For Those Who Might Be Wondering Why We Might Be In Ukraine

[ChloeTzang]

It's like something out of Junkyard Wars....Inside Kursk Oblast - a wild looking S-60 57mm AA technical based on what looks like Onezhets tractor chassis in service with Russian forces in Ukraine.

 

[ll74]

They're back!!!!!! Ukrainian Farmers and their Tractors are being drafted into service in Kursk. Here, Ukrainian tractor is advancing at 70 km/h into the Kursk region to help evacuate captured Russian armored vehicles, according to the 225th Separate Assault Battalion. Apparently the Ukrainians have captured so much Russian military equipment that the usual Army recovery vehicles are unable to keep up. Ukrainian farmers are again being asked to assist and, as they did in 2022, they and their tractors are answering the call.....

Slava Ukraini!!! Slava Tractors!!!!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1822708189110153366

The real problem that both Reichy and Becky have is that they want Russia to win, even though they say they don't. So when news breaks against Russia, they get tripped up on their messages.

Your posts have really slowed down their contributions because their desired outcome is more in question and they don't want to admit it

 

[ChloeTzang]

The real problem that both Reichy and Becky have is that they want Russia to win, even though they say they don't. So when news breaks against Russia, they get tripped up on their messages.

Your posts have really slowed down their contributions because their desired outcome is more in question and they don't want to admit it

Makes for some interesting debates though, and it makes for some interesting topics to work through. F16's for example. Not to mention logistics, military equipment supply, etc etc etc. The equipment coming through is now also being handled way more discreetly than it used to be. Used to be a big sng and dance when new IFV's were shipped in, but now it's crickets half the time. No idea what the Finns and Swedes have sent for example, and they keep it fairly quiet.

 

[ll74]

Makes for some interesting debates though, and it makes for some interesting topics to work through. F16's for example. Not to mention logistics, military equipment supply, etc etc etc. The equipment coming through is now also being handled way more discreetly than it used to be. Used to be a big sng and dance when new IFV's were shipped in, but now it's crickets half the time. No idea what the Finns and Swedes have sent for example, and they keep it fairly quiet.

Yah, I think Ukraine has learned silence is the better strategy

 

[ChloeTzang]

Yah, I think Ukraine has learned silence is the better strategy

And much better at OpSec. Specifically not letting the US know at all. Our Admin and the Pentagon leak like a sieve. They're getting more professional at all this all the time - guess experience is a harsh teacher.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Here's links to a few articles you might find interesting and maybe even educational. This was my morning's read this morning.

Why Ukraine is invading Kursk - Andrew Tanner - Rogue Recon

Kursk 2: Crashing Putin's System - Andrew Tanner - Rogue Recon

Ukraine War, 12 August 2024: Wildschweinjagd - Tom Cooper - Sarcastosaurus

 

[ChloeTzang]

 

[ChloeTzang]

This article illustrates something I mentioned in an earlier post, which is that an immediate consequence of Putin's War is to accelerate the momentum behind Ukraine turning it's back on Russia and integrating more and more closely with the rest of Europe. Note "interoperability" and "physically" - physically is the big thing - that's the changeover from Russian gauge to European gauge, and that will completely divorce Ukraine from Russia's rail network. A big think, because right now, Russia is using Ukraine's railways lines for logistics. Change gauge and that becomes next to impossible.

A further step towards the technical harmonisation of the railway systems of Ukraine and the European Union has been taken with the signing of an administrative arrangement by the Ministry of Communities, Territories & Infrastructure Development and the EU Agency for Railways. ERA will provide expertise to support Ukraine in becoming part of the Single European Railway Area, with structured exchanges on topics including safety, interoperability and train driving legislation. A steering committee will set priorities in support of the overall objectives.

‘The development of the Ukrainian railway is one of the prerequisites for full-fledged transport integration into the EU’, Deputy Minister Serhiy Derkach said on August 8. ‘We have several challenges in this regard, but with the support of ERA, we will be able to work together to adapt the Ukrainian railway to European standards, both physically and in terms of regulations.’



https://www.railwaygazette.com/poli...harmonisation-support-agreement/67116.article

 

[ChloeTzang]

The war in Ukraine is one that Putin cannot now win. The Russians might make minor gains in the Donbas if they can keep up the attacks they are carrying out, but the attrition rate is high and as the ZSU gets more and more newer equipment, trains new units and retrains old, that attrition rate will worsen and Russia's ability to counter Ukrainian counter-attacks, as in Kursk, will worsen. The only real question now is just when the Russian Army will break.

