Current Affairs Ukraine

[Spadge Vernacular]

 

[Spadge Vernacular]

Elon Musk likes to think he saved us from Armageddon. He’s just brought it closer | Timothy Snyder

Whatever his new biography says, by giving into Russia’s nuclear blackmail the X boss can only encourage more threats from Putin

www.theguardian.com

 

[Kev The Rat]

Elon Musk likes to think he saved us from Armageddon. He’s just brought it closer | Timothy Snyder

Whatever his new biography says, by giving into Russia’s nuclear blackmail the X boss can only encourage more threats from Putin

www.theguardian.com

With that I doubt if musk did anything of the type he’s claiming at all.

The author has a book to sell, Musk himself is a egomaniac and a salesman so will have joined in the hype willingly.

Join the dots.

 

[davek]

View attachment 228071

Spadger, these forces are small amounts of infantrymen geting through lines but nothing like the incursion of the front line that can allow tanks and armourerd vehicles through to punch deep into Russian held territory. They're basically guerilla tactics that wont shift the dial.

 

[Spadge Vernacular]

Spadger, these forces are small amounts of infantrymen geting through lines but nothing like the incursion of the front line that can allow tanks and armourerd vehicles through to punch deep into Russian held territory. They're basically guerilla tactics that wont shift the dial.

Slow and steadily is the sensible way to go, especially since your orc stormtrooper buddies have made Ukraine the most land mined country in the world - the horrible rats.

Ukraine is the most heavily mined country in the world, says Defense Minister

The Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has told The Guardian newspaper in an interview on Sunday (13 August) that Ukraine is the "most heavily mined country in the world". He also said that Ukraine is suffering from a serious shortage of personnel and equipment in clearing the...

www.commonspace.eu

That said, it is now understood that Ukraine have penetrated the Russian first line of defence.

Ukrainian forces have decisively breached Russia’s first defensive line near Zaporizhzhia after weeks of painstaking mine clearance, and expect faster gains as they press the weaker second line, the general leading the southern counteroffensive has said.

Brig Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskiy estimated Russia had devoted 60% of its time and resources into building the first defensive line and only 20% each into the second and third lines because Moscow had not expected Ukrainian forces to get through.

‘Everything is ahead of us’: Ukraine breaks Russian stronghold’s first line of defence

In an exclusive interview, a leading Ukrainian general says his forces have made a vital breakthrough in near Zaporizhzhia

www.theguardian.com

 

[davek]

Slow and steadily is the sensible way to go, especially since your orc stormtrooper buddies have made Ukraine the most land mined country in the world - the horrible rats.

Ukraine is the most heavily mined country in the world, says Defense Minister

The Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has told The Guardian newspaper in an interview on Sunday (13 August) that Ukraine is the "most heavily mined country in the world". He also said that Ukraine is suffering from a serious shortage of personnel and equipment in clearing the...

www.commonspace.eu

That said, it is now understood that Ukraine have penetrated the Russian first line of defence.

‘Everything is ahead of us’: Ukraine breaks Russian stronghold’s first line of defence

In an exclusive interview, a leading Ukrainian general says his forces have made a vital breakthrough in near Zaporizhzhia

www.theguardian.com

I think you have to read all those claims about breakthrough's in the context of the corrupt clown Zelensky visiting the US this week and seeking more cash for the war effort in Ukraine (and his and his cohort's bank accounts no doubt) by reassuring US tax payers they're having success.

 

[Spadge Vernacular]

Ukraine’s Operations in Bakhmut Have Kept Russian Reserves Away from the South

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, Special Edition

By Daniel Mealie, George Barros, and Frederick W. Kagan

Key Takeaway: Ukrainian forces are celebrating the liberation of two small towns south of Bakhmut, but Ukraine’s entire effort first to defend and now to conduct counter-offensive operations around Bakhmut has been the subject of much unwarranted criticism. Ukraine's defensive and counteroffensive operations in the Bakhmut area since summer 2022 are an operationally sound undertaking that has fixed a large amount of Russian combat power that would otherwise have been available to reinforce Russian defenses in southern Ukraine. Elements of two of Russia’s four Airborne (VDV) divisions and three of Russia’s four VDV separate brigades are currently defending the Bakhmut area. This significant Ukrainian achievement has helped prevent Russia from creating a large mobile VDV operational reserve that could have been used to stop the main Ukrainian counteroffensive effort in Zaporizhia Oblast. Continued large-scale Ukrainian counteroffensive efforts around Bakhmut are necessary to keep Russian forces fixed in that area, as the likely recent redeployment of a detachment of one VDV separate brigade from near Bakhmut to southern Ukraine shows how eager the Russians are to recoup the combat power that the Ukrainian counteroffensive around Bakhmut is fixing there.

