TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian Z fascist invaders.
I am a 73 year old Covid hermit who
lives on 10 acres in a sparsely populated area of the Ozarks. I heat with wood that is leftover by the lumber industry. When cutting oak for lumber only the trunk is used.
The largest town is population 2992. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
He did a brave thing. He spent 24 hours a day 7 days a week with Donald Trump. I don't think I could do that.
This will make you pretty leery of what is going on right now.
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/the-real-threat-from-vladimir-putin/54711/
Tommy Tuberville has something to say.
Russian Rear on FIRE! Explosions at Strategic Targets across 🇷🇺: Airfields, Factories, Oil Depots
Russia planned a swift operation to seize Ukraine. However, Ukrainians not only managed to repel the attack but also to bring the war into the adversary's territory. Just a month after the full-scale invasion, an oil depot in Belgorod was ablaze after a strike by unknown helicopters. Over the next two years, explosions at strategic targets across Russia became a common occurrence.
When military factories or oil depots are halted even for a few days, it significantly affects the capabilities of the aggressor. In conditions of shortages of ammunition and weapons, Ukrainians do everything to weaken the enemy.
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Yet it cannot produce the heavy weapons and equipment at scale without peace.
The big factories would be targeted and wiped out before they could do anything substantial, so for this war Ukraine will have to remain dependent on western vehicles and aid, maybe joint ventures in other countries are the way forward for now.
Yet have no doubt that Ukraine has and is developing its industry in multiple ways, and at the end of this tragic war, it will be in a place of leadership and a centre of innovation for number of new and dominant industries that shape the future. Given the money and the resources it could and would do even more.
The future of Ukraine’s defence is already being planned. Many programs have been singled out for the future.
Deals with western nations for joint production, with Turkey for their fifth gen fighter, all slowly come together in a wider plan.
And when it’s done Ukraine will be an able to recover as a hub for military and civil industries of the 21st century.
But for now it must fight and it must win. And it still needs our help - help we must continue to provide if democracy and freedom are to survive this century.
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦!
From "The Analyst":
UKRAINE’S ARMS INDUSTRY: ZERO TO HERO
Ukraine had a relatively minor military industrial base that was underfunded and under appreciated.
With most of its weapons from the soviet era, much of that industry was devoted to spare parts and maintenance for its equipment. Some ammunition was made locally but Ukraine’s history was mostly in heavy engineering for the former Soviet Union.
Ukraine made aero engines, ship engines, it built warships, ballistic missile motors and components for aviation. The Antonov aircraft were built in Ukraine back in those days.
Then all that was just left to rot. It still supplied engines for Russian warships but much of the rest just died a death, especially after 2014. Even the mighty Antonov slipped away into bankruptcy.
From 2014 there was a change in emphasis as the war in Donbas required support. The loss of Crimea stung.
With the invasion, came a totally new approach. Hundreds of companies sprang up to make things the state needed for the war. Often as volunteer organisations turning quickly into viable businesses.
Utterly dependent on foreign aid to defend itself the country faced a shortage of everything, everywhere, all at once. Yet the preparations it had made, the small things it had started to do rapidly became the catalyst for huge expansion.
One thing that has been achieved at the heavy industry end, is the production of 152mm shells for the older soviet era equipment. In addition Ukraine had been developing its own anti-ship missiles in the Neptune. These have scored significant victories - not least the sinking of the Moskva. They were also technically far more competent than western missiles like Harpoon, which would not have been able to carry out that attack in that weather. Suddenly everyone started to realise that Ukraine had the basis for a technological competence far beyond expectations.
And that competence has only expanded. The drone war and the Electronic Warfare industries have expanded exponentially.
The pace of the rate of change in those industries is simply staggering. What worked a month ago is already obsolete and modularity, software updates and changing capabilities are so rapid, that often pre-production equipment has to be tested as production starts and is modified on the fly in the factory to take in new developments.
This extends to systems like the Bodhana artillery system. Ukraine developed it, is building it, and within three months has changed 80 parts and made improvements based on field operational feedback. Industry literally working round the clock and hearing what’s being said and doing something about it at speed. No western industry could manage that and nor could Russia.
