TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian Z fascist invaders.
I am a 72 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
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul is asking Secretary of State Blinken if his administration will lift restrictions on weapons provided to Ukraine.
💬 They won't be able to win with the limitations you put on them, says Michael McCall
Many have already seen a photo from this fragment, but the full context must also be understood here. Blinken then repeated his ambiguous message, which he said when he was on a recent visit to Kyiv. He says that Ukraine should decide for itself how to use its weapons.
In turn, McCaul emphasized that the Congress itself, when deciding on aid to Ukraine, did not impose such restrictions on strikes on the territory of Russia. That is, all responsibility lies with the Biden administration.
Separately, pay attention to the graph itself, drawn by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). It shows three ranges of American weapons - Himars systems (86+ km), cluster ATACMS (165+ km) and ATACMS with a unitary warhead (300+ km).
@ukrainejournal
CCTV footage captured yesterday in Kharkiv reveals a russian UMPB D-30 Glide Bomb striking a civilian residential block.
War criminals and murderers!
@ukrainejournal
Spain has Agreed to Train another 400 Ukrainian Troops. 🇪🇸🤝🇺🇦
Spain has agreed to accept another 400 Ukrainian servicemen for training. About 4,000 Ukrainian military personnel have already been trained in the country.
"In response to Ukraine's request, made at a meeting of the Contact Group (a meeting in the Ramstein format held on May 20 - ed.), to urgently improve the level of basic training of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Minister of Defence agreed to conduct training for another 400 Ukrainian soldiers in Spain," the Spanish Defence Ministry's website said.
@ukrainejournal
One of the first 20 into the Capitol
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sedition-panda-convicted-assaulting-law-enforcement-officer-on-jan-6/
Sofia Kryachko, together with her mother Natalya and father Dmytro, lived in Lyman, in the Donetsk region.
When the full-scale invasion began, the family remained in their hometown.
During the shelling, they went down to the basement, which was located in the yard.
2-3 weeks before her death, Sofia began to use black or dark shades more often in her drawings. Grandma was surprised, because Sonia always painted in bright colors.
On May 23, 2022, enemy missiles hit the family's yard. Sonya and her mother collapsed in the basement where they were hiding. They died in hospital.
Dad was away on a visit at the time of the shelling, so he was saved. But he could not survive the loss and after a few months he hanged himself in the destroyed house. And a few months later, the heart of his father Oleksiy stopped...
MTG's family coat of arms must be a straight jacket.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jefftiedrich/p/no-you-delusional-dipshits-joe-biden?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
UKRAINIANS WIN AFTER COUNTER ATTACK
On the northern section of the Avdivka salient, where the Russians had pushed through two layers of light defence lines earlier this year (after the Ukrainians mistakenly left the area undefended during a rotation), they had been heading towards the more distant target of Pokrovsk. This is an important hub and supply point for this sector of the front.
Having captured Ocheretyne the Russians culminated their attacks and the front stabilised. Not before they had placed themselves in the position of being able to get behind two layers of defences and threaten Ukrainian positions.
To defend themselves the Ukrainians used extensive drone attacks with the limited artillery they were able to use. Russian forces became distracted by the Chasiv Yar attacks so were in no position to fully leverage their gains after the shock advances from Avdivka, potentially a major strategic mistake as they had been making good progress and stood to gain far more if they had reinforced the attack. This is where that Russian ‘box of supplies’ practice fails them. Commanders get given a set of forces to do a job then it runs out and that’s it, no matter the results the box is empty and you get no more - regardless of the success level.
Even so the Russians made minor attempts to push towards Novoprokovske and Sokil. These went hideously wrong and they lost at least five tanks and another half dozen APC’s from refreshed Ukrainian artillery and drones. The tanks unusually didn’t lead the way but acted as rear fire support until
they fled and were destroyed.
The Russian soldiers in the APC’s had abandoned them and took up positions in a patch of trees by a
main road, where cluster munitions dealt with most of them and an M2 Bradley went in and finished off the rest.
Ukraine decided at this point to eradicate the origin point of these attacks and sent in FPV drones during daytime and heavy grenade dropping drones at night. They soon found around 100-200 Russians had established themselves in basements in ruins of the captured village of
Soloyove.
Swapping the drone charges for higher powered explosives designed to collapse the buildings, a rapid simultaneous campaign wiped out all but a handful of the hidden invaders.
Ukraine had also spotted Russians establishing themselves in a 100m treeline and quickly finished them off - at least fifty dead were later geolocated.
With Soloyove largely neutralised the Russians realised things were going badly and sent in half a dozen APC’s with fresh troops from their rear. Right into the expectant drone forces of the Ukrainians waiting for just such a move. The Russians were all destroyed.
