Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[Riggo-toni]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/01/31/kyrylo-budanov-ukraine-intelligence-boss-interview/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F38ff587%2F63d94e351b79c61f8771a0be%2F5972cc04ae7e8a1cf4afaedb%2F13%2F72%2F63d94e351b79c61f8771a0be&wp_cu=ef42c6fe7b4a99163a7adc78f7019819|3AC1FD6768D66469E0530100007FDC0A

 

Ukraine intel chief predicted Russia’s war. He says Crimea will be retaken.

 

It was Feb. 23 — the night before Russia launched its war on Ukraine — and Budanov had staked his career on being the rare Ukrainian official who was convinced that Russia was about to attack and attempt to capture Kyiv, the capital.

He and his wife stared at the clock that night, anxious that Budanov could soon be out of work if all did not go as he had loudly predicted to Ukraine’s skeptical political leadership.

...

Budanov’s forecast for this year is that Russia will focus on occupying more territory in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. A renewed offensive from its forces stationed north of Ukraine, in Belarus, is unlikely, he said, and just an attempt to distract and divide Kyiv’s troops. He also said that “we must do everything to ensure that Crimea returns home by summer.”

 

Asked if he thinks Ukrainian troops reaching Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed illegally in 2014, could trigger Russian President Vladimir Putin to use a nuclear weapon, Budanov said: “This is not true. And Crimea will be returned to us. I’ll tell you more: It all started in Crimea in 2014, and it will all end there.”

[Gurgeh]

Belgian buyer of Europe’s spare tanks hopes they see action in Ukraine | Belgium | The Guardian

 

The hangar belongs to the Belgium defence company OIP and contains one of the biggest privately owned reserves of weapons in Europe. “Many of these tanks have been sitting here for years. Hopefully, now it is the time they finally see some action in Ukraine,” said Freddy Versluys, the head of OIP, as he toured the hangar.

“Here we have the 50 Leopard 1s,” he said, pointing. “We also have 38 German Gepard tanks, 112 Austrian SK-105 light tanks, and 100 Italian VCC2 and 70 M113 armour carriers.”

In total, his firm has about 500 armoured vehicles in stock, “probably the widest private arsenal of tanks in Europe,” 

 

(and now the bad news)

 

Ludivine Dedonder, Belgium’s minister of defence, last week said it had opened talks with OIP but accused the firm of trying to make a “huge profit” from the sale. “The talks are still on, but I’m not going to pay half a million for a tank that’s nowhere near combat-ready,” Dedonder told Belgian media.

Versluys denied that the Belgian government had approached him, and said it was hard to estimate the price for which he would sell the tanks. “There is no point talking about prices right now because we need to check the condition of each tank and what needs to be updated,” he said. He stressed that it could take months and up to €1m in renovation costs for each tank to get them ready for use in Ukraine. “These guys need a new engine, shock absorbers, the latest radar technology – the list goes on.”

 

[The Sisko]

4 hours ago, Gurgeh said:

Belgian buyer of Europe’s spare tanks hopes they see action in Ukraine | Belgium | The Guardian

 

The hangar belongs to the Belgium defence company OIP and contains one of the biggest privately owned reserves of weapons in Europe. “Many of these tanks have been sitting here for years. Hopefully, now it is the time they finally see some action in Ukraine,” said Freddy Versluys, the head of OIP, as he toured the hangar.

“Here we have the 50 Leopard 1s,” he said, pointing. “We also have 38 German Gepard tanks, 112 Austrian SK-105 light tanks, and 100 Italian VCC2 and 70 M113 armour carriers.”

In total, his firm has about 500 armoured vehicles in stock, “probably the widest private arsenal of tanks in Europe,” 

 

(and now the bad news)

 

Ludivine Dedonder, Belgium’s minister of defence, last week said it had opened talks with OIP but accused the firm of trying to make a “huge profit” from the sale. “The talks are still on, but I’m not going to pay half a million for a tank that’s nowhere near combat-ready,” Dedonder told Belgian media.

Versluys denied that the Belgian government had approached him, and said it was hard to estimate the price for which he would sell the tanks. “There is no point talking about prices right now because we need to check the condition of each tank and what needs to be updated,” he said. He stressed that it could take months and up to €1m in renovation costs for each tank to get them ready for use in Ukraine. “These guys need a new engine, shock absorbers, the latest radar technology – the list goes on.”

 

 

Correction. It sounds like this should read “probably the widest private arsenal of spare parts in Europe,” 

[LD0506]

Man, it's tempting though, someone ought to be able a crowdfund to get those Gepards in the field

[TradeTheBeal!]

