Ukraine War. 2022-

Owen,

No worries please; it's the 'special relationship' at work - for once someone has noticed.

 

Well, it looks like German and British tanks this time are competing together instead of against each other.
Somehow a most pleasant development...
However, it would be even more gratifying if at some point all the nations involved would once again compete peacefully on the football field...

 

Today I had a face to face encounter with a Ruzzian T-72. Luckily it was destroyed by a mine. The running gear and tracks on the right side, the engine deck as well as the bottom plate of the tank were blown away. I very much doubt if the crew made it out alive. You could see the ground right through the engine compartment. The tank was demolished a year ago during the battle for Kiev, in the neighborhood of Bucha.









The tank is temporarily on display at the War Museum of Groesbeek together with an damaged Ukrainian ambulance which was hit by shrapnel.

 

The prophecy is fulfilled

 

As speculation and professional assessments focus on the Crimea, here are two Twitter threads combined. The first is on the geography: Thread by @ChrisO_wiki on Thread Reader App

The second looks at the military history, alas it ends in 1854. More will come along: Thread by @ChrisO_wiki on Thread Reader App

I have been to the Crimea once, when part of the Ukraine and in particular the Perekop Isthmus, with the still intact Tartar Ditch. In WW2 neither German or Soviet defences held out long. The land is devoid of cover which is part of the explanation.

Then RUSI has a unread paper 'Preliminary Lessons from Russia’s Unconventional Operations During the Russo-Ukrainian War, February 2022–February 2023' and the Abstract states:

Link: Preliminary Lessons from Russia’s Unconventional Operations During the Russo-Ukrainian War, February 2022–February 2023

 

Here is a stunner. The UN Security Council refuses to investigate the Nord Stream sabotage. Surely if the council thought that the Russians did it, they would be eager and excited to tell us about it.

Except that the Russians did not bomb Pearl Harbor, or Portsmouth, or anyplace else in the United States or United Kingdom. But it sure does look like Joe Biden ordered the bombing of a European gas pipeline, which qualifies as both an international crime and act of war. We have not been shown a single piece of convincing evidence that someone else did it. And the White House keeps changing its story. Would definitely call this a major and illegal escalation.

UN Security Council won't probe Nord Stream blasts

 

Last month and for the second time since November 2022, General Mark Milley, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, suggested that unless there is some extraordinary event, the war in Ukraine will end with peace negotiations. No high ranking military official will talk about a diplomatic solution if he believes that his side is winning. At least not in this situation.

His opinion also suggests to me that losses suffered by the Ukraine armed forces, are more catastrophic than estimates floated by the chickenhawks in the Anglo-American government and media.

As far as I can ascertain, Milley was since told to shut up about a cease fire. Pressured to toe the line drawn by our senile President. And his handlers, his corrupt subordinates at the State Department, most members of Congress and the galaxy of war profiteers for whom any sudden outbreak of peace is the worst nightmare.

Financial Times - Ukraine war pushes US to review arms stockpiles
Subscribe to read | Financial Times

New York Times - Top U.S. General Urges Diplomacy in Ukraine While Biden Advisers Resist
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/us/politics/biden-ukraine-russia-diplomacy.html

 

We have also not been shown a single piece of convincing evidence that the US did it
All we have seen is a plethora of theories and hypotheses – but nothing else
What one can say therefore on the basis of available data at present with certainty;
Someone did it - for reasons

 

Are there any theories as to who blew up my telephone converter last week ? My suspicion is that the Chinese did it by remote control. Their name is all over it !

 

Post 1729 follow-on. Third part of a historian's tweets; during Russia 1917 and the Civil War: https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1641895074001834002

 

ZSU Челленджер 2 obr2023

 

Joe Biden has lied to us before about taking military action for no legitimate reason.

For instance, he was quick to join George Bush, Dick Cheney, Tony Blair and Richard Dearlove as leading super-spreaders of disinformation about “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMD) in Iraq, as a pretext for an illegal invasion, and flattening of Iraqi cities with bombing raids. Or, to paraphrase Dearlove: “WMD is like love. Just because you cannot see WMD, does not mean it’s not there.”

Joe Biden’s Iraq problem

Put that on a bumper sticker. Not quite as virulent as SHOCK AND AWE. I remember when that sign was put on the tail end and windows of vehicles, as people celebrated and boasted about the destruction of Iraq. That’s the power of propaganda and it still works, as this thread demonstrates.

 

EKB,

The ripples from did Iraq have WMD continue today. See: The Iraq War's Intelligence Failures Are Still Misunderstood - War on the Rocks

 

A link to a Google map of Russian fortifications and of course I note those to defend Crimea: Russian Fortifications - Google My Maps

A commentary on the command & control approach of the Ukraine: Ukraine is Forming Three New Army Corps—Should it Bring Back Divisions Too?

 

Ret'd general Mick Ryan looks at the developing capability of the Ukrainians, especially combat engineering tools and what happens. See: The Coming Fight will be Different

 

Twenty-five years ago, Joe Biden still had some viewpoints that were grounded in reality.

I found this C-SPAN video of a press conference, dated June 1997, when Biden warned the audience that NATO expansion would probably lead to a “vigorous and hostile reaction” from Russia ...