Ukraine has also had to expand and develop an extraordinary logistics system for supplying the frontlines with everything from food to bullets and spare parts on a scale that Indint think any western nation has even started to grasp if it had to fight a war like this. The food supply industry alone has had to expand dramatically to get 400,000 troops meals three times a day every day - that’s a huge undertaking on an industrial level by itself.
Across Ukraine innovation and technology, flexibility and efficiency are all part of the game. Industry is given leeway to move fast and work quickly. If lots of medium to small drone suppliers can upgrade and produce what’s needed then they’re given the leeway and funding to get it done. Outwitting the enemy and out-developing him are vital.
As western aid has dried up Ukraine is emphasising ever more the need for self reliance.
Yet it faces challenges. Missile and drone
strikes can find factories. Air defences are essential. Keeping what’s going on a secret and operating in dispersed locations has become essential. You can’t risk a single place producing a single product you depend on. And everything in Ukraine is in range of Russian missiles.
Innovation, technology, and determination have been at the core of Ukraine’s industrial strategy and success.
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💭🦉 Head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov:
🟠 The special operation to destroy the A-50U took 2 weeks to prepare. It was shot down by Ukrainian weapons. There are 6 such aircraft left in the Russian Federation
🟠 There are no threats from the so-called "Transnistria". On February 28 and even after, no one is going to join the Russian Federation
The information disseminated by the media regarding Transnistria is not true
🟠 In 2024, new surprises await the enemies in Crimea, and I do not recommend the civilian population to use the Crimean Bridge 🌉
🟠 The Russians do not have Iranian missiles: all this is not true. As for the North Korean missiles, cases of their use have been recorded, but this is not on a large scale
🟠 I may disappoint you, but from what we know, Navalny actually died due to a detached blood clot
Vladimir Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago today. Remember when Russia was projected to take Ukraine with relative ease?
Enter Joe Biden, holding the Western world together and rallying the pro-democracy coalition against Putin.
And when he and President Zelenskyy stood in downtown Kyiv, in the same spot Putin expected to hold a victory parade… that was a clear signal to the rest of the world that America was standing firm with Ukraine and democracy.
It’s no wonder the MAGA GOP wants to hand Ukraine over to Putin. Trump swears he’ll end the war in 24 hours. You know how that will end. The GOP is fully aligned with autocracy, whether it’s Putin or Orban or any strongman. It’s no wonder that one of the craziest MAGAs out there started his CPAC speech with “Welcome to the end of democracy!” – and the attendees cheered!
MAGA wants to weaken America on the world stage. They are working to cripple America from within – killing a bipartisan border deal – and from without – stalling aid to our allies in their fight against a murderous dictator.
With Joe Biden, Ukraine and democracy will always have a firm defender. And it is working, despite MAGA’s best efforts.
It has never been more clear. If Trump takes the White House, Putin takes Ukraine. In November, a vote for Trump is a vote for two dictators. Let’s deny them both. We can’t
hand Putin and his orange understudy what they want on a silver platter. We have to fight. Somebody has to tell them no. Luckily, the American people have that very chance in about 8 months.
Two years into an authoritarian invasion, we stand firmly with the people of Ukraine. It’s up to all of us to make sure America does, too.
-The Lincoln Project
@ukrainejournal
Donald is upside down on most properties and https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/looks-like-donald-trump-is-upside-down-on-just-about-everything/54695/
From "The Analyst":
730 DAYS OF PAIN 730 DAYS OF HOPE
I spent much of the last four months of 2021 and the early weeks of 2022, trying to convince people Russia would invade.
When they asked why I thought it, I said, “You know me, you know my reputation. If I was Putin and I had spent this much time and money mobilising this size of a force, I would do it. If I would, he will.”
I admit that I expected Ukraine would resist, I was just as convinced of that. But I also admit that the theoretical possibility of defeat was easily 80-20 in Russian favour. It was shocking to see how badly the Russians screwed up, in fact it was one of the most catastrophic invasions since Barbarossa.
The people of Ukraine pulled off a miracle.
