The Ukraine war thread

[Renauda]

Two weeks depending only if Witkoff can find a qualified interpreter not in the pay of the Kremlin…..if not, longer, or possibly not at all.

[bachophile]

Getting reports here on the news of a massive drone attack on Russian stategic bombers (one near Finland) calling it Russia’s Pearl Harbor.

Strange times.

[bachophile]

[jon-nyc]

Nice. But Putin will retaliate on civilians.

[Mik]

It may be just the news we're seeing, but it does look like Ukraine gets in the most powerful strikes. Putin just lashes out.

[Renauda]

What’s more is that Ukraine specifically targeted the Tu -95 Bear strategic bombers. Despite their 1950’s vintage design, they still remain crucial to the Kremlin’s nuclear deterrence capability.

Tactically brilliant on the part of the Ukrainians, but it will unleash a vicious strike against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure in the coming nights. Maybe even tonight.

Should be a very frank, open and very short meeting in Istanbul tomorrow. If it even convenes.

[Renauda]

T. E. Lawrence’s ghost smiled again:

Two railway bridges collapsed just hours apart in separate regions of Russia, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens. One of the incidents is being investigated as possible sabotage, according to officials.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/53734

[Wim]

This post is deleted!

[Wim]

Did something wrong and now I can't undo inserting the comic above...

[Mik]

POSSIBLE sabotage?

[taiwan_girl]

Another couple video of the drone attack on the airplanes. In the first one, you can see tires on the wings of the airplane to try and disguise them from drones.

Link to video

Link to video

Also quite interesting how the raid was done.

it involved more than a year and a half of planning and was "extremely complex from a logistical point of view."

The SBU transported numerous small first-person-view (FPV) drones to Russia, along with what looked like wooden shipping crates. Once all the pieces were in the country, the drones were hidden in the crates, which were placed on trucks. On Sunday, the tops of the crates were remotely opened, and the drones flew out.

[Mik]

Maybe the Russian top brass needs new pagers. I hear there's a European country offering them at a great price.

[Renauda]

You can assured that there’s not a container or freight trailer in Russia that is not about to be thoroughly inspected. No telling how many more $450 drones the Ukrainians have ferreted away and hibernating on Russian territory.

[jon-nyc]

I had read about what TG posted. I wonder what the source is. It’s not obviously in Ukraine’s interest to tell the Orcs how they pulled it off. It’s possible this explanation is a plant to get them to slow their logistics to a crawl for a few weeks while they open every container.

[Renauda]

Am sure there is a rationale behind disclosing the execution of the op. You may be right given that the Russians are massing troops along the Kharkiv front. Anything the impedes or interdicts the logistics of that build up, is tactically sound in order to prepare defensive operations against a massed attack along one or more salients.

[Renauda]

As a local Ukrainian patriot and friend going back many years, told me this morning: “Thanks to Ukraine overnight, NORAD’s job today just got a bit easier.”

[Wim]

According to Zelenski the operation had 117 pilots each steering one drone. The operation was organised near an FSB-centre.

This is like peeing on a bully's leg and asking if that was warm enough

[jon-nyc]

[Mik]

I suspect that smuggling things into Russia is pretty easy due to rampant corruption.

[Mik]