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

[Thumpalumpacus]

An interesting interview I found with Gen (Ret) David Petraeus on Youtube about the situation as it stood roughly ten days ago, after the successful Kharkiv offensive but before the Kherson offensive has picked up its current steam. I think he's got a pretty good analysis going on.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

In yet another irony in this war, Moscow's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said "the reaction of the Kyiv regime to the destruction of civilian infrastructure shows its terrorist nature." Funny how she never speaks out when Ukrainian civilian infrastructure is attacked by Russian forces.

Not irony, but hypocrisy.

 

[Glider]

Interesting essay describing combats for the village of Dovhenke, showing the difference in tactics between Russians and Ukrainians.

Thread by @ChrisO_wiki on Thread Reader App

@ChrisO_wiki: 1/ What is the price of defeat? Few episodes in the Ukraine war illustrate this more vividly than the five-month battle for the village of Dovhenke, an episode which likely cost hundreds of lives but...…

threadreaderapp.com

This quote caught my eye but it's only one of many

16/ The repeated disasters devastated Russian morale. Shayga says that "almost everyone" from his unit refused orders to continue attacking Dovhenke, as did the spetsnaz, airborne troops and Wagner mercenaries. They saw the orders as suicidal.

 

[Greg Boeser]

If this report is accurate, it demonstrates a woeful lack of leadership, morale, warrior culture in the Russian military.
What western army would tell their troops "You don't have to fight if you don't want to." ?
I remember some video mocking US military recruiting ads compared to Russian recruiting ads. But here we see an almost utter lack of any kind of military discipline.

 

[fubar57]

Ukrainian officials reportedly say there have been 'catastrophic' Starlink outages in recent weeks

A coordinator for Starlink donations said SpaceX may have been preventing Russia from using the technology and didn't know the regions had been freed.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[RogerdeLluria]

Another theory about the bridge. Hard to believe, but who knows. I'm not convinced about the "truck theory" either.

Ukraine hit Crimean bridge with missiles, but Russia invents tales about truck - Zhdanov - Ukraine Today .org

According to him, the nature of the destruction indicates a synchronized missile strike. The Russians lie that the Crimean bridge was destroyed by a truck explosion. In fact, it was a missile strike. This opinion was expressed by military expert Oleg Zhdanov in an interview with Glavred...

ukrainetoday.org

 

[Admiral Beez]

..but then I saw this map this morning.

Looking at the map clearly Russia must hold Kherson city. If that falls, there's little to stop AFU run to Crimea. So, I don't expect Kherson city to fall before March 2023.

 

[at6]

It's not like the topic has been derailed.

Right?

It might heating up some though.

 

[at6]

Burning bridges sure beats burning barns.

 

[GTX]

Kerch Bridge attack sparks Russian calls for 'counterterrorism operation'

Ukrainian officials are poking fun at Russia over an explosion on a bridge linking the country to the Crimean Peninsula, with the defence council secretary referencing Vladimir Putin's birthday in a Twitter post showing the burning bridge and a video of Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday Mr...

www.abc.net.au

 

[GTX]

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Another theory about the bridge. Hard to believe, but who knows. I'm not convinced about the "truck theory" either.

Ukraine hit Crimean bridge with missiles, but Russia invents tales about truck - Zhdanov - Ukraine Today .org

According to him, the nature of the destruction indicates a synchronized missile strike. The Russians lie that the Crimean bridge was destroyed by a truck explosion. In fact, it was a missile strike. This opinion was expressed by military expert Oleg Zhdanov in an interview with Glavred...

ukrainetoday.org

The videos I have seen shows the initial explosion atop the bridge and not underneath. The same videos reveals no sign of rocket attack, nor do they exclude it.

"I'll take 'Disasters Caused By Smokers' for a True Daily Double, Alex." However they did it, it worked.

 

[Admiral Beez]

MSN

www.msn.com

How did Germany vote on Leopard 2 transfer? Without Germany onside I don't think it matters what the EU wants re. Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

How did Germany vote on Leopard 2 transfer? Without Germany onside I don't think it matters what the EU wants re. Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine.

Like many arms-suppliers, Germany retains the right of refusal. It's written into the contract, right? America and others do the same, and because you need spare parts, the manufacturing country can actually have you by the short hairs.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Like many arms-suppliers, Germany retains the right of refusal.

Agreed. That's why I'm asking how Germany voted in this EU decision. I can't find it.

 

[Escuadrilla Azul]

Agreed. That's why I'm asking how Germany voted in this EU decision. I can't find it.

Germany didn't vote as a country. The vote was in the european parlament, were members are elected in an EU wide election with a certain number of members to be elected for each country. The votes in the europarlament are usually non binding, specially in foreing affairs were they are more statements of intent that anything else.

The European Council decides on the foreing affairs and is formed by the heads of state or government of the EU countries and the president of the European Commission.

 

[GrauGeist]

In my opinion (for what it's worth), Ukraine would be better off with either the U.S. M1 Abrams tank or the South Korean K2.

Logistics from the U.S. would keep them (the M1) on the cutting edge, too.

 

[buffnut453]

Amazing footage of the explosion on the Kerch Bridge, for those who haven't seen it:

 

[WARSPITER]

Instead of 'railing' against the West perhaps Putin would be best employed trying to get a 'bridging' loan.

 

[SaparotRob]

Instead of 'railing' against the West perhaps Putin would be best employed trying to get a 'bridging' loan.