Zelensky inspired the world and he still does. Rarely is the right person in the right place at the right time. When they are it can be transformative. His determination to stay, to put his country above and beyond his family and his personal safety, contributed hugely to the will to resist.
There have been staggering successes and there have been dismal failures since. That is the way of war. Britain went through hell and back and daily wondered if it would ever get through the 1940-42 period. There were terribly dark days interspersed with glimmers of hope. Defeats were common, the tide of evil
seemed determined to stifle the world.
But like Russia now, the ideals and ideology the short lived Nazi empire were based on, simply could not stand. It was morally, ethically, politically and socially corrupt on a scale unprecedented in human history.
It extorted the evil and the worst of people to do terrible things for all the worst reasons. That is against the basic good of human nature. Putin has done the same thing. He has taken and corrupted Russia, its people and its resources, and bent them into a twisted ideal chasing a fantasy that never existed and must never be allowed to thrive.
Ukraine is fighting for all of us. We must be prepared to stand and fight with it.
They don’t ask us to die for their freedom. They are fighting for it with their blood.
We must give them our treasure in terms of money and resources to win this war.
For Ukraine, for democracy, for the freedom we hold so dear.
Thank you Ukraine. Thank your heroes, thank your people, your leadership, your national determination.
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦!
Todays News Updates:
✈️🇺🇦 "AFU will have the right to strike with F-16s against Russian military targets outside Ukraine", — Stoltenberg
❗"Different allies have slightly different policies on this. But according to international law, Ukraine has the right to self-defense", he said.
🇺🇸😳 "We have a crazy S.O.B. that guy, Putin, others. And we always have to be worried about a nuclear conflict. But the existential threat to humanity is climate", - US President Biden
🇵🇱🇺🇦 Polish President Andrzej Duda "supports" the idea of a meeting of the Ukrainian and Polish governments with representatives of the European Commission to resolve the border crisis.
🇳🇿🤝🇺🇦 New Zealand provides Ukraine with 25.9 million New Zealand dollars and expands sanctions against Russia.
🇵🇱🇺🇦 RMF FM pool:
▪️47.4% of Poles believe that war will last for many years and will end with the destruction of both countries;
▪️14.1% think that the Russians will win;
▪️17.4% respondents bet on the victory of
Ukraine;
🇨🇦 Canada is ready to pay for the delivery of 800,000 shells that the Czech Republic found for Ukraine, — CBC News
👀 Canadian government can allocate about $30 million for the implementation of the plan to deliver ammunition to AFU.
Larisa Chernyavska was killed by a Russian rocket in the Kharkiv region on February 14, 2024.
Mother-in-law Antonina and son-in-law Volodymyr died nearby.
Larisa was 54 years old. She worked as a primary school teacher. After lessons, she wove camouflage nets for the Armed Forces. Nicely knitted.
"She raised more than one generation of children, investing a piece of her soul in each of them. We will forever remember her smiling, sincere, kind, optimistic. A beautiful, decent person," colleagues wrote.
Larisa is survived by her husband, children and grandchildren.
The SBU found confirmation that Russia is killing Ukrainians with missiles from North Korea
The Security Service documented the facts of Russian air attacks on the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine using North Korea's long-range weapons.
We are talking about ballistic missiles of the Hwasong-11 (KN-23/24) type, which are produced on the territory of the DPRK.
According to the investigation, Russian troops released more than 20 North Korean weapons over Ukraine.
As a result of enemy "arrivals", at least 24 civilians were killed, and more than a hundred civilians were seriously injured.
One of the first facts of the North Korean aggressor's use of ballistics was recorded on December 30, 2023, during the shelling of Zaporozhye.
The occupiers carried out the next attack by North Korean missiles at the beginning of January this year against an apartment building in Kyiv.
At that time, 4 residents of the capital died from the enemy attack, and more than 50 are in serious condition.
In addition, the insurgents hit residential buildings in five front-line villages of Donetsk region with North Korean ballistic missiles, resulting in the death of 17 civilians.
The invaders also fired North Korean missiles at the private homes of Kharkiv residents and thereby killed three civilians. More than 60 residents of Kharkiv were seriously injured.
