It would suit propaganda to say that they can shoot down these missles, unfortunately severe building damage and death's aren't so easy to spin, I believe that they aren't able to shoot you ballistic missiles as easy as it was previously made out after the early success shooting down a kinzhal earlier in the year , they have launched 65 kinzhals and only intercepted 25 the other 40 missles hit ,
I heard they might be getting another patriot and missles but delivery won't be happening sometime after 2025
Eurozone inflation jumps in December to 2.9%, dampening calls for interest rate cuts (thejournal.ie)
Inflation is up another half a point across the EU generally. Biggest economies, France and Germany saw interest rate increases. It's not all gravy yet.
There are often conflicting goals with propaganda, which is why we see Ukraine (and Russia) flip-flop with what they're saying.
If a missile is causing you a lot of trouble you might say you are intercepting it with 100% success rate, in the hopes that the enemy uses less of them. And vice versa. But you don't want to paint too rosy a picture or Western aid might not come so fast. It's a balancing act and in the end nobody knows for sure what's going on. We take as much evidence as we can find and try to piece together the truth.
Regarding the success of Patriot vs Kinzhal, I have no doubt there have been some exaggerations. I have seen evidence of successful Kinzhal strikes on nights where Ukraine claimed 100% success rate.
True enough you can't let your enemy know how successful (or unsuccessful) your missiles are. During WWII the british reported V2 hits 30 miles shorter than in reality causing future launchs to overshoot.
So just to clarify on those figures and a timeline, the 65 kinzhals that have been fired, have been since the start of the war. This was a time when Ukraine didn't have anything to take down ballistic missiles.
Since Kyiv has been under protection of at least 1 patriot system, Russia has fired 25 kinzhals at Kyiv and Kyiv has shot down 23.
You're looking at missiles either fired at Kyiv before the patriots arrived or missiles fired at places in Ukraine where there is zero patriot cover to make the assumption that they aren't able to shoot down ballistic missiles as easy as they previously made out?
Compare that with the inflation rate in putin's empire of 11.65% and base interest rates gone to 16% in December. Putin started with an economy smaller than Italy's before his attack on Ukraine and I can't see how anything has improved for him since then.
They definitely had successes against the kinzhals,it's not the not the unstoppable Wonder weapon many claimed it was including Joe Biden , but they arent having complete success against them they took down 25 out of 60+ launched now add the danger of the KH-22 which they haven't intercepted any , anti air defence systems like other big ticket military assets there isn't a infinite supply of both the launchers and missles , for instance several EU countries have only recently ordered more patriot missles (1000) and number of launchers,but they won't be delivered until in after sometime after 2030 , that's what they are up against now they will have to prioritise what they engage and weight up the costs of either shooting everything down or only shooting down the most dangerous targets,
Well their assault infantry, whatevers left of it, their field engineers, their artillery men and their abilility to make cheap unguided artillery shells have all improved. Mass producing kamakaze drones to hit city sized targets is also a new competency they have developed.
As against that, they have lost ships that they will find it hard to replace, they have shown their serious ISR and precision weaknesses to the world, their tank fleet is destroyed and they are busy bringing old stored soviet t72s back into service quickly and cheaply (while pretending they are producing 600 "new" tanks a year). Their airforce took quite a battering and they will take many years to rebuild their missile and bomb supplies.
So yeah, the Russian army that emerges will be much better at fighting WW1 trench warfare with added drones. I would accept that they are 10/10 best in breed at that.
But they will be wholly unable to conduct any sort of modern precision manouvre or combined arms assault.
To be honest I feared the "sleepy" force more than I will fear whatever Russia can field within the next decade/generation.
Why would they not be targeting power stations more? Taking out power stations would be far more demoralising to the population than sporadic bombing of civilian buildings. It would also be devastating to the Ukranian war effort.