 

[China]

Germany to send 88 Leopard I tanks to Ukraine

 

The German government has approved the delivery by a private arms-maker of its old Leopard 1 tanks to Kyiv, a government spokesperson said Friday.

 

“I can confirm that an export license has been issued” for the Leopard 1 tanks, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said at a press briefing, without confirming specific numbers.

Earlier on Friday, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that Berlin had approved German arms-maker Rheinmetall’s plans to sell 88 of the older Leopards to Kyiv, once these are repaired, for a total cost of more than €100 million.

 

The move further signals a reversal of Berlin’s policy on tanks for Ukraine, nine days after the chancellery announced it would send one company of Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv as part of a European coalition.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

How many tanks was that Germany?  ⚡⚡

[China]

Rare Russian arctic anti-air system destroyed for first time by Ukraine

 

A rare Russian Arctic TOR-M2DT air defense system was destroyed for the first time in the platform's service history by Ukrainian artillery, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

 

Ukrainian artillerymen hit the TOR-M2DT with shells after the location of the system was scouted by a drone, the ministry said, posting a video mocking how the anti-air platform had been extolled in Russian media.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

Get hype, Bernie Bros!

 

 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

4 minutes ago, TradeTheBeal! said:

Get hype, Bernie Bros!

 

 

Organizers are demitry and Ivan 

[Long n Left]

3 hours ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

Organizers are demitry and Ivan 

Well, Tulsi is a speaker, so…

[EmirOfShmo]

Does this make them hippies?

[China]

Kyiv sabotage team kill Major-General Ulyanov in latest blow to Putin

 

He died in a firefight when he was attacked by a Ukrainian sabotage group this week, say reports. Previously Ulyanov (pictured) was a top paratrooper, commander of the elite 98th Guards Airborne Division. He went to the current war commanding a regiment of mobilized motorized infantrymen from Tatarstan.

[DCSaints_fan]

On 1/31/2023 at 10:36 AM, Larry said:

 

Yeah, I'm thinking if you want to help the Ukes with US aircraft, start training them on the A-10.  Although that probably takes a really skilled, well practiced, pilot, too.  

 

Still.  It's a nice fantasy.  

The A-10 isn't much better than the SU-24 which they already fly.  The problem is that they can't gain air superiority (neither side can ATM).   The A-10s would be worthless in an environment where they can be shot down by SAMs or enemy jets.

[Gurgeh]

Seems like the Russians are running out of windows to fall from

 

Notorious Russian nationalist Igor Mangushev shot dead in Ukraine - BBC News

 

Notorious Russian army captain and mercenary Igor Mangushev has died in hospital, days after he was shot in the head at close range in occupied Ukraine, his friends have said. Mangushev's wife Tatyana described his killing as an execution.

 

...He took to a stage last summer holding a man's skull. In a video posted on social media in August, Mangushev was filmed saying the skull belonged to a Ukrainian fighter killed defending the Azovstal steel works in the southern port of Mariupol. Mangushev emerged from a neo-Nazi movement to co-found private mercenary group Yenot (raccoon). He was later known to have collaborated with Russia's most notorious mercenary boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, as a political strategist.

 

...The shooting has prompted widespread speculation about who might have carried out the attack at a checkpoint in the occupied Ukrainian town of Kadiivka, some distance from the frontline... Another extreme Russian nationalist, Pavel Gubarev, said everyone knew who was behind the shooting and observed that Prigozhin had for the moment gone quiet.

[Gurgeh]

It looks as if the expected Russian offensive may now be under way, pre-empting the arrival of more Western hardware

 

Russia launches drone and missile attacks in south and east Ukraine | Ukraine | The Guardian

 

The overnight barrage came hours after the governor for the Luhansk region said that Russia had launched a major offensive in eastern Ukraine and is trying to break through defences near the town of Kreminna. Serhiy Haidai told Ukrainian TV that Russian troops had gone on the attack and were trying to advance westwards across a winter landscape of snow and forests. There had been “maximum escalation” and a big increase in shooting and shelling, he said.

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Larry]

Shocked that they're actually sending them home.  

[China]

9 minutes ago, Larry said:

Shocked that they're actually sending them home.  

 

Shocked that they actually survived.

[The Sisko]

So you take dangerous criminals, hardened by years in your vicious penal system, subject them to the horrors of war, having used them as cannon fodder after watching their buds that refused to fight be shot, then set the survivors loose on society. What could go wrong?

