Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

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For the first time, the Kremlin began to spend two-thirds of the taxes collected in the budget on the war - Russian Service of The Moscow Times

can you hear it?

65 billion rubles a day. Russia's spending on the war with Ukraine has set a new record - Russian Service of The Moscow Times

2.7 billion rubles per hour to maintain the war.

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Whenever I hear the name Skruffy..

Can't help but think if this guy...

Russian TU-22 bomber fell out of the sky!

There's a video of the crash site too.

Yeah, its clear as day that Putin is trying to goad the Ukrainians into stooping to their level. It would bring the war down to Russia's level and lose Ukraine a lot of the leverage it has at international level. Given their discipline to date I highly doubt Ukraine will buckle now. They've clearly got Putin on the ropes and he's resorting to cheap shots to try and break the cycle.

It wouldn't be too damaging imo because Russia started the war. An eye for an eye and all that.

But every drone Ukraine sends at such a target will be one less drone hitting Russian military gear, refineries or logistics behind the lines. I think the Russian military would gladly sacrifice targets of heritage importance etc with the added bonus it'd likely drum up more support for the Russian conquest.

Kostiantynivka is starting to look problematic. Russia has managed to encircle it somewhat from the northeast and southwest and is using infiltration units. Rumours are there's about 100 to 200 Russians inside the city, including some sacrificial flag waving guys.

If it falls this is a massive issue for the so called Donbass Fortress Belt.

I'd say the TU-22's Ukraine destroyed put the remainder under pressure. It's a very aged fleet as it is.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqx10yql319o

Unfortunately a B-52 Stratofortress also crashed in California. Strange both these bombers crashing back to back.

Successful strike by Ukrainian dones on a very large fuel refinery in Moscow....I thought Moscow was supposed to be lined with rings of air defence ?

Any more context for this claim re it being massive? Or links to reports around the threat? Personally I think the threat caused by isolating Crimea is bigger to Moscow that the threat of < checks notes > Kostiantynivka is to Kyiv. We've been there before with "if this town falls its a disaster for Ukraine". Even when Russia had momentum, taking towns like that after months of losses and attrition didn't hearld any major change in the war's trajectory. Its just ground on. But now it's grinding against Russia.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyrzd5g6k2o

Putin critic shot dead in eastern Poland.

There's youtubers like Preston Stewart (who's definitely pro-Ukraine) talking about it:

As for why it's important: Konstyantynivka is one of the 4 main settlements/cities that make up the Donbass Fortress belt with the other ones being Kramatorsk, Slovyansk and Druzhkivka. If Russia would manage to breach that line of defences (which will cost them tens of thousands more dead undoubtedly) they will pretty much take all of Donetsk because behind those cities the terrain is not suited for defensive operations for Ukraine.

I posted a video a while ago about the situation in Konstyantynivka and it's extremely hard to replenish troops and materials in the city, because of constant drones from both sides.

It looks like they (according to the above video) have somewhere between 100 and 200 soldiers in the city. Ukraine is obviously hunting them and with success, but we've seen in other cities that once these infiltrations start to happen it's very hard to get rid of them, unless you allocate troops from other parts of the front.

I do agree that the focus should be on Crimea for Ukraine because they are having good success there, but that doesn't mean things like this aren't important too.

Thanks for that. We'll wait and see I guess.

If Russia would manage to breach that line of defences (which will cost them tens of thousands more dead undoubtedly) they will pretty much take all of Donetsk because behind those cities the terrain is not suited for defensive operations for Ukraine.

Are we talking about the same Russia that currently can't reliably get supplies into the territory they've already taken? Because, you know, the effective front line now is roughly 50-150km on the Moscow side of the internationally recognised border of Ukraine.

We've known for years (literal years) that when Russia gets a foothold in any town, they can be hard to exterminate. But we've also been hearing for years about such-and-such a town being the last bastion against further rampant invasion. It's never happened.

The only dramatic rush in this whole conflict was Ukraine liberating a huge chunk of territory in the first year. Russia has never managed to re-take as much as they lost then. On the other hand, Ukraine did briefly manage to take control of part of Kursk, they've driven the Black Sea fleet out of Crimea and into oblivion, and they're in the process of rendering the whole of Crimea a dead-zone as far as Russian military functionality is concerned.

So yeah, maybe Konstyantynivka will become another Andriivka or another Bahkmut, but that's not going to help Putin hide the shortage of petrol and diesel from his serfs, nor replace the oil export terminal infrastructure that Ukraine has taken offline.

It also means it will be easier for Russia to defend those towns, for the same reason. It would mean they capture all of Donetsk which they might be happy enough with.

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