Russia/Ukraine conflict

[BitJam]

nanja'ed by @heltok]

Russians in the salient south of Bakhmut were encircled and eliminated!

Running low on mortar and artillery ammunition may have been a significant factor in their defeat. This is the kind of decisive news I've been waiting for. Ukraine also made other gains around Bakhmut.

This channel has been a reliable source of timely news from the front. IIUC most channels use the same open source Deep State map combined with video footage and information from Ukraine and from Russians bloggers.

IMO some Russians finally getting encircled is a big deal. Similar to those four Russian aircraft that went down in Russian airspace. It may cause those who remain to be more cautious and put their training in fighting retreats to good use.

 

[Surfer of Life]

One of the greatest differences in this conflict is the open source information space. Sadly for Russia it often contradicts what they like to parrot. Anyway, here is a great Podcast with ChrisO_wiki who is anonymous.

PSA- play at 2X speed.

 

[wdolson]

I’m pretty sure you’re wasting your valuable time feeding a troll who’d best be ignored.

I may or may not. One of the reasons the world is in such the mess its in is people who disagree write each other off without giving the other side at least a chance to explain their point of view. If somebody is truly trolling, it will become apparent very quickly. If they aren't they will engage in a discussion.

 

[wdolson]

I just had an "aha" about the Russian aircraft shoot downs. Everybody's military aircraft these days carry an IFF (Identification Friend of Foe) which was pioneered in WW II by the western Allied to prevent friendly artillery from shooting at Allied aircraft. The same tech is used today (though somewhat more sophisticated than 80 years ago).

I think the Ukrainians hacked the Russian IFF system so either their AD systems or the aircraft had the wrong code of the day so the AD systems thought they were Ukrainian.

Getting the enemy to shoot down their own aircraft. Brilliant.

 

[heltok]

Nice illustration of the current strategy:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1657950919760416769

 

[nativewolf]

United Kingdom’s efforts are so critical in this effort- nobody supplies tanks- UK broke impasse. No one delivers long range heavy bombs - UK breaks impasse. None delivers aircraft- today Sunak announced UK will start training Ukrainian pilots on “other” airframes. Magnificent

France says their efforts will supply several battalions. We will see.

At this point it is pile on time because the Ukraine attacks are going so well. Russia definitely did hit two weapon storage sites in the past week so that is a strategic change from targeting civilians.

 

[nativewolf]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1657993604118335489

Know what is interesting about this video- the structure is too small to still be standing after getting hit by the storm shadows. Finally seeing the oft discussed

Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

in this conflict?

 

[lolachampcar]

no one can convince anyone of ether side of anything. Most major topics have the liar, and the one telling, more of the truth. Both sides clearly see it is the other, and nothing will convince ether side they are wrong.
And, no. But, it was very interesting.

This is the everything is screwed argument and, like most such arguments, it has a grain of truth to it. The premise is everything is broken so do not try to fix it and, for heavens sake, give up on trying to do things the right way. Any yes, there is a right way - not the religious or political "right" but the correct way. Descent human beings know right from wrong. We may have different approaches but we can discuss those differences and agree on a compromise path that respects things like human dignity and the rule of agreed upon law.

I reject the all is broke and we can do nothing about it argument as lazy and irresponsible.

 

[Tiger]

Any yes, there is a right way - not the religious or political "right" but the correct way. Descent human beings know right from wrong.

If people can't agree on religions in scientific terms how will they ever agree on anything else including woke? Once you establish "let's agree to disagree" on things people cannot rationalize it becomes a problem.

 

[navguy12]

Can EV's be manufactured without fossil fuels?

Strawman argument.

The issue isn’t the 10% of fossil production going into value added products, it’s the continued single use burning of the other 90%…

When Edison was working on the lightbulb, he didn’t stop work when the sun set.

 

[Right_Said_Fred]

Please keep this thread on track by not responding to political posts or off topic posts. The person responsible already got hit by the mod hammer. Dissenting opinions are welcome, trolling is not.

 

[JRP3]

Worth noting that account was inactive here for almost 10 years before posting all sorts of nonsense yesterday. Hacked account?

 

[UncaNed]

Just a thought: what if, eventually, when the war is over, as a prerequisite for lifting the sanctions on Russia, it would be required that they establish "normal" human rights in their legal system? Similar to what is required for a country to join EU. Requirements on corruption, human rights, etc. in reality and in the word of law. If Balkanization happens, divide and conquer might be even easier.

Disarmament of Russia, returning native Ukrainian children to Ukraine....

Worth noting that account was inactive here for almost 10 years before posting all sorts of nonsense yesterday. Hacked account?

Sleeper troll.

 

[madodel]

Russian diamonds could soon be sanctioned — potentially disrupting the global jewelry market

Why weren't they already?

