War in Ukraine

Fair question I’d say …

 

First the news that our infant mortality is higher than Russia’s, now this …

 

Putin's weak response to Ukraine's invasion of Kursk has been explained. He is afraid to appoint a general to head up the defense of Kursk because the general might succeed, of all things. That would make a single general out to be the solitary hero of Russia, leaving Putin out in the cold. Yes, Putin is that insecure.

Putin's weak response to Ukraine's advance on Russian soil appears to be rooted in a persistent fatal flaw

 

The other big news from the above article is that Putin directed and coordinated all of the sectors of the war at the beginning. It was because he did not want any general to be associated with the military victory more than he was. Again, insecurity that a strongman might arise from the military and challenge him. (I don't know why this was removed from my post above. Is Putin one of the moderators today?)

 

Ukraine says it struck a Russian ammo depot where North Korean weapons and devastating glide bombs were stored (msn.com)

The Ukrainian military said Wednesday that its forces caused "fire damage" at an ammunition depot near the town of Karachev in Russia's western Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine directly to the north.

The Russian military is said to have stored missiles and artillery shells, including munitions from North Korea, and highly destructive glide bombs at the targeted arsenal. Ukraine said some of the weapons weren't even stored inside a warehouse and were just sitting out in the open.

Video footage circulating around on social media purportedly showed explosions at the facility, but the extent of the damage wasn't immediately clear. Russia's defense ministry said it shot down two dozen drones over Bryansk overnight. Business Insider couldn't independently verify the video details or claims about the Ukrainian attack.

 

Russia's ruble hits the lowest level in a year against the dollar and the yuan (msn.com)

Russia's ruble sank to its lowest level in a year against the US dollar and China's yuan this week. The ruble fell to around 97 against the dollar on Thursday, its lowest level against the greenback since October of 2023. The ruble traded around 13.72 against the yuan, also the lowest level against China's currency in a year.

Pressure on the ruble has mounted as Moscow faces the expiry of a key US Treasury license, which permits transactions from some Russian financial institutions.

The license, which expires on October 12, has allowed some transactions between the Moscow Exchange and the National Clearing Center to gradually wind down rather than be halted all at once.

Dollar and euro trading have already been shut down on the Moscow Exchange, but transactions with Chinese banks could also dry up once the US Treasury license expires on October 12, potentially limiting Russia's supply of China's yuan, Reuters reported last month.

 

Take out 400 drones in the warehouse. best anti-aircraft shot ever...

long range drones doing damage and russia has no response

Ukraine hit 2 Russian ammunition depots in 2 days — hammering the latest in a deep strike on a military airfield (msn.com)
In the past two days, the Ukrainian military has said it caused damage at a key Russian ammunition depot, a drone storage facility, and now another ammo depot at an airfield.

The back-to-back-to-back strikes underscore Ukraine's reach and demonstrate the repeated inability of Russia's air defenses to protect its military installations, including during the most recent attack.

The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that in the latest strike into Russia during the previous night, it attacked Khanskaya airfield, located in the southwestern Republic of Adygea. Ukraine said that it struck an ammunition warehouse at the site and caused "fire damage" to the airfield, which hosted Su-34 and Su-27 warplanes. It's unclear if the attack impacted any aircraft.
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Hours after the Bryansk operation, Ukraine said it destroyed a base in Russia's Krasnodar region that hosted around 400 Shahed-136 one-way attack drones. Some open-source intelligence accounts speculated that Kyiv carried out the attack using its homemade R-360 Neptune cruise missiles, anti-ship weapons that were modified for land attack.

 

More banks are refusing to process Russian transactions, including the second-largest lender in Singapore.

Russia is said to be losing another banking partner as more lenders turn their back on Moscow over fear of sanctions

 

Some of Russia's numbers advantages over Ukraine--both in soldiers and weapons--will disappear in 2025, according to a U.S. military analyst. Russia is burning through men and equipment at a very high rate, and cannot sustain this much longer. Their equipment is being destroyed or worn out much faster than they can build new versions of it. The higher bonuses that Russia is paying new recruits is also not sustainable for Russia's weakening and withering economy. Russia will be unable to maintain the snail's pace of taking territory in Ukraine that they have gotten used to.

Russia's mass advantage against Ukraine should start declining by 2025, war expert says

 

Russia's drive on Pokrovsk has cost it 1800 combat vehicles, including tanks, armored vehicles, and heavy equipment. The 1,000 armored vehicles lost is enough for four or five infantry divisions. Russia has lost 539 tanks and 22 MLRS systems.

Russia's drive in one battlefront has cost it a staggering 1,800 combat vehicles

 

Russia was predicted to run out of missiles by April 9th 2022.

 

Divide by ten for more plausible numbers.

 

looks like the children are about to fight and Putin has no forces to maintain the peace

blood feud..sounds serious coming from the mad man in charge of chechnya

Russia on brink of civil war after Chechen leader declares 'blood feud' (msn.com)

Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov has announced a blood feud against three politicians from Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, sparking fears of a major interethnic conflict. The North Caucasus is populated by a variety of different ethnic groups, the majority of whom are Muslim and who live in several republics - these include Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia.
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Chechnya's brutal dictator appeared to pour flames on simmering tensions between the two republics, when he announced a blood feud on two politicians from Dagestan and one from Ingushetia. In a televised meeting with senior officials, Kadyrov said: "I officially declare a blood feud against Bekhan Barakhoyev, Suleiman Kerimov and Rizvan Kurbanov."

Kerimov and Kurbanov are both originally from Dagestan, while Barakhoyev is from Ingushetia.

Kadyrov accuses the three politicians of ordering his assassination and also of seizing Russia's largest online retailer Wildberries from the estranged wife of Vladislav Bakalchuk.

 

I wonder what their respective military capacities are? I get the impression that Chechnya is more militaristic but it doesn’t seem particularly smart to pick a fight with two neighbors, each on opposite sides of your republic (east and west) even if one is small.

 

While we’re waiting for Russia to fall apart …

… our own military is in free-fall, our geopolitical influence and hegemonic reach is fading, our presidential contenders are a bombastic goofball and a cackling dingus, our debt is five times our GDP, our infrastructure is crumbling, our Gen Z has no future, our jails are overflowing, our homeless population is growing, we can’t defend our own border, life expectancy is plummeting, our infant mortality may be the highest in the developed world, we’re nearly the fattest people on the planet and 25% of our women are on pysch meds.

Something about getting one’s own house in order.

 

It's whistling past the graveyard, brother. How much capital can really flow out of Russia at this point? As long as they have China and India buying their oil and gas, that's half the world demand right there. Plus Russia have a lot of trade partners in Asia and Africa still willing to do business with them. The Russian central bank can raise their rate to 30% if they need to. At some point, people are going to bend over backwards to keep their money in Russian banks, if they are not already. Their infrastructure ensures the necessary stability. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The sanctions aren't working as intended, because NATO cannot control what China and India do. It's as simple as that.

 

Zelensky’s former right-had man pours cold water on the hopes of Russia collapsing …

 

If they want to kill each other off, fine. Just leave the rest of us out of it.

 

That’s true. And it’s also why Russia can’t dare to use nuclear weapons, and why only idiots quake in fear (or act like it) every time that dum dum Medvedev issues a threat. So we’re right back where we started with Russia unable to impose its will on the battlefield, casualties stacking up, and getting deeper in (primarily) China’s debt. So Russia can act like the sanctions don’t hurt all they want while the pain keeps increasing on all sides. The only certainty about the sanctions is who they don’t hurt, not even a little: the West.