ukraine confirm the location of critical targets. Other NATO allies also give real-time intelligence to the Ukrainian military.
The Biden administration is also supplying new weaponry that should improve Ukraine's ability to target senior Russian officers. The smaller version of the Switchblade drone, which is now arriving on the battlefield, can be used to identify and kill individual soldiers, and could take out a general sitting in a vehicle or giving orders on a front line.
American officials have acknowledged publicly that the United States began giving Ukraine actionable intelligence in the run-up to Russia's invasion on Feb. 24. Ahead of the invasion, for example, U.S. intelligence agencies warned of an impending attack on the Hostomel airport north of Kyiv. That allowed Ukraine to strengthen its defenses. Russian airborne forces were ultimately unable to hold the airfield.
While the information the United States has provided Ukraine has proved valuable, Russian generals have often left themselves exposed to electronic eavesdropping by speaking over unsecure phones and radios, current and former American military officials said.
"It shows poor discipline, lack of experience, arrogance and failure to appreciate Ukrainian capabilities," said Frederick B. Hodges, the former top U.S. Army commander in Europe who is now with the Center for European Policy Analysis. "It is not hard to geo-locate someone on a phone talking in the clear."
Russian military tactics have also left senior generals vulnerable. A centralized, top-down command hierarchy gives decision-making authority only to the highest levels — compared to the more decentralized American structure that pushes many battlefield decisions to senior enlisted personnel and junior officers — forcing Russian generals to make risky trips to the front lines to resolve logistical and operational issues.
"When there are problems, the general officers have to go sort it out," said General Hodges.
Although the administration remains wary of inflaming Mr. Putin to the point that he further escalates his attacks — President Biden has said he will not send American troops to Ukraine or establish a "no-fly zone" there — current and former officials said the White House finds some value in warning Russia that Ukraine has the weight of the United States and NATO behind it.
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Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III went so far as to say last month that "we want to see Russia weakened to the degree it cannot do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine."Credit...Michael A. McCoy for The New York Times
Some European officials believe, despite Mr. Putin's rhetoric that Russia is battling NATO and the West, he has so far been deterred from starting a wider war. American officials are less certain, and have been debating for weeks why Mr. Putin has not done more to escalate the conflict.
Officials said Moscow has its own calculations to weigh, including whether it can handle a bigger war, particularly one that would allow NATO to invoke its mutual defense charter or enter the war more directly.
"Clearly, we want the Russians to know on some level that we are helping the Ukrainians to this extent, and we will continue to do so," said Evelyn Farkas, the former top Defense Department official for Russia and Ukraine in the Obama administration. "We will give them everything they need to win, and we're not afraid of Vladimir Putin's reaction to that. We won't be self-deterred."
But intelligence sharing is considered a safe form of help because it is invisible, or, at least, deniable. American intelligence has given secret information to Ukraine in a wide range of areas, from Russian troop movements to targeting data, officials said.
Last month, the United States increased the flow of intelligence to Ukraine about Russian forces in the Donbas and Crimea, as Kyiv's military forces prepared to defend against a renewed offensive by Moscow in eastern Ukraine, U.S. officials said.
"There's a significant amount of intelligence flowing to Ukraine from the United States," Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate panel on Tuesday. "We have opened up the pipes."

No one should have revealed this if true.Putin is the enemy and the person or persons who chose to reveal this should chearged with treason and if it warrants, executed.

 

[at6]

I've noticed that Ukraine has not revealed numbers of volunteers or where they've come from. This is a wise move on Zelensky's part.

 

[Jagdflieger]

No one should have revealed this if true.Putin is the enemy and the person or persons who chose to reveal this should chearged with treason and if it warrants, executed.

Don't worry, it's only a specific group of people who need the media to tell them about issues that have been going on in parts or in general for month or years.

 

[Dimlee]

Defense Officials Hold Media Brief on the Training of Ukrainian Military

Defense Officials Hold Media Brief on the Training of Ukrainian Military

Defense officials held a media briefing on the training of Ukrainian military.

www.defense.gov

United we stand.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Creative, 2. resulting from originality of thought; imaginative. I thought it was insightful to compare the invention of the internet to the invention and subsequent proliferation of earlier technological innovations. Do you ask why others click Winner or Like after your posts? Or is the Creative button a singular trigger for you? I meant no cheekiness, I thought your post was creative in the above sense. But really, what others think really shouldn't be that important. Who cares what they liked or thought was "winner" worthy?

Thank for the answer. The reason I ask about "creative" is not because it's a "trigger", but because unlike "winner" or any of the other opinion icons, it is ambiguous and not clear. I should have thought that would be obvious by dint of the fact that I had to ask what you meant by it.

 

[Admiral Beez]

No one should have revealed this if true.Putin is the enemy and the person or persons who chose to reveal this should chearged with treason and if it warrants, executed.

It does remind me of the British media reporting, mid-Falklands War that the fuses on Argentine air force bombs were not set correctly.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm curious about if this was released intentionally to let the Russians (as an aside, I keep wanting to write Soviets ) know they can run but can't hide or if someone spilled the beans on something they'd have rather kept under wraps. With the poor state of the mass media in the US it's hard to know either way.

I'd be willing to bet it's intentional, in order to get inside Russian heads.