Ukrainian forces began counteroffensive operations against Bakhmut almost immediately following Wagner’s withdrawal, causing the Russians to maintain VDV forces already there and to deploy additional VDV reinforcements to Bakhmut. Ukrainian forces conducted sustained tactical counterattacks in Bakhmut and around its flanks following Wagner’s capture of the city around May 20.[14] Ukraine launched a significant counteroffensive against Bakhmut on June 4, the same day it began its major counteroffensive in Zaporizhia, and conducted sustained and reinvigorated offensive actions near Bakhmut’s northern and southern flanks throughout June, July, and August.[15]

These sustained Ukrainian attacks near Bakhmut fixed considerable VDV forces in Bakhmut. The Russian military had committed elements of the 11th, 31st, and 83rd Separate Air Assault Brigades to the defense of the town by July 2023.[16] The only VDV separate brigade not committed to Bakhmut was the 45th Guards SPETSNAZ Brigade, which is a special forces unit directly controlled by the Russian General Staff.[17] The Russian military would not have deployed and retained this large quantity of VDV forces in Bakhmut had Ukrainian forces not launched large-scale and effective counteroffensive operations that threatened to retake the town that Russian forces had seized at enormous cost.

Ukraine's continued counteroffensive actions in Bakhmut since June 2023 have fixed elements of two of Russia’s four VDV divisions and three of the VDV’s four separate brigades, dramatically reducing the VDV’s ability to redeploy more forces laterally to reinforce the southern front. The fact that the Russian command redeployed these VDV forces to hold Bakhmut shows that they would have been available to shift to Zaporizhia Oblast to defend against the main Ukrainian counteroffensive efforts there had Ukrainian operations not fixed them in the Bakhmut area.

Ukrainian forces’ sustained operations in Bakhmut since spring 2023 have successfully fixed a large portion of Russia’s VDV forces and have thus increased Ukraine’s chances of operational success on the southern frontline by preventing the creation of a VDV reserve there.

Institute for the Study of War

Key Takeaway: Ukrainian forces are celebrating the liberation of two small towns south of Bakhmut, but Ukraine’s entire effort first to defend and now to conduct counter-offensive operations around Bakhmut has been the subject of much unwarranted c

www.understandingwar.org

 

[davek]

Big news this:

The Ukrainian Parliament has voted to remove deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar from her post.

As I posted the other day, she was bollocked by the 3rd Assault Force's leader concerning her over-claims about Andriivka and that it had endangered Ukrainian servicemen's lives at the time.

Looks like Comical Ali has lost her job because of it.

 

[davek]

In fact - following on from that post above - it looks like there's been a mad clear out of the defence staff on the eve of Zelensky's vist to the US:

Six other defence ministers have also been dismissed - just two weeks after the former defence minister Oleksii Reznikov was replaced by Rustem Umerov. But why has there been so many changes?

The optics are no doubt important: the Zelensky Government want the US Senate to receive the message that those who have largely failed with cash provided so far have been removed and any subsequent cash will be more wisely spent.

 

[Spadge Vernacular]

I think you have to read all those claims about breakthrough's in the context of the corrupt clown Zelensky visiting the US this week and seeking more cash for the war effort in Ukraine (and his and his cohort's bank accounts no doubt) by reassuring US tax payers they're having success.

When you stop blowing Putins pink trombone you might be elevated to the status of 'point and laugh' at you for what you are spinning, you potato loving goblin.

 

[davek]

When you stop blowing Putins pink trombone you might be elevated to the status of 'point and laugh' at you for what you are spinning, you potato loving goblin.

Why the hostility Spadgers

I may come at this from a different direction than you (me arguing for peace, you arguing for continuation of the war) but there's no reason to hurl insults.

Let's keep this civil.

 

[davek]

Ukraine planning to sue three countries over food import ban​

Ukraine is planning to sue Poland, Hungary and Slovakia over their bans on its agricultural products, according to a report by Politico.

Kyiv could impose reciprocal measures on Poland if Warsaw did not drop the measures, Ukrainian Trade Representative Taras Kachka told the news outlet.

"We would be forced to retaliate on the additional products, and would prohibit the import of fruit and vegetables from Poland," Politico quoted him as saying.

"It is important to prove that these actions are legally wrong. And that's why we will start legal proceedings tomorrow."

Restrictions imposed by the European Union in May allowed Ukraine's neighbours to ban domestic sales of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds, while permitting transit of such cargoes for export elsewhere.

After that, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary announced their own restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports after the executive European Commission decided not to extend its ban.

The three countries have said they are acting in the interests of their economies, and trying to protect their farmers.

 

[Kev The Rat]

Why the hostility Spadgers

I may come at this from a different direction than you (me arguing for peace, you arguing for continuation of the war) but there's no reason to hurl insults.

Let's keep this civil.

Civil? You'll get none of that here. Everyone is a full on foaming at the mouth ideological warmonger.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Civil? You'll get none of that here. Everyone is a full on foaming at the mouth ideological warmonger.

Says tit-head glorying in civilians being targeted. Some moral high ground.

 

[davek]

Just as an aside: I rate the Sky News security correspondent Prof Michael Clarke. I know he's part of the Royal United Services Institute, but he comes across as non-sensational and willing to avoid hype and over-claim.