Ukraine 3

[Elderberry]

Russia Loses 5 Ammunition Warehouses, Radar Station in Single Day: Ukraine

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-loses-5-ammunition-warehouses-radar-station-single-day-ukraine-1770499

leksandr Shtupun, the spokesperson of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on Friday that Russia lost a radar station and ammunition warehouses in a Ukrainian strike.

Shtupun said during an updated operational briefing posted on Facebook that a hospital in Ukraine's Luhansk region was "full of wounded Russian servicemen" on Thursday. Ukrainian forces also destroyed Russian military equipment and targeted troops.

"Up to 10 armed occupiers were wounded and destroyed in the Donetsk oblast. In addition, 2 units of military equipment were destroyed, and another 3 were damaged," the spokesperson said. "Our aircraft made 5 strikes on areas where the occupiers were concentrated. Also, during this day, an enemy reconnaissance UAV of the 'Orlan-10' type was shot down."

He continued: "At the same time, units of missile troops and artillery of the Defense Forces of Ukraine hit 6 areas of concentration of enemy manpower and military equipment, 5 ammunition warehouses and a radar station."

More at link.

[Elderberry]

Chechens flee Russia in droves to reach Bosnia in bid to escape war

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1715164/ukraine-live-chechens-flee-russia-war-bosnia-european-union-migrants

Chechens fleeing Russia arrived in Bosnia this week, hoping to use the Balkan country as a launchpad to reach the European Union and avoid getting sent to fight in Ukraine.

Scores of Chechens have amassed near near Bosnia’s northwestern border with EU member state Croatia in a bid to escape Putin's war on Ukraine.

“They want to reach the European Union because, in their own words, they are fleeing military draft", the Bosnian Security Ministry said.

More at link.

[Elderberry]

Kiev reports 15,000 people missing since late February

https://tass.com/world/1557939

"According to the latest data, Russia has confirmed 3,392 Ukrainian prisoners, but as many as 15,000 people, including many civilians, have been reported missing in Ukraine," Ukraine's ombudswoman for the rights of prisoners of war and presidential adviser Alena Verbitskaya said

BERLIN, December 30. /TASS/. Some 15,000 people have been reported missing in Ukraine since late February, the country’s ombudswoman for the rights of prisoners of war and presidential adviser Alena Verbitskaya said in an interview with Germany’s Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) on Friday.

"According to the latest data, Russia has confirmed 3,392 Ukrainian prisoners, but as many as 15,000 people, including many civilians, have been reported missing in Ukraine," she said. "We know nothing about them."

More at link.

[Hoodat]

Ukraine Could Get American M-2 Fighting Vehicles. They’re Exactly What The Ukrainian Army Needs To Stay On The Offensive.

David Axe  |  Dec 30, 2022  |  03:25pm EST

The administration of U.S. president Joe Biden is considering donating to Ukraine some of the U.S. Army’s redundant M-2 infantry fighting vehicles, Bloomberg reported.

It’s exactly what the Ukrainian army needs most as Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds toward its 11th month, the wet winter deepens, the ground freezes and Ukraine positions forces for a possible new counteroffensive.

The 25-ton M-2, produced by BAE Systems, is an infantry fighting vehicle. An IFV is an armored personnel carrier that, thanks to its turret-mounted cannon, also can fight. In addition to shuttling troops around the battlefield, IFVs accompany and protect tanks and dismounted infantry.

The three-person M-2 boasts a 25-millimeter chain gun, a launcher for TOW anti-tank missiles, laminate armor that can deflect heavy machine-gun fire and a troop compartment that can fit six infantry.

Now 40 years old, the M-2 isn’t the world’s best IFV, but it arguably is superior to even the newest BMP IFVs in the Russian and Ukrainian arsenals.  .  .

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/12/30/ukraine-could-get-american-m-2-fighting-vehicles-theyre-exactly-what-the-ukrainian-army-needs-to-stay-on-the-offensive/?sh=62bf7eab2d6a

[240B]

[240B]

[240B]

[Timber Rattler]

 BREAKING:
Explosions reported in Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov moments ago.

