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
The EU and NATO are putting pressure on Spain and Greece to hand over air defense systems to Ukraine
The leaders of the two countries, whose armed forces have more than a dozen Patriot systems, as well as other systems such as the S-300, have been told that their needs are not as great as Ukraine's and that they do not face an immediate a threat, writes the Financial Times.
"We all know who has them, we all know where they are located, and we all know who really needs them," said one of the interlocutors of the publication.
Poland and Romania, which also have the Patriot, are under less pressure to consider supplying Kiev, officials said, given their more vulnerable locations on the border with Ukraine.
Ukraine currently has at least three Patriot systems, including one supplied by the US and two received from Germany, prior to Berlin's announcement last week.
Things will get very interesting in a couple of weeks.. ;-)
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Russian terrorists have struck again in Kharkiv - at a TV tower. This is an obvious intimidation to make the terror visible to the entire city and to try to limit Kharkiv's communication and access to information. Work is underway to restore the signal.
Just like Kharkiv, different cities and communities need protection - they need "petriots." And at the same time, we need to inflict maximum damage on everything that Russia uses as a base for terror and for its military logistics. I am grateful to everyone in the world who is willing to help us with this, and we are working with our American partners to increase our capabilities.
Four priorities are key: protection of the sky, modern artillery, long-range capability, and ensuring that American support packages arrive as soon as possible. And today's result is that all the dots have been crossed in the agreements on "ATACMS" for Ukraine. Thank you, Mr. President! Thank you, USA!
From Zelenskyy
Russian forces are likely to take advantage of the limited window before the arrival of new US aid, and increase their attacks in the coming weeks, — ISW.
Analysts note that Ukrainian forces may suffer additional setbacks in the coming weeks while waiting for US security assistance that will allow Ukraine to stabilize the front, but they will likely be able to blunt the current Russian offensive assuming the resumed US assistance arrives promptly.
In addition, Russian forces have maintained and, in some areas, intensified ongoing offensive operations, likely to exploit abnormally dry spring ground conditions and persisting Ukrainian material shortages before the arrival of promised Western security assistance.
Experts assume that the Russian military command will likely intensify offensive operations and missile and drone strikes to pursue operationally significant effects that will certainly become harder to achieve against well-provisioned Ukrainian forces.
@ukrainejournal
From Zelenskyy
Russian terrorists struck again at Kharkiv – at the TV tower. Obviously, this is an intimidation to make the terror noticeable to the whole city and to try to limit Kharkiv in terms of communication and access to information. Work is underway to restore the signal.
And just like Kharkiv, different cities and communities need protection – they need "Patriots." And at the same time, we need to inflict maximum damage on everything that Russia uses as a base for terror and for its military logistics. I am grateful to everyone in the world who is willing to help us in this regard, and we are working with our American partners to increase our capabilities.
The four priorities are key: protection of the sky, modern artillery, long-range capability, and ensuring that the American support packages arrive as quickly as possible. And today's result is that in the agreements on ATACMS for Ukraine, all the details have been finalized. Thank you, Mr. President, thank you, Congress, thank you, America!
Thank you to everyone who helps us in Ukraine defeat the Russian terror. Thank you to everyone who protects lives and fights against the Russian occupier. Thank you, warriors! Thank you to everyone who stands with Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!
If he wants to testify, the prosecution gets to bring up all his bad acts.
Using SBU evidence materials, a traitor who spied for the FSB in Mykolaiv received 15 years in prison
Thanks to the evidence base of the Security Service, another FSB agent who collected intelligence on the Defense Forces in the Mykolaiv Region received a prison term.
The attacker tried to establish the exact coordinates of the base of Ukrainian defenders defending the regional center.
First of all, he was interested in the geolocations of fortified areas and firing positions of units of the Armed Forces.
Intelligence information was needed by the aggressor to prepare targeted air attacks on the city using Shahed-type kamikaze drones.
The security service detained the attacker in February 2023, when he tried to pass intelligence on the location of defense facilities to the occupiers.
The court sentenced him to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.
As the investigation established, the traitor is a resident of the village of Vradiivka, who was recruited by the FSB through the banned Vkontakte social network.
He came to the attention of the Russian special services as an active user of Russian Internet resources, where he wrote comments in support of an aggressive war against Ukraine.
It was established that the attacker communicated with the FSB through its "liaison" from the temporarily occupied part of the territory in the east of Ukraine.
In order to carry out enemy tasks, the agent drove around the area in his own car and secretly recorded the "necessary" objects on the phone camera.
During the search of his apartment, computer equipment and a phone with evidence of intelligence and subversive activities in favour of the Russian Federation were seized.
From "The Analyst":
CHASIV YAR UNDER HEAVY PRESSURE
Having taken the forested area east of the town at huge cost, the Russians have been able to conceal their troop buildup within it.
The problem the Russians have is that to reach the forest they have to run the gauntlet of open fields under constant Ukrainian fire. Their plan once sufficiently established, would be to strike northwest toward Bohadanivka, which would then open up the ability to surround the east bank canal district of Chasiv Yar from the north.
