This week the Kremlin has responded to its recent setbacks with violent escalation, launching indiscriminate strikes on civilian areas in Ukraine while also targeting the country’s energy infrastructure. This morning Ukraine woke up under another rain of fire as Russian forces launched a massive wave of attacks against Kyiv and nearby cities using both cruise missiles and “suicide” drones; the latter are the Iranian-made Shahed 136, renamed Geran 2 by the Russians. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claims 37 such drones and 3 Kalibr cruise missiles were shot down, while an unspecified number struck their targets.
'There is, in fact, virtually no evidence from the past 100 years that terror bombing has been a war-winning tactic.'
___By Max Boot, Columnist (WAPO)
‘But using the drones as weapons of terror, American military analysts said, makes little military sense.’
‘The drones would be more effectively used on the front lines of the military battlefield in Kherson or Donbas. Using them on civilian targets shows that Mr. Putin is desperately trying to break the Ukrainian will to fight, according to military analysts.’
“The Russians are wasting very high-end munitions, their cruise missiles and the drones provided by the Iranians, in these sporadic attacks on civilian and infrastructure targets that aren’t really doing much lasting damage and are also not in any way going to force Ukraine to surrender,” said Mason Clark, a Russian military analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.' (NYTimes)
‘Michael J. Boyle, an associate professor at Rutgers University and the author of a book on drone warfare, told RFE/RL the recent emergence of the drones as a key weapon against Ukraine may indicate Russia's dwindling stockpiles of domestically made missiles.’
‘Russia's "rebranding of the Shahed drones is partially to cover up the degree of its dependence on Iranian drones -- something that, given Russia's history as a defense exporter, is embarrassing," he said.'
"The problem is that punishment strategies often backfire, causing people to rally to their government rather than give in," he said. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
'Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine will be studied for centuries by military historians — as a master class in how not to fight. His latest tactic — bombing Ukrainian cities — is yet another desperate and despicable gambit that is likely to backfire.'
What utter terrorism, heartless, stone-cold, and brutal. What is humanity? As I watch my local eco-systems slowly and painfully die, the barbarism of Putinism poisons Europe. Grief, surely, impotent anger, too, robs me of the peace I felt in my gardens. As the air here in western WA becomes increasingly hazardous due to the local fires, even breathing becomes laboured. I mourn.
Ukrainian sources claim to have shot down 37, out of 43 drones, according to ISW. Looks like increasing capability, or propaganda to cheer up.
Archaeologists have found sling stones with a uniform hole in them, to make a terrifying buzz in the Roman attack on a Scottish castle.
Both Russian and Ukrainian languages have a special word for winter warfare under wet/cold conditions, reminding of muddy roads and heavy gear getting stuck. Who would not long for a drone to do the attack.
Russian citizens will find themselves in the moral quandary the Germans were in after WW2 - they have become citizens of a state terrorist organization that by its own testimony has committed genocide against the Ukrainian people. They are truly the new Nazis - and if the Russians ever wonder how the Germans could have let Hitler and his party do what they did, just look in a mirror.....
And McCarthy talks of ending support to Ukraine. Republicans are Russian sympathizers. I call them traitors. But what would we expect when their fat brainless leader in Maga Lardo idolizes Putin and probably has his dacha picked out and modified with gold toilets that need to be flushed 10-15 times.
I started to reread DAY OF THE KAMIKAZE DRONES this morning, 24 hours after I read it the first time. Realization: I cannot get into it. The weapons, their specifications and understanding the launch, the nature of the weapon “direct attack munition”, since it lacks loitering capability; the sound (its propulsion). This is impossible for me; I just keep backing away. That I cannot get into the technical aspects, if I was there in Ukraine or another warzone, I would get with it. I would want to. That's part of survival and being with your compatriots. You want to do it, but in the abstract, it's too forbidding, too fierce. I felt the raw, beastly aspects of it as I sat by the computer in a fairly dark room, alone. Uh-uh, can't do it.
What is the counterweapon of choice for slow-moving drones like the Shahed? Presumably, we have hundreds of whatever they are on the way to Ukraine now.
Sorta like the MAGAs bombarding with kamikaze idiocy into our society. Seriously, though, the potential of a Ukrainian winter without shelter and water is gut-wrenching.