Knowing by now that the Russians were extremely weak and had no
Immediately available reserves, Ukraine sent in a number of Bradley’s which quickly advanced and the Russians later confirmed they had lost a sizeable tranche of land near Soloyove to the Ukrainian counter attack.
The principal issues for the Russians are the scale of their losses when engaged in offensive operations.
The old rule of ground warfare is that you need at least a 3:1 advantage on attack - ideally 5 or more to 1. In this war that’s no longer true.
Drones add another force multiplying layer to that equation so you simply can’t estimate what the defender can do. The ensuing losses in manpower and equipment become quickly unsustainable unless you have truly vast reserves and can breakthrough in a major way at a single point that’s particularly weak. In essence you
need extremes - extremely large numbers of attacking forces against extremely small numbers of defenders in an extremely weak defensive position. Finding these positions on the front at this stage of the war is becoming extremely difficult for both sides.
You have to have huge reserves to exploit any situation. Estimate what you need and multiply by five, then add 50%. Even then you probably don’t have quite enough. The days of overwhelming force in this war seem to be over.
You can only create opportunities as Ukraine did here, and then keep doing that for as long as you can to make any gains. Small slices repeatedly taken with precision seem far more likely to make gains than any grand offensive. Seizing opportunity is the only way to make gains. Making sure you don’t provide them is vital - because they will be seen and exploited.
Outstanding Ukrainian command and control, fantastic leadership and use of skilled drone operators, coordinated artillery, infantry and armour. Ukrainians at their best.
Slava Ukraine
Russia is unlikely to attack any NATO member, — Hungarian Prime Minister.
Viktor Orbán said that Russia is unlikely to attack any NATO member, as its forces have already shown their limits in Ukraine and were not strong enough to win quickly: “If the Russians were strong enough to defeat the Ukrainians in one fell swoop, they would have done it already.”
He emphasized that NATO's military potential far exceeds that of Ukraine, so it is unlikely that Russia or any other country will attack NATO: “I do not think it is logical that Russia, which cannot even defeat Ukraine, will suddenly come and swallow the entire Western world. The chances of this are extremely low.”
At the same time, Hungary wants to be able to opt out if NATO engages in combat outside its member states: “Our lawyers and officers are working hard to ensure that Hungary can maintain its membership in the Alliance in a way that does not require it to participate in NATO actions outside of NATO territory,” he said.
Russian border guards have removed buoys marking the navigable channel from Estonian waters on the Narva River — Estonia is waiting for explanations on this matter.
Head of the Regional Border Guard Bureau Eerik Purgel explained that before Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, Estonia, and Russia had been installing fairway markers by mutual agreement every spring, but since 2023, Russia has not agreed to Estonia's proposals.
According to him, this year Russia has stated that it does not agree with the placement of around half of the 250 buoys. Last night, Russian border guards removed 24 buoys, some of which were among those with which Russia disagreed.
Prime Minister Kaja Kallas stated that Tallinn will approach the case in a balanced manner and, if necessary, consult with its allies.
Syrskyi:
I continue my work in parts of the Eastern Front. After the first minor successes in the course of offensive battles in Kharkiv Oblast, the enemy was completely bogged down in street battles for Vovchansk and suffered very high losses in the personnel of the assault units. Currently, the enemy is transferring reserves from various directions, trying to support active assault operations, but without success.
In the Liptsi district, the enemy also suffered significant losses, switched to active defense, is conducting minesweeping and fire damage to the positions of our troops.
In the Kupyansk direction, fighting continues in the forest area north of the city. The situation is difficult in the Kislivka area, where the enemy is trying to break through our defenses and reach the Oskil River.
Intense fighting continues in the Ivanovo area and on the approaches to Chasovoy Yar. The enemy is trying to cling to the city at any cost, uses the latest T-90M, BMP-3, BMD-4, which are usually destroyed by our anti-tank weapons and FPV drones during the advance.
The most intense and fierce battles continue in the Pokrovsky and Kurakhiv directions. The enemy is trying to break through the defense of our troops on a narrow section of the front between the settlements of Staromykhailivka - Berdychi through offensive and assault actions of the most prepared units.
Offensive actions take place both with the use of armored vehicles and on foot, often on motorcycles and buggies.
The key purpose of my work is to study the situation on the spot, solve problematic issues, provide additional quantities of ammunition, drones, EW and other MTZ, reinforcement with reserves, etc.
I would like to note the effective work of the majority of commanders and staffs in organizing combat operations, attacking the enemy with fire, and maintaining cooperation with neighboring units. Of course, there are problems that require quick and drastic solutions.
I believe in our Victory!
Glory to Ukraine!
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian Z fascist invaders.
I am a 72 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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