To counter Ukrainian strikes on their troops in transit who were suffering horrendous loses, as many as 24 at a time as they were inside and outside of a single APC crossing the open fields, the Russians began a heavy aerial bombardment of Ukrainian positions in Chasiv Yar.
Without air defences the Russians established a sufficient level of air superiority to deploy close support Su-25 Frogfoot ground attack aircraft, something that had previously been impossible in recent months. So much so that some analysts thought they’d been withdrawn from service (Russians never fully withdraw anything that works from service, they just store it somewhere).
Having bombed the canal district to rubble the Russians finally attacked Bohadinvka from the forest. Ukraine was forced to withdraw of face their forces being cut off.
However the Ukrainian side controls the hills to the north of the village and have strong defences there. That being said, as Avdivka proved, heavy bombing can overcome the best defended areas.
Rather than attack these defences the Russians attacked southwest towards the canal district as feared, aiming to cut Ukrainian access to one of the two bridges that supply them there.
The Russians are also attempting to move through the forest to the southeast of the canal district and north of Ivaniske. They have managed to get most of the way through the forest and are close to the Severtsky-Donetsk canal. Once they complete this move the canal district becomes more or less untenable. That will force a Ukrainian withdrawal and then place the defence line along the canal itself. Heavy bombing and artillery attacks will quickly render Chasiv Yar a devastated ruin.
The Russians are becoming far more inclined to be mobile and avoid the frontal assaults that cost so many men. They don’t care about the loses of equipment or manpower though, as long as they gain territory, and these new tactics are designed to maximise gains while Ukraine has no anti-air and is short on artillery.
The weakness in these attacks is they too, can in fact be outflanked and the Russians have difficult terrain to supply their forces, much of it open to drone strikes and constant harassment. Drone dropped mines during the night have been another constant problem for them.
The sad fact is the Russians have uncontested air space. This is proving decisive over time. Without air defences things are hard. In addition the Russians are using spy drones deep into Ukrainian territory- again a lack of air defences - which only this weekend allowed attack drones to locate an S-300 and three Mig-29’s (two of which were operational), at the airbase near Dnipro and destroy them. These had previously been well out of range of Russian precision strikes.
The US aid cannot come soon enough.
The Russians seem to have such momentum despite their losses, that they can potentially take Chasiv Yar before enough aid arrives to change the equation, something they will now be even more determined to achieve while they have such an advantage.
Ukraine can only do its best to hold on long enough.
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦!
Rest in Peace Ilya
Ilya Oskin died on April 11, 2024 in Mykolaiv. He worked as a fitter at an industrial plant that was hit by a Russian ballistic missile.
Ilya was 52 years old. Born in Kherson, later the family moved to Mykolaiv. Ilya had his own business - he performed high-rise construction work. He was an industrial climber.
The man was a candidate for master of sports in chess. He liked to play badminton and football with the children. He loved to cook.
From the first days of the full-scale war, Ilya helped restore the roofs of houses that were damaged by Russian shelling for free. Later he joined the ranks of the Armed Forces. After being wounded, he returned to civilian life.
"He believed in victory... He was stable, calm, kind. He quickly forgot the insults and trusted people again. He was not a crybaby, he did not complain. He tried to solve problems on his own," said his wife Iryna.
Ilya is survived by his wife, two children, two sisters, two nephews and a niece.
For the first time in history, Ukrainians will take part in the world's largest cybersecurity exercise, Locked Shields 2024, which will be held in Estonia under the auspices of NATO.
Locked Shields 2024 will bring together around 4,000 experts from over 40 countries, who will be tasked with protecting the infrastructure of a fictional nation and its countries in conditions close to real life.
"The increased involvement of different nations and partners demonstrates the global reach and importance of Locked Shields 2024, serving as a testament to its role in enhancing international cyber defence collaboration," the NCCC said.
Locked Shields is the world's largest cybersecurity exercise and is managed and developed by NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn. In 2023, 33 countries participated in the exercise in 24 different teams.
Interesting developments from the "Wild Hornets" workshop
In the first video, the so-called "Hornet Queen" is a very sturdy FPV drone capable of carrying a 6kg payload or a smaller FPV serving as a repeater.
The second video shows the testing of drones with artificial intelligence that can recognize silhouettes of people and follow them.
Zelensky:
"Patriots" are air defense systems only when they are in action - protecting life, and not standing motionless somewhere in storage bases.
Modern fighters are needed precisely where modernity is tested and where it is decided whether the children and grandchildren of the current generations will live in peace and security.
The democratic world has all the strength to overcome Russian terror. You should not be afraid of your own strength and really help protect life. "Patriots" are needed now in the hands of Ukrainians. Modern fighters are needed in Ukrainian skies. Russian rockets and Iranian "shaheds" must lose so that ruins never win life anywhere.
Terror can be effectively countered only together, by joint steps. And I thank every country, every leader who already understands this. Thank you to everyone who is showing leadership in helping Ukraine!
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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