Its an interesting economic situation for Dark Money Billionaires. Spend your donations to empower MAGA’t politicians that are bent on destroying America’s democratic influence by supporting Fascist dictators who’s country’s citizen have horrible living conditions and no money to spend; in turn cannot buy the products that made the billionaires rich in the first place
What kind of world will these billionaires purchase for themselves to revel in?
'There is, in fact, virtually no evidence from the past 100 years that terror bombing has been a war-winning tactic.'
___By Max Boot, Columnist (WAPO)
‘But using the drones as weapons of terror, American military analysts said, makes little military sense.’
‘The drones would be more effectively used on the front lines of the military battlefield in Kherson or Donbas. Using them on civilian targets shows that Mr. Putin is desperately trying to break the Ukrainian will to fight, according to military analysts.’
“The Russians are wasting very high-end munitions, their cruise missiles and the drones provided by the Iranians, in these sporadic attacks on civilian and infrastructure targets that aren’t really doing much lasting damage and are also not in any way going to force Ukraine to surrender,” said Mason Clark, a Russian military analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.' (NYTimes)
‘Michael J. Boyle, an associate professor at Rutgers University and the author of a book on drone warfare, told RFE/RL the recent emergence of the drones as a key weapon against Ukraine may indicate Russia's dwindling stockpiles of domestically made missiles.’
‘Russia's "rebranding of the Shahed drones is partially to cover up the degree of its dependence on Iranian drones -- something that, given Russia's history as a defense exporter, is embarrassing," he said.'
"The problem is that punishment strategies often backfire, causing people to rally to their government rather than give in," he said. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
'Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine will be studied for centuries by military historians — as a master class in how not to fight. His latest tactic — bombing Ukrainian cities — is yet another desperate and despicable gambit that is likely to backfire.'
___By Max Boot (WAPO)
What utter terrorism, heartless, stone-cold, and brutal. What is humanity? As I watch my local eco-systems slowly and painfully die, the barbarism of Putinism poisons Europe. Grief, surely, impotent anger, too, robs me of the peace I felt in my gardens. As the air here in western WA becomes increasingly hazardous due to the local fires, even breathing becomes laboured. I mourn.
Ukrainian sources claim to have shot down 37, out of 43 drones, according to ISW. Looks like increasing capability, or propaganda to cheer up.
Archaeologists have found sling stones with a uniform hole in them, to make a terrifying buzz in the Roman attack on a Scottish castle.
Both Russian and Ukrainian languages have a special word for winter warfare under wet/cold conditions, reminding of muddy roads and heavy gear getting stuck. Who would not long for a drone to do the attack.
Russian citizens will find themselves in the moral quandary the Germans were in after WW2 - they have become citizens of a state terrorist organization that by its own testimony has committed genocide against the Ukrainian people. They are truly the new Nazis - and if the Russians ever wonder how the Germans could have let Hitler and his party do what they did, just look in a mirror.....
And McCarthy talks of ending support to Ukraine. Republicans are Russian sympathizers. I call them traitors. But what would we expect when their fat brainless leader in Maga Lardo idolizes Putin and probably has his dacha picked out and modified with gold toilets that need to be flushed 10-15 times.
I started to reread DAY OF THE KAMIKAZE DRONES this morning, 24 hours after I read it the first time. Realization: I cannot get into it. The weapons, their specifications and understanding the launch, the nature of the weapon “direct attack munition”, since it lacks loitering capability; the sound (its propulsion). This is impossible for me; I just keep backing away. That I cannot get into the technical aspects, if I was there in Ukraine or another warzone, I would get with it. I would want to. That's part of survival and being with your compatriots. You want to do it, but in the abstract, it's too forbidding, too fierce. I felt the raw, beastly aspects of it as I sat by the computer in a fairly dark room, alone. Uh-uh, can't do it.
What is the counterweapon of choice for slow-moving drones like the Shahed? Presumably, we have hundreds of whatever they are on the way to Ukraine now.
WWIII?
Sorta like the MAGAs bombarding with kamikaze idiocy into our society. Seriously, though, the potential of a Ukrainian winter without shelter and water is gut-wrenching.
Its an interesting economic situation for Dark Money Billionaires. Spend your donations to empower MAGA’t politicians that are bent on destroying America’s democratic influence by supporting Fascist dictators who’s country’s citizen have horrible living conditions and no money to spend; in turn cannot buy the products that made the billionaires rich in the first place
What kind of world will these billionaires purchase for themselves to revel in?