Worsening the situation for Russia, is that by the end of this year, the first locally-produced Lynx infantry fighting vehicles from a new Rheinmetall plant inside Ukraine will be rolling out of the plant. No further details were shared about the vehicle. However, the report mentioned a ramp up in military vehicle production in Ukraine and from earlier reports the goal is to build hundreds of these. One of the key principles of the Lynx concept is the integration of proven sub-systems with a high technology readiness level to reduce development time, cost and technical risk, meaning it can be built quickly from existing components. It's also very modularized, which is likely why production has been able to be ramped up so quickly. Depending on the version and configuration, the IFV model can carry between six and ten personnel. It also comes with a 30mm gun and add-on weapons systems. Pretty lethal piece of equipment. Rheinmetall plans to provide several hundred Lynx vehicles to Ukraine.

Rheinmetall's CEO noted an increase in the speed of production and delivery, with projects that previously took a decade now being completed in a few months. A new ammunition factory exemplifies this increased efficiency, aiming to ensure supply security. When this contract was signed, Papperger mentioned that the first Fuchs IFV (a 6 wheeled IFV) should be ready in Ukraine within six to seven months, and the first KF41 Lynx within twelve to thirteen months. Production in Ukraine is projected to start by the end of summer 2024 for the Fuchs, and possibly by summer 2025 for the Lynx - so it looks like the Lynx is well ahead of schedule. We should be seeing Fuchs soon too.

Now, add in that the Netherlands will deliver the first Dutch-built and financed BAE Systems CV90 infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine in 2026. The intention is to supply "dozens" of CV90's to Ukraine, in addition to the 50 already provided. Additionally, Sweden previously announced they are sending their entire stock of existing PBV 302 armored tracked personnel carriers to aid in the reconstruction of Ukraine’s military brigades. These are already available and are likely already their or on their way, and there were a couple of hundred of these available, including the entire stock of spare parts. It's an older piece of equipment, an M113 analog, but its there and available for immediate handoff.

 

[Rightguide]

It seems to show the complexities of drone warfare. Ya can’t win a land battle with highly expensive armor and artillery without air superiority and stealth. I still think Ukraine is taking one hell of a risk of overstretching their logistical capabilities on a ruse.

Ground warfare has changed and the WWII mindset and the strategies and orders of battle around it are being challenged by technology. As mentioned, persistent overhead surveillance and integrated targeting systems change everything. The days of operating between satellite orbits are over. The problem now is how to analyze in real-time the unbelievable amounts of data that these systems are capable of collecting. The contributing agencies are the NRO, NSA, NGA, CIA, and the DIA. Space is the ultimate high ground and may itself be the next battlefield.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Ground warfare has changed and the WWII mindset and the strategies and orders of battle around it are being challenged by technology. As mentioned, persistent overhead surveillance and integrated targeting systems change everything. The days of operating between satellite orbits are over. The problem now is how to analyze in real-time the unbelievable amounts of data that these systems are capable of collecting. The contributing agencies are the NRO, NSA, NGA, CIA, and the DIA. Space is the ultimate high ground and may itself be the next battlefield.

Somewhere recently I read a really good writeup on how the ZSU managed the attack in Kursk - I'll see if I can find it again.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Meanwhile in Kursk Oblast, Ukrainian soldiers are reviewing Russian restaurants on Google....

 

[ChloeTzang]

The announcement that the U.S. will sell Poland 96 Apache-64E attack helis is making waves.It’s worth remembering Poland is also buying:- 26 AgustaWestland 101 medium-lift- 20-32 S-70i Black Hawk medium-lift- 32 AW149 multi-role helisAll in all, 164-176 new helicopters!

Poland has learned a lesson from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and is saying not this time, motherfucker.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Col Gen Aleksey Dyumin has been entrusted with the defense of Kursk by Putin. Dyumin is a Russian politician serving as Secretary of the State Council since 2024. Previously, he served as the chief security guard and assistant of Russian president Vladimir Putin before being promoted to lead the Russian military's Special Operations Forces, where he oversaw the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The following year, he became Deputy Minister of Defense. From 2016 to 2024, he served as the Governor of Tula Oblast.

In 1994, he graduated from Voronezh Higher Military Engineering School of Radio Electronics. In 1995, he served in the Russian Federal Security Service, followed by the Federal Protective Service. In 2007, Dyumin became head of security of Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov. In 2012, Dyumin became the deputy head of the Presidential Security Service. So no real military experience. A state security guy who Putin trusts, and Putin is putting loyalty ahead of military skills.

Great choice.....for Ukraine.