 

[RogerdeLluria]

Russian automakers will grow potatoes.
The Kaliningrad automobile holding Avtotor allocated by 10 acres of land to every employee for arranging vegetable gardens.
The company took this step due to the "difficult economic situation."

Russian automakers will grow potatoes

Photo: avtotor.ru Two land plots with a total area of 300 hectares were allocated for the factory workers The Kaliningrad automobile holding Avtotor allocated 10 acres of land to its employees for arranging vegetable gardens. The company took this step due to “difficult economic situation”...

www.perild.com

 

[Admiral Beez]

The Kaliningrad automobile holding Avtotor allocated by 10 acres of land to every employee for arranging vegetable gardens.

The Kaliningrad oblast should not even exist. What the heck were Atlee and Truman thinking at Potsdam? Two newbies got railroaded by Stalin, is my guess. It reminds me of how the Russians asked for the specs and drawings for the Rolls-Royce Nene and Atlee sent them right over so that the Russians could make their own copy, the Klimov VK-1 - Wikipedia Stalin must have thought the West was run by idiots.

Now for the rest of time Europe has a rump of totalitarian and criminal Russia stuck in its midst.

 

[RogerdeLluria]

Pro-Russian propagandist Anatoly Shariy was arrested in Spain, reports Ukrainian intelligence.

Confirmed by several Spanish news papers

Detienen en Cataluña a Anatoli Sharí, periodista y opositor ucraniano prorruso

El bloguero Anatoli Sharí, acusado de traición por Ucrania, fue detenido en el municipio de Roda de Berá, en Tarragona, su lugar de residencia. El juez le ha puesto en libertad provisional

www.elconfidencial.com

 

[Dimlee]

Lessons continue to be learned after the Moskva sinking.

Antiship Missile Lessons from Sinking of the Moskva

The missile attack that sank the Russian Navy’s Slava-class cruiser reveals that missiles with more precision, longer range, and smaller warheads cause far more damage than most models estimated.

www.usni.org

 

[Crimea_River]

Russian automakers will grow potatoes.
The Kaliningrad automobile holding Avtotor allocated by 10 acres of land to every employee for arranging vegetable gardens.
The company took this step due to the "difficult economic situation."

Russian automakers will grow potatoes

Photo: avtotor.ru Two land plots with a total area of 300 hectares were allocated for the factory workers The Kaliningrad automobile holding Avtotor allocated 10 acres of land to its employees for arranging vegetable gardens. The company took this step due to “difficult economic situation”...

www.perild.com

"10 acres of land to every employee". Article says "Avtotor allocated 10 acres of land to its employees". Accuracy matters.

 

[Dimlee]

Russian automakers will grow potatoes.
The Kaliningrad automobile holding Avtotor allocated by 10 acres of land to every employee for arranging vegetable gardens.
The company took this step due to the "difficult economic situation."

Russian automakers will grow potatoes

Photo: avtotor.ru Two land plots with a total area of 300 hectares were allocated for the factory workers The Kaliningrad automobile holding Avtotor allocated 10 acres of land to its employees for arranging vegetable gardens. The company took this step due to “difficult economic situation”...

www.perild.com

Just another company that prospered thanks to the foreign expertise, training, investments... and that can go bust due to the Kremlin policies. But Avtotor's employees did vote for Putin, didn't they. Nobody to blame but themselves. Still a shame... I knew that company and visited Kaliningrad and Baltiysk several times in 2000s.

 

[Admiral Beez]

The Kaliningrad automobile holding Avtotor allocated by 10 acres of land to every employee for arranging vegetable gardens.

There's nothing wrong with farming and repurposing land. When Detroit's auto sector collapsed like Kaliningrad's the city switched much of the old space into agriculture. It's not a sign of failure, but one of survival.

Detroit gets growing

Detroit was once the engine of America's automotive industry. Today it is a symbol of urban decay. But a daring bid to return the land to farming is sowing seeds of recovery – and could be a template for cities across the world

www.theguardian.com

 

[Admiral Beez]

Ukraine's government has launched a fundraiser app.

United24: Zelensky presents online platform to support Ukraine

On the United24 online platform, one can donate money in one click to help Ukrainian defenders, civilians and rebuild the country. â Ukrinform.

www.ukrinform.net

Maybe they need an adopt a tank campaign.

 

[Dimlee]

M777 howitzer in action. Arsenal of democracy gives the tools. Brave men and women finish the job.

 

[Admiral Beez]

M777 howitzer in action. Arsenal of democracy gives the tools. Brave men and women finish the job.

I wonder if that's one of Canada's.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ukraine-m777-howitzer-russia-heavy-artillery-1.6427762

 

[RogerdeLluria]

"10 acres of land to every employee". Article says "Avtotor allocated 10 acres of land to its employees". Accuracy matters.

Later on it says
"two land areas with a total area of 300 hectares owned by the company have been allocated"
300 hectares is about 750 acres enough for 75 10 acre parcels.

 

[XBe02Drvr]

Later on it says
"two land areas with a total area of 300 hectares owned by the company have been allocated"
300 hectares is about 750 acres enough for 75 10 acre parcels.

10 acres is a lot of land for a part-time-gardening auto worker to cultivate. In fact I've always found a half acre is more than enough to keep me busy. In my area, community gardens are popular, but none are as large as ten acres. OTOH, a ten acre community garden with twenty members and access to small farm size tractor equipment would be heaven on earth.