Turkey have closed the Black Sea to warships (of any nation) not already there since the start of the war...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillgoldenziel/2022/03/02/how-turkeys-blocking-russia-from-the-black-sea-harms-neutral-states/?sh=33b54b4faa6d
They haven't been dealing with corpes being shipped home because the Ukrainians are doing all the fighting. Bit twisted logic to think the weapons are the reason.
They don't confirm it I'd imagine to keep the Russians guessing.
Ukraine claims they hit it with a home produced Neptune missile strikes in combination with a diversionary drone attack.
The UK was already planning to send Harpoon anti ship missile to Ukraine.
There are several aspects to this. A Slava class cruiser carries 64 S-300 Surface to Air missiles, which is a highly effective and long range air defense system, combined with the necessary air search and fire control radars to ensure those missiles hit their target. These radars are likely going to be more powerful than those used with the mobile S-300 batteries that both Russia and Ukraine field, simply because the generators on a ship of that size have a much higher output. The radar will have a blind spot when it comes to low flying targets at around 50-100 km out from the ship, due to the pesky fact that the Earth is a sphere, but for high altitude targets, it can easily reach out to 300 kilometers away. The ship also has shorter range missiles and gun systems, but those are mostly for self defense, so I'll ignore them here.
That's the direct weapons fit on the ship itself. However, the Slava class were designed as flag ships from the ground up. Originally, they were designed to lead task groups of frigates and destroyers in the North Atlantic and coordinate strikes with the then new Kiev class aircraft carriers and the soon to be built Project 1143.5, which ultimately became the Kuznetov class of aircraft carriers. This means that the ships have extensive command and control facilities, the Russian data link system that allows other ships and aircraft to directly feed data into a Slava's combat systems and vice versa and a suite of communications and electronic warfare system.
That means that ships like Moskva can not only engage air targets themselves, but can also direct fighter aircraft onto hostile targets, coordinate its air defense effort with other warships and land based SAM batteries and control other air assets. Granted, all of that is most valid when both the ship and any supporting forces operate at peak training and maintenance but even so, the loss of Slava is massive. It means that Russian forces in places like Kherson are more susceptible to Ukrainian air attack, that local fighter units have likely lost the "big picture" when it comes to enemy air movements and that coordinated strikes against Ukrainian assets within the former range of Moskva's sensors have just gotten a whole lot more difficult.
What the Westerners now need to do is figure out if the forces used for a quasi proxy war are like Ukraine who are in it to win it or craven Afghans with no appetite for a fight. A lot is being learned about foreign military policy from this "special operation" in the Ukraine.
Been trying to get a thought straightened out since yesterday but yeah, Russia has gone all the way to dystopia. It's like something from a bad film or a video game. Consider most of Russian territory, it's wide open and inhospitable and ya wonder why there are towns in places like that with little resources, or sometimes there'll be a large industrial complex but the people working in it get nothing. The history of Russia and where it influences is one of periodical ethnic cleansing, mass transferring of people and murder.
To me, and I'm sure there's bias, but Ukraine almost seems like it escaped the worst of the USSR in some cultural terms during those days. Finding out how much tech was developed in Ukraine rather than Russia has been eye-opening (even though I knew it 15-20 years ago it just kinda left my head), it's perhaps a sign of the more open, more collaborative culture that would be allowed in Ukraine compared to Russia in those days, despite Russia's vast population and access to/control of funding. The 15-20 years after the fall of the USSR was an opportunity for NATO/Europe to draw Ukraine in but they blew it to an extent. How easy it would have been, I don't know. Of course, plenty of the Russian and USSR influence was still around which played a part. The denuclearisation and pretty much disarming of the state left it much more vulnerable than it otherwise would have been. This was and could be sold as normalisation of relations but it's Russia so of course they see it as an opportunity to occupy, cleanse and annex some non-Russian lands.
Your man is talking complete sensationalist scutter.
If Russia started raining down missiles on the mainland UK, the reaction would be swift and quite possibly non conventional.
Our potato eating arsés would be the least of anyone's concerns.
Interesting interview with Russian soldier https://twitter.com/KillPutinn/status/1512199524554526729?s=20&t=jff7q2F7_2GoY5mz5TmFQw
This update gives an interesting insight into any accusation the Ukrainians are inflating Russias losses for propaganda. Just before the Moskva was sunk, the toll was 19,900, so the updated figures look like thay are only including the losses from ground operations you'd expect at the current attrition rate.
It appears they might be waiting to confirm the losses from the Moskva before adding them, because had they just guestimated and included thm the figure might well be 350 higher than that.
2000 APVs??
There are probably Orc tank commanders raging about the idiots in Moscow: 'where do they think we will get fuel from now?'
There were a lot of vehicles lost when abandoned due to lack of fuel, breakdowns, it wasn't all enemy action. And also damaged ones, which could be repaired, if they couldn't be retrieved they are casualties now.
when you think of the reaction to the discovery of the katyn massacre in 1943 , the allies really appeased the living daylights out of Stalin at that time. It’s unfortunate for chamberlain that he became the personification of appeasement but the appeasement of Stalin during the war was very far reaching and condemned Eastern Europe to 44 years of misery. The roots of this war are in that appeasement.
but the katyn massacre and it’s reaction by the Allies does prove that there is appeasement in every war even when the policy of appeasement is abandoned and discredited.
It is funny that as this keeps going on the positions most of us took initially as a reflex are still fairly strong. Most assume the Russians are completely bullshitting and lying through their teeth while the Ukrainians could barely be accused of much more than just being biased. Particularly with numbers, maybe they've been inflating a little bit but seemingly within a range that means within a week they're accurate anyway. 😅
That's haphaphap's entire point. Give Ukraine as much weapons they need, no risk to Western personnel.
We often here people say the Ukrainians are inflating the number ... With little proof that they are.
The vehicle figures are from OSInt. The numbers of dead are relatively easy to estimate.
I think that line of thinking of any measurable inflation is wrong tbh
Then they just need to knock up somewhere to refine it.
Thought this was a fitting example of Ukraine's "spin". Zelenskyy on a wheely office chair, BBC asked if he'd sit on something without wheels so they grabbed a couple of old chairs. Chief of staff said that the chairs were too **** so wanted some better looking ones. It's basically just trying to project a professional image. Little stuff. Compared to the Russians with their ornamental football-pitch length tables and their lies.
Russian propaganda is gas. Fire on board and inefficient fire control systems and statement released too late to make the daily paper editions. Nothing to see here.
The level of control they have over the narrative that goes out is crazy. No wonder that a small cohort of oligarchs facilitated by king oligarch Putin have gotten away with pillaging the resources of the country.
Well that's my point, even if they are/were inflating numbers it's on a small enough scale to barely matter. And no-one would blame them if they were doing more but there's no sign that they are. It's a striking contrast to the Russians.
No, no, it wasn't a missile, it was a simple fire that sunk our 200 meter state of the art warship.
Is that less embarrassing?
😕
In other words - we are highly pissed at loosing our big strong ship:-
No no the fire was caused by Dmitri smoking beside an open box of hand grenades, pure accident, couldn't have happened to anyone.
But Kyiv will pay.
The Russian anthem needs to be changed to the Benny Hill Theme tune.
From Ukraine’s Defence Minister:-
Pretty much sums up the science behind Russian propaganda:-
This is gold:-
Ah there you go, Dmitri was obviously smoking a pack of Parker and Simpson made at the Империал Тобакко Юкрейн factory in Kyiv, that's the link, it's obviously Ukraine’s fault.
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