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brickstser69
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My son called this many months ago:
https://www.euronews.com/2026/03/19/a-peoples-republic-on-natos-edge-the-narva-narrative-testing-europes-defences
On social media, Estonia's third-largest city, Narva, is now being cast as a so-called "People's Republic of Narva".Research by the Estonian anti-propaganda platform Propastop suggests the campaign is built around an alleged separatist narrative, aimed at peeling away the country's Russian-speaking north-east, right along the Russian border.
On social media, Estonia's third-largest city, Narva, is now being cast as a so-called "People's Republic of Narva".
Research by the Estonian anti-propaganda platform Propastop suggests the campaign is built around an alleged separatist narrative, aimed at peeling away the country's Russian-speaking north-east, right along the Russian border.
Im catching up. What's the story with starlink access.
I see posts saying that "they" have lost access to starlink.
Can you confirm if it's Russia or Ukraine and how did they lose access?
https://www.google.com/search?q=russia+starlink+access
I can’t find the link but 3/4 of the traffic for starlink in the area just disappeared overnight once Russians got disconnected
Terminals in area now have to be registered via Ukrainian government and starlink and r something like that
Communication is one thing the Russians are not good at
no need to be smartarse.
Found it now
Absolutely depressing that all the hard work with sanctions etc that the EU and Ukraine have done on Russia and when it finally looked like the tide was turning.
All now undone by Krasnov. Russia is now taking in billions to get their war machine back up and running.
That Russian spring offensive really did get put down real quick
Details coming out now
Europe has dramatically increased military production. NATO increased spending to 3.5% of GDP.
European Defense Production Triples Since Russia-Ukraine War: Report
I still think Ukraine will be able to keep Russia at bay, with only European support. Plus their own domestic production and joint-ventures with neighboring countries.
Russia are also struggling of course and much weaker than back in 2022.
Meanwhile Putins pal Orban is putting a block on the EU funding Ukraine…
https://news.sky.com/story/eus-aid-to-ukraine-blocked-13522031?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-gb
There was an interesting tidbit of information by Zelensky they only need about 1000 cheap (5x cheaper than shaheed etc) drone interceptors per day to defend Ukraine at this time
They already producing 2000 per day
And now gulf states are funding a much larger production increase in Ukraine itself as well as paying for experts
I suspect we are gonna see volumes of shaheed attacks on Ukraine drop this year as Putin will instead redirect em to his allies down south, with February being the peak
Russia makes about 500 per day
https://medium.com/@hayekesteloo/russias-shahed-production-surge-ukraine-s-top-commander-warns-of-1-000-drones-per-day-by-2026-2d759560f69f
I genuinely think that he's desperately trying to goad the EU into threatening to punish/ punishing Hungary or at the very least lambasting Hungary in public, so that he can ramp up the domestic hysteria and turn the last few weeks of campaigning around and paint the election as a choice between the anti-Hungarian war-mongering decadent West and the traditional, sensible, proud Humgarian Orban party.
The EU, thankfully, isn't taking the bait.
Please god let him be gone so we can get on with rebuilding normal diplomatic relations with a European country with a rich cultural history.
I hope that Orban will be removed too. However, he has the Russian Special Operations machine behind him, spinning the narrative to re-elect him. You could see the Russian hand in the arrest of Ukrainian bank workers transporting money through Hungary and the poster campaign in Hungary featuring Zelensky:
I hope that Hungarians are smart enough to see through the manipulation and they will vote Orban's party out. But the experience tells otherwise, the crude Russian propaganda worked very well in Romania which resulted in an hitherto unknown pro-Russian candidate winning the first round of the Romanian presidential election. I think the EU should put a lot of effort into creative anti-propaganda because what Russians are doing very well is spinning lies which damage the EU.
I don't think this fresh money is going to change much for Russia.
They've never really been short of money - it's just never ended up where it should, and there are no indications that that's going to change. Their current problems are primarily due to logistics failures (being made worse by Ukraine), communications failures (systemic, but being made worse by Ukraine) and a lack of any clear, achievable objective (contrary to Ukraine).
The very best that they can hope from from "more money" is "more of the same" - more drones, more missiles, more sign-on bonuses for the gullible recruits ; but Ukraine is becoming ever more adept at countering all of that and finding new ways to hurt Russia every month.
Yeah, you're spot on with all that. Intelligence counts for little when the State apparatus actively works to curtail freedom of expression, information and press freedoms. I can see it myself talking to otherwise progressive ex-pat Hungarians.
The EU should engage the Ukrainian PR machine - it has played a blinder since the very start of Putin's illegal war of conquest. We need to learn quickly… you can even see lessons learned from Russian by the Brexiteers' campaign of lies.
A couple of interesting snippets that (potentially) show how Trump is potentially undermining the future of US military influence:
That's a really good move by Ukraine. They already have the Mirage, so would be fast-tracking the expansion of the fleet at very little cost to themselves. But it'd also be a clear sign to Qatar's neighbours that fighter jets are not such a great tool for modern warfare, and maybe they should swap their F-whatevers for something more effective.
Secondly:
Ukrainian military instructors who went to help counter Iranian missiles and UAVs are shocked by the way the US shoots down “Shaheds,” writes The Times First, the Persian Gulf countries launched as many as 8 Patriot missiles at one (!) enemy target, each costing more than $3 million. They often used a ship-based SM-6 missile, worth about $6 million, to shoot down a “Shahed” worth $70,000. The US and its allies often literally “shine” their radars without proper camouflage. Ukrainians work differently: mobile radars constantly change positions. For example: just three (!) cheap Shahed drones destroyed the AN/FPS-132 early warning radar (~$1 billion) and another air defense radar.