 

[madodel]

A car crash you can’t look away from: Russian car production industry plummets after Ukraine war
Two-thirds of all factories came to a standstill, while the rest are assembling Chinese models

Apparently all those thriving kulaks are having a problem buying new cars as Russian car sales have nosedived -44.7% from a year ago. China is doing well selling cars there to make up for all the US and European brands that abandoned the market.

 

[petit_bateau]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding. I have no problem with balkanization. It's the divide and conquer part that I think is problematic. Or do you mean divide and conquer between 'fascists' and 'pro-democracy' within every new sovereign country after a hypothetical balkanization of what today is Russia? My ideal scenario would be that all that today is Russia becomes democratic. Whether it balkanizes or not is not what is most important. And I do of course realize that democracy in all of what today is Russia has 'some ways' to go before it can become a reality...

It has taken about 110 years-and-still-counting to get the Balkans from the state they were in, to a state where they all have a reasonable prospect of becoming stable law-abiding democracies in my lifetime. I sure hope we can figure out a way to accelerate that process if we have to deal with a balkanised Russia.

I just had an "aha" about the Russian aircraft shoot downs. Everybody's military aircraft these days carry an IFF (Identification Friend of Foe) which was pioneered in WW II by the western Allied to prevent friendly artillery from shooting at Allied aircraft. The same tech is used today (though somewhat more sophisticated than 80 years ago).

I think the Ukrainians hacked the Russian IFF system so either their AD systems or the aircraft had the wrong code of the day so the AD systems thought they were Ukrainian.

Getting the enemy to shoot down their own aircraft. Brilliant.

Hard to think how that might be achieved. In practical terms you almostly certainly can't hack the daily/etc 'load' of the IFF codes as that is deliberately airgapped and mandraulic. So in order to pull off a kill by this method one has to perform a man-in-the-middle attack in the RF spectrum in such a way as to be undetected and also associated with the 'targets'. I really struggle to see how that might be achieved.

EDIT - it might have been a hard kill using a Bukh stationed upthreat :

https://twitter.com/x/status/1657439501113753601

United Kingdom’s efforts are so critical in this effort- nobody supplies tanks- UK broke impasse. No one delivers long range heavy bombs - UK breaks impasse. None delivers aircraft- today Sunak announced UK will start training Ukrainian pilots on “other” airframes. Magnificent

France says their efforts will supply several battalions. We will see.

At this point it is pile on time because the Ukraine attacks are going so well. Russia definitely did hit two weapon storage sites in the past week so that is a strategic change from targeting civilians.

The UK is struggling to train its own RAF/RN fixed wing pilots and in fact is having to outsource it - I think the Italians have just picked up a UK contract. for actual flight training due to the woes in the UK My suspicion is that this is simulator time in the UK in the various mission/flying/etc simulators which are pretty good and are essentially transferrable skills between aircraft types.

 

[madodel]

Zelensky calls Germany 'true friend' as Ukraine readies riposte

Once accused of reticence in supplying military gear to Ukraine, Germany has since become the second-biggest contributor of tanks, rockets and anti-missile systems to the country, after the United States.

Scholz on Sunday reiterated Berlin's firm backing, telling Zelensky directly: "We will support you for as long as it is necessary."

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

United Nations High Command for Refugees (UNHCR) apparently has a Swedish Director for Ukraine. Her name is Karolina Lindholm Billing. Including supplemental pay(?) she has a salary of a whopping $33.830 a month. That is considerably more than the Swedish Prime Minister...

Salaries are set centrally by the UN and the average salary of UNHCR's international aid workers in Ukraine is the equivalent of $14.500 a month...

Source (In Swedish):

Kritik mot FN: Ukrainachefen för UNHCR tjänar enorma summor

Högre lön än statsministern • Expertens uppmaning: Se över lönenivåerna

www.tv4.se

 

[BioSehnsucht]

United Nations High Command for Refugees (UNHCR) apparently has a Swedish Director for Ukraine. Her name is Karolina Lindholm Billing. Including supplemental pay(?) she has a salary of a whopping $33.830 a month. That is considerably more than the Swedish Prime Minister...

Salaries are set centrally by the UN and the average salary of UNHCR's international aid workers in Ukraine is the equivalent of $14.500 a month...

Source (In Swedish):

Kritik mot FN: Ukrainachefen för UNHCR tjänar enorma summor

Högre lön än statsministern • Expertens uppmaning: Se över lönenivåerna

www.tv4.se

Just to clarify, I'm going to guess for us Americans that those are $33,830 and $14,500, rather than $33.83 and $14.50 with unnecessary tenth-cent decimals.

 

[Unclepaul]

Russian diamonds could soon be sanctioned — potentially disrupting the global jewelry market

Why weren't they already?

Debeers can easily make up for any disruption caused by the Russians going off line. They have storehouses of diamonds that they can feed into the supply line to satisfy diamond demand.