TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org

Soldiers and their pets

Fire from the 203-mm Self-propelled Artillery Installation 2S7 "Pion" in service with the Armed Forces in slow motion

From Avdiivka to Kyiv: "Psychologically, it's hard for a serviceman to be at home" - hromadske

"It is psychologically very difficult for a soldier to be in the rear, because when you are in the rear for too long, it is not clear whether you are a civilian or a soldier, what to do in general. That is why military personnel very often walk around on vacation in their uniform – in order to separate themselves psychologically, to understand: this is the world, I am passing through it, I am here for a short time, I will return soon; in order not to get used to civilian life, so that it would be easier to return to the trenches after vacation," says Andrii Kobalia, a serviceman of the 109th TrO.

Now he is in Kyiv, on training, and in a few days he will return to the Avdiivka region, where he will work with attack drones.

Andriy has been fighting since the beginning of the invasion. He joined the Kyiv National Guard on February 24, 2022. When the North was freed, he went to Kharkiv region and Donetsk region, where he served in the infantry, and later he became interested in drones and transferred to the UAVs unit.

Building FPV drones in their kitchen. If you have Telegram its a 5 minuter video.
https://t.me/WarriorsUkrainian/21970

@AmpBenzScientist Lets get them in orbit. First sign of a nuke and we knock it down at the right moment so it lands back in Russia.

First he said Soccer Fields, but then corrected it to knocker fields
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/donald-trump-has-completely-senile-meltdown-about-knocker-fields/54690/

Tried to list Florida addresses for his New York businesses
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/saw-that-coming-5/54683/

Robert Reich

https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/republican-theocracy?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Biden has raised more than any candidate in history. Period
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/joe-biden-just-ran-circles-around-donald-trump-in-fundraising/54661/

Republicans vs Democrats

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/president-biden-comes-out-swinging-9/54656/

MTG wants to disrobe judge Engeron. Sounds kinky.

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/everyone-piles-on-after-marjorie-taylor-greenes-disrobed-gaffe/54670/

Waist deep in the poo pile

https://open.substack.com/pub/jefftiedrich/p/jim-jordan-and-james-comer-cant-stop?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

More of what he wrote:

Full letter from Jackie, a US Military Veteran, who is now in Donbas as a Soldier/Instructor in the Ukrainian army.

Jackie has been participating in combat against Russian aggression in the regions of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Donbas since 2022. Been wounded twice.

He saw the ugliest hell in Avdiivka & how many brave Ukraine soldiers died - because of delayed Aid! He asked to SHARE his letter to ALL Fellas -  as this week, our ammunition has effectively stopped.
---------
I am originally from Orange County, California. I served in the U.S. military for 8 years, stationed in Colorado, South Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.

I also worked as a contractor at the JFK Special Warfare Center in North Carolina, helping prepare our future special operators. As an American Soldier I have always been interested in our national security and global interests.

I am currently an assault instructor serving in the 3rd Assault Brigade, an elite unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

This week we came to the rescue of Ukrainian Forces who had been enduring the Russian attack on the town of Avdiivka. Our fighters quickly destroyed two Russian brigades and kept a corridor open for Ukrainians in Avdiivka to retreat from the town. Our soldiers are true professionals, not disturbed by the massive Russian firepower being flung at them and fighting hard to gain and maintain the corridor.

One thing I teach my students is to conduct “shaping-operations”. Essentially to take steps by using alternative means such as artillery, airpower (drones in our case) or
electronic warfare to prepare the battlefield for the success of our infantry to capture their final positions. My students are very excited to employ these techniques, they train on them and use them in battle frequently. Ukrainian Soldiers are highly motivated to fight efficiently and reduce casualties as they are making their transition from Soviet to NATO doctrinal warfare.

Our Brigade is leading this transition and using shaping operations at every level possible, even down to the squad. We make plans, we do reconnaissance, we task support assets and we review our actions after battle to learn what we did well and what we need to change. We admit our successes and failures and we improve and grow ourselves as professionals. Because of this, in battle, we are confident and unrelenting.

On the ground in Avdiivka, we felt the results of current American politics with full force. We are accustomed to fighting with less artillery than the Russians. We have already developed clever ways of using precision fire to counter Russian artillery. Our artillery soldiers use their American-provided weapons efficiently and effectively to batter the second-largest military in the world so that our assaulters have cover while they pierce like needles to rapidly cut the Russian Force’s critical arteries.

This week, our ammunition has effectively stopped. Our precision scalpel cannot cut.

We are used to fighting understrength. We are intelligently adapted and trained to push ourselves to the highest level of combat performance. But we cannot deliver miracles. We have already delivered many miracles in this war, and I am sure we will continue to do so, but hoping for miracles is not a reliable way to win a war.

I am extremely disappointed in a super-minority decision to block military aid to Ukraine in our American Congress. More than that, I need to go pray and say goodbye to more of my students and friends.

These soldiers, these men and women, they are incredible people. It takes weeks to teach American Soldiers what Ukrainians are able to learn in hours. Their standards
and self-expectations are high. They usually accomplish complex team-based tasks correctly on their first attempt. Every time they fail in training, they get angry with themselves and repeat the task until it is right. I have never had to ask them to stay later or work harder. They hardly sleep, they don’t complain and most of them have families.
@ukrainejournal

No to "Taurus" and "Yes" to long range weapons delivery for Ukraine in the Bundestag

The Bundestag has rejected the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. A motion by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, which explicitly mentioned this German weapons system, did not receive a majority today. Only 182 MPs voted in favor, 480 against and there were 5 abstentions. Parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz had previously called on SPD, Green and FDP MPs to support the CDU/CSU motion. "Ukraine is still not receiving all the material it urgently needs to effectively fend off the Russian war of aggression," he said.

