TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian 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 2993. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
He is now banned from the United Kingdom.
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/donald-trump-finally-got-his-travel-ban/56379/
No. Not potato salad. I eat potato salad but want nothing to do with his diseased brain.
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/donald-trumps-brain-is-potato-salad/56384/
Good morning Resisters. That was a pretty big storm last night . Arrived pretty late considering the weather lady said 3PM and it got here around 10PM
This isn't really my cup of tea. But they sent it to me unsolicited, so I figured someone might like it.
https://eliflife.substack.com/p/the-case-of-the-paving-stones
The US officials explained that the authorization to strike with US weapons was given in relation to the entire Russian border area, not just the Kharkiv region.
This statement was made by Michael Carpenter, spokesman for the US National Security Council.
“This includes enabling Ukrainians to defend themselves. Yes, across the border against Russian attacks coming from there,” Carpenter emphasized.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has officially confirmed that Joe Biden has given Ukraine permission to use American weapons to strike military targets in Russia.
“Over the last few weeks, Ukraine has come to us and asked for permission to use the weapons we are providing to defend against this aggression, including against Russian forces that are concentrating on the Russian side of the border and then attacking Ukraine. This is a right to the president, and as you heard, he approved the use of our weapons for this purpose,” Blinken said during the press conference.
According to a declassified Pentagon report, North Korean missile debris has been found throughout Ukraine. The report reveals that Russia is extensively using North Korean missiles to attack Ukraine, targeting not only front-line cities, Reuters writes.
The report details various aspects of North Korea's short-range solid-fuel ballistic missiles and includes comparisons of the wreckage found in Ukraine with images of missiles displayed by North Korean state media.
A radical Islamist terrorist attack in Mannheim, Germany.
An Islamist man stabbed people who criticized the Islamization of Europe and attacked police until he shot.
The war in Ukraine has exposed a critical vulnerability in the allies' plans to arm Ukraine: a shortage of explosives needed to produce shells and missiles. Each artillery shell requires approximately 10.8 kg of high explosives, such as TNT, Octogen, or Hexogen, and throwing projectiles over long distances also necessitates significant amounts of propellants.
The situation is even more dire for other munitions, such as the Storm Shadow missile, which has a high-explosive warhead weighing 450 kg. The challenge lies in the limited capacity of explosives manufacturers to ramp up production. The end of the Cold War led many European manufacturers to scale down or cease operations, resulting in the closure of plants and the privatization or mothballing of state enterprises. For example, the UK closed its last explosives plant in 2008.
Restarting these mothballed plants is not a simple task. It requires significant retooling and rebuilding of capacity. Additionally, the industry faces a shortage of skilled workers, as older engineers retire and fewer young people enter the profession. The supply chain for critical raw materials, such as chemical precursors and cotton fibers, is also strained. Nitric acid, essential for producing nitrocellulose, is in short supply due to its use in fertilizer production. Cotton fibers are predominantly imported from China, adding to the supply chain complexity.
This shortage presents a significant obstacle to the allies' efforts to support Ukraine's defense against Russia's aggression, highlighting the need for strategic planning and investment in the defense industry's infrastructure and workforce.
Source:
https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/05/26/there-is-an-explosive-flaw-in-the-plan-to-rearm-ukraine#
From "The Analyst":
THE MISSILE STRIKES ON KERCH
We now have a grip on what these were about.
The plan seems to have been to destroy the Rail ferries that Russia used to move rail freight over the straits into Crimea and back again. This seems to have become the norm because the bridge structures were more badly affected than anyone thought.
Three of these ferries were operational - now only one is. One is very badly damaged and will need repairs, the other seems to have been hit on its upper port side deck and a hole has appeared from the strike.
Russia claims to have shot down the attacking missiles but the ‘debris’ strangely seems to have carried on to its targets.
Another unusual strike by a drone was the Kerch strait oil depot on the Russian mainland side of the straits but well inside the bridge zone and its air defences - which seem not to have worked at all. A large Ukrainian drone managed to dive bomb into the collection of storage tanks and set the lot on fire. Where was the AA?
The attack on Sevastopol showing the use of a Russian drone against a Ukrainian naval drone managed to sink a Russian corvette. Despite it being daylight and some of the naval drones being attacked by helicopters, this happened inside the protected port zone. The sea drones apparently waited for something to go into the port through the open nets and then began their run for targets as the nets were closed behind them.
The missiles used were extended range Neptune’s - possibly the long expected land attack version, followed by ATACMS on the port itself.
The big question then is how did the missiles and the drone get past the air defences? Where were they? Is it that they weren’t activated because the Voronezh-M BMEWS radar systems that cover this area have been put out of commission by Ukrainian drones over the past week?