Currently, all these facts are documented by the investigators of the Security Service within the framework of criminal proceedings under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
▪️ Art. 111-2 (assistance to the aggressor state);
▪️ Art. 438 (violation of the laws and customs of war).
Comprehensive measures are underway to establish all the circumstances of the crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Among other things, logistical routes for the supply of weapons from the DPRK to the territory of Russia are being established.
The investigation is conducted under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor General's Office.
PARIS (AP) — Russian forces threatened to shoot down a French surveillance aircraft patrolling in international airspace over the Black Sea, a signal of increasingly aggressive behavior from Moscow, French defense officials said Thursday.
“Russian air traffic control threatened to shoot down a French aircraft in the Black Sea when we were in a free international zone where we patrol,” the French defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said on RTL radio.
A French military spokesman, Col. Pierre Gaudillière, said Lecornu was referring to an incident in mid-November that involved one of France’s four giant Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, surveillance aircraft that was flying over international waters in the Black Sea.
Gaudillière described the incident as unprecedented for French pilots in that region.
“It was a particularly aggressive radio exchange,” he added. “It’s a first.”
Two other officials said the exchange was in English and that Russian air traffic control said its forces would “destroy” the French aircraft. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the classified details.
In his radio interview, Lecornu said Russia is returning to a “particularly aggressive” posture reminiscent of the former Soviet Union’s behavior during the Cold War.
“The behavior of Russia in 2024 bears no relation to what we saw in 2022 and, obviously, before the aggression in Ukraine,” the minister said.
TheOldGuy
boosted
From "The Analyst":
RUSSIA CLAIMS KRYNKY ELIMINATED…
During a televised briefing with Shoigu, who had just claimed that all Ukrainian forces had been removed from Krynky, Putin actually disagreed and told him that he’d spoken to the commander of the Dnipro Group of Forces responsible - and he’d said the operation was ongoing.
First that shows you Shoigu painting a picture for Putin that’s telling him what he wants to hear. Secondly it tells you Putin is ‘doing a Stalin’ and bypassing the chain of command by going directly to the local commander - without his general staff even knowing about it. That’s a level of interference that’s never healthy, but also typical of a paranoid micro-manager who trusts nobody.
On the ground it does look as if the Russians planned a propaganda move, sending in literally two men to raise a flag on a ruined house to prove they’d recaptured it. The drone footage from the Ukrainians clearly shows them doing this and then running off.
The commander of the Russian forces responsible was given a promotion to general.
Then the Ukrainians released the footage of what really happened which ripped through Russian telegram channels raining a firestorm of mocking cynicism against the commander who organised it. In order not to look weak, he ordered an attack on Ukrainian defences at Krynky.
The Ukrainians know the Russian mindset and expected just such a move. It was repelled with ease using drones to take out vehicles and the assault group.
Expecting worse to come the Ukrainians probed deeper and found a concentration of Russian forces about 15km behind the lines. Most of them were outside waiting for a senior officer to inspect them on a visit.
He never bothered to turn up after two cluster munitions armed HIMARS hit the base killing the assembled soldiers and another hit 30 minutes later as more soldiers arrived to clear up the dead and wounded, finishing the site off completely.
Another attack using GLSDB’s fired from HIMARS also took out a Russian command post in the area. Another strike using GLSDB resulted in an entire drone reconnaissance operation and truck being taken out - Ukrainian operators followed a returning Orlan spy drone with their own drone, back to its operators and destroyed the truck and everyone responsible. Several drones were taken out with it.
What make this whole saga so extraordinary is that it stemmed from Shoigu lying to Putin’s face and Putin calling him out on it, which in turn caused the local commander to try and save his own reputation. The
whole thing essentially based on lies and deceit from the top down and the bottom up. This is the danger of authoritarian regimes, lies and inabilities and unwillingness to speak the truth for personal gain or self defence, literally result in the death of troops on the front and public humiliation. It’s pathetic, sad and shameful. It’s also very Russian.
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦!
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian Z fascist invaders.
I am a 73 year old Covid hermit who
lives on 10 acres in a sparsely populated area of the Ozarks. I heat with wood that is leftover by the lumber industry. When cutting oak for lumber only the trunk is used.
The largest town is population 2992. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
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