War in Ukraine

Top Ukrainians down in the mouth …

 

crypto is going to become their sanctions buster...just another reason to outlaw crypto, too easy for criminals like Putin to evade sanctions

Russian Economy in 'Stormy Uncharted Waters,' Putin's Banking Chief Says (msn.com)

According to the Russian Central Bank, over $253 billion in private capital has left the country, and estimates suggest that up to one million highly skilled workers have emigrated, constituting about 10% of Russia's technology workforce and a third of its millionaires, according to the Financial Times.

According to local Russian news reports, during a meeting of the Council of for the Development of the Financial Market under the Federation Council, Nabiullina spoke on the state of the Russian economy. She said, "Our ship has entered very stormy unchartered waters, but the ocean is still an ocean, the helm is in our hands, and we need to firmly pave the way to the goal."
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According to the head of the Central Bank, the regulator expects to conduct the first experimental cross-border payments in cryptocurrency by the end of this year.

 

Ukranian draft dodgers. Sad that so many are willing to let others fight for them but are not willing to fight for themselves

Ukraine's desperate need for soldiers spurs exodus of young men (msn.com)

In recent months, Ukraine’s government has finally taken steps to address the manpower shortage. In late spring a law was passed to lower the conscription age and tightening draft rules. Conscription officers now patrol the streets looking for military-age men, checking their papers and sometimes taking away those who are subject to the draft. That has sent many young men into hiding, rarely venturing outside. Others have gone abroad.

One man, who ABC News is calling Ihor, left Ukraine late last year to avoid being drafted. ABC News is disguising his identity over fears he could face repercussions for speaking.

“When the war had only just started, then there was more patriotism. And then I also wanted to go to the army,” said Ihor.

But Ihor’s brother returned from the war with a spine injury, telling him not to join up. Ihor said his family began to beg him to leave before he could be drafted. He started to worry if he were disabled in fighting it would fall on his family to care for him, with little support from the state.

 

ouch

 

NATO getting the s*** kicked out of it …

SITREP 7/31/24: Die Welt Reveals Dire NATO Camp Outlook for Ukraine

 

The G7 vs BRICS …

 

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-ukrainian-war-effort-is-going-nowhere-fast/

 

Russia . . . is . . . running . . . out . . . of . . . firepower. They can only manage tiny pinprick attacks against Ukraine while Ukraine prepares to devastate them with massive hammer blows. It is all the Russians can do to mass a few tanks and motorcycles and IFV's (and a "buggy"--yes, you may laugh at that) for an assault that they know has no chance of success, and then gather the survivors and prepare to do it again. Russia is not holding anything back--this is all their army is capable of. There is no massive Russian assault on the horizon--only more futile "pulsating" attacks to try to gain a few meters of ground. Russia . . . is . . . nearly . . . exhausted. The troops don't want to be there. The officers don't want to be there. Situation: hopeless.

'Pulsating' mechanized assaults in Ukraine may reflect the limit of Russia's offensive abilities, war analysts say

 

Recent body exchanges point to estimates of 6:1 to 7:1 kill ratio in favor of Russians and comports with estimates of Western sources …

 

all those body blows are having an effect

Ukraine has been flying shockingly deep inside Russia because Russian air defenses are so degraded, military expert says (msn.com)

He said Russia "neglected to protect the areas" that aren't right beside Ukraine. Then, starting in spring 2024, Ukraine was able to pick off Russia's defenses "in a very deliberate manner," he added.

Many of Russia's air-defense systems have been damaged and destroyed by Ukraine, and Ukraine is now targeting some defenses that it couldn't previously reach. Russia has to figure out how to protect them.

Barros said Russia "arrayed their air-defense assets to protect the areas under air threat."

If Ukraine gets past that, its forces "enter this area within interior Russia which is not adequately protected," he added. He said that an example was Ukraine hitting the Russian region of Tatarstan, 807 miles from the border with Ukraine. The strike in April used what experts said seemed to be a light aircraft that had been converted to fly remotely.

 

Crimea about to see some F-16's? Ukraine just keeps picking away at air defenses in Crimea

Explosions Rock Crimea in ATACMS Missile Attack: Reports (msn.com)

The Crimea-based Telegram channel Crimean Wind reported that Ukrainian forces struck multiple military targets, including one of Russia's prized S-400 Triumph air defense systems and a radar that provides missile guidance for the system.

"We are waiting for satellite images of [showing the] result of the attack," the channel said.

Newsweek couldn't independently verify that report.Russian pro-war military bloggers have recently voiced concerns about the country's ability to protect its prized assets.

In June, Boris Rozhin, a Crimea-based Russian war blogger, urged Putin to address his country's air defenses after a reported Ukrainian strike on the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, destroyed parts of a Russian S-300/400 air defense system. A revision of the "architecture" of Russia's air defense systems is "urgently needed," Rozhin wrote on Telegram.

 

better move them planes further back. Too bad it has taken this long for the west to give Ukraine the ability to force this move

Russian air forces pull back from Ukraine (msn.com)

The Russian air force (the VKS, Vozdushno-Kosmicheskiye Sily) is on the retreat. In recent weeks, it has pulled many of its warplanes from bases near Ukraine and redeployed them to bases farther from the border.

The aerial retreat is reactive. More and better Ukrainian drones have been striking farther and more frequently inside Russia in recent months, damaging warplanes and airfield infrastructure. By reducing assets at the bases nearest Ukraine, the Russians might minimize the damage from these raids.

It’s also proactive. For more than a year since acquiring the first long-range missiles from their foreign allies, Ukrainian officials have been pleading for permission to use those missiles against Russian bases on Russian soil.
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“Russia is now acting more pre-emptively rather than reactively, unlike in the past,” Ukrainian analysis group Frontelligence Insight explained. Recently scouring commercial satellite imagery, Frontelligence Insight’s analysts have tracked big Russian redeployments – including the relocation of Russian air force fighter-bombers from border airfields. Most notably: Voronezh Malshevo air base, in southern Russia 130 miles from Ukraine.

 

Reminder: Russia to run out of missiles.

In April 2022.

 

Looks like Russia is giving up on Kharkiv. Another devastating failure for Russia's military. If only Lee Harvey had gone to Russia and manned a buggy on the front lines, Russia might have had a chance . . . But now, we'll never know.

Zelenskyy says Russia is giving up on Kharkiv, months after Moscow tried to blow open the war's northeastern front

 

A little embarrassing discovery by the Brits: their nuclear submarine uses software written by people in Belarus and Russia. Not smart. There is a time to be cheap. This ain't it. The British company hired to do the programming outsourced much of the code development, conspiring to hide the fact that Britain's main enemy would be programming one of the main weapons that would be used against it.

Britain’s nuclear submarine software built by Belarusian engineers

 

Evidently, the majority of Ukrainians are Putin trolls …

 

Empires don’t last forever. Look at Rome …

 

Russia digging out the deeply buried rot in its military. Will Putin save Shoigu for last ?

And by the way, before anyone thinks Russia is unique, the U.S. Department of Defense has no less corruption, and likely much more. It’s just that in the U.S., such corruption is institutionalized and instrumentalized in a more glossily sophisticated and quasi-legal way. What do you think those $52,000 trash cans from Boeing were all about?

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Someone should be getting arrested for that, but the fact that they don’t somehow gives the U.S. a more virtuous gleam, whereas the country actually uprooting its corruption looks all the worse for it.

Russian MOD Purges Hit Fever Pitch, as Belousov Scythes Corruption

 

Fact Check: True

 

Ukraine apparently sunk a Russian submarine at port in Crimea. I didn't know that Russia had any Black Sea ships left that were larger than a dinghy. It was destroyed in a missile attack, along with four invincible state-of-the-art S-400 missile defense systems. The sub has been re-named the Rostov-under-Don-Water. In unrelated news, Russia announced that they had four "slightly used" missile defense systems for sale; some assembly required.

Ukraine says it sank Russian submarine in Crimea