We’ll never know.
Either way an intense raid and it’s done some damage!
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦!
‼️The bodies of 212 fallen defenders were also returned to Ukraine today.
➡️It was possible to return the bodies of the fallen Defenders to their native land, in particular from the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Kharkiv directions, as well as from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine (TOT).
☝️The Armed Forces of Ukraine will transport repatriated bodies and remains to designated state institutions. Representatives of law enforcement agencies and forensic medical experts will identify the victims.
After identification, the bodies of our Defenders will be handed over to their relatives for a dignified burial.
@ukrainejournal
🔱 Operational information as of 8:30 p.m. 25/05/2024 regarding the Russian invasion.
❗️ The main summary:
🔵 The occupiers do not stop attacking Ukrainian positions along almost the entire front line. During the day, the enemy launched four terrorist attacks on Kharkiv with rockets and guided aerial bombs. The Russian invaders hit the central park and dense residential buildings with rockets, and hit a hypermarket with two KABs. In total, the enemy launched three missile strikes, using six missiles (type to be determined) and two guided aerial bombs.
🔵 The total number of used anti-aircraft guns at the positions of Ukrainian units and civil infrastructure since the beginning of the day amounts to about 40 units. Also, by this time, the total number of enemy offensive and assault actions had already increased to 99.
🔵 In the Kharkiv direction, the Russian invaders continue to carry out assault operations. Ukrainian soldiers successfully repelled six enemy attacks, four are still ongoing.
🔵 The occupiers do not stop trying to put pressure on the defense lines of the Ukrainian defenders in the Kupyansk direction. They are unsuccessfully trying to improve their tactical position in Myasozharivka and Novoyehorivka districts. In total, the number of assaults in this direction increased to 14. Half of them were successfully repelled by units of the Defense Forces, seven are still ongoing.
🔵 In the Lyman direction, the enemy carried out five attacks during the day, one of which is still ongoing.
🔵 In the Siversky direction, the Russian aggressor continues his attempts to storm the positions of Ukrainian defenders in the area of Bilogorivka and Verkhnokamyanskyi. The number of clashes since the beginning of the day has increased to nine. Four attacks were successfully repelled by our soldiers, five are still ongoing.
🔵 In the Kramatorsk direction, Russian terrorists continue to carry out assaults near Klishchiivka, Novy, Ivanovsky and Andriivka. Since the beginning of the day, 11 combat clashes have already taken place here, one of which is still ongoing.
🔵 The Pokrovsky direction remains the hottest point of the entire front line. At this time, the number of enemy attacks here has increased to 23. The occupiers are trying to push through our defenses with the support of attack aircraft. Ukrainian soldiers are holding busy lines and inflicting significant losses on the enemy. Our defenders successfully destroyed another SU-25 of the Russian aggressor in this direction.❗️
🔵 In the Kurakhiv direction, the number of clashes increased to 14. Eight enemy attacks were repulsed, four are still ongoing.
🔵 In the Orihiv direction, the enemy tried three times to carry out assaults near Robotyny and Novoadriivka. There was no success.
🔵 In the Dnieper direction, on the bridgeheads on the left bank of the Dnieper, the occupiers increased the number of attacks to nine, but as before, all these attempts to suppress our units in the Krynok area were in vain.
🔵 In the rest of the directions, the situation did not undergo significant changes.
Soldiers of the Defense Forces - brave defenders of Ukraine!
Let's win together!✊
Glory to Ukraine!🇺🇦
AFU
🇺🇦@ukraine_report 🇺🇦🔱
A long-term rearmament of Europe, in which the UK can play the closest possible role, is necessary to defeat Russian imperial ambitions, Poland’s foreign minister has said.
Sikorski also called for majority voting for EU sanctions and a 5,000-strong EU mechanised brigade.
Poland is spending 4% of its GDP on defence and he said other countries had catching up to do. He said this required a military reorientation, adding that during the period of the “peace dividend and expeditionary warfare, we focused on high-value, hi-tech platforms and weapons. We are only now rediscovering that actually you just need millions of shells."
He said: “We have allowed all those production facilities to be closed down after the end of the cold war. It costs money to persuade companies to keep production lines in reserve. We just didn’t pay the money. That was part of the peace dividend. And with hindsight it looks like a mistake.”
Read more
@EU_Report
@Ukraine_Report
🇺🇦🤝🇮🇩 Blue
The first minutes in freedom, on native land. Exciting moments of our Defenders returning home from Russian captivity.
We do not stop working to free all our people from slavery!
@ukrainejournal
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian 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 2993. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
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