[China]

Russia-Ukraine war live: Wagner head warns it could take two years to achieve Moscow’s objectives

 

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, has said it could take two years for Russia to fully control the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, two regions whose capture Moscow has stated as a key goal of the war.

 

In a video published on Friday with the Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov, reported by Reuters, Prigozhin said:

 

"As far as I understand, we need to close off the Donetsk and Luhansk republics and in principle that will suit everyone for now."

 

That could take one and a half to two years, he said.

 

In September, Vladimir Putin formally annexed the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in Ukraine, along with Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, in defiance of international law and condemned by UN member states as illegal.

 

“If we have to get to the Dnipro, then it will take about three years,” Prigozhin added, referring to a larger area that would extend to the vast Dnipro River that runs roughly north to south, bisecting Ukraine.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[CousinsCowgirl84]

Corresponds with the US presidential elections. Must be counting on one of those red tides….

[Gurgeh]

On 2/11/2023 at 4:31 AM, China said:

 

Shocked that they actually survived.

 

https://us.cnn.com/2023/02/12/europe/wagner-convicts-eastern-ukraine-pleitgen-intl/index.html

 

Two former fighters of the Russian private military company Wagner have told CNN of their horrific experiences on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, and how anyone who faltered was immediately shot by their own commanders...

 

“There were 90 of us. Sixty died in that first assault, killed by mortar fire. A handful remained wounded,” said one, recalling his first assault near the village of Bilohorivka. “If one group is unsuccessful, another is sent right away. If the second one is unsuccessful, they send another group.”

 

The other fighter was involved in an assault lasting five days, through a forest near the city of Lysychansk on the Luhansk-Donetsk border in eastern Ukraine. “The first steps into the forest were difficult because of all the landmines spread out. Out of 10 guys, seven were killed immediately,” he said.

 

There was no evacuation of the wounded, he added. “If you’re wounded, you roll away on your own at first, any way you can, somewhere neutral where there’s no fire, and if there’s no one around, you administer first aid to yourself,” he said.

 

“One man stayed at a position, he was really scared, it was his first assault. We received an order to run forward. But the man hid under a tree and refused. This was reported to the command and that was it. He was taken 50 meters away from the base. He was digging his own grave and then was shot.”

[PokerPacker]

7 hours ago, Gurgeh said:

 

https://us.cnn.com/2023/02/12/europe/wagner-convicts-eastern-ukraine-pleitgen-intl/index.html

 

Two former fighters of the Russian private military company Wagner have told CNN of their horrific experiences on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, and how anyone who faltered was immediately shot by their own commanders...

 

“There were 90 of us. Sixty died in that first assault, killed by mortar fire. A handful remained wounded,” said one, recalling his first assault near the village of Bilohorivka. “If one group is unsuccessful, another is sent right away. If the second one is unsuccessful, they send another group.”

 

The other fighter was involved in an assault lasting five days, through a forest near the city of Lysychansk on the Luhansk-Donetsk border in eastern Ukraine. “The first steps into the forest were difficult because of all the landmines spread out. Out of 10 guys, seven were killed immediately,” he said.

 

There was no evacuation of the wounded, he added. “If you’re wounded, you roll away on your own at first, any way you can, somewhere neutral where there’s no fire, and if there’s no one around, you administer first aid to yourself,” he said.

 

“One man stayed at a position, he was really scared, it was his first assault. We received an order to run forward. But the man hid under a tree and refused. This was reported to the command and that was it. He was taken 50 meters away from the base. He was digging his own grave and then was shot.”

I'm surprised the convicts didn't frag their commanders.

[Gurgeh]

3 hours ago, PokerPacker said:

I'm surprised the convicts didn't frag their commanders.

 

A video surfaced a few days ago that appeared to show Russian mercenaries beating their own wounded commander with shovels. There's probably been many more incidents; I can't think it would be much fun to be put in command of a squad of convicted murderers and then order them to go on suicide missions. Let's just say you're going to be leading from the back.

[The Sisko]

The interesting thing about the shoot them if they don’t advance strategy is how to counter it. If you’re the cannon fodder, it wouldn’t take long to understand that your chances are probably as good turning around and going at the guys behind you as it is going forward. That way, they expend ammo on you and those that get through would tie them up potentially allowing the other side to break through the line. Yes, you almost certainly die but at least there’s a chance you take some of the ******s with you. Beats the hell out if digging your own grave.

However, these poor schlubs almost certainly know little, if anything about what’s actually going on so something like that would have to be organized quickly.