Ukrainian military instructors who went to help counter Iranian missiles and UAVs are shocked by the way the US shoots down “Shaheds,” writes The Times
First, the Persian Gulf countries launched as many as 8 Patriot missiles at one (!) enemy target, each costing more than $3 million.
They often used a ship-based SM-6 missile, worth about $6 million, to shoot down a “Shahed” worth $70,000. The US and its allies often literally “shine” their radars without proper camouflage.
Ukrainians work differently: mobile radars constantly change positions.
For example: just three (!) cheap Shahed drones destroyed the AN/FPS-132 early warning radar (~$1 billion) and another air defense radar.
Bean-counters are everywhere, even in oil-rich Gulf states. I doubt the relative cost-benefits of Ukrainian vs US defences will have passed them by. Trump, like his idol Putin, has chosen to demonstrate to the world that the Big Bad Wolf has a soft underbelly, is nowhere near as scary as we all thought, and can be gravely injured with the right strategy. Who are you going to turn to now, if you're a nation state with an unstable neighbour? One of the unreliable geriatrics still living in mediaeval times, or the country that's proven itself to be competent and agile in the 21st Century?
Another multi million $ kill, nice.
If only. Zelensky recently said the Orcs were expanding Shahed production aiming for 1000 per day. The good news is that they are diverting resources from ballistic missile production to achieve that. It takes about 4-5 drone interceptors to take out a Shahed, so Ukraine needs to at least double production, which won't be easy given their severe labour shortage and lack of finances.
Gulf states funding expansion of production and Ukrainian factories in foreign countries might solve those problems, so fingers crossed.
Ukraine sent 200 personnel to Gulf states help with Krasnovs mayhem and attempt to cause a global recession.
See my article linked earlier in post you quoted, Russians are aiming (mind you they also aimed for this war to last three days) for 1000 shaheeds per day by end of this year
But Ukraine are already building more interceptors than that that are a fraction of the cost
In February Russia launched 5059 long range drones according to Ukrainians, of which 3238 were intercepted (tho many of the 5000 were decoys and no one bothered to hit those)
Here is where Zelenskys quote came from
Another good hit
Enough people have been shown the window that I doubt the upper echelon corruption is anything close to what it used to be. Claiming money isn't a problem for the Orcs is so far off the mark I don't know where to start. Several communities in Orcistan froze their arses off, just like Ukraine did, for want of 4 seconds worth of money spent on the war, being used instead to fix their district heating. Most regional administrations are bankrupt. Their is a significant problem brewing in that regional governments were given the burden of paying the bonuses of the few military personnel who manage to get out of the grinder. They are mostly not being paid.
Fresh money is going to do a lot, it's not an inconsequential problem for Ukraine.
….
FFS. Ridiculous stuff.
Hungary officials ‘gave Ukrainian forced injection’ after raid on bank vehicles | Hungary | The Guardian
There is a general misapprehension that it takes one interceptor to down one target. Sometimes that might happen, but it is not generally the case. I believe it was Robert Magyar who explained that Ukraine typically uses 4-5 interceptor drones to down a single Shahed.
It's the same with really expensive systems like Patriot. The SOP for those is 2 - 4 $3.5m PAC-3 being launched per potential target in order to be sure of a hit. Ukrainian personnel sent to the Gulf were shocked to be told that 8 Patriot interceptors were fired at a single Shahed. That's over $25m spent to down a $70K target.
If my counting on fingers is correct, that might be the last one, unless they managed to repair one of the ones damaged earlier.
these interceptor drones are 20-30x cheaper than what Russia is spending on Iranian terror weapons
The maths is not on Putin’s side as Ukraine flipped the tables
You are also conflating the lessons Americans and the gulf states haven’t learned with Ukraine who understand deeply the maths involved and now making a killing out of this new defence industry
But we've already established that the suffering of those communities in Russia is of no concern to Putin, his military or those in Moscow/ St. Petersburg. I think the other poster's point was that Putin's war isn't failing primarily due to money… it's failing due to incompetence, corruption, lack of motivation and (not insignificantly) Ukrainian ingenuity and determination.
The less money available to Putin's war machine the better, but the point (I think) being made is that an uptick in finances isn't going to see an equal correlation in battlefield success.
I'm loving the NATO response to TACO… "Trump calls Nato allies ‘cowards’ for not helping in strait of Hormuz" (Guardian report).
They're just sitting there letting him stew. People have finally copped on that the most effective way to deal with Trump is to disengage - he thrives on loose talk, shifting narratives, diplomacy via social media etc. Just deny him that platform and he's an empty vessel ranting in an empty room. Who is his audience now? He's pissed off his partners in the Middle East. Japan think he's a d**k. Europe are ignoring him. The UK has told him to f**k off. South America owe him the sum total of zero. Africa is Black so he doesn't even see them. He's basically left with Israel, who are leading him around by the nose.
I hope his redneck voter base are delighted with themselves. They'll be feeling the consequences of this misadventure long after the rest of the world has moved on and Trump has shuffled off.
Think it's the first time I've seen one of these in action
Unfortunately…
The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan have declared their “willingness to contribute” to efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.Five European nations and Japan issued a joint statement on Thursday in which they affirmed that they are prepared to make appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz and that they will take measures to stabilize energy markets.
The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan have declared their “willingness to contribute” to efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
Five European nations and Japan issued a joint statement on Thursday in which they affirmed that they are prepared to make appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz and that they will take measures to stabilize energy markets.