In turn, the coalition of the coalition had submitted its own motion to the Bundestag. Although it also calls for the delivery of additional long-range weapon systems, the word "Taurus" does not appear. This motion was passed in the Bundestag with the votes of the SPD, Greens and FDP. 382 MPs voted in favor, 284 against and there were two abstentions.

Problem: Which systems are actually meant by this, however, is interpreted differently by the coalition factions.

For many politicians from the Greens and FDP, the term refers to "Taurus" cruise missiles with a range of 500 kilometers. The deputy leader of the SPD parliamentary group, Gabriela Heinrich, on the other hand, said in the Bundestag that the wording did not necessarily mean "Taurus". "It is a question of interpretation (...). The fact is: we have not drawn a red line at this point."

Ministry of Defense Pistorius couldn't neither confirm nor deny if the term refers to Taurus. He said "I cannot say. I read the motion. .. But I am not a member of the parliamentary group." Unlike Chancellor Olaf Scholz (for example) Pistorius is a member of the government but not of the Bundestag. When asked during the debate what "the great problem with Taurus is. Nobody knows it" Scholz didn't explain.

Source

🇪🇺 @EU_report 🇩🇪 🇺🇦

From "The Analyst":

NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN SPACE?

This week saw an intelligence assessment storm in the US. The chair of the House Intelligence Committee requested the Administration release information he had been given in secret, on a potentially game changing Russia weapon that should be the cause of serious concern for the safety of the United States, and its allies.
Nobody has actually said exactly what it is. However it’s largely regarded as the Russians either placing a nuclear weapon in space or some other kind of satellite designed specifically to damage multiple satellites in a first strike in some other way.
Nuclear weapons have been banned from space for decades.
Back in 1962 the US exploded a 1.45 megaton weapon 280km into space.
Most of the Pacific Ocean lost radio, several areas lost electrical power - including most of Japan and the radiation and magnetic pulse destroyed 8 of the then 22 satellites in orbit - one of them was an early British Television satellite they were none to amused about losing as it sent signals across the Atlantic.
Realising the magnitude of what they’d done has resonated down the decades. With literally tens of thousands of satellites in orbit now, it’s not an amusing idea for our technological society.
The timing of this alert comes as the US deployed successfully this week, a string of new generation satellites designed to detect hypersonic missiles, aero ballistics and shorter range ballistic missiles, as well as the more traditional IRBM/SLBM/ICBM types.
Russian space prowess is greatly diminished but this latest launch they put a lot of effort into maintaining. For years they have deliberately used manoeuvring SIGINT satellites to block transmissions and capture others - the Italian military coms satellite especially, being a popular choice.
Back in the 1980’s when Ronald Reagan announced the so called ‘Star Wars’ program to develop anti missile satellites with lasers and kinetic rail guns, along with ground launched interceptor systems, particle canons and the like, it was largely regarded as utter rubbish and that he’d gone quite mad.
Now he seems like a visionary. Laser weapons are appearing and within a decade will be deployable. Anti-missile systems have been developed with increasingly capable results and often shocking reliability that is, frankly, down to the seminal research he initiated 40 years ago. The threat that the US could deploy such weapons terrified the Soviets - they had no hope of ever doing so and they knew it. Indeed in Iceland, in 1986 they reached a principle where all nuclear weapons would be abolished - until Gorbachev insisted that as part of the deal Star Wars was abandoned, something Reagan would never agree to.
So here we are 40 years later and the US, India, China and the Russians have all tested ASAT weapons - several of which caused debris mayhem in such a crowded environment as inner space.
Manoeuvring satellites with multiple capabilities are known to exist. Russia’s have deployable mini-satellites believed to be able to act as hunter killers.
But the idea of a nuclear weapon in space? It seems utterly unnecessary. If you wanted to do that you could fire an ICBM into orbit and do huge damage, and for minimal expense.
If you think the Americans don’t have a system and a plan to retaliate if necessary you’re wrong. But keeping it secret and ambiguous is part of its deterrent effect.
This has all the alarm sounds of the ‘missile gap’ and the ‘bomber gap’ of sixty years ago. If they’ve got one we need ten.
It may simply be best for the Administration to admit what it knows - if it can - because if the secret is told then the source won’t be hard to find the FSB will shut it down.
And even if it is a weapon in space, it has to be used to cause a problem. If we’re at the stage things like that are happening we’ll have way bigger things to worry about.
‘Military secrets are the most fleeting of all’. Secret today, a mobile phone in your pocket tomorrow.

The situation in Avdiivka is very difficult. Russia has an advantage not only in manpower but in weapons as well - it has accumulated resources and receives large shipments of weapons from its allies.

At the same time, weapon supplies to Ukraine become smaller, aid packages are not voted for.

While political games rage, Ukrainian blood is spilled.

We are not endless. Our Defenders die. They cannot come back.

The war in Ukraine is not a local war somewhere far away. It's a huge and horrible war in Europe. And that's a war that will reach other peaceful countries.

Don't wait for it to come to your home. Act. Give Ukraine weapons while we still have the hands to hold it.