 

[ChloeTzang]

 

[ChloeTzang]

 

[BeawulfAR]

Just a bit of history.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/Lithuanian-and-Polish-rule

Did Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and Turkey conspire to destroy Ukraine so that they can partition it into their own empires again?

 

[ChloeTzang]

Just a bit of history.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/Lithuanian-and-Polish-rule

Did Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and Turkey conspire to destroy Ukraine so that they can partition it into their own empires again?

It wasn't called "the Bloodlands" for no reason. If you haven't already, try reading Snyder's "Bloodlands."

‘Now we will live!’... the hungry little boy liked to say ... but the food that he saw was only in his imagination.” So the little boy died, together with three million fellow Ukrainians, in the mass starvation that Stalin created in 1933. “I will meet her ... under the ground,” a young Soviet man said about his wife. Both were shot in the course of Stalin’s Great Terror of 1937 and 1938, which claimed 700,000 victims. “Two hundred thousand Polish citizens were shot by the Soviets or the Germans at the beginning of World War II.” “Only Tania is left,” a little Russian girl wrote in her diary in besieged Leningrad, where the rest of her family and nearly one million other Leningraders starved to death. “I am saying good-bye to you before I die. I am so afraid of this death because they throw small children into the mass graves alive,” a twelve-year-old Jewish girl in Belarus wrote to her father. “She was among the more than five million Jews gassed or shot by the Germans.”
So begins Bloodlands, a genuinely shattering report on the ideology, the political strategy, and the daily horror of Soviet and Nazi rule in the region that Timothy Snyder calls the bloodlands. In 1933, when the murderous madness began, the bloodlands were made up of independent Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as (within the Soviet Union) Belarus, Ukraine, and some of Soviet Russia’s western provinces. A glance at a map of the same area in 1941 shows that in the intervening years the bloodlands had become two countries: the German Reich and the Soviet Union. Acting in harmony, these two countries swallowed the region’s other countries. Clearly, then, Bloodlands is not only the story of hunger, war, and massacre, but also of imperial conquest. And rather than satisfying the two monster states, their imperialism caused them to turn against each other until one disappeared from the map, if only temporarily, while the other triumphed, only to disappear five decades later. In sum: the bloodlands are the area, in Snyder’s view, where the two dictators most effectively demonstrated their ability and their desire to kill.

A policy that Putin, the ideological heir of Stalin and Hitler, is continuing, with his stated goal of exterminating Ukraine and Ukrainians.....

 

[ll74]

Just a bit of history.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/Lithuanian-and-Polish-rule

Did Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and Turkey conspire to destroy Ukraine so that they can partition it into their own empires again?

No

 

[ChloeTzang]

Just a bit of history.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/Lithuanian-and-Polish-rule

Did Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and Turkey conspire to destroy Ukraine so that they can partition it into their own empires again?

And regardless, nothing to do with what's going on now. Try this one. I have it and it's really good - published by University of Toronto (Canada has the world's largest Ukrainian-descended population outside of Ukraine)

 

[ChloeTzang]

And back to the war....About 100 Russian troops, basically an entire company, surrendering to Ukraine in Kursk Oblast. We have never seen anything like this before.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1823982642242502858

https://twitter.com/x/status/1823982642242502858

 

[ChloeTzang]

People at the FSB headquarters on Lyubanka in Moscow are in shock at the sheer number of FSB officers who surrendered to the Ukrainians in Kursk region, especially as they waved white flags in abject humiliation, all captured on video for the world to see. The Russian FSB is so humiliated, they have committed human resources to posting replies to the videos of FSB officers waving white flags, trying to convince the public that the FSB Border Service is not really a branch of the FSB, and those who surrendered are not the 'real' FSB.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1822394825876078658

 

[ChloeTzang]

 

[Buffalogurl]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/international/ukrainian-troops-battle-new-enemy-at-the-frontline-tuberculosis-outbreak-threatens-soldiers-report/videoshow/112522631.cms#:~:text=Two brigades of the Ukrainian,the Kherson and Donetsk regions
This is no surprise that Tuberculosis has raised it's ugly head..... given the conditions, damp muddy filthy trenches, nonexistent clean water and cramped conditions and winter is but 60-70 days away and electric production is at a dismal 23%, no heating fuel to speak of.....
I opened up my Faraday cage, hooked up my shortwave receiver,I 've been spending a little time in my han shack just listening to other ham guys across the globe...... guys this shit ain't getting any better
Side note.....Iran will close the straits of Hormuz, fuel will soar to predicted 10-15 dollars a gallon...... this will lead to civil unrest in America......
When I have more time I try to fill in the blanks........enjoy your day.....

 

[ChloeTzang]

Russian POW's captured by Ukraine