Because after last year's efforts it's one of the real successes that came from the EU they were able to diversify the Ukrainian energy sector,and bring in back up plants and generators, so they can damage a power station and it can be bypassed and rerouted via external sources ,it seems now they are going after military industry now including airfields and grain supplies which then the Ukrainians have to prioritise when on what and where they protect,
Can't help but be thoroughly amused by this!😂
It seem fresh after not telling anyone about his recent trip to hospital and eventual stay in intensive care Loyd Austin US Secretary of Defense has prostate cancer .
elevation and slant range of tracking radars are also an issue... these essentially lob up over them until the last minute
@Fastpud
To Putin a stalemate is a win for him and a western loss. This will embolden him and other dictators around the world. (Iran NK, China are clear candidates but there are others)
"And, in the end, Mother Russia achieved all of its glorious war aims, which, as we all know, were only to hold 20 percent of the country. We didn't want the rest - because it was haunted. Now, let's all drink a cool glass of turnip juice."
Putin wanted the whole country. That was very clear in Feb 2022. They didn't try a combined arms assault on three fronts for a laugh. Putin wanted Ukraine and wanted it quickly. This is certainly not the war he wanted, but it is the war he got, so what else is there to do but try and own it and say it's actually going well?
Is it going well? The answer is 'no'.
To ask who is 'winning' this war (not that there are any real winners in this utter horror) let's post a question. Who would have more readily accepted the current situation vs expectations at the outset? Was it Ukraine, who few gave a fighting chance to? Or Russia, who expected to overrun the country a matter of days or weeks? Answers on a postcard below.
Poland received a shipment of 30 new Abrams tanks today as part of a large accelerated purchase deal along with 79 MRAPs, with hundred or so more to arrive later in the year 69 were already delivered Ukraine still only received 8/9 of the promised 30 of older 2nd hand Abrams so far and
All 31 were delivered to Ukraine at the end of September.
What were the targets? Not being intercepted is not the same as hitting what they were intended to hit. The Kh22 is a truly terrifying weapon if you are an apartment block or maybe a street full of cars, but Im not sure they pose much of a threat to military or strategic infrastructure
We would never be told if they hit any military targets in the first place
So how do you know they hit their targets?
This post requires a bit more expansion.
The tanks that Poland received are also 2nd-hand, they are M1A1 FEPs which were retired by the US Marines a couple years ago when they decided to get out of the tank business. The accelerated purchase was because the M1A2s which Poland had originally contracted for would not be delivered until 2025 or 2026. Those are still on order, but the M1A1s were available much sooner and Poland felt it couldn't afford to wait. They are very similar to the US Army standard M1A1 SAs which Ukraine has received, and both are second to very few other tanks out there. I guess there are priority benefits to (1) being a NATO ally, and (2) being willing to pay cash for your purchases.
So that's separate to the deal for 250 SEP v3's , that wasn't originally reported yesterday thanks for your update
I am not sure how much will help Russia on the battlefield in regards the drones as I wonder will they be that good or work the way there envisaged but the Cluster Munitions as we see in videos might.
That's a interesting idea a cluster munition with electronic counter measures,they have been having successes using their FAB glide bombs this is likely an evolution of that design, could prove dangerous if the fab is anything to go by , we recently seen cruise missiles using active counter measures over Kiev recently, glide bombs with active counter measures such as chaff and electronic counter measures could cause problems
Russia seems to be getting there act together in certain things on the battlefield sadly.
It seems they are carrying out airstrikes in southern Ukraine including in Kherson yesterday after it was being celebrated that no Russian aircraft was flying near the border since the 4/5 aircraft lost recently...
The fab bomb seem quite crude but its been pretty effective,
looks like it's back to basics for them.
Why are they not their bombs and rockets on army Infrastructure. Don't see the point of endless rockets hitting Kiev and Kharkiv.
It's a mix of terror and trying to weaken the leadership by showing that they can't protect their own people,but also a mix of we will never know if they actually hit military targets because the Ukrainians will never admit it any military targets have actually been hit in attacks
Thats an easy one
How offensive 😂😂😂
Well, Ukraine already won the war because they destroyed the invading force.
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