Ukraine: Slava Ukraini!!!

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Continue.

[SeanF]

The BBC is suggesting that Russian deaths in February have reached 842 per day.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

 

[Maithanet]

Russian forces have lost more troops in the past month than all the American combat deaths in wars since 1975.

[Wilbur]

3 hours ago, SeanF said:

The BBC is suggesting that Russian deaths in February have reached 842 per day.

 

[Werthead]

Meanwhile, Kadyrov confidently predicting the complete conquest of Ukraine this year and the Russian army rolling into Poland immediately afterwards, "to make the west bow before Russia."

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

38 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Meanwhile, Kadyrov confidently predicting the complete conquest of Ukraine this year and the Russian army rolling into Poland immediately afterwards, "to make the west bow before Russia."

When will they start claiming the conquest is accomplished and shooting anyone who says otherwise?

[Varysblackfyre321]

31 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

When will they start claiming the conquest is accomplished and shooting anyone who says otherwise?

If defeated they’ll probably say there was never any war in the Ukraine at all.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

2 minutes ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

If defeated they’ll probably say there was never any Special Military Operation in the Ukraine at all.

FTFY.

[Werthead]

I thought they were taking the piss, but no, apparently this has been happening intermittently through the conflict. As Russian EW capabilities have declined and even drone numbers have reduced, they have periodically taken to using balloons.

 

[Zorral]

SpaceX admits blocking Ukrainian troops from using satellite technology

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/09/politics/spacex-ukrainian-troops-satellite-technology/?

Quote

 

The president of SpaceX revealed the company has taken active steps to prevent Ukrainian forces from using the critical Starlink satellite technology with Ukrainian drones that are a key component of their fight against Russia.

“There are things that we can do to limit their ability to do that,” Gwynne Shotwell told reporters on Wednesday, referencing reports on Starlink and drone use. “There are things that we can do, and have done.”

Starlink was never meant to be used militarily in the way that it has, Shotwell argued, saying the company didn’t foresee how profoundly – and creatively – Ukrainian forces would rely on the technology.

“It was never intended to be weaponized,” Shotwell told an audience at a space conference. “However, Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement.”

Shotwell’s admission that SpaceX, which was founded by Elon Musk, has prevented Ukrainian soldiers from fully using the technology confirms the long-standing belief that Musk and the company are uneasy with Ukraine’s military use of Starlink.

Speaking with reporters after, Shotwell argued that Starlink had sent units to Ukraine to “keep the banks going, hospitals, keep families connected.”

“We know the military is using them for comms, and that’s OK,” Shotwell added. “But our intent was never to have them use it for offensive purposes.”

Last October, Musk angered Ukrainians, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, for proposing a peace plan on Twitter that argued Ukraine just give up efforts to reclaim Crimea and cede control of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

That same month, there were reports that the Starlink signal had been restricted and was not available past the front line as Ukrainian troops tried to advance, essentially hamstringing their efforts to retake territory from the Russians. Those reports of the outages fueled accusations that Musk was kowtowing to Russia.

“That has affected every effort of the Ukrainians to push past that front,” a person familiar with the outages told CNN in October. “Starlink is the main way units on the battlefield have to communicate.”

Ukrainian troops have roundly praised Starlink as a game-changing piece of satellite technology that has not only allowed them to maintain communications, but also better target Russian forces with artillery and drones.

After Musk received Ukrainian – and global – praise for quickly delivering Starlink capabilities to Ukraine, CNN obtained exclusive documents showing that SpaceX was trying to get the Pentagon to start paying for thousands of terminals, along with their expensive connectivity, for Ukraine’s military and intelligence services. Thousands of units had also quietly been purchased by third countries for Ukraine.

One senior defense official told CNN that SpaceX had “the gall to look like heroes” while having others pay so much.

Musk responded quickly to CNN’s report, tweeting, “The hell with it…we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.”

However, SpaceX and the Pentagon had continued discussions about a possible deal for military units, according to people familiar with the conversations. On Wednesday, Shotwell indicated at least part of those conversations had ended.

“I was the one that asked the Pentagon to fund, this was not an Elon thing,” Shotwell said on Wednesday. “We stopped interacting with the Pentagon on the existing capability. They are not paying.”

SpaceX had never envisioned that Starlink would be used in Ukraine the way it has been, Shotwell said, echoing coverage and accounts of Ukrainian troops’ ingenuity on the battlefield.

“Honestly,” she said, “I don’t even think we thought about it. You know, it could be used that way? We didn’t think about it. I didn’t think about it. Our Starlink team may have, I don’t know. But we’ve learned pretty quickly.”

 

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Going back to the German tank drama.

The tank collection is not going well, as previously mentioned. Pistorius (new German minister of defense) is not too impressed, mildly put. (German language link).

Apparently thus far only Germany (14 tanks) and Portugal (3) have made concrete/binding promises on the delivery of Leo II, type A6. 

The Leo II type A4 tanks Poland promised are apparently not in working condition.

Asked during a PC, whether he has some sympathy for countries putting pressure on Germany regarding tank deliveries, which now have problems delivering tanks themselves his response was: Since we are not on diplomatic mission here [means he feels free to speak his mind], I'd say: Very little.

 

Another problem with the tanks deliveries is the supply of ammunition ond spare parts, that one he said, can't be guarateed by the German state, that is an issue for the arms manufacturers.

The target was/is to deliver two battailons of tanks to the Ukraine. That would be 2x31 = 62 tanks.

The tanks promised by Germany and Portugal (14+3, check above) means we are roughly at a quarter of that.

[Werthead]

The main concern today was artillery and tank ammunition. NATO has enough in storage and that can be sourced to keep Ukraine going for another few months, but they really need someone like South Korea to come on board to either provide large stocks or with manufacturing capability to ramp up to war levels quickly.

There's been withering scorn in almost every NATO country at how mind-bogglingly slowly the arms companies are ramping up production, with people asking what the fuck would have happened if NATO had been attacked directly in a high-intensity war on multiple fronts, would the "greatest military alliance in history" have run out of bullets, tank shells and missiles five weeks into the conflict? The Czechs, Slovaks and Americans seem to be doing okay at ramping up production rates, but Germany, France and Britain need to be doing better.

Bit of a brown trousers moment today when 3 Russian aircraft strayed across the border from Kaliningrad into Polish airspace. Two Dutch F-35s intercepted them almost immediately and turned them back into Russian airspace but that could have gotten dicey quickly.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

Bit of a brown trousers moment today when 3 Russian aircraft strayed across the border from Kaliningrad into Polish airspace. Two Dutch F-35s intercepted them almost immediately and turned them back into Russian airspace but that could have gotten dicey quickly.

A test of resolve and capacity?

[ThinkerX]

2 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

A test of resolve and capacity?

My vote would be incompetence/lousy equipment.

[Werthead]

They were Su-27s, which I suspect would last about 0.3 seconds in a dogfight against an F-35, so yeah, a mistake or a particularly elaborate form of suicide.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

So… Prigozhin… any possibility of a real struggle for power given that he has a Military all his own?  Small compared to the RuAF but well equipped…

 

[Zorral]

5 hours ago, Werthead said:

Bit of a brown trousers moment today when 3 Russian aircraft strayed across the border from Kaliningrad into Polish airspace. Two Dutch F-35s intercepted them almost immediately and turned them back into Russian airspace but that could have gotten dicey quickly.

Here too:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-14/us-scrambles-jets-for-routine-intercept-of-russian-warplanes

.... The four aircraft — which included Tu-95 Bear and Su-35 fighters — entered the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone on Monday but remained outside American and Canadian airspace, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement. Two F-16s intercepted them. An aircraft interception involves closely approaching a plane to warn it away.

“This Russian activity in the North American ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat, nor is the activity seen as provocative,” the statement said. “NORAD had anticipated this Russian activity and, as a result of our planning, was prepared to intercept it.” ....

[mcbigski]

11 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Going back to the German tank drama.

The tank collection is not going well, as previously mentioned. Pistorius (new German minister of defense) is not too impressed, mildly put. (German language link).

Apparently thus far only Germany (14 tanks) and Portugal (3) have made concrete/binding promises on the delivery of Leo II, type A6. 

The Leo II type A4 tanks Poland promised are apparently not in working condition.

It's not important that the tanks are effective.  Sure it looks better PR wise, but the important thing is getting more defense appropriations.

War is great if you're a Senator or defense contractor.  The risk/reward ratio is decidedly skewed against the typical rifleman or medic though.

[ThinkerX]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

Here too:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-14/us-scrambles-jets-for-routine-intercept-of-russian-warplanes

.... The four aircraft — which included Tu-95 Bear and Su-35 fighters — entered the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone on Monday but remained outside American and Canadian airspace, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement. Two F-16s intercepted them. An aircraft interception involves closely approaching a plane to warn it away.

“This Russian activity in the North American ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat, nor is the activity seen as provocative,” the statement said. “NORAD had anticipated this Russian activity and, as a result of our planning, was prepared to intercept it.” ....

In the old days, the USSR frequently played aerial games near the fringes of Alaska. Continued to happen even when the USSR became just Russia. Usually, these incidents only made the news when some politician or other wanted to score points.