The picture is from Rostov.

Happy New Year’s Eve to Russia from Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1609301405843722240

[Timber Rattler]

Meanwhile in Moscow...

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1609314624343531522

[Hoodat]

BREAKING:
Explosions reported in Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov moments ago.

That's a shame.

[Timber Rattler]

And then in Kyiv...

https://twitter.com/oonuch/status/1609315337081872384

https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/novorichne-privitannya-prezidenta-ukrayini-volodimira-zelens-80197


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqNrvIHoY0g

[Kamaji]

That's a shame.

A real crying shame

[Hoodat]

If NATO Won’t Give Ukraine Offensive Weapons, ‘Defensive Tanks’ Will Do

Craig Hooper  |  Dec 28, 2022  |  12:55pm EST


Older M60-A3 tanks are widely available defensive weapons, and should be sent to Ukraine. AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

It is no secret that Ukraine needs defensive NATO-standard armored vehicles. Speaking at the Pentagon in mid-September 2022, a forward-thinking “senior military official” noted that Ukraine “may need to transition to NATO compatible” armored vehicles, and that “tanks are absolutely on the table.” But as 2023 looms, NATO-compatible tanks—even less heavily-armed defensive-oriented ones—are still stuck on the proverbial table.

Ukraine has no easy path forward. For modern armored vehicles, there just aren’t too many viable options available. Unless a free-wheeling, on-the-move arms export powerhouse like South Korea rolls up with a surprise offer, only German or American tanks are available in sufficient numbers for Ukraine to start thinking about accumulating a standardized “single model” tank force for the future.

Under normal circumstances, Germany and the United States would be falling all over themselves to “capture” Ukraine’s long-term tank business. But front-line battle tanks are tricky things.  .  .

https://www.forbes.com/sites/craighooper/2022/12/28/if-nato-wont-give-ukraine-offensive-weapons-maybe-defensive-tanks-will-do/

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrGZ66uKcl0

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrGZ66uKcl0

[DB]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrGZ66uKcl0

Just a border skirmish according to our resident expert...

[Elderberry]

Ukraine claims hundreds of Russian recruits killed in 'massive' Donetsk missile strike

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-03/dozens-russian-recruits-killed-donetsk-ukraine-missilie-strike/101822758

A significant number of Russian recruits were killed in a Ukrainian New Year's Eve attack in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's Donetsk province, a source close to the Russian-appointed leadership said on Monday.

Key points:

•   Ukraine says as many as 400 Russian recruits were killed in a missile strike. Russia says the number is 63

•   The recruits were in temporary accommodation at a vocational college on New Year's Eve

•   A former FSB officer says ammunition had been stored in the same building

Footage posted online, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed a building purported to be a vocational college in the mining town of Makiivka reduced to a field of smouldering rubble.

Ukraine's defence ministry said as many as 400 Russians had been killed, while Russia's Defence Ministry confirmed that 63 servicemen had been killed.

The Donetsk source, who declined to be named, said: "According to my information, there are fewer than 100 killed so far."

"What is being reported [by Ukraine] is greatly exaggerated. Fifty-eight wounded were brought in overnight, which is a lot for a normal day and not much if you believe the information about hundreds of dead," the source said.

"It was a site for mobilised Russian recruits."

More at link.

[Hoodat]

Same story:

Deadly Strike on Russians in Ukraine Exposes Moscow’s Military Failings

A Ukrainian attack with U.S.-made rockets may have left hundreds of casualties, and pro-war Russians accused their military commanders of repeating fatal errors.

Matthew Mpoke Bigg, Anatoly Kurmanaev and Richard Pérez-Peña  |  Jan. 2, 2023  |  6:37 p.m. ET

In one of their deadliest attacks yet on Russian forces, Ukrainians used American-made rockets to kill dozens — and perhaps hundreds — of Moscow’s troops in a New Year’s Day strike behind the lines, prompting outraged Russian war hawks to accuse their military of lethal incompetence.

The strike by the HIMARS rockets killed 63 Russian soldiers in a building housing them in the occupied city of Makiivka, in eastern Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday — an unusual admission for a military that has often refused to acknowledge serious losses. A former Russian paramilitary commander in Ukraine, Igor Girkin, wrote on the Telegram app that “many hundreds” were dead and wounded and that many “remained under the rubble.”  .  .  .

.  .  .  Pro-war Russian bloggers and some government officials said the debacle was caused by the military’s own repeated and costly mistakes, like garrisoning troops in a dense concentration within range of Ukrainian artillery, placing them in the same building as an ammunition depot, and allowing them to use cellphones, whose signals the Ukrainians can use to zero in on their target.

“Our generals are untrainable in principle,” wrote Mr. Girkin, who has used the nom de guerre Igor Strelkov.  .  .

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/02/world/europe/ukraine-russia-himars-makiivka.html

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Amazing how incompetent the Kremlin is.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Just a border skirmish according to our resident expert...

This wasn't a massacre that was like done by over-stressed units in battle by poorly trained/led conscripts (like MyLai). These were basically fresh troops, highly trained, in the first month of battle. Makes me think this was ordered from above.

[240B]

Ukraine claims hundreds of Russian recruits killed in 'massive' Donetsk missile strike

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-03/dozens-russian-recruits-killed-donetsk-ukraine-missilie-strike/101822758

A significant number of Russian recruits were killed in a Ukrainian New Year's Eve attack in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's Donetsk province, a source close to the Russian-appointed leadership said on Monday.

Key points:

•   Ukraine says as many as 400 Russian recruits were killed in a missile strike. Russia says the number is 63

•   The recruits were in temporary accommodation at a vocational college on New Year's Eve

•   A former FSB officer says ammunition had been stored in the same building

Footage posted online, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed a building purported to be a vocational college in the mining town of Makiivka reduced to a field of smouldering rubble.

Ukraine's defence ministry said as many as 400 Russians had been killed, while Russia's Defence Ministry confirmed that 63 servicemen had been killed.

The Donetsk source, who declined to be named, said: "According to my information, there are fewer than 100 killed so far."

"What is being reported [by Ukraine] is greatly exaggerated. Fifty-eight wounded were brought in overnight, which is a lot for a normal day and not much if you believe the information about hundreds of dead," the source said.

"It was a site for mobilised Russian recruits."

More at link.

They were using the basement as a munitions depot. The building and everyone/everything in it was vaporized.
Nobody knows for sure, not even the Russians, but there could have been up to 600 troops on site.
Given Russian incompetence, most of those will have simply disappeared, with no one ever knowing what happened to them.

[catfish1957]

Amazing how incompetent the Kremlin is.

Even more amazing is the fact that this is the same Kremlin a tad over 60 years ago was beating us in the Space Race. 

No country (USSR)  in my lifetime has lost more prestige and power.

[sneakypete]

Amazing how incompetent the Kremlin is.

@Weird Tolkienish Figure

Police states are incompetent by nature when it comes to politics because there are no alternative or oppossing positions.

The ONLY think they are competent at doing is enslaving people.

[sneakypete]

This wasn't a massacre that was like done by over-stressed units in battle by poorly trained/led conscripts (like MyLai). These were basically fresh troops, highly trained, in the first month of battle. Makes me think this was ordered from above.

@Weird Tolkienish Figure

NOTHING happens in a Communist system that hasn't been approved by the political leadership. All Generals are required to do is follow orders without question regardless of the orders or the consequences. Any that fail to do this end up getting executed.

[sneakypete]

Even more amazing is the fact that this is the same Kremlin a tad over 60 years ago was beating us in the Space Race. 

No country (USSR)  in my lifetime has lost more prestige and power.

@catfish1957

ONLY  because Communist agents in our own government were giving them our secrets,including copies of blue prints.

In case you haven't heard of them,look up "The Rosenbergs".