I haven’t heard of us giving those to Ukraine. They are very, very expensive, and we don’t have a whole bunch of them.
If you were to believe the Russians, they would have the most incompetent munition storage procedures in history. Shit just randomly blowing up everywhere.
Who would have thought that would be the face-saving move? “Comrades, we cannot tell Marshal Putin that the enemy pulled off such an attack on our own soil in Crimea. I have it! We will blame it on a terrible mishap instead. That way, our incompetence will erroneously be interpreted as an entirely different form of incompetence. Genius!”
My thoughts exactly. I would think it would be better to acknowledge that Ukrainian “Nazis” viciously attacked vacationing Russians sunbathing on the beach and use it as a rallying cry.
Hehe, that left a mark.. A Ukrainian Raid Destroyed A Lot Of Russian Aircraft—And Could Force Russian Squadrons To Pull Back The Ukrainian attack on a Russian airfield in occupied Crimea on Tuesday apparently destroyed a lot of aircraft. It easily was the biggest single-day loss for Russian air power since Russia widened its war on Ukraine in late February. And it could shape Russian air operations moving forward. The daylight attack, which triggered 10 or more explosions at Saki air base, home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s 43rd Independent Naval Attack Aviation Regiment, burned to the ground as many as eight Su-27 fighters, four Su-30 fighter-bombers, five Su-24 bombers, six Mi-8 helicopters and a unique Il-20 telemetry aircraft, according to a Russian source. A video from the tarmac in the hours following the attack depicts one destroyed Su-24. Commercial satellite imagery from Wednesday seems to confirm eight Su-24 losses plus five Su-27/30 losses. The Ukrainian defense ministry for its part claimed its destroyed nine Russian planes on Tuesday. ................ We still don’t know exactly how the Ukrainians struck Saki, which lies 120 miles from the front line in southern Ukraine. Craters that are visible in satellite imagery point to ballistic missiles. It’s also possible the Ukrainians fired Neptune cruise missiles at the base or attacked with explosives-laden “suicide” drones. Officials in Kyiv were coy, saying only that the weapons that wrecked the Russian airfield were “exclusively of Ukrainian manufacture.” After Tuesday’s strike, the Ukrainians have had much more success destroying Russian aircraft on the ground than the Russians have had striking Ukrainian aircraft. In the early hours of the wider war on Feb. 23, Russian rockets and missiles pummeled Ukrainian air bases. But Ukrainian commanders dispersed their planes and helicopters prior to the attacks–a practice they continued as the war ground on.
At some point you’d think Putin would realize that it likely doesn’t get better than this. Perhaps you take some territory and occupy it, only to get pummeled with a severe loss of resources.
One theory is that what you describe is precisely his strategy: hold ground, fortify it to the point that retaking it would be impossible for Ukraine, and force them negotiate an unfavorable peace to stop the suffering. It’s not a terrible strategy, but for it work the Ukrainians have to be more demoralized than the Russians. So far, that isn’t the case.
And we get closer to all out war as the Canadian Government has put boots on the ground in Ukraine and the US commits another traunch of fiscal support. Canadian military’s special operations members helping train Ukrainians: sources Elite Canadian operators from the Canadian Special Operations Command are training Ukrainians on the ground in Ukraine, multiple sources tell Global News. Sources told Global News the members from the Canadian Special Operations Command are also facilitating weapons and equipment delivery. Global News is not identifying which units are involved due to operational security concerns. U.S. to send Ukraine $5.5 billion in new fiscal, military aid The United States will send an additional $5.5 billion in aid to Ukraine, made up of $4.5 billion in budgetary support and $1 billion in military assistance, to help it come to grips with the turmoil of this year's Russian invasion. The $4.5 billion budgetary grant will fund urgent government needs including payments for pensions, social welfare and healthcare costs, bringing total U.S. fiscal aid for Ukraine to $8.5 billion since Russia's February invasion, the U.S. Agency for International Development said.
Just looked this up. About 150 mostly US Special Operations personnel were pulled from Ukraine prior to the war starting in late February. They were there to train Ukrainian troops at a base in western Ukraine. Now they’re conducting training at bases inside Britain, France, and Germany. Some CIA personnel have remained inside of Ukraine, mostly in Kyiv, and are disseminating the intelligence that the US is sharing with Ukraine. In a piece by the New York Times, the US 10th Special Forces Group, which had been inside of Ukraine training Kyiv’s SOF personnel, moved its operations to Germany and set up a coalition planning cell to coordinate the training and equipping of Ukraine’s troops. That planning cell has grown to include participants from 20 nations. It's mentioned somewhere else in the article that the 10th group trained over 27,000 Ukrainian troops from 2015 until they pulled out earlier this year. This is something the US military does very well. U.S. Special Forces and CIA Working to Get Ukraine Weapons
Just chatted with my brother (former member of 5th Group) about this. He says the Canadian special ops units are very good at this. He worked with them extensively over his 25 year career. The UK, France and Germany also have very formidable Spec-Ops.
Depends on what Russia does but this is one step closer to putiing American boots on the ground. Not something I want to see happen.
At this point, a larger war is solely Russia’s choice. I would say the world has shown remarkable forbearance.
The problem is the world is all talk with no military backing. Europe in particular as well NATO nations in Europe. You're not going to get what you think in the manner of military support